what is your favourite WW2 AFV?
what is your favourite WW2 AFV?
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Discussion

DodgyGeezer

Original Poster:

48,995 posts

219 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
quotequote all
as it says which is your favourite armoured fighting vehicle of WW2 - not necessarily the best (and that is one contentious subject in itself).

For me the choice seems to be one of a plethora of German AFVs (not exactly a screaming recommendation for efficiency though it has to be said, would have likely helped had they just made Shermans/T34s, for example).

Do kinda like the Wirbelwind, Nashorn and the Puma armoured-car but something about the STuG IV 'appeals' to me




808 Estate

2,664 posts

120 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
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Kettenkrad.

Prolex-UK

5,579 posts

237 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
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Like the jagpanther myself.

Stug series based on pz3 chassis good shout though.

Paticulary in a defensive role shoot and scoot.

Tango13

10,063 posts

205 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
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808 Estate said:
Kettenkrad.
https://bricktanks.co.uk/products/sd-kfz-2-kettenkrad-cobi-2401-170-brick-tracked-motorbike?_pos=1&_sid=14fc5031f&_ss=r

Stick Legs

8,924 posts

194 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
quotequote all
Tiger 1, because they are just awesome looking.

|https://thumbsnap.com/mrDGTRf4[/url]

Panther, the grandfather of all main battle tanks. Not a single post war design failed to incorporate aspects of the Panther.



Sherman Firefly, the armoured expression of allied co-operation and pragmatism.



Edited by Stick Legs on Saturday 30th October 21:11

Squadrone Rosso

3,675 posts

176 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
quotequote all
My Dad was a loader operator in one of these. Westminster Dragoons, 79th Armoured Devision.

Hence, the Crab / Flail gets my vote.




Earl of Hazzard

3,630 posts

187 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
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My favorite German tank is the Panzer 4; my favorite English tanks are the Matilda 2 and Comet.
The Churchill is great and would have been better if it was wide enough to carry the 17pdr (as found on the Firefly); the Black Prince was just this tank but was too late and never made it past prototype stage as the Centurion was just around the corner.

Stick Legs

8,924 posts

194 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
quotequote all
In a strange way there are parallels between the Sherman Firefly & the P-51 Mustang.

What made the Mustang a great plane was the Packard Merlin. What made the Sherman be capable of going toe to toe with German heavy armour was the 17lb gun.

anonymous-user

83 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
quotequote all
So many to choose from!

I like the Russian KV2. When the Germans first came across these they relaised they had bitten off more than they could chew in the East. Best tactic was to go wide around them as they couldn't be penetrated by German armour at the time.


But the T34 was probably the WW2 winning tank. I was on the cusp of buying one of these many years ago but realised my middle aged bulk couldn't fit in the drivers hatch :-(


The German armour like Tiger 1, Kind Tiger etc were very impressive but very unreliable (transmissions, big ends and the like) and once detected by Russian intelligence a common tactic was to not attack in those sectors where the Germans had this armour.

Churchill Crocodile comes to mind due to the terror it inflicted wherever it went (and sometimes to its own crew if it needed to reverse etc with the bowser behind it) -


If I had to choose one for demo'ing at re-enactments etc then the Churchill Crocodile would be it for its crowd pulling ability.

Evoluzione

10,345 posts

272 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
quotequote all
Squadrone Rosso said:
My Dad was a loader operator in one of these. Westminster Dragoons, 79th Armoured Devision.

Hence, the Crab / Flail gets my vote.



Don't let me walk away thinking it looks like a muck spreader, tell us more about this thing.

MBBlat

2,071 posts

178 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
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Russian KV-1

Caused the Germans to nickname their a/t guns “door knockers” due to the inability to penetrate the armour. Let down by lack of training for the crews.

DodgyGeezer

Original Poster:

48,995 posts

219 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
quotequote all
Evoluzione said:
Squadrone Rosso said:
My Dad was a loader operator in one of these. Westminster Dragoons, 79th Armoured Devision.

Hence, the Crab / Flail gets my vote.



Don't let me walk away thinking it looks like a muck spreader, tell us more about this thing.
look up Hobart's Funnies - some fascinating stuff there

Evanivitch

26,344 posts

151 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
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The Universal Carrier, or more widely known as the Bren Gun Carrier. The most widely produced AFV in the world.


Evoluzione

10,345 posts

272 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
quotequote all
DodgyGeezer said:
Evoluzione said:
Squadrone Rosso said:
My Dad was a loader operator in one of these. Westminster Dragoons, 79th Armoured Devision.

Hence, the Crab / Flail gets my vote.



Don't let me walk away thinking it looks like a muck spreader, tell us more about this thing.
look up Hobart's Funnies - some fascinating stuff there
I did: https://www.iwm.org.uk/history/the-funny-tanks-of-...

thumbup

anonymous-user

83 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
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Always liked the German vehicles like the half track



And the motorbike plus sidecar with mounted machine gun



Actually the bike isn’t particularly “armoured” is it? hehe

MrBrightSi

2,926 posts

199 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
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Archer is up there for sheer genius - making a 17 pdr mobile and valentine tank worthwhile.



The comet is the start of our end of the war to cold war and beyond monsters. Upgraded cromwell with a proper gun and proper armour but that engine (slower) but still in place.

GliderRider

2,920 posts

110 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
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I've always had a soft spot for the M8 Greyhound:


Levin

2,118 posts

153 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
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As far as finished examples go, it's the Panzer VIII 'Maus' for me. 188 tonnes of utterly pointless leviathan. It's a tank so ludicrously large that it could never have worked. It was always going to end up like a Dreadnought-class battleship, where nobody would actually commit the thing to a battle lest it was destroyed.

Madder still, there were plans for the Landkreuzer P.1000 'Ratte'. That was to be 1000 tonnes. Compare the image below with the one above for an idea of just how unfathomably large the thing was meant to be. Imagine trying to use one in urban combat without levelling entire streets. Then imagine one in open combat, bombs raining down from B-29 Superfortresses. The only value this thing had was on a drawing board as motivation.


Jaguar99

675 posts

67 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
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MikeStroud said:
So many to choose from!

The German armour like Tiger 1, Kind Tiger etc were very impressive but very unreliable (transmissions, big ends and the like) and once detected by Russian intelligence a common tactic was to not attack in those sectors where the Germans had this armour.
Yes, so many to choose from

If I have to choose though, it would be the King Tiger/Tiger II

Yes, they had some issues with reliability and some bad weak spots especially in the armour on the sides but for presence and proportion they can’t be beaten in my mind

vulture1

13,755 posts

208 months

Saturday 30th October 2021
quotequote all
MikeStroud said:
So many to choose from!



But the T34 was probably the WW2 winning tank. I was on the cusp of buying one of these many years ago but realised my middle aged bulk couldn't fit in the drivers hatch :-(



If I had to choose one for demo'ing at re-enactments etc then the Churchill Crocodile would be it for its crowd pulling ability.
Thats a t34 88 isnt it?

T34 is my favourite. Technologicaly a great design, good enough to just last no need to over engineer it , sloped armour very clever.