The "5 Sherman for 1 Panther" was nonsense, alright. But what makes i...

The_Chieftain: The US took five Shermans to kill a captured French FT as well. Or a machinegun nest. Or a single rifleman.   Basically it didn't matter what the US went up again, they went around at a minimum in groups of five tanks. It was the standard platoon size, the smallest independent unit in the US organisation. So it may not have -needed- five tanks to kill a [Insert thing here] but it's what they used because it's what they brought. It's not as if they said "Hey, Bravo section, it's only a StuG. stay back there, and we'll give him a better chance with only 3:1 odds"   Going up against a platoon of four tanks? Bring a company of your own. About eighteen tanks. And so on. This is hardly damning, it's standard common sense.