The First German Tank A7V
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- Опубліковано 6 кві 2016
- The A7V was the first German tank it was built in very limited numbers in World War I and saw some action. Unlike many other German tanks it has a quite negative reputation, which is probably not justified. In this video I take a look at the production history, numbers built, armor, armament, measurements and the very interesting crew layout.
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Sturmpanzerwagen A7V - Vom Urpanzer zum Kampfpanzer Leopard 2 - Ein Beitrag zur Militär- und Technikgeschichte.
Tank Museum Video on the A7V
• The A7V - German WWI r...
Beware of Wikipedia articles, I corrected some values already, but I guess there may still some errors left.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A7V
www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww1...
--Credits & Special Thanks--
The Counter-Design is heavily inspired by Black ICE Mod for the game Hearts of Iron 3 by Paradox Interactive
forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/...
--Song---
Ethan Meixsell - Demilitarized Zone (the Irony :D)
--Notes on Accuracy & “Methodology”--
I used the tank encylclopdia articles for references values on the Mark V tanks armour. Due to several errors in the Wikipedia articles of the A7V, encountered and corrected several errors on the A7V values.
#A7V,#FirstGermanTank,#Panzer - Розваги
I can totally see the cramped space and all those people causing some very heated arguments. "Schiesse, Hans, you stepped on mien toe!" "It's not mien fault your feet are too big." "Oh shut up, Hans, go play with your pigeons!"
*scheiße *mein
Commander, driver, mechanics, gunners, loaders, signaller, and.... pigeon handler. Ok, I can see why having a pigeon or two for sending last ditch messages could be useful - but a specialist handler who appears to do nothing else to ensure the success of the mission or the survival of the tank seems a little ... odd.
@@mandolinic you might think it's crazy to have someone assigned specifically to take care of the pigeons, until there are 30 pigeons flying around inside the tank crapping on the men in the middle of a battle
Would be a cool design for a themed lunchbox.
Would also make a good case mod
idea.jpeg
I’d buy that.
INVEST
Perktube1 and an insult to anyone who was killed in those oversized toaster
Great job!
EDIT: And a great idea for a channel.
+The Great War thank you! wow, I wouldn't have expected you guys around here!
LOL this was unexpected!
Military History Visualized A fan send us your video.
+The Great War You could use some of his clips
+The Great War oh well, thanks for the info and thanks to him! I will let you know, when I have a new one that covers you... uhm "The Great War" ;)
An armored college dorm on treads
nah, not enough social justice warriors in it.
It's full of triggers though
Damn
@@vitoc8454 I c what u did there.
@@MilitaryHistoryVisualized Hey, man, I think I made a silly comment on this video drunk last year, and you replied to it. I can't find the comment to delete it unfortunately. I was drunk off my ass watching your videos when I replied to you so my joke came across dramatically more hostile than I intended. I was the guy joking about "reaching for his Garand." Just wanted to apologize. Even if I was kidding around, I sounded like a complete jackass. You probably don't even remember this, but this was keeping me up at night, man.
The two dislikes are probably from Senior Infantry Commanders of WW1 who supported the deadly charges.
+Bob Orson Gaming and Mapping lol, yeah, was kinda surprised too, because my USS Holland video didn't get any downvotes. I also can understand the down votes on the book report, but these down-votes, must be some old guards from the 1st World War.
Military History Visualized
Probably
+Military History Visualized Cant win them all. Its a good video.
+Merlijn Pieron (The Devils Advocate) the comparison was intended to be a bit controversial, because many ignore shortcomings of the Tiger, yet many others (maybe not the same people though), just say that the A7V was bad. It was more against the common or popular view than against the vehicles themselves. Especially since my source on the A7V was excellent, but appeared quite biased itself in repairing its reputation. Yet, my knowledge about WW1 tanks is quite limited, so I had a hard time to "out balance" the perceived bias. The downvotes just happen. I basically upvote 80 % if not 90 % of all content and probably downvote like 2 to max 5 %, but I am a content creator, I sometimes even upvote if I disagree, but can see the effort the person put into. Although from stats I know that very few people up/downvote at all, maybe they are not logged in or just do it for exceptional content.
+Merlijn Pieron (The Devils Advocate) thank you! At one point they wanted to win the war with it, but the change in direction reminded me of the Eastern Front in WW2, it clearly gave me an impression of inconsistency... tanks! u-boats! newer tanks!...
I saw the last surviving A7V today In the Aussie war Memorial
they are impressive to look at
Uncle Joe Stalin ...on loan to Canberra....now back home at the Queensland museum
You should definetely make one about the zeppelins involved in the war; the coolest military vehicle of all time besides an iron box with 26 guys that communicates via carrier pidgeon.
"Meters and centimetres aren't precise enough when you're German and dealing with the measurements of a 30 ton tank." Lol I guess modern German tanks are measured in Planck lengths.
Planck lengths. Good one.
Only for rough estimates.....
Why? Germans have excellent humour!
Normal planck lengths might work for prototypes, but for final production models, we split the universe into femto-universes, pushing us into a dimension where a planck length is 10x⁻¹⁵ of ours.
Then we measure with that.
manictiger Nice ot see german engineers are mellowing a bit. they used to e picky about tolerences.
The last surviving A7V, named Mephisto, was captured by ANZACs, and is now displayed in Queensland Museum’s ANZAC hall in Brisbane. In addition to the A7V, they also have other really nice stuff, such as artefacts from the SMS Emden. Anyone visiting Brisbane should definitely pay it a visit.
you should totally do a video about the Sd.Kfz. 251 and its numerous variants. The Hanomag was a neat vehicle
yeah, at some point I will!
A big reason why the A7V gained such a bad reputation was because it was poorly suited for trench warfare and the Western Front. Namely, its very limited ability to traverse vertically-uneven ground (only 1.3 feet in height; anything more than that, it couldn't navigate, which means shell-holes, wide trenches, anti-tank obstacles, etc. would have stopped them). They were also not the most horizontally stable, being so tall, narrow, and comparatively top-heavy.
Love the tongue-in-cheek comment about German engineers and use of millimeters for a tank! :)
when I was a boy in Brisbane Australia , I'm now 55 , we often got to go inside the only remaining example. amazing thing to be able to do. sitting by the side of the road with hardly any cover on it. it then moved to the museum across the river in the 1980s? and eventually got flooded I hear in the 2012 Brisbane floods and has now been restored and in the Canberra war museum.
Only on loan. It will return to us eventually.
The only surviving A7Z is currently at the Australian War Museum in Canberra and will return to the Queensland Museum in Brisbane Australia in 2018
I live in Brisbane Australia and they only surviving example was kept here for years. I would walk past it on the way to work . You can see the dents in the front armor front small calibre hits...I'm shocked so many crew were inside.
+rawnukles and it was 7 Bridage of AIF ( Austiralian Imperal Force) Who Caputered It. Las time I was it was about 2 years ago When it was out Workshop Rail Museum In Ipwsich Queensland., When was in a tent Clear Platic Balloon Typed.
james m I have had a close look at it when it was in Brisbane and wondered what kind of weapons caused the dents on the front. Maybe they are battle scars or maybe they are result of testing anti tank rifles after it was captured. It looks like they couldn't penetrate the front armor either way. I love that they had a pigeon in it !
+rawnukles it is so odd, there were 23 built including prototypes and the last "real" one ends up in Australia :D yeah, the steel wasn't the best quality either back then.
+rawnukles probably those dents are from overeager homing pigeons wearing tiny Stahlhelms trying to return :D
Last I saw it, and Miss the News that it was in Canberra.
You forgot to mention that the mark tanks... Really weren't any better. The earlier ones were carbon monoxide factories that left their crew unconscious wrecks, and it wasn't anymore reliable than the A7V, most of the losses were due to utter mechanical failures. I'd actually say that comparatively, the A7V was quite reliable considering it's opponent. It wasn't produced on the scale of the Marks, but it's easy to think that it's at LEAST on par.
True, but at least the British tanks didn't tip over as readily as the A7V
Thomas Zinser also true.
The Mark tanks were far better at navigating uneven ground, which is crucial in a tank serving on the Western Front. They were also the very first tanks (and the introduction of tanks was a very welcome thing to the infantry long-used to getting mowed down by machine gun fire in the open), so they get some leeway for their faults.
SaltyWaffles again, also true.
Both of those tanks were quite crappy when compared to the far superior French Renault FT :p
Also I'd say that while Marks werent that good either, they were still better because of the lower amount of men needed inside, and they didnt get stuck in trenches as easily.
It actually made sense to divert resources for different tanks during WW1. You had no idea at all which design works best. Germans actually had one design that looked like WW2 tank and could have developed into best tank of the war.
Since WW1 tanks were so bad, it was not that important to produce tanks, it would have been better to produce more anti tank weaponry to neutralize or reduce enemy tank`s effect, while you are developing good design that is far more worth producing.
TheRomanRuler do you mean the Oberschlesien?
This show is like a dream i never dream of, great stuff, cheers from Slovakia
this channel is absolutely amazing. keep it up man, these videos are what I've been looking for for a long time. very well put together and good information
The only real surviving example of this tank in the world is in a museum in Brisbane in Australia. It was captured by Aussie troops in WWI.
Didn’t the Americans also captured a German tank for the hell of it?
Predator 20357 no , the US did f all in WW1 get over it
Mathew Kelly ua-cam.com/video/Pxb3j6Ps44c/v-deo.html
Here’s a link to tell you to fuck right off with that notion, the Americans joining the war was the final nail in Germany’s attempt to win, Get over it
Love the channel! Just found it yesterday and started watching. Some really good info and love the presentation!
welcome and thank you! Enjoy!
lol, "centermeters or meters aren't precise enough when you're dealing with a 13 tonne tank"
Great video!!! Thank you for the hard work and research into these videos!
A great video and I look forward to the second part on the A7V in the field !
Really enjoyed the video, watched it this week. I had a look online and supposedly there's only one of the originals left, currently in the Australian War Memorial (Canberra) I went and had a look at "Mephisto" today, took a couple of photos too :)
Keep up the awesome work, mate. It's inspiring :)
there was one of these at brisbane museum, really cool
well, it is the only original left.
There was the FT-17, and there was the rest. :p
at 3:55 you say "75mm" but you wrote "57mm Maxim" Just a heads up. I love your videos!
Sergio Gonzalez Germans say their numbers "backward".
@@Phunny but it's not as bad as the french
Yeah, you've got to be good at math for that ;)
@@Phunny Joke or are u serious man?
Burak Özenir Obviously joking
an australia has the only a7v form ww1 left :P
Mobility is everything. I think you forgot to mention that this speed was considerably worse in off track terrain. Plus, look at its tracks : like the saint Chamon, it was not able to bypass the trenchees, that were the main obstacle of the war. Finally, its heavy weight provided much problems in reliability. But I think that it could have been a decent tank if used in open terrain and moving warfare, like the saint Chamon. Thank you for your video
You should make a visual representation of a WW1 German Squad as you did on your WW2 video
will do if I have the proper sources.
+Military History Visualized what part of Germany do you come from I used to live around Würtzburg
You mentioned that there were several competing designs: I'd love to hear more about this
This reminds me of the WWI German campaign in Empire Earth where you're only given ten tanks and cannot produce anymore. Now I know why they did that.
This channel is very informative and easy to understand.You're good at this.Please keep doing this videos ^_^
+Ayberk Yaman thank you!
Great video. I kinda love the A7V. I have seen the last member of its species in the Australian war memorial. (Mephisto)
They should have increased the top armor, purely because the most common weapon that could be used to destroy them was enemy artillery - by far. I think that's even more true considering the small number, and that with such small numbers they would either be used defensively, or in a support role, or used in an offensive and then sit in a defensive position.
Outstanding video and presentation.
Glad you enjoyed it
I have seen the only remaining a7v left in the world. I have a video of it on my phone. It got captured and the guys who captured it, stratched on the back "tank boys" and all thier names of the guys that captured it. Its in Australia at the moment, and i saw at the aussie war memorial. The place with parts of the red barons fokker dr.1, both of his boots (one is rotting away) and a me163 komet, a me 262 schwallbe, a bunch of ww1 planes, a sub that was hit with a torp, an avro lancaster, a mitsubishi a6m zero, a bunch of medals from soldiers from ww1, a v1 buzzbomb, a couple tanks, and soooo much more
It was on loan from Brisbane since a lot of the men who captured it were from Queensland. It has now returned to Queensland Museum and is inside a specially built ANZAC Legacy Gallery dedicated to WWI - the tank is the A7V "Mephisto" chassis 506. (November 2018)
Great Video!
When i was young I used to play inside Mephisto at the museum in Brisbane, Australia.
You might not be able to play in it but it is now permanently back inside the Queensland museum building itself.
@@eagleone493 I have been to see it since and it brings back memories climbing into to it through the top.
Amazing videos dude, Icould use all the graphics you use to the Tank Division videos to make a school work. :)
Homing pigeon handler?
Yes in this Times Radio wasn't that Reliable and so Pigeons brought news from the Front.Many Nations did that in WW1 but it was slowly Ditched in the Way to WW2 because Radios became Better and More Reliable.
brilliant . machine guns - rifles - tanks - planes - train - boat - pigeon .
British tanks used them too - could be launched from inside the tank through a pistol port.
Great, I've always known pigeons are disease carriers, but now I'm genuinely terrified of these harbingers of death. What next? Explosives carrying homing pigeon?
It amazes me how our technology sometimes develops , still using pigeon yet in tanks .
when you look back at old video games like binitone tennis you thing wow we were primitive but at that time we had jets rockets been ti the moon and icbm nuclear .
Thanks for the information
Loved it! Perfect! I would go so far as to say, by today's standard, think of the pure numbers involved. 20 tanks (from production runs), in all of the "Great War"? The first tank produced by the Axis powers (not just Germany!)... IMO, by today's standards, these were field trials, proto-types. In perspective to the guy in the mud. One, single enemy tank was too many.
Thanks for making this :).
I am glad 'The Great War' linked to this site, it is great.
me too and thank you!
Your videos are awesome!
Awesome job,thanks.
The A7V had some serious faults, but these faults were forgiveable in light of the rushed development and lack of anything approaching a doctrine on using tanks.
and it did take on three mark tanks by it'self in the first ever tank battle in history so there is that mark to it's name for successes.
Can you cover a little bit on German Rocket systems (v2) and halftracks?
Or the Goliath drone from ww2?
awesome video btw!
Keep up the good work. Your videos are informative and largely unbiased.. While I may not agree with all your conclusions, I understand your interpretation of fact and can't fault you for a clearly subjective statement. Thank you for your contributions here.
These tanks look so cool but the one issue I have with them versus, say, the British Mark IV is that the latter seem much better adapted for traversing trenches and ditches with their elongated lozenge-shaped caterpillar tracks. Additionally, they were often equipped with fascines to assist with this. The A7V tank looks perfectly adapted to traverse flat terrain and if there is one thing I know about the terrain in WWI is that it was the opposite of flat. If these went anywhere near a trench, they would have a strong chance of falling in and getting stuck.
Can you do an analysis of Tiger I and Tiger II tanks? Also, great work!
I´am glad I found this channel. Great presentation. I love the graphical presentation, so its easier to memorize the facts. BTW are you german? I thought so because of your accent.
+TheShatteredSword thank you! Welcome to my Channel! Nope, I am Austrian but living in Germany right now, but its almost impossible to tell the difference even for Germans.
I love watching this channel and the Great War, and then Survival Lilly. :-)
very well done thankyou!
The only surviving A7V "Mephisto" has returned to BRISBANE and is permanently based inside the ANZAC Legacy Gallery Queensland Museum (November 11 2018)
the last one of these tanks in existence is called the Mephisto and it is in a museum in Queensland Australia
Agreed and now as of this year is inside the specially made ANZAC Legacy Gallery (November 2018)
World War I tanks are not designed to fight another tank, more like "protect infantry from machine gun nest" and "as long as it can travel across trenches"
It's facinating stuff. A7V would of been really intetesting to see in combat. Both Entente and Central powers AFV would of create panzer fright if faced against by infantry for the first time. The M4's werr producceds as you said in the thousands. While 24 A7V's, with 18 men being anfixiated within these lumbering beasts. The M4's in the early stage were rated by combat veterans like Albert Jacka VC and he blasted them seeing them as magnets for artillery fire and small arms so not providind any viable cover for soldiers near them . He was really scathing in his review and some have said he was denied being awarded a second as by this time brass were committed to the idea. He was meant to rubber stamp there production i suppose.
Back to the A7V i thing with 18 they wouĺd been like a moving small fortress.
where can i find your comments on the combat performance of the AFV
fortress maybe, until the fall into a shell hole
Ever heard of the phrase "can't hit the broadside of a barn", I guess that is what the germans thought when they created this tank.
so knowing allmost next to nothing about tanks ( but was military) and being a truck driver now, 23 people in the side of my mid roof truck is just insane. my truck is about 22'long 8' wide and 11' tall. and 18,000 rounds of 7.62. just mind blowing they could fit so much into so little
Why do I have to think of a small clown car now? ^^
its allmost just like that. but for war.....makes my head spin.
Nice, Time to learn about the Great German Box Tanks!
PS. I think its kinda ironic that the first tanks made could be classified as heavy tanks for the time.
4:45
That escalated quickly
Thank For the Video
+james m you are welcome, thx for watching and commenting!
you made some pretty serious mistakes on this one my friend, the Renault was the most numerous tank and had a single engine, and just a two man crew while the whippet was the most successful British tank and had an 8mph top speed, neither were designed or utilised as moving pill boxes and certainly the whippet was fully exploited with great success as a cavalry tank.
I went to the Australian War Memorial a few years ago and took some pictures of the inside of the A7V if anyone’s interested I stuck my selfie stick through the break in the Armour
I’d love to see them mate. I seen it in Canberra too but didn’t take any pictures. Was pretty cool to see though.
@@coreygolder6503 need you email I’ll send them through if you like 👍 mines parachuteinfantry76@gmail.com
I love when you mix english and german without being aware, that's very fun. It happens to me quite a lot.
I am actually surprised that it had 30mm of armour and could still reach 16km/h. That seems a lot better than the early British tanks.
Especially with a crew of 20 people inside.
yes, by it fell over so much that didn't matter
Nice channel you got there! Subbed for more.
+WolfPlayer thank you, welcome to my channel!
In Battlefield 1 I like the version with the autocannons and the health and ammo. I go for support more for direct attack so if i got guys on autoturrets they're more likely to damage people with splash damage and don't have to be as accurate and you get lotsa points from people resupplying. And it has an quick repair. I don't know why people even use the MK5 over the A7V.
Impressive stats!!!! Good range AND homing pigeons.... World domination!
imagine that thing in Worms :)
Military History Visualized
Wow, that was not the response I was expecting. But I'll take it. +1 sir!
For a true German milimeters are just "rough estimates" xD Better go with micro- or nanometers to be sure that it's really precise ;-)
You'd think they'd at least give it better off-road capabilities, considering the front they were sending it to. Even the Mark I was designed to have decent (for the time) off-road capabilities. It's like building a tank to fight in Antarctica, but giving it an engine that can't handle cold temperatures.
Coming back I remembered one thing. I'm curious how high an obstacle could the British tanks navigate over. I heard that the A7V had issues with the tracks, ground clearance or something like that. "the track system had insufficient rise at the front" my book says.
+MaxRavenclaw 0.4m for the A7V, don't know about the British tanks. No info on that in your book?
Military History Visualized Hah, they barely skim the surface in that book. It's funny that they provided the armor of only one variant of all the Marks.
Holy damn... did not realise so many people would be inside one :O
I'd love to see a modern version of this tank. Also does anyone else agree that there should have been space for a medic and a wounded solider as this tanks purpose was to aid the infantry
I can appreciate the dedicated pigeon boy position in the crew.
Great video! Two tips for future videos though: filter your audio to remove the background noise, and reduce the volume of the music at the end. It's much, much louder than the rest of the video - I had to pull out my headphones.
Very informative! I look forward to your next video.
+Spinifax thx! what do you suggest for filtering? I already have setup some foam around my micro. Yeah, it was too loud, in the new video it should be reduced to 80 %... I forget that people use headphones, SORRY!
Check out this guide explaining how to do it in Audacity. It should allow to quickly clean up your audio. You can use Audacity to review how loud the music is in relation to your voice too. Making the music 80% as loud as your voice sounds like a good level.
www.makeuseof.com/tag/remove-ambient-noise-audio-files-audacity/
+Spinifax thank you! Will definitely try it, but note that I have already one more video finished and uploaded (private), so don't be suprised.
+Spinifax just did with the video for Friday (the video tomorrow was already uploaded when you mentioned it), thx to my crappy video editing software it took half an hour. I hope you can hear a difference.
+Military History Visualized I look forward to watching it! I've already learned a lot from your channel. To think I used to learn about military unit structure from Wikipedia, haha. This is much more engaging. Thanks for providing these videos to the world!
You should do one on the history of the Renault FT, some of the events play out like a drama show. :)
+Amazing Ace lol, just working on the Falklands with the Argentine perspective... not sure if the Renault FT can beat that drama :D
Very interesting.
so... this video is about a german toaster...
Da ich denke das du aus Deutschland kommst, schreibe ich jetzt einfachmal auf deztsch :D. Ich dinde deinen Kanal höchst informativ, vorallendingen da ich mich auch für diese Themen interessiere, ausserdem finde ich deine Videos seher gut gemacht und auch für Leute die nicht mit dem Thema vertraut sind, gut verständlich. einziger Kritikpunkt meiner Meinung nach ist deine Aussprache. Aber ansonsten sehr gute Videos.
Gruss
+Felix “The Driver” Bachmann danke, lebe in Deutschland, bin aber aus Österreich. Jo, daran arbeite ich noch.
One homing pigeon handler! hahaha. gotta love it.
do one on the tsar tank!
4:55 Is this a tank or a clown car?!
Landship.
Alexander Edinger most likely an idiot
turbostewi yes, it's quite the committee. Definitely got the French beat there!
I think you forgot to mention the six guys who had to pedal to make the thing roll...
there is an A7V Sturmpanzerwagen know as Mephisto in the Australian War Memotial
It was on temporary loan from Brisbane and has now returned home to a permanent WWI Gallery made to house it. (November 2018)
3:53 were not gonna let that slide. (Listen and watch closely)
The last known remaining A7V: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mephisto_(tank)
based just around the corner from me,the Australian War Memorial..
They also have a ME262 well worth a visit..
Still waiting on video about use of this tanks in combat!
Could you do a video explaining how napoleonic war era tactics were utilized in combat during the time? Many people have this illusion (Especially in America where our teachers brainwash us into being ignorant) that men simply stood in 2 lines and shot at each other. Could you go in depth about how infantry, cavalry, skirmishers, light inf, sappers, etc were used in battles? Thanks :D
a did a basic video on Napoleonic infantry combat already, I will cover probably more in the future, but it will take a while (2017).
I think it's also important to note that at the time, tank design was not an exact science. In my opinion, tanks like the British MK. IV and the German A7V have far too many crew members than justifiable except when you consider that at the time, there was no exact standard because the technology was so new. In comparison, the French Renault FT has too few crew. There's a diversity in tank designs after the implementation of the idea of tanks. I feel the size of the tanks are also a result of how new and experimental the technology was at the time.
I'd like to know more about the actual cross country performance of the A7V and its potential combat effectiveness. As stated in the video, even if it was built in greater numbers it would not have changed the wars outcome, but well did it typically fair in combat? Sure it had mechanical failures, but how well did it perform in actual combat when it didn't fail? You would think by looking at the design it would have trouble crossing terrain that wasn't flat, and would not be suitable for crossing trenches. Other than issues of maneuvering across terrain, I'd imagine it fared about as well as any other tank of the time right?
the British tank needed 4 people to steer, 1 mechanic, 4 gunners, and a commander. seems reasonable. also, the mark 5 meant that only 1 was needed to steer, so only 7 were used. when you look at what they are needed for, british tanks make a lot more sense than the German ones
The point of tanks during WW1 were to be moving pillboxes to deal damage to enemy defensive positions hence a large crew is needed to gain 360degree constant coverage. Also you have to remember that during WW1 tanks were an extremely new technology so required a large amount of crew as the designs hadn't been mastered
Or lets better face the truth. Those tanks could be as well designed by 8 year old. There is little consistency or design vision in this monstrosity and design in itself is just terrible.
Yes, because very little was known about how to make a good tank. 'Here we have a bulletproof machine that can cross barbed wire and trenches and kill troops. It takes ten men and turns then into 100s'. That is the sort of thing you would believe. And face facts. An infantry assault needs a machine to cover them, destroy defences, cross open ground safe from small arms, and do it through a mess if craters, quagmires and mud. The British 'lozenge' tanks were good at this. Many weren't, like the FT17, which, whilst advanced, was hardly armed, had unnecessary speed, and was likely to fall over, being narrow, high, and light. it was also to small to shield infantry. They were designed for a different battlefield in a different age. They had no idea what to build, but one nation got it right first time.
Or I have the idea, maybe instead of changing design of the new vehicles every few months and making it to do everything, lets first sit down, calm down and decide for that we need this new machine first? I swear, humans are often so immature with their new toys.
Fun stuff and thanks for posting.
An interesting spin on the A7V (I agree that it was both a formidable engineering achievement in terms of time and space AND technologically competitive for its time) and an unusual take on the Tiger E.
I will digress here and, pursuant to the understanding that you're a busy man, I take pains to warn you in advance that I believe Tiger was the first adequate MBT design.
Might I point out that today's MBTs are just as strapped when fighting in low support, 3rd world, areas as Tiger? The USA MBT is the M1A1/M1A2, which outweighs Tiger by a good bit and is unable to operate effectively anywhere but the desert, due to its mass, bulk, and the heat pouring off its gas turbine engine. Most bridges won't hold it, and most ships cannot transport it.
Sound familiar?
Moreover, the fuel consumption of today's M1 makes the earlier tank look like a Hybrid Prius in comparison. As for unreliability, any heavy AFV driven by teenagers becomes legendary for automotive unreliability. As for interchangability and commonality, Tiger, in fact, had more commonality of replacement parts and drive components than PzKw IV OR M4 Sherman.
As for operational transportability, Tiger could be fitted on flatcars by removing the outer layer of road wheels (a fact I am certain you are already aware of). As for our poor M1, it has to be transported across an ocean to get anywhere it might be deployed, with all the complexity (including crane operator man-hours and sea port unloading bottlenecks and traffic jams) that entails.
The 8.8cm KwK36/L51 was a marvelous weapon for its time (compare with Bofors' sFlaK and the USA 90mm M3 Cannon) and, unlike its competitors, had high sustained Rate of Fire and superlative killing ability against Tiger's contemporaries (remember it was issued in 1942, a time when the US had just deployed Sherman and the UK was desperate for anything with armor that could reach a battle without a major breakdown-and don't get me started on KV-which could not even shift out of 1st gear on the move; which burned out engines like crazy). In fact, tactically speaking, the Tiger was by far the most effective tank ever, its tiny numbers accounting for far more allied and CCCP AFVs killed PER TIGER killed than anything else. Also, Tiger was the most stable gun platform of the entire war--a fact worthy of superlative-even cross country.
You might agree with me (not that I am trying to force my conclusions on you) that, soon after the initial sweep, warfare on the Western and Eastern front quickly devolved into the same kind of grinding war of attrition that had occurred in WW1, making any tank's absolute top speed a useless way to compare it against its opposites. What mattered was Gun and Armor and Crew Proficiency (both ergonomic and training wise), rather than the high mobility of--say--BT7, Cromwell, or Stuart. I use those as examples, because the M4 Sherman was not particularly fast nor mobile cross country and was surely inferior in urban combat due to thin armor and inability to neutral steer (pivot in its own length).
In conclusion, I hope you will appreciate that I am not trying to change your conclusions. Nor am I trying to shout you down. I am merely using your most interesting video (and apropos comments therein) as a forum for a topic of discussion I have also given much thought to. When my armchair general friends and I discuss this topic, I always mention the hypothetical paradigm (not particularly useful, when a tank is part of a war making effort--one machine of many) as follows: One on One, in late 1942, which tank would you want to crew--Tiger, KV1, or M4 Sherman? I choose Tiger . . . even though I am a USA first kind of guy. If asked "Whose overall operational and strategic effort would I prefer at my back?" I would answer: "Why, the USA's, of course!"
In any case I will continue to both peruse and enjoy your various posts. I've liked them all so far.
very interesting post! I am really torn about the Tiger, because well, I didn't do military history for like 10 years. I once thought it was a great tank then recently a lot of people mentioned all it's flaws, before everybody mentioned all it's benefits... so far I haven't had time to take a close look myself outside of various posts and comments of which yours is probably one of the most interesting and thought provoking. I guess one aspect which is probably the foundation of many problems is to set a clear scope and defined area where and when to judge the vehicle, because tactically great doesn't mean operationally great nor strategically great... and many often change the "ground"/terrain in debates by extending or focusing the scope, well, after all everybody will try to lead his enemy onto a terrain on which can more easily beat him, well at least if they know what they are doing ;) Sun Tzu is also a great guide for rhetoric.
Military History Visualized You make a perfect point. I enjoy my Sun Tzu (in translation by James Clavell) very much.
have you done ones on the British Mk5 or the French St Charmond tanks?
nope, I had an excellent source for the A7V. But I guess I will do some other WW1 tanks too, although it might take a while.
When I was a child, I would obsess a bit about facts like "Top speed was 10 mph, it carried 18,000 rounds of machine gun ammo..." Having served in combat, the number of rounds in that tank would just depend on how many cases of bullets were shoved in the vehicle before it had to roll out. Might be 10,000, might be 30,000. Same with the number of crew members. If the pigeon handler had the runs that day, you could -1 the crew count. Actual combat is trying to apply logic and force to fear and chaos. It gets pretty messy. For sheer insanity, it's hard to top "With the Old Breed" and its coverage of the US Marine Corps conquest of Peilelu island.
Loved that book - RIP Mr. Manchester
Samuel Thompson
Well said
Great video! Only I'm confused a 3:54 was it a 57mm or 75mm, sorry don't mean to sound like I'm nitpicking.
+Skringly thx, 57mm
Good video. But with only 20 A7V produced they had no impact on the war.
Could you please do one over the British MK V and its crew. I believe that's the proper name
what was the highest possible angel to climb and at what speed?