Balck: the widow maker

[gliz2]

Link to an interesting episode of Stalingrad campaign and titanic achievement by gen.H.Balck
Link

[William the Silent]

Amazing story.
Just wonder what kind of tanks he was facing, because early on in the war the germans had to work with the 50mm PzIII and short 75mm PzIV. Not well fit to kill a T34, unless you scare the crew out of it.

[gliz2]

Well ze Germans had to face Matildas II and Somuas 35 and Char 1Bs all of which were though nuts to crack for their 37mm and 75cm short tank guns.

I am always bit puzzled with this myth of Germans being so surprised by T34 and KV-1. While earlier they were "surprised" by Matilda IIs and S-35 in France 😄

The edge that Germans had was training, optics and communication. While the Soviets used flags to coordinate tanks and their training and optics were rudimentary, the Germans were capable of closing in and getting to the side and rear of the enemies.
Also you do not need to destroy the tank. Many of tanks, if not most of it, were knock out. A 75 HE direct hit to the side could easily knock out or even kill crew of T-34.
Germans were closing below 300 meters to knock out Soviet new tanks. And they were quite successful.
The bigger problems they actually had during 1942 and winter 42/43 as Soviets got bit better, were more organized and also got better British and US tanks.

[Raver508]

Thank you for this. Its inspired me to get a couple of books out of the library on Balck.