Rants and Death Traps

The_Chieftain:   In fairness to the major, yes, it does. Absolutely, the point is not conclusive and as I said, you can punch a few holes in his argument. It is possible that had the US landed in Normandy with M6 Heavies vice M4 Mediums, the war would still have been won. But his point that medium tanks which sacrifice armor and gun for better transportability, mobility and maintenance were proven to be war-winning is also correct. A conscious decision was made that the US Army did not want to try shipping heavy tanks overseas, hence the M6 snd T14s never got anywhere. That decision was made for a set of reasons, no less valid than the set of reasons that Tiger got an 8.8cm gun or Panther had 8cm of armour on the front slope. The strategic level, the bit which really wins the war, relied upon logistics and movement of armies of men and machines, not the individual tactical abilities if one tank happened to meet another. There is usually more than one way to skin a cat, and often a few one can't. The Army's choice proved to be one of those ways.