Quote:
Originally Posted by Suhiir
Any time you catch your opponent unaware and have more accurate and longer range weapons is it any surprise it's a massacre?
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True. And sometimes we learn from the mistakes or miscues of the adversary. Here, when McMaster crested a ridge and saw what laid before him, well we all know what he did with his troop, his 9 M1A1s and Bradleys. But, what is striking here and instrumental, is the Iraqi commander failing, this is especially galling given Iraq tank crews had spent 8 years in a slug fest with Iran, that he failed to put somebody on that very same ridge to surveil the area in front of his force. Since, he had not detailed his scouts in such a manner, he got jumped by an audacious McMaster, who "took his head off and handed him his hat."
Quote:
Originally Posted by DRG
Quote:
Originally Posted by shahadi
3. The Battle of Arracourt
The largest tank to tank battle of WWII, as Hitler is desperate to halt Patton's advance.
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ONE OF THE...... not "The largest tank to tank battle of WWII" |
Yes, DRG is correct by merely numbers of tanks involved, Arracourt pales to say Battle of Kursk. However, in this battle we find Abrams and his audacious action on, I believe the third night, he attacked, something not done at the time. Furthermore, the out-gunned and poorly armored Sherman tanks had to rely on tactics that exploited their speed and the audacity of their commanders. Firing, then moving, then firing on the flanks of the German tanks. Using smoke rounds, then moving to the German flanks and many other such daring and bold tactics earned in my mind this battle as the largest (at least in the Western Front) between the United States Army and the Wehrmact. Some, and arguably so, may point to the Battle of the Bulge not Arracourt as the largest tank battle between USA and German forces.
But, I maintain, after looking at what was learned, the daring tactics used, the coordination of air, armor, and artillery combined to enable Patton's Army too, "...successfully defeat[ed] two Panzer brigades and parts of two Panzer divisions. Of the 262 tanks deployed by the Germans, over 86 were destroyed, with another 114 damaged or broken down. The Americans, by contrast, lost just 25 tanks. An amazing accounting."(Dvorsky,George "The 10 Greatest Tank Battles In Military History"
http://io9.gizmodo.com/the-10-greate...ory-1681355416.
These are my five tank battles. Maybe, and I am sure others do, have another list of five.
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