Most Powerful Tank of WW2

[Haakon]

Well, the heaviest ever constructed tank during WW II, and arguably the most powerful one was P VIII Maus, a german tank which just 2 prototypes was build i think

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzer_VIII_Maus





http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/maus/index.html

However, its debatable how much impact can had if more such tanks was to be produced and throw in battle.

My opinion is that Panther was the best in terms of armour-mobility-firepower, and making lots of them will help much more than less other heavy tanks such Tiger II, more complicated, with more materials used and less reliable.

Another powerful tank was soviet IS 3
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...s/1/1e/IS3.jpg

who arguably saw some action in far east vs. japanese but it comes just at the very end of the war

It looks like it has stealth capabilities

[Numenor]

The maus never had a working turret... and how tick was the side armour? because it seems they didnt learn a thing about sloped armour with that tank..

[Darkhorse]

Tank? More like a pillbox, and only slightly more mobile

[Turtle Hammer]

If we're rating the tank purely as a combat vehicle and assuming it's being kept in good order, I'd say the Tiger II was on paper, the most powerful. However, it's complexity at both the manufacturing stage and with general maintenance meant the Tiger II would always be too thin on the ground to be more than something for the propaganda news reels back home.

The Sherman Firefly on the other hand was still cheap enough to out produce the Germans in a manner similar to T-34s, but it also packed enough of a punch to be a threat to Panthers and Tigers. All in all, that tank proved the most useful in all of WWII I think. And when you want tanks, you don't just want them to look good on paper like the Tiger did, you want them to be a worthwhile investment that keeps working and gets things done. Being able to make lots of them also helps.

[diegis]

Tank? More like a pillbox, and only slightly more mobile

Well, and if that wouldnt be already enough (comme on, it had almost 200 tonnes) germans had two other projects ( but just on paper now, not actualy build)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landkreuzer_P._1000_Ratte (see in that small draw the dimensions compared with Maus and Tiger)

and the even bigger

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landkre...._1500_Monster

If germans build more Panther (the best, if not the more powerful, tank of WW II in my opinion) and more reliable with resources used for other such monsters i am sure they amous Panzer units will be even more fearsome. I wonder what was in the head of ones who proposed such projects (even Maus was a kind of a monster), and i am no wonder that Hitler approve them, he was anyway crazy. I think such aparition on the battlefield will lok surreal, like in SF movies, but the air superiority of enemy will took them off after all

[diegis]

The maus never had a working turret... and how tick was the side armour? because it seems they didnt learn a thing about sloped armour with that tank..

It was a weird project for sure. Turret was sloped a bit anyway, and if protection and fire power was way supperior to any other tank, mobility was worse then any other one

[Numenor]

It was a weird project for sure. Turret was sloped a bit anyway, and if protection and fire power was way supperior to any other tank, mobility was worse then any other one

yes, but the tank had a high profile, and with a side armour like that, for the sake of the tank, i hope it had a lot of armour there... like 0.5 meters :p

[justinius]

Uhm... actually, yes it will.
Especially when resisting kinetic energy projectiles, the surrounding armour plate is significantly weakened. Germans armour relied on this in '41 to beat the big KVs. They'd mass their tank gun fire on a solitary target (and per Russian doctrine, these operated in small numbers) and just pummel it till they got through.
The Russian 122mm was famous for it's relatively poor penetrating capability (for it's calibre) but devastating effect on the armour plate. Especially late war when German armour plate quality nosedived the Russians found that repeat hits could have very good effects.
A technicality in this discussion, but you did make a factual boo-boo there.

Yes because they were shooting en masse at the tank (might hit a vulnerable spot) and eventually it would be knocked out but that depends on the tank's armour and the guns of the Panzers which you cannot compare to a small arm. The point is that eventually in the face of more powerful Soviet armour, the Germans had to resort to making stronger tanks therefore the earlier tactics to destroy Kv1s were obsolete by then.

[diegis]

yes, but the tank had a high profile, and with a side armour like that, for the sake of the tank, i hope it had a lot of armour there... like 0.5 meters :p

Well, at that size and weight i think it had on the sides more armour then King Tiger on front, which i think was more then enough. Its only problem was its mobility i think, not the protection or firepower

[Darkhorse]

The problem with the Maus was that it'd have salvoes of rockets from Typhoons, IL2's or other similar ground attack aircraft slamming into the top and sides.

[Turtle Hammer]

The problem with the Maus was that it'd have salvoes of rockets from Typhoons, IL2's or other similar ground attack aircraft slamming into the top and sides.

Yeah, that and the logistics of moving something that big around on land are mind boggling. It'd be too slow to support an advance or counterattack, and once spotted, would probably be attacked from air. I imagine Mosquitos carrying bombs would prove especially effective against them as well.

[Landsknecht_88]

The maus never had a working turret... and how tick was the side armour? because it seems they didnt learn a thing about sloped armour with that tank..

Believe me, that monster didn't need sloped armor. Its side and rear armor was 185mm thick, even thicker than the King Tiger's front armor.

Still, the Maus was a failed project and the only working prototype broke down on its way to Berlin. With a weight of 200 tons that's not very strange.

[Landsknecht_88]

Because you are wrong. The Tiger II had poor mobility and was expensive, complex and unreliable. As a psychological symbol it's value is potent. But as a tank, the Panther completely outclasses it.

On the tactical battlefield the Tiger II wasn't poor in terms of mobility. It was slightly faster than the Panzer IV and its turret traverse was roughly as fast as the Panther G's (~20 seconds to rotate the turret 360 degrees). Still, I agree with you that the Panther G was the better tank. Besides the economic factors (cheaper to produce, consuming less precious fuel, more reliable, etc.) it was good enough to encounter practically any armored threat.

Another powerful tank was soviet IS 3
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...s/1/1e/IS3.jpg

who arguably saw some action in far east vs. japanese but it comes just at the very end of the war

If the IS-3 saw action in the Far East, it and the IS-2 ought to have been much less useful than the T-34/85s serving there. The IS-2 and IS-3 breakthrough tanks had a slow reload and a low ammo capacity (28 shells max), and the Japanese AT weapons and tanks were primitive by European standards (being a naval and air power first and foremost, Japan had little reason to develop into these fields). To be fair, the 122mm HE shells of the IS tanks were probably useful even there, though.