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Originally Posted by FASTBOAT TOUGH
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With performance like that, you wonder why they ever bothered developing nukes....
Frankly, I think statements like this: "
In one episode where Bletchley’s code-breakers played a vital role, some 50 out of 127 German tanks massing for an attack were wiped out." have very little to do with reality. Tanks are built exactly to take this kind of punishment from blast, fragments and bullets. Their main enemy is not blast and steel flying about, but direct hits from anti-tank weapons. All analysis of WWII tank losses seem to confirm this.
Now, I wouldn't be surprised if those 50 tanks were temporarily out of action due to crews concussion, sights and periscopes being knocked out of alignment and damaged, engines clogged with debris and dust and some damage done to external fittings and suspension components. But "wiped" out seems highly unlikely given the effects of HE on tanks in general - regardless of whether it was delivered by field artillery, ships or bombers.
There are examples of groups of tanks being damaged by massive HE attack and tank attacks being broken up by massive HE fire, but such attacks does not leave behind dozens of broken and burning tanks.
Andys tests seems consistent with what you would expect from long, massive HE attacks on tanks.