CMBB v CMAK

[Nikita]

many thanks for advice on grammatics! That's my poor English. I sometimes get stuck with words sounding or written similar. Sorry for that.

As for your technical issue: early war German tanks were not designed to have best antitank capacity and in 1940-1941 had tuff time with British Matildas, French and Russian tanks. Their basic classification of tanks was light and heavy (based on a caliber, not weight under German system), with light being PzIIIs and heavy - Mark IVs. PzIII and PzIV were not specifically designed as universal tank hunters. Short gun of PzIV had good ballistics siutable well against infantry: the distance of horisontally flying shot was not great and speed of shell was relatively not fast, allowing to have shots with greater arcs (siutable to hit hiding "soft targets" from somewhat above) and the fragments of shell after explosion flew more in all sides (including backwards), not concentrating forward, as was the case with higher speed shots.

Only when Germans faced massed Soviet and, partially, British, armor, they were forced to respond not with quantity (this was simply unapplicable decision due to lacking volumes of tank production), but with quality, trying to provide their tanks with greater capabilities to score kills, remaining outside of the enemy's effective range. So, by 1942, PzIIIs and long-barelled PzIVs appeared, followed by PzVs.

In late 1942 and 1943 masses of Russian tanks became so great, that Germans were forced to commit their tanks as primary anti-tank weapon. So it was a forced sollution, but the things were not seen this way in 1941, when Germans enjoyed initiative and overall superiority. Until their strategic defeat at Moscow they did not note T-34 or KV as best tanks, although met them in considerable numbers in border battles. Do not respond with Guderian's reports, I feel sick of his post-war fairy tales.