Best Heavy tank

[FM_Von_Manstein]

Panzer IV Ausf F2/G had 50mm armor, H had 80. The 2 Pounder was perfectly capable of taking it out. But it rarely got the chance. The 2 Pounder saw most of its action in NA. Rommel never allowed his tanks to charge head on, his Panzer IV Ausf Es would always lob 75mm HE shells at the British guns before advancing. But the 2 Pounder still could destroy most German tanks of the time with ease if they were under 500m.

Both guns did suffer from one drawback though: neither one of them could use HE shells, these guns were firing antitank shells and nothing else, which is why tanks with these guns faired very poorly against German antitank guns.

Few British guns and tanks could fire HE. The Crusader was the 1st British tank to be armed with HE, until then only the 25 Pounders were equipped with it. All later tanks usually had it.

[Zeke Wolff]

The game doesnt care if a 2 pounder round in real life, could shatter against the armor or not. It either penetrates or don´t, thats all.

The Crusader I and II were armed with 2 pounders, the Crusader III were armed with a 6 pounder (and so were the early Churchills). These guns weren´t designed to fire HE shells either. The first multipurpose gun the British got (ie capable of firing both AP and HE shells) were when they were supplied with American made M3 Lee/Grants. Some British tanks had a 94mm howitzer instead of the usual 2-/6-pounder guns, which could fire HE shells, but their main purpose were to fire smoke rounds. A typical load for these tanks were 24~28 smoke rounds and only 4~8 HE rounds.

The Pz.Kpfw. IV Ausf. F2 had 50mm of frontal armor, and so did the early and middle variants of the Ausf. G. Then when the late version Ausf. G started to see the light, the frontal armor was upgraded with 30mm thick extra armor plates, something that even the Ausf. H had at the beginning, before getting a single 80mm thick frontal armor plate.

~Zeke.

[Crni vuk]

Originally Posted by Zeke Wolff

The game doesnt care if a 2 pounder round in real life, could shatter against the armor or not. It either penetrates or don´t, thats all.

~Zeke.

Sad it doesnt

Question is what kind of penetration they use as well. Usual AP shell or the "best possible condition", meaning APDS or APCR shells and such.

[Crni vuk]

Originally Posted by FM_Von_Manstein

Panzer IV Ausf F2/G had 50mm armor, H had 80. The 2 Pounder was perfectly capable of taking it out. But it rarely got the chance. The 2 Pounder saw most of its action in NA. Rommel never allowed his tanks to charge head on, his Panzer IV Ausf Es would always lob 75mm HE shells at the British guns before advancing. But the 2 Pounder still could destroy most German tanks of the time with ease if they were under 500m.

Some sources say 50% of the Panzer IV G versions got some aditional 30mm aplique armor wielded on it.

Like:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzer_IV
During its production run from May 1942 to June 1943, the Panzer IV Ausf. G went through further modifications, including another armor upgrade. Given that the tank was reaching its viable limit, to avoid a corresponding weight increase, the appliqué 20-millimetre (0.79 in) steel plates were removed from its side armor, which instead had its base thickness increased to 30 millimetres (1.18 in). The weight saved was transferred to the front, which saw a 30-millimetre (1.18 in) face-hardened appliqué steel plate welded (later bolted) to the glacis—in total, frontal armor was now 80 mm (3.15 in) thick.[27] This decision to increase frontal armor was favorably received according to troop reports on November 8, 1942, despite technical problems of driving system due to added weight. At this point, it was decided that 50% of Panzer IV productions would be fitted with 30 mm thick additional armor plates. Subsequently on January 5, 1943, Hitler decided to make all Panzer IV to have 80 mm frontal armor.

I cant tell how accurate Wiki is though. So everything should be considered with care.


Panzerkampfwagen IV
The during the production in June of 1943, the front armor was increased from 50mm with additional 30mm plate to basic 80mm on the front hull and superstructure.

It doesnt mention explicit the Ausf G. Just that around 1943 the Panzers received aditional 30mm armor to their 50mm base armor. I only "asume" here that this might as well have been done to any F2 or G variations that havnt received a update to the H. Probably done most of the time in the field.


Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf G
From June 1942 an extra 30mm of armour was added to the front of the superstructure and hull of sixteen tanks per month, and from December 1942 that extra protection was installed on half of the total protection.

It mentions again that not all Panzer G received aditional armor.

[KnightFandragon]

dang, the T34 was produced like 1000 tanks per month and the end line of the post was like 16 tanks per month haha....shows how muhc slower German production was then allieds

[Zeke Wolff]

Crni Vuk: I don´t use Wikipedia as a source at all; I flip thru my books in my library instead... got quite a collection after 25 years of studying German WW2 tanks...

But what you say about roughly 50% of all Ausf. G getting 30mm extra of armor is just about the same as I wrote, since roughly half of the total numbers of the Ausf. G production, were late variants Ausf. G´s, which had 50+30mm of frontal armor.

~Zeke.