one of the key aspects to why the ‘uber’ tanks didnt actually matter all that much was there unwillingness to use them; the ‘Panzer’ flagship tank for example, was known to be ‘invisible’, not because it was stealthy, but because no one on the ally side ever actually saw one as they would keep it in the backlines in reserve away from combat as they knew that it would be 10x worse for it to be blown up even once, defeating the propoganda myth of it being ‘invincible’
It was a propoganda army built on lies, they needed to maintain the myth till material reality hit them in the face and they collapsed, paper tigers.
Note that the main nazi tank for most of the war was Pz4, and while it was a decent tank, precisely because it was tried and tested and they have time to improve the project and get rid of the technical problems, there are no legends about Pz4 - those are reserved for the later tanks, as you said.
Entire nazi surface navy was actual shit also suffering from overengineering, faulty equipment and crappy command too. Leading to such embarassing episodes as Second Battle of Narvik or the lost of cruiser Blucher in the Oslofiord. If not for that one lucky shell from Bismarck, they would have absolutely nothing to show ever. Hell they were so openly bad that even the wehraboos shut up when topic shifts from army to navy.
But muh wolfspack! They were really good at sinking unarmed merchant vessels!!! (Just ignore all the times they failed to do anything to any allied ships that were actually armed)
They still got blown up all the time. Look up Michael Whitman. Nazi “Tiger Ace” who actually just lost a bunch of tanks then died like an absolute bitch.
I read it was because they where completely over-engineered, like Poland mentioned this lead to long service times; but it also meant it was harder to conceal. Compare the sizes;
The german tanks all seemed to have one thing in common; a high profile and huge mass, which when often its ‘who spots who first’ that wins the tank engagement, it matters a lot.
much was there unwillingness to use them; the ‘Panzer’ flagship tank for example, was known to be ‘invisible’, not because it was stealthy, but because no one on the ally side ever actually saw one
It didn’t help that they were so complicated that their crews weren’t able to work on them at all. Panzers would have been a decent tank if they weren’t constantly needing to be hauled back behind the lines to be taken apart every 50km.
one of the key aspects to why the ‘uber’ tanks didnt actually matter all that much was there unwillingness to use them; the ‘Panzer’ flagship tank for example, was known to be ‘invisible’, not because it was stealthy, but because no one on the ally side ever actually saw one as they would keep it in the backlines in reserve away from combat as they knew that it would be 10x worse for it to be blown up even once, defeating the propoganda myth of it being ‘invincible’
It was a propoganda army built on lies, they needed to maintain the myth till material reality hit them in the face and they collapsed, paper tigers.
Note that the main nazi tank for most of the war was Pz4, and while it was a decent tank, precisely because it was tried and tested and they have time to improve the project and get rid of the technical problems, there are no legends about Pz4 - those are reserved for the later tanks, as you said.
See also: The Bismark
Entire nazi surface navy was actual shit also suffering from overengineering, faulty equipment and crappy command too. Leading to such embarassing episodes as Second Battle of Narvik or the lost of cruiser Blucher in the Oslofiord. If not for that one lucky shell from Bismarck, they would have absolutely nothing to show ever. Hell they were so openly bad that even the wehraboos shut up when topic shifts from army to navy.
But muh wolfspack! They were really good at sinking unarmed merchant vessels!!! (Just ignore all the times they failed to do anything to any allied ships that were actually armed)
They still got blown up all the time. Look up Michael Whitman. Nazi “Tiger Ace” who actually just lost a bunch of tanks then died like an absolute bitch.
I read it was because they where completely over-engineered, like Poland mentioned this lead to long service times; but it also meant it was harder to conceal. Compare the sizes;
The german tanks all seemed to have one thing in common; a high profile and huge mass, which when often its ‘who spots who first’ that wins the tank engagement, it matters a lot.
It didn’t help that they were so complicated that their crews weren’t able to work on them at all. Panzers would have been a decent tank if they weren’t constantly needing to be hauled back behind the lines to be taken apart every 50km.
Das vintage F35