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Originally Posted by Doppleganger A 50+ tonne Panther/Tiger would have been no good but a 25 tonne late-model Panzer IV might have made good sense. This tank was able to deal with the T34 and would have given the Imperial Japanese Army a much better chance to engage the Red Army, had they a need to do so. Plus it was light and maneuverable enough to deal with the terrain, virgin jungle aside. |
Personally I believe that there was a very good reason why armoured forces were not widely deployed by any side in the Pacific campaigns and is that they were not suited to the environment.
As far as armoured requirements for the war with Russia I seriously doubt that Japan had any intention to go to war with the Russians in fact everything I read tells me that by mid-1945 the Japanese were hoping to use the Russians to negotiate a peace with the allies therefore from their point of view a larger tank was impractical.
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With hindsight the Germans should have left the Italians well alone. They contributed little in the the great scheme of things and hindered the Germans to the point where some believe they cost Germany WW2. I am referring to the Greece campaign which may have delayed the onset of Barbarossa. Those extra 6 weeks could have been decisive in Russia. I say could because the glaring faults of Barbarossa would still have remained, early start or not.
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But this was the problem they couldn't leave the Italians well alone because it would have given the allies a direct path into Germany, my opinion is that the best thing the Germans could have done was send a couple of boy scouts and a heavily armoured bicycle to invade when they annexed Austria and just taken them out of the game altogether. Besides this would have given them a much larger navy as well.