Percy Hobart standing there in late 1940 like "Huh, if only someone had warned you about how tanks might be used _en masse_ as a rapid spearhead force. That sure would have been handy. Oh wait, I DID!!!"
A story to tie-in the internet and tanks: Back in the late 90s there was a IDF tank contingent that tested one sort of C3 system or other. My friend once got out the hatch, and shouted "this thing is like downloading frakking porn: it's slow, and it gets stuck just when you think you're getting somewhere". His CO was frantically waiving their hands at him, motioning him to stop. My friend turns around, and finds the Division's commander right behind him, having heard it all, and laughing his arse off 😂
The heavy Mark I and II Matilda tanks were infantry tanks in a separate independent armoured brigade assigned to support the infantry. The British Armoured division was landed as the Germans were breaking through the defense line guarding Paris, not during the breakthrough to the coast. The counter attack by the Matidas was made by that single brigade. The French were supposed to attack from the other side but they couldn't organize an attack in time so only the British attack went in.
PanzerKampf and Screaming Eagles are my favorite Sabaton Songs. I usually keep one Sabaton Song or another in my head when I'm working at my job. It really helps.
Love the T-shirt, Indy. My daughter put me on to "The Master and Margarita" several years ago - but the first read-through left me completely flummoxed, and it wasn't until the 3rd attempt that it all came into focus. Great book, though.
Audie Murphy's story brought me to my first Sabaton concert. It was so great to see the tank on stage, with Audie's name on it, and to hear his poetry in "To Hell and Back." Thanks for this incredible song, and all your songs!
More, More, More! I love these. I could watch one a week. Yeah, that's it, you guys come up with a new song every week and them you can do a video. Oh, sorry, forgot you will need time to make the albums, play the concerts, and all the other things first. Oh well, I can dream, can't I?
When I saw sabaton live at the Danforth Music Hall, here in Toronto Canada, I was amazed that sabaton managed to get their tank in there. It's a tiny opera hall and they did an amazing job! Also I love Indie's foreshadowing Judas Priest shirt.... Sabaton, a great band, touring with one of the greats, JP, is incredibly awesome. I'm really hoping to be able to see you guys in Maine later this year! Woo! Also - TANKS!
@@SabatonHistory I cannot wait to see you all again, live in the flesh again! I can only listen to my Patreon History Editions so many times before I need to see you live! See you soon!
On a sillier note, Hobo With a Shotgun. Its not related to WWII in any way whatsoever, you just reminded me of it.. but worth a watch if you like silly b-movies. xD ill be watching Hobo tonight. Thanks for the tip. 🤙
As an amateur historian who's also stuck on writing a master thesis on Cold War politics, this channel is amazing. Wonderful way to expand on Sabaton song's topics and to get more people interested in history (which is never a bad thing). The only thing that I would love to see is a list of the sources used for each episode like books, original documents etc.
I'll always remember that clip I saw of a American Bradley IFV crewman from some documentary(can't recall the name) had a picture of Erwin Rommel in his IFV. When asked why he said something to the effect of we still use and take lessons from his tactics.
Hey Sabaton, i would like to see you come up with the cool idea of April Fools. Can you do an April Fools episode of Pasadena 1994 with special guest Nanowar of Steel? That would be nice.
"Why don't you shut the hell up? If you've been reading about Rommel, you wouldn't be sitting at the back of my tank." ~A U.S. Bradley driver to an Iraqi POW when asked why he has a picture of "his greatest enemy" posted on his vehicle (after the Battle of 73 Easting)
J'ai déjà fait un tour de tank à Utah Beach à l'occasion de l'anniversaire du Débarquement en Normandie et c'était trop bien ! 😄 J'aurais dû emmener ma JBL ce jour là pour mettre du Sabaton à fond, pour rendre ce moment encore plus épique ! 😎 🔥🤘🏼🔥🤘🏼
Indy in Defenders of the faith tshirt, week after release of the new album, 5 days before Jp, Saxon and Uriah Heep concert, even using ‘invincible’ word talking about tanks. Can’t get any better than that!
19:10 Wikipedia is really good as a jumping off point, and while i cant speak for other countries i know that with American history stuff on there they list sources and sometimes these sources can bring you to real de-classified military documents. Sometimes it can be the most authentic source you can get.
that talk about the foci on tanks on the one side and swedish history on the other hand made me think that a song about the at4 or gripen could be nice
Mk II tank with a gunner, loader, radio operator, driver and tank commander is going to have a problem as two of those men will be outside the tank. The actual crew was a driver, gunner, and the tank commander who also loaded the gun. The gun though, was a 20mm autocannon which used magazines (5 rounds) so the TC wasn't throwing rounds in to feed the gun one at a time. Note that Soviet tanks like the T34 with a two man turret had the tank commander fill the gunner position, not loader positionl
The Metalizer watch party just reminded me we are still waiting on an episode for Shadows. Could either do the episode about Middle Earth or Tolkien's life.
That would be dope. With guest nanowar and veterans who were present during this bloody conflict like Baggio, Taffarel or Maldini 🤣. I have no idea how could this even be possible but that for sure would be one hell of an April's fool😅
One reason the British attack ran out of steam is the Germans put together an anti-tank line of 88mm gun and 105mm heavy field guns (normally listed as 10cm sFG18) which halted the British attack.
Relying to the internet for information telling Sabatons fafourit theme is tanks... Hell no, but let's say no, we're glad that Sabaton is able to be spreed through the internet.
I’d personally love to see an episode on cavalry, I don’t care what time period. (I can’t really think of any cavalry songs besides winged hussars and maybe killing ground)
Gotta love Soviet heavies 10:45, anyone hear about "tank alley" when a single KV-1 destroyed 22 PZ 3s and 35s, along with 2 anti tank guns? would really love a song about that one. German commander: why have we stopped Soldier: there is a tank Commander: So? destroy it (tank finally looks destroyed) Commander: advance (Turret rotates to look at commander) Commander: HANS BACK UP GO BACK
Has there been a Sabaton History episode about Naval War and Aircraft Carriers specifically? There's been a few episodes about ships and all but Aircraft Carrier history and development in active service could be an interesting topic..? Yeah I listened too much to 'Midway', how did you guess?!
I heard a Story, I think from WWI, of some people that lived in the Mountains, and marched into the next town, right up to the House of the Mayor, equiped with the Arms and Armor of their Templar ancestors, apparently greeting the Mayor with the words "where's the war? We heard there is war!" The people apparently thought they were ghosts. If that Story is real, I'd love to hear a Song about them.
As the German armored column moved across the border to Czechoslovakia it expected to meet little resistance. But someone was waiting for them: it wasn’t a matching armored column but a man on horseback, in full medieval armor, carrying a sword and halberd. This created confused the Germans and caused them to pause momentarily. The man was Josef Mencik! Edit: copied from Internet article because I'm to lazy to type it out on mobile.
"The internet is always a reliable source of information" - Isaac Newton, Peruvian scientist, 1443. On a serious note I like the British Crusader tank once they had their mechanical flaws fixed.
Pz-I was never meant for combat, they were designed as training vehicles. Pz-II were created to be recon tanks. Pz-III were designed to fight other tanks. Armed with 37L46 antitank gun. Pz-IV were designed to fight infantry and HE-targets. Armed with 75L24 snubnose artillery gun. Also VERY worth noting is the fact that both the Pz-III and -IV were designed as 20t tanks. The T-34 was a 28t tank at start, the Sherman was a 32t tank when designed. So the German tanks were VERY unimpressive indeed even compared to some other British and French contemporaries. . But the quality of the tanks was not what won Germany the Polish and French campaigns. Radios did. Every German tank had a radio receiver. Every German platoon leader tank had a radio transmitter. Allied tanks, transmitters were often not found until with battalion commanders. And receivers, sometimes not even with company commanders. The rare few times French troops actually had a standup fight with Germans during the invasion, they actually did quite well. But the complete chaos caused by subpar communications meant that most of the time, French troops were on the move, trying to follow orders already outdated by days, when attacked on the move by German troops or struck by the German airforce. . "French wanted" No, that is VERY incorrect. The OLD GUARD of the French army to SOME extent wanted that. And even among them there were innovators. However, the big problem was that so many young officers died during WWI that France had a huge gap in its officer corp. But within the younger officers in France, LOTS of new ideas and capability was absolutely on the rise. And during the interwar era, France was one of THE biggest nations to experiment with "next generation warfare"(along with USSR and UK). To the point that Guderian personally sat down and translated the military theory workings of DeGaulle, as he considered them absolutely vital must read for any future panzer commander. . "learn from their enemies" No. It was not a matter of not sending tanks alone against the enemy, it was a matter of making combined arms WORK in a functional way. Something most armies struggle with TODAY. And especially the Soviet military already had the blueprints for it from Tuchachevsky's "deep battle" doctrine, as it was essentially part of the basis of all armored warfare in WWII, with various degrees of influence on the other nation's doctrines. Germany basically took all of what they considered important lessons from it, while UK, Fr and USA started with less and ended WWII with much more. While ironically, USSR due to the scheemings of German covert ops had decent, even good training with it in the mid 30s and then completely rejected it due to the great purge, which left the Soviet military in the middle of trying to recreate and retrain itself into a brand new doctrine that as yet did not actually exist when Germany attacked. Worth noting, is that the Soviet troops that reverted to the old doctrines generally did well, while those sticking to the new, barely existant, doctrine got wiped out completely, mostly for lack of training and cohesion rather than said doctrines under creation actually being bad(left alone, in 2-3 years, they would likely have been even better than the original deep battle based doctrine, as it was an overall improvement, just not done). . "wikipedia has gotten more and more accurate" NO. No it most certainly has not. It has become more of a propaganda tool in the last decade.
![Defence of Moscow - Autumn 1941- Sabaton History 103 [OFFICIAL]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/u-kqlKYm8Nc/mqdefault.jpg)
![Defence of Moscow - Autumn 1941- Sabaton History 103 [OFFICIAL]](/img/tr.png)
![Steel Commanders - Tanks and Panzer! - Sabaton History 106 [Official]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/chXqWluupl8/mqdefault.jpg)
![Last Stands - The Bravest of the Brave - Sabaton History 125 [Official]](/img/1.gif)
Percy Hobart standing there in late 1940 like "Huh, if only someone had warned you about how tanks might be used _en masse_ as a rapid spearhead force. That sure would have been handy. Oh wait, I DID!!!"
Fuller: I did too! And earlier!
Hobart: Sod off, you fascist tosser.
Ahh a fellow @Fat Electrician fan, maybe.
What about General Maczek?
@@codystellmen of culture i see
Fuller: Hey, I did as well! And earlier!
Hobart: Sod off, you fascist tosser.
The internet is never wrong.
At least about Joakim's love of tanks.
The internet always tells the truth.
Just not everywhere.
The internet was never wrong as we can always change source of information on wiki pages.
Indy: you have more Songs about swedish history than Tanks. Indy 1: Internet 0
@@jannwueThe songs about tanks tend to be the best...
From the Mark 1’s introduction to the beast known as the Leopard
With our Chieftains and Centurions our frontline has been tempered
From the fields of Prokhorovka, to the shores of Overlord
@@undercover_potato9861Beginning of the victory
Sherman's rolling on to sword
Flers Courcellete showed the way
@@historygaming3765Evolution leading to El-Alamein until today, we're the first ones into the fray.
An album of puppies?
I could see an album of famous animals like Wojtek, Marengo, and Cher Ami.
I am sure there is a famous puppy in war somewhere.
Sgt. Stubby
The question is can you find 13 songs as that seems to be the album length they go for.
@@Denozo88 A lot of generals had famous horses, but it would be a bit dull if half of the songs were about horses.
@johnhubczak6501 good point.
Bamse a St Bernard who was mascot to a Norwegian Navy minesweeper.
A story to tie-in the internet and tanks:
Back in the late 90s there was a IDF tank contingent that tested one sort of C3 system or other. My friend once got out the hatch, and shouted "this thing is like downloading frakking porn: it's slow, and it gets stuck just when you think you're getting somewhere". His CO was frantically waiving their hands at him, motioning him to stop. My friend turns around, and finds the Division's commander right behind him, having heard it all, and laughing his arse off 😂
16:07 I think "The Last Battle" could also be put on the list of tank songs
"Jenny at the gates" refers to a tank, even if only indirectly
Joakim at 20:57: "Tank you very much!" caught me off-guard :D
Getting notifications from Sabaton History channel is a blessing all the time. Keep bringing us history with details
The heavy Mark I and II Matilda tanks were infantry tanks in a separate independent armoured brigade assigned to support the infantry. The British Armoured division was landed as the Germans were breaking through the defense line guarding Paris, not during the breakthrough to the coast. The counter attack by the Matidas was made by that single brigade. The French were supposed to attack from the other side but they couldn't organize an attack in time so only the British attack went in.
One day we'll see the episode for the SONG "Race to the Sea".
it's already out. episode 110
@@Tizzandor Just by the name, not by the content.
Smashing job interview and a new sabaton history episode. Today is a VERY good day!
Congrats
Thanks! Happy to hear that!! Here's to MORE very good days!
PanzerKampf and Screaming Eagles are my favorite Sabaton Songs. I usually keep one Sabaton Song or another in my head when I'm working at my job. It really helps.
Happy to hear that!
@@SabatonHistory---thanks
Love the T-shirt, Indy. My daughter put me on to "The Master and Margarita" several years ago - but the first read-through left me completely flummoxed, and it wasn't until the 3rd attempt that it all came into focus. Great book, though.
Audie Murphy's story brought me to my first Sabaton concert. It was so great to see the tank on stage, with Audie's name on it, and to hear his poetry in "To Hell and Back." Thanks for this incredible song, and all your songs!
Thank you for your message indeed, it's always so cool to read your memories from our shows 🤘 Keep rockin'!
@@SabatonHistory Tusen tack for your fun reply. Yes, fallen into Sabaton music rabbit hole, no plans to climb out:) Happy History Writing ☘🌲🌔🌟🌠🌲🌲
Tanks for the video!
You bet!
Going in: “Tanks are cool :D”
After watching: “I should really invest in computer company stocks.”
Sabaton strikes again with an awesome video!! Steel Commanders Rule The Battlefield!!
Thanks! And tank you for watching... :)
More, More, More! I love these. I could watch one a week. Yeah, that's it, you guys come up with a new song every week and them you can do a video. Oh, sorry, forgot you will need time to make the albums, play the concerts, and all the other things first. Oh well, I can dream, can't I?
If we could, we honestly would!
13:25
Indy: Tanks!
Joakim: Y E S
What was this episode about again? LOL. A little off topic, in the funniest way possible. Keep it up, guys.
I wish more people could love Sabaton's music and this awesome channel.
Aww thank you! What a lovely comment. Your support means a lot to us!
Sabaton gets me hyped for my weightlifting sessions and learn more history afterwards! 💜😎
What a killer combo! 🤘 It's our privilege to contribute ;)
Tanks for the video
When I saw sabaton live at the Danforth Music Hall, here in Toronto Canada, I was amazed that sabaton managed to get their tank in there. It's a tiny opera hall and they did an amazing job! Also I love Indie's foreshadowing Judas Priest shirt.... Sabaton, a great band, touring with one of the greats, JP, is incredibly awesome. I'm really hoping to be able to see you guys in Maine later this year! Woo! Also - TANKS!
Thanks for your recollection of the Sabaton experience 😎 We're so happy you had a great time, here's hoping to see you again soon!
@@SabatonHistory I cannot wait to see you all again, live in the flesh again! I can only listen to my Patreon History Editions so many times before I need to see you live! See you soon!
I love this channel. Thank you guys!!!
Thanks for watching!
I was actually watching a bunch of Sabaton history last night! Good to see a new episode
Got your next movie.
Hobo.
The British tank commander who rommel copied his homework.
We got the desert fox, Patton, complete the trilogy.
And then throw in de Gaulle because Rommel copied him too
Complete the series!
On a sillier note, Hobo With a Shotgun.
Its not related to WWII in any way whatsoever, you just reminded me of it.. but worth a watch if you like silly b-movies. xD
ill be watching Hobo tonight. Thanks for the tip. 🤙
As an amateur historian who's also stuck on writing a master thesis on Cold War politics, this channel is amazing. Wonderful way to expand on Sabaton song's topics and to get more people interested in history (which is never a bad thing). The only thing that I would love to see is a list of the sources used for each episode like books, original documents etc.
I'll always remember that clip I saw of a American Bradley IFV crewman from some documentary(can't recall the name) had a picture of Erwin Rommel in his IFV. When asked why he said something to the effect of we still use and take lessons from his tactics.
I love the tangents y’all go on in the bit after the main video.
Haha thanks for watching!!
Tanks are one of the best things, you can never hear enough about them!
Hey Sabaton, i would like to see you come up with the cool idea of April Fools. Can you do an April Fools episode of Pasadena 1994 with special guest Nanowar of Steel? That would be nice.
I absolutely love Sabaton History. Keep up the good work.
Thank you so much for your message!
I discovered Sabaton because of my love for tanks
I discovered tanks because of my love for Sabaton
@@DriftlessWarrior is that the uno reverse ? ✌️
@@eliasdh96 I suppose it could be. All I know is, it's a game where we ALL get to win!! 😎
Me too!
@@DriftlessWarrior thats for sure🤘👍
I'm so excited to see you guys in concert next month!
Happy to hear you're coming to see us!
"Why don't you shut the hell up? If you've been reading about Rommel, you wouldn't be sitting at the back of my tank."
~A U.S. Bradley driver to an Iraqi POW when asked why he has a picture of "his greatest enemy" posted on his vehicle (after the Battle of 73 Easting)
Cue the, "You magnificent Bastard I READ YOUR B O O O O O O O K !!!" clip.
Tanks for the music, history and memories!!!
My son went crazy when he saw the tank and Red Baron piano on stage at Leeds. He absolutely loved it!!
Tanks for the great video!!!
Glad you enjoyed it! Tanks for watching! :)
Tanks for the memories..... I'll get my coat
Haha!
J'ai déjà fait un tour de tank à Utah Beach à l'occasion de l'anniversaire du Débarquement en Normandie et c'était trop bien ! 😄
J'aurais dû emmener ma JBL ce jour là pour mettre du Sabaton à fond, pour rendre ce moment encore plus épique ! 😎
🔥🤘🏼🔥🤘🏼
Tanks for the memories! 😆
Shout out to Indi for wearing a fantastic T-Shirt.
Hope he had the joy of having seen the band live.
They can write about the CV90.
_"Scania V8 engine, roaring giving life to this machine of Doom you are facing on"_
or the Tiger, Abrams, Challenger, T-90 etc.
I would love to hear a song written about the FT-17
Another great song would be about the 0 enemy kill opening tank battle of Desert Storm. The only coalition tank casualties were friendly fire.
Indy in Defenders of the faith tshirt, week after release of the new album, 5 days before Jp, Saxon and Uriah Heep concert, even using ‘invincible’ word talking about tanks. Can’t get any better than that!
Cool! Keep up the good work!
That "thank you very much" should've been done in your best possible impression of Elvis...
19:10 Wikipedia is really good as a jumping off point, and while i cant speak for other countries i know that with American history stuff on there they list sources and sometimes these sources can bring you to real de-classified military documents. Sometimes it can be the most authentic source you can get.
that talk about the foci on tanks on the one side and swedish history on the other hand made me think that a song about the at4 or gripen could be nice
Mk II tank with a gunner, loader, radio operator, driver and tank commander is going to have a problem as two of those men will be outside the tank. The actual crew was a driver, gunner, and the tank commander who also loaded the gun. The gun though, was a 20mm autocannon which used magazines (5 rounds) so the TC wasn't throwing rounds in to feed the gun one at a time.
Note that Soviet tanks like the T34 with a two man turret had the tank commander fill the gunner position, not loader positionl
19:30 - thats how I was looking for sources for my Mgr thesis :D
The internet can be wrong? No, that's impossible. 😅
I know that because I read it on the internet.
Someday we will get a Sabaton History of your song Endless Nights…right? Maybe around Halloween?
Edit: and Shadows
The Metalizer watch party just reminded me we are still waiting on an episode for Shadows. Could either do the episode about Middle Earth or Tolkien's life.
Tank you very much 😁
Everyone: wow Sabaton, how did you become so knowledgeable about tanks?
Joakim: my source is that I made it the f*ck up
What does an American ww2 veteran say when you ask him if he wants some tea?
Sherman tanks!
I ❤ puns! 😊
Sabaton history on a Sunday morning is bliss
We couldn't agree more ;)
Pasadena 1994 still needs an episode...
Technically a Nano war unfortunately
April the first
That would be dope. With guest nanowar and veterans who were present during this bloody conflict like Baggio, Taffarel or Maldini 🤣. I have no idea how could this even be possible but that for sure would be one hell of an April's fool😅
I'm detecting a distinct lack of "Steel Commanders."
One reason the British attack ran out of steam is the Germans put together an anti-tank line of 88mm gun and 105mm heavy field guns (normally listed as 10cm sFG18) which halted the British attack.
Relying to the internet for information telling Sabatons fafourit theme is tanks... Hell no, but let's say no, we're glad that Sabaton is able to be spreed through the internet.
When the video says it was posted 55s ago but there’s three comments from 6 days ago
That would be the patreon privelege 😉
awesome stuff! Thanks, or in Finnish, kiitosta kovasti.
I need to go get model kits of these tanks now!😮
What a brilliant idea! We might do the same!
I’d personally love to see an episode on cavalry, I don’t care what time period. (I can’t really think of any cavalry songs besides winged hussars and maybe killing ground)
That panzer 3 model looks really good. Indy did you make that?
This is nice but when is the new album coming out
Just when I thought Joakim couldn't be anymore based, I see he's wearing a "Pink Freud - the dark side of your mom" hoodie
The irony of the Matilda's earlier failures being reflected in the struggles of the German tanks of the later war.
Indy in WW2, soon to be Indy in Korean War, and Indy on Sabaton History. Moar Indy! :D Great stuff, y'all!
Gotta love Soviet heavies 10:45, anyone hear about "tank alley" when a single KV-1 destroyed 22 PZ 3s and 35s, along with 2 anti tank guns? would really love a song about that one.
German commander: why have we stopped
Soldier: there is a tank
Commander: So? destroy it
(tank finally looks destroyed)
Commander: advance
(Turret rotates to look at commander)
Commander: HANS BACK UP GO BACK
Joakim writing a song about tanks: "Blah blah blah, over trench and wire, blah blah blah"
Y'all should do a miniseries on the USS Enterprise. I'm sure you can write songs about the Grey Ghost. 😁
Do you guys think they will ever make a song about "Tank Alley" or maybe a song about the the "Tiger 2 & King Tiger".
Absolutely anything is possible!
Gee tanks a lot sabaton
Sabaton should do a song about the Sherman Firefly!
Sabaton should do a song about the real war daddy and his tank 3 tanks “in the mood” 1,2, and 3
Hey Sweden, Welcome to Nato ... Hey NAto , get rid of the marching bands ... let Sabaton be the Nato-band ... we'll be invincible ...
war thunder when it leaks another classified military document
The French also had a lack of radios. They sent orders via couriers. So they had serious coms issues
I believe an episode about Black Baron will be very good idea...
Has there been a Sabaton History episode about Naval War and Aircraft Carriers specifically? There's been a few episodes about ships and all but Aircraft Carrier history and development in active service could be an interesting topic..?
Yeah I listened too much to 'Midway', how did you guess?!
Pls do a song about the tank “in the mood” & it’s driver “War daddy”
I wonder if Indy or any of Sabaton have met The Chieftain yet
Pink Puppies, driving tanks!
Good call on Pavlov.
Looks like Indy is having mashed potatoes for dinner.
I heard a Story, I think from WWI, of some people that lived in the Mountains, and marched into the next town, right up to the House of the Mayor, equiped with the Arms and Armor of their Templar ancestors, apparently greeting the Mayor with the words "where's the war? We heard there is war!"
The people apparently thought they were ghosts.
If that Story is real, I'd love to hear a Song about them.
As the German armored column moved across the border to Czechoslovakia it expected to meet little resistance. But someone was waiting for them: it wasn’t a matching armored column but a man on horseback, in full medieval armor, carrying a sword and halberd. This created confused the Germans and caused them to pause momentarily. The man was Josef Mencik!
Edit: copied from Internet article because I'm to lazy to type it out on mobile.
Joakim making a disco band? Alright, who wants him to cover "Disco Metal" by Nanowar of Steel?
The internet is never wrong.😉
"The internet is always a reliable source of information" - Isaac Newton, Peruvian scientist, 1443.
On a serious note I like the British Crusader tank once they had their mechanical flaws fixed.
Guys! We still dont have episode about "glorious land"!
Tanks are only ever as dangerous as they are supplied and maintained.
Sabaton needs to collaborate with Potential History on a tank meme video.
Pz-I was never meant for combat, they were designed as training vehicles.
Pz-II were created to be recon tanks.
Pz-III were designed to fight other tanks. Armed with 37L46 antitank gun.
Pz-IV were designed to fight infantry and HE-targets. Armed with 75L24 snubnose artillery gun.
Also VERY worth noting is the fact that both the Pz-III and -IV were designed as 20t tanks. The T-34 was a 28t tank at start, the Sherman was a 32t tank when designed. So the German tanks were VERY unimpressive indeed even compared to some other British and French contemporaries.
.
But the quality of the tanks was not what won Germany the Polish and French campaigns. Radios did.
Every German tank had a radio receiver. Every German platoon leader tank had a radio transmitter.
Allied tanks, transmitters were often not found until with battalion commanders. And receivers, sometimes not even with company commanders.
The rare few times French troops actually had a standup fight with Germans during the invasion, they actually did quite well.
But the complete chaos caused by subpar communications meant that most of the time, French troops were on the move, trying to follow orders already outdated by days, when attacked on the move by German troops or struck by the German airforce.
.
"French wanted"
No, that is VERY incorrect. The OLD GUARD of the French army to SOME extent wanted that. And even among them there were innovators.
However, the big problem was that so many young officers died during WWI that France had a huge gap in its officer corp.
But within the younger officers in France, LOTS of new ideas and capability was absolutely on the rise.
And during the interwar era, France was one of THE biggest nations to experiment with "next generation warfare"(along with USSR and UK).
To the point that Guderian personally sat down and translated the military theory workings of DeGaulle, as he considered them absolutely vital must read for any future panzer commander.
.
"learn from their enemies"
No. It was not a matter of not sending tanks alone against the enemy, it was a matter of making combined arms WORK in a functional way.
Something most armies struggle with TODAY.
And especially the Soviet military already had the blueprints for it from Tuchachevsky's "deep battle" doctrine, as it was essentially part of the basis of all armored warfare in WWII, with various degrees of influence on the other nation's doctrines. Germany basically took all of what they considered important lessons from it, while UK, Fr and USA started with less and ended WWII with much more.
While ironically, USSR due to the scheemings of German covert ops had decent, even good training with it in the mid 30s and then completely rejected it due to the great purge, which left the Soviet military in the middle of trying to recreate and retrain itself into a brand new doctrine that as yet did not actually exist when Germany attacked.
Worth noting, is that the Soviet troops that reverted to the old doctrines generally did well, while those sticking to the new, barely existant, doctrine got wiped out completely, mostly for lack of training and cohesion rather than said doctrines under creation actually being bad(left alone, in 2-3 years, they would likely have been even better than the original deep battle based doctrine, as it was an overall improvement, just not done).
.
"wikipedia has gotten more and more accurate"
NO. No it most certainly has not. It has become more of a propaganda tool in the last decade.
Tanks for this lol
“Who doesn’t like hearing about tanks?”
People with a lot of issues obviously