In one-on-one combat, were there any American or British tanks superior to German Panthers or Tigers in WW2?

Question

I hear a lot of stories that the Western Allies won the land war in Europe in World War II by using their numerical superiority (i.e. four Shermans to knock out one Panther?). What about one-on-one combat? Were there any variants of the Sherman or the British infantry tanks capable of holding up against any of the German Panthers, Tiger I or Tiger II in one-on-one combat?

Answer 1

The British Sherman Firefly with a 17pdr gun had better penetrative potential than both the Panther and the Tiger, but lacked armour. Although only a 76mm weapon, British ammunition technology, especially the armour piercing discarding sabot round, gave it this ability. This weapon in slightly modified form was later fitted to the Comet tank, which entered service in January 1945. The Firefly was in a class of its own from June 1944.

At about the same time, the American M26 Pershing with a 90mm gun entered service, and this was about equal to a Tiger or Panther. The US was slow to get a heavy tank into service because of doctrine and bureaucracy: tanks were not supposed to take on enemy tanks, these were supposed to be attacked by tank destroyers, so the US did not consider it a problem that the Sherman was undergunned. When it was upgunned just after D-Day, the new 76mm was not much better than the old gun. American Tank Destroyer battalions had better ammunition (armour piercing composite rigid) though most of their TDs had the same weapons as the ordinary tanks.

The British were hampered by, of all things, their narrow railway gauge. Tanks had to be transportable by railway, so they had to be narrow, so they had to have small turrets. Again, there was a refusal to face up to the inferiority of British tanks- even Churchill thought British tanks were okay and he sacked General Auchinlek for saying so.

The need to keep production lines going in both countries prevented the introduction of new types, as did in-fighting and changing requirements- especially calling for bigger guns and heavier armour in the middle of design development.

In the last 6 months of the war the British and Americans had excellent tanks coming into service- but obviously all too late. However, it should be remembered that only a minority of German tanks were Panthers and Tigers.

Answer 2

What defeated the German tanks weren't allied tanks, it was the "Mighty 8th" Air Force. By eliminating Germany's ability to manufacture these technologically superior tanks through bombing, the end result was they had little chance to replace damaged and worn out units. I haven't looked this up yet but as I recall there were approximately 50,000 Shermans and some 40,000 Russian T-34's produced and there were 1300 Tigers and some 5,000 Panthers that actually made it into combat. The American Pershing came into existence much too late to have much effect in Europe.

The simple answer to your question is that one-on-one the German tanks were superior to any tank of that WW 2 era. The later model Sherman with a 76mm main gun had a better chance of survival and the Russian T-34 and later T-76 were also a factor. Note: The Panther was Germany's response to the T-34, since it was superior to the Panzer. However neither wars nor battles are won by one-on-one combat.

Answer 3

The US Pershing was roughly equivalent to the Panther. Other than that, nothing the Western Allies had was comparable overall.

The Firefly and the Achilles with the 17lbr gave the British excellent firepower. But it had a slow rate of fire and neither of those vehicles was all that well armored.

The Sherman Jumbo with the 76mm gun had lots of armor, and a decent gun. But it was really slow. They added and extra 4 inches of hull armor to the front and sides and 6 inches to the turret. But at 22mph it was too slow to force an engagement with a panther.

Both the Brits and the US had a large tank destroyer with a hull mounted gun in the works. These would have been able to deal reasonably well with Panthers and Tigers. But they never did enter service because the war ended before development was completed.

Answer 4

Chances are in a one on one situation the German tanks were superior. But that would depending is the German tank would stay running and could maneuver. The Sherman was by far more reliable, & faster.
So it would also depend upon terrain, and crew.
Patton realized the limitaions of the Serman tank, and it's advantages. The idea was to use the advantages against the weaknesses of the other. The idea was to avoid direct combat until you can maneuver the enemy into a point of your advantage.
But until the Pershing tank was introduced the only nation that produced a tank that could match the German tanks tow to tow was the Russians.

Answer 5

The American 90mm M36 Tank Destroyer was built specifically for that purpose.
The Soviets developed the Iosif Stalin series of tanks capable of countering a German 88 mm gun and had a 122mm main gun, in use 1944 &1945.
To answer your question, no, there were no American or British tanks that were superior.

Answer 6

if your speaking a pair of million on a million then the Tiger with the help of an excellent margin. observed the movie 'Fury' and the area the place 3 of the 4 Sherman's are knocked out whilst taking over a million Tiger is in all probability incredibly reasonable. Its a stable element we outfitted maximum of Sherman's for the duration of the conflict. got here across this little bit of information variety of depressing. The third Armored branch entered attempt against in Normandy with 232 M4 Sherman tanks. for the duration of the european marketing campaign, the branch had some 648 Sherman tanks thoroughly destroyed in attempt against and yet another seven-hundred knocked out, repaired and positioned returned into operation. Thats an customary of three destroyed/knocked out in line with day (11 months) for the entire eu marketing campaign. This became a loss cost of 580 %. And that became only one branch! Plus the losses in tank group would desire to have been relatively extreme. not all to Tiger's for sure yet nonetheless says some thing appropriate to the Sherman's vulnerability to anti- tank weapons.

Answer 7

When it came to one on one combat the Panzer won the day. It's armor was better and its shells more lethal. However, the Shermans outnumbered the Panzers due to the greater capacity of the US war machine to produce more tanks faster. The German war machine could not keep up, and eventually it cost them the war.

Answer 8

Superior no ! Equal yes the USA came out with the M26 Pershing in the last month of the war and Great Briton came out with the Comet, both came out to late to show their true effectiveness