Time To Talk TANK

Of Course, Any Time Is A Good Time To Talk TANK
And if you disagree, then the exit door IS THAT WAY!
     We shall begin this Intro by finishing a short precis of Jonathan Parshall's analysis of tank production in South Canada, the Sinister Union and the Very Wicked Teutons during the Second Unpleasantness.
     I shall remind you that the man hours for making a South Canadian Sherman were 10,000 viz. a £21,000 price tag.  For the Sinisters, a T34 took 35,000 man hours and roughly the same price as a Sherman.  This had originally been 50,000 man hours.*

                    T34                                                  Sherman

     We now come to the Teuton Tiger tank.  As JP describes it, the whole design and production process was a hot mess (excuse the technical terms), driven by the Wehrmacht, who changed their minds about what they wanted on or in the tank on a weekly basis.  It was finished to very high standards by highly-skilled workmen using comparatively limited numbers of machine tools.  It was also over-weight (at 56 tons), over-engineered, unreliable, difficult to transport and a fuel-hog of the worst kind.

A Tiger

     Then we come to the production statistics.  It took 300,000 man hours to hand-craft a single Tiger, at a cost of about £200,000.  Total number produced = 1,300, which you can compare to the Sherman - 50,000, or the T34 - 58,000.  Teuton production looks a bit sick, don't it?  
     Nor did they learn from it.  The Tiger I stopped being made in August 1944, so they could build an even BIGGER mobile metal fort, the Tiger II, of which about 500 were made.  But that is a story for another day ...
     The motley is currently seeing if it's possible to drink a gallon of tea without going to the toilet ...

I Sermon Of Sherman
I did mention that big fat dullard the Tiger tank, compared to which the Sherman was an athletic greyhound, coming in at 30 tons.  One of the Sherman's saving graces was it's relilability, another factor that the bean-counters who enthuse after the manner of "Ooh ooh it's got a really big gun that automatically makes it awesome!" neglect at their peril.
     Of course, there's always the risk that a designer will go on a weekend bender, then arrive at his work desk Monday morning hung-over and invent this -

World's deadliest tricycle

     This was a prototype intended to detonate mines, by the cunningly subtle method of - 
driving over them.  The design was intended to be empty of crew and be pushed forward by a second tank behind it.  It massed 52 tons, so nearly as much as a Tiger, and required an engine for each of the forward rollers.
     By Tuesday morning, when everyone had sobered up and necked a few aspirins, the T10 was not produced beyond a single prototype.

"Thanks heavens for that!" said the council's Roads and Highways branch

You Won't Have Heard Of This One, Either
As I mentioned yesteryon, barbed wire was an incredibly obstructive defence during the First Unpleasantness, and before Perfidious Albion came up with the world's first TANK, various machineries were developed to try and overcome the evil barbs.
      Enter the Pavesi Autocarro Tagliafili, an Italian machine of 1917 that I've never encountered before.  It didn't get beyond the prototype stage ("Awwww!" said the T10) due to be underpowered and an inability to cross anything except perfectly flat terrain.  Art?

I am unsure what to say.

     You can't fault the Italians for trying their best to create the world's deadliest wheelbarrow, but an inability to cross anything except level ground?  The Italian army was principally fighting in mountains.  A minor technical point, yet a pertinent one, I feel.

A dead end

     There were some prettttty barmy prototype wire-cutting machines out there before Little Willie appeared, so we may come back to this.

Finally -
Wet your pants in terror, bad guys, here's the awesome Challenger II.  Art?

Little Willie's great-grandson

     There are 446 of these beasts around and none have ever been lost to enemy action; one took 70 hits from RPGs in action and was perfectly fine.  On the other hand, they will turn an enemy tank into a steel sieve from a couple of miles away, whilst on the move at night in a thunderstorm.  They are unusual in that their gun is rifled; everyone else uses smoothbore weapons that allow for a higher muzzle velocity.  All your humble scribe can say is that i) It works for us and ii) who invented the Dog Buns things in the first place?
     TANK!

Little Willie, since you asked.

*  Yes, I know, I know, there were women production workers, too.  Sue me.