Did ramming tank battle tactics occur in WW2?
Upvote:0
In WWII usually tanks avoided closed spaces (woods, cities, etc.), and as a defensive weapon is quite more effective an assault gun (a tank chassis with a gun, but without a mobile turret) or later on the bazooka and the panzerfaust for infantry.
In the case that a tank that you describe, the tank does not need so close to its target, because is too risky. Besides, the penetration of the gun does not increase so drastically when you are so close to the target (10% of penetration loss for every 500 meters).
Seldom times that kind of tactics were used, the most known case is the Battle_of_Prokhorovka, were so many tanks were in the same place at the same time that some Russian tanks tried to get as close as possible during the engagement. In the case of this battle the tactic was successful, because German tanks lost their gun superiority when soviets approached too close.
Upvote:0
There were some reports of ramming enemy tanks, but it was never a trained tactic, instead being an act of desperation. Slamming a several ton metal box on treads into another box is likely to result in both being disabled, and generally you want to avoid 1-1 trades of equipment like that.
In terms of getting in too close for the enemy to hit you, Oxide here is helped by the fact he is in a T-50 (basically a baby T-34). The T-34 (the most common Russian tank) is ~8ft tall, while the Tiger I is ~10. He is also helped by the clipping of the gun barrels. He can stick the gun through the enemy tank with no problem. RL physics do not work that way.
On a slightly different note, those (in-game) Tiger's would probably have done better if they just tried to crush the T-50. WT physics can have some interesting effects.
Upvote:3
The most lethal enemy of the tank was not another tank.
By percentage, of 1305 WWII tank losses by the British, these were due to:
- 24.4% SPG
- 22.7% AT gun
- 22.1% mines
- 14.5% tank
- 14.2% Bazooka (Panzerfaust, Panzerschreck)
- 2.1% other
While the computer game "tactic" you describe might or might not work against a single enemy tank, it doesn't remove the other dangers to your tank in a real battle, to the contrary.
Most importantly (as Santiago already pointed out), fighting in a city very much increases the threat of AT guns and infantry action (mines, Panzerfaust) due to the close quarters and quite limited vision from within a tank. The chances of two tank units engaging each other in city streets are quite low to begin with.
And your "tactic" would only work against a single Tiger (or similarily large tank), without backup or supporting infantry. Also, actually ramming an enemy tank would very likely result in your (lighter) tank being immobilized, not to mention injury of the crew. Also note that the gun barrel of the computer tank in your picture is dangerously close to being rendered inoperative due to smashing into the Tiger's side...
Could it work? Perhaps.
Would it make for a tactic worth "teaching", or "employing" to any significant extend? I don't think so.
More post
- 📝 What is the significance of the term "never start changing the borders in Eastern Europe by force?"
- 📝 How would a WW1 pilot signal a request to surrender in-flight?
- 📝 Can you help me identify the rank and patch on this Royal Italian Army uniform?
- 📝 In what contexts did male friends kiss in Europe in the 1700s?
- 📝 Did Antarctica remain entirely unvisited by humans until the early 19th century?
- 📝 Did the US promise to save Romania from the Soviets?
- 📝 Did Palaeolithic humans live longer than early Neolithic farmers?
- 📝 Why did the Germans not encircle and besiege Stalingrad?
- 📝 Historical assessments of the effectiveness of torture
- 📝 Does Taleb's claim of epidemics with a death count of >1,000 being in the lower hundreds (in the last 2,500 years) seem accurate?
- 📝 When the British left India, who authorized standstill agreements between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu?
- 📝 Identify these Cold War speeches from a movie trailer
- 📝 How did the accounting and capital organization system work in communist countries like the USSR? Did ideology justify or undermine the system?
- 📝 What was the judicial body in 16th century France called?
- 📝 What are the dimensions of this pomerium marker?
- 📝 Were the Western World's general political and ideological consensus and consequent actions primarily responsible for the global ending of slavery?
- 📝 What access did people in the Warsaw pact countries have to Western television and radio?
- 📝 Did Native Americans really use fish as fertilizer?
- 📝 What happened to Marcus Licinius Crassus' Gold?
- 📝 Is there evidence to suggest the CIA didn't want Reagan to end the Cold War?
- 📝 What is the difference between an extensive revolution and an intensive revolution?
- 📝 Are there any records of Turks settling in Anatolia before the 11th century?
- 📝 Please suggest a book that contains a historical (factual) account of Jesus' life
- 📝 Was the danger of radiation in the case of nuclear war overestimated during the cold war?
- 📝 What benefit was there in executing Anne Boleyn instead of poisoning her and pretending she was ill?
- 📝 Why didn't Royal Navy (columns of) ships turn outwards, rather than inwards?
- 📝 Did Soviet cars have seatbelts or laws enforcing them?
- 📝 Were Russian female spies caught, because they exclaimed in Russian during child birth?
- 📝 What does a "boat crimper" do?
- 📝 Did the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki contribute to Japan's surrender?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Did ramming tank battle tactics occur in WW2?
- 📝 When did the allies find out about the killing of Jews during WW2
- 📝 Did the U.S. and Soviet Union have a submarine battle in 1968?
- 📝 Did Germany's role in WW2 affect the historical perception of its role in WW1?
- 📝 What did Germany do after World War II to recover so successfully that it became more prosperous than its WW2 victors?
- 📝 Did the Celts really go into battle naked?
- 📝 Why did US Navy WW2 torpedoes detonate at the end of their run?
- 📝 Did American policymakers seriously consider scaling down Lend Lease Aid to the Soviet Union after the battle of Kursk?
- 📝 What was the first successful mass tank battle of WW1?
- 📝 Why did Allied invasion of France occur only in 1944 and not earlier?
- 📝 Why did it take so long for the Germans to develop the first tank model in World War I?
- 📝 Why did Soviet soldiers who plundered occupied territories during WW2 prefer watches to other valuables?
- 📝 Why did few French and no Dutch pilots (but many Poles and Czechs) take part in the Battle of Britain?
- 📝 Did Hitler make the right decision for Germany when he called off Operation Zitadelle (during the Battle of Kursk)?
- 📝 Did the Soviet Union need both prongs to succeed at the Battle of Stalingrad?
- 📝 Why did anti-Chinese riots occur during the Indonesian Reformation of 1998?
- 📝 Why did the Germans build battle cruisers with a different profile than the British?
- 📝 Why did ramming reappear then disappear in 1800s shipborn warfare?
- 📝 Why did the Allies lose the Battle of France (1940)?
- 📝 Why did England and Portugal cheap out on the Battle of Aljubarrota?
- 📝 Did land based airpower give the Americans a decisive advantage at the Battle of Midway?
- 📝 How did Soviet soldiers resist tanks during the battle of Shumshu?
- 📝 Did the Greeks win the battle of Salamis because their rowers were "free"?
- 📝 Did the Axis use Villa Cisneros during WW2 for contact with South America?
- 📝 Did Aetius or Attila fight in the Battle of Worms (436)?
- 📝 What was the first instance of native Americans using gunpowder weapons in battle and did they ever make their own powder?
- 📝 Did the fights in the Ip Man movie series actually occur in real life?
- 📝 Did Germans and Soviets count casualties differently at the Battle of Kursk?
- 📝 What did a WW2 fighter cost?
- 📝 Did Sparta give citizenship to the helots who participated on its side in the Battle of Plataea?