World at War: German Armor of World War II

The German philosophy on the use of tanks wasn't necessarily too radical. The fact that they could make it into a combined arms doctrine, known collectively as 'Blitzkrieg', was rather impressive, but the overall concept behind it was nothing new.

The entire goal of German Armor in war was two-fold, to provide the armored spear-point for quick rapid advances of heavy mechanized infantry, and to provide capabilities against enemy armor. The role of armor as a recon force for armies, or as a forward observation element for air or artillery was taken by German armored cars, thus German light tanks were almost non-existent. This was in stark contrast to Soviet Armor, who had a variation for every type of situation imaginable.

Together, with the use of fast-striking armor to penetrate enemy lines, dive-bombers to decimate supply, infrastructure, and communications, and infantry to form quick, deadly salients around the enemy, it is easy to see how German Arms and Armor were dedicated to winning the war quickly. This is probably due to an acute understanding, by German High Command, of the reality of Germany's industrial capacity. Sustained conflicts were not in the interest of the state, as losses due to attrition couldn't be replaced, or were replaced with inferior units. This is a common state throughout the war for the Germans.

German Armored Cars were designed to take on the roll that light-tanks had in other armies. As a result, there was never truly a dedicated light tank for the German Army. The Armored cars thus fulfilled multiple roles, everything from recon(short or long range), to observation/spotting, courier, urban support, or VIP transport at the front. 

German armored cars were generally better than Soviet cars, though in less numbers. While most of the variants lacked any sort of cannon (except the variant 222, which has a 20mm auto-cannon), they fielded a better machine gun. In addition, they were far faster and more maneuverable on paved terrain, although slower cross-country. As a result, they excelled at urban warfare, but were not designed for long-range operations like their Soviet Counterparts. 

Designed for performance, the Germans, through the course of the war, kept upgrading their forces with new, better tanks, that generally, outclassed every other tank in the world in a one on one fight. However, while the tanks were generally superior, they lacked the economy and support of industry, that would allow them to overwhelm their enemies. 

As a result, German Armor divisions would make use of whatever was available to them, often being the Panzer III, which had been outdated since Winter of 1941. However, when they did receive a new brigade of better vehicles, these weapons were put in strategic position to be best utilized. However, as stated, there was never enough to go around, and their losses were replaced with inferior equipment. 

The culmination of the Panzer line was the Panzer V, known as the Panther. This tank had incredible armor, and a respectable 75mm cannon, that was able to deal heavy damage to the T-34, and speed that would allow it to catch up to them. However, it had a short operational range, and generally slow cross-country speeds. The Panzer V can be seen as the culmination of the move from a defense penetration-base philosophy, to a tank-destroyer based philosophy.

The Germans built the Tiger tanks towards the midpoint of the war, with the creation of the Tiger II towards its end. To understand the nature in which it was built, you have to understand, that by the time it entered production, Germany had already lost major ground to the Russians, who had taken most of Poland and Romania, and were near to crossing into Germany, if not in Germany already. 

As a result, less than 500 Tiger II were every produced. Despite this, they were a superior machine, given the resources left to the German people at this time. They employed a super-heavy sloped armor design that measured at 180mm at some points. At the same time, a very effective 88mm weapon, with a variety of ammunition available to it, gave it the ability to annihilate any tank on the battlefield, with the exception of the IS3 or other Super-Heavy Tanks. 

However, no amount of firepower could handle a war of numbers like the Germans faced at this point. Though the tank was powerful, it was still very vulnerable to both the IS3 and the SU-100, and took minor attrition damage elsewhere. As a result, the Tiger could do nothing to save the Reich. 

One of the interesting aspects of planned wonder-weapons, were the Land Cruisers. Designated numbers 1000 and 1500, these huge monstrosities were several times larger than the King Tiger. The Mk 1000; was large enough to hold 20 soldiers, and a huge 140mm turreted weapon. The Mk 1500 was a huge self-propelled artillery piece, or maybe more like a land battleship, with over 100 man crew, and a gun with the power to topple fortresses. 

However, the designs had several complications, and never reached fruition.