Tactical Resources for Aspiring Tank Commanders?

[Skeleboners]

Does anyone know of any good resources for learning the tactics- preferably low-level (individual tank, platoon, and maybe company-level stuff)- of an armored engagement? Just like in most combat simulator games, tanksims suffer from a gap in their learning material, going from very basic sort of heres-how-to-move-your-tank stuff with the absolute basics of armored combat (don't skyline, move in the low ground, hull down and turret down stuff, stuff like that), little beyond that, and then you have treatises on the strategies of armored combat at higher levels of command and such. For flight sims, this is mitigated a lot by good tutorial content by the community, but the tanksim community thus far hasn't put out much as far as I know.

 

If anybody has anything they can share on the matter, I'd really appreciate it. Once we start getting more mediums in Tank Crew, a good head for tactics is going to be a lot more important.

[SCG_Neun]

I purchased this book to help me....

 

Panzer Tactics

[NETSCAPE]

Early war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg8JM3SUeSU

 

 

Changes in Tactics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzerkeil

 

Late war evolution of Tactics: https://forums.armchairgeneral.com/forum/historical-events-eras/world-war-ii/armor-in-world-war-ii/german-and-axis-armor/120715-german-panzer-tactics

 

On Stug formations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFXZcC1xZnI

 

 

Essential watching (all major panzer types covered): https://www.youtube.com/user/geesusdb/videos

[SCG_Neun]

1943 Tiger Manual

 

Good section for gunnery site explanation.....

 

And with the english here.......you get an idea about the optics and ranging..in conjunction with the manual.

 

 

After page 92 in the manual you have some cool reference cards.  Take the T34....the first two numbers as I understand it our for your tank protection.....at 1500 meters you are vulnerable from a side shot, and at 800 meters from a frontal shot from the T34.  The last two are in mils and translate using the optical gunnery system....of 4 mils or 1000 meters for a kill on the side, and 3 mils or roughly 750 meters frontal hit on the T34.  Not sure if that's correct as I don't speak German and my son helped me on this.....but you get the idea.  Basically flashcards for tankers.....

 

https://www.quora.com/Just-how-superior-were-German-Zeiss-optics-specifically-German-tank-gun-sights-in-WWII#

Edited August 31, 2018 by SCG_Neun

[Gunsmith86]

1 hour ago, SCG_Neun said:

1943 Tiger Manual

 

Good section for gunnery site explanation.....

 

And with the english here.......you get an idea about the optics and ranging..in conjunction with the manual.

 

 

After page 92 in the manual you have some cool reference cards.  Take the T34....the first two numbers as I understand it our for your tank protection.....at 1500 meters you are vulnerable from a side shot, and at 800 meters from a frontal shot from the T34.  The last two are in mils and translate using the optical gunnery system....of 4 mils or 1000 meters for a kill on the side, and 3 mils or roughly 750 meters frontal hit on the T34.  Not sure if that's correct as I don't speak German and my son helped me on this.....but you get the idea.  Basically flashcards for tankers.....

 

https://www.quora.com/Just-how-superior-were-German-Zeiss-optics-specifically-German-tank-gun-sights-in-WWII#

Almost right

 

T34 = Type of tank

15 = the max distance (1500m) at which the T34 can penetrate your armor if he gets into that green zones! Never let a enemy in that green zone or you are as good as death!

8 = the max distance (800m) at which you can penetrate his front armor

4 = 4 mils is the T34 width at 800m in your gunsight if he drive towards you. Thats the point were you can start shooting at him!

3 = 3 mils is the T34 long in your gunsight at 2000m if you see him from the side. Thats the last time you should shoot at him to not waste ammo.

 

For all the other cards it works the same.

Edited August 31, 2018 by Gunsmith86

[SCG_Neun]

Thanks Sir....appreciate it.

[Gunsmith86]

What to do if your target is small, far away, you dont know how large it is and can´t figure out at which distance it is because of that or when your gunsight is no longer aligned with your gun?

 

If something like that happens you have two options.

 

1) Shooting a scale in form of a fork into the landscape. Only usable if you can see the ground behind your target!

Aim at your target ( picture below ) and guess the distance you set in your gunsight deliberately to short so your shot hits the ground before your target

 

For the Second shoot we aim again like above but now you set the distance in your gunsight deliberately to far. So with this shot we see a impact into the ground behind the target. Or if the target is high enough than this could already be the killing shot but mostly you will need the third shot.

 

Now you have made a scale into the landscape with your target between. All you have to do now is separate the distance between your to shots into parts.

Like in the drawing below on the left side. They made there first shot at 2400m and the second at 2800m after the second shot they split the distance into four parts since the target is much closer to the second shot they know now that it has to be at about 2700m. The third shot will be the killing shot!

 

2) If we can´t see the ground behind the target than we use the second approach which the manual calls "knife" (drawing on the lower right side on the picture above)

The first shot is again deliberately to short ( 2400m )

The second shot we make also to short but not that much ( 2600m )

Now we have again a scale which we can use. The distance between our shots is about twice as far as the distance from our second shot to our target.

So the right distance is our second shot (2600m) plus the half  distance between our shots (100m). So our target should be at 2700m.

Either shot 3 or 4 must be a hit.

[Skeleboners]

On 8/31/2018 at 2:35 PM, NETSCAPE said:

Early war: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kg8JM3SUeSU

 

 

Changes in Tactics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panzerkeil

 

Late war evolution of Tactics: https://forums.armchairgeneral.com/forum/historical-events-eras/world-war-ii/armor-in-world-war-ii/german-and-axis-armor/120715-german-panzer-tactics

 

On Stug formations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFXZcC1xZnI

 

 

Essential watching (all major panzer types covered): https://www.youtube.com/user/geesusdb/videos

 

The Military History Visualized video and the forum link are pretty good. Seems like a lot of infantry thinking transfers to tanks, he describes what is essentially bounding in detail. 

 

Anything a bit more basic, though? There's a lot of broad, attack planning and general descriptions of maneuvers kind of stuff here, but very little in the way of... say, how to respond to unexpected contact for an individual tank or platoon, or how best to move across open ground, things like that.

[beresford]

The illustrated pages look like the 'Tigerfibel'. You can purchase English translations from Amazon, though some of the translation in my copy seems a bit dubious. Oddly there are two versions available, one by a German available in America and another by a Brit available in the UK.

 

There is also a 'Pantherfibel' but nobody seems to have translated it.