The German Ideology behind tanks was quality over quantity however this was the opposite when it came to the USSR/Soviet Union their tanks were designed with the goal of easy repair and max production


The main tank of the Soviet Union was the T-34  with 84,000 models built during WW2 the tank was then later improved upon with its big brother model the T-34/85 which had a V12 engine that allowed it to be a fast and maneuverable vehicle armed with an 85mm gun meant it was a devastating machine to the nazi army when they first encountered it in July 1941 with their Panzer V


The T-34's armor was angled back which increased its effectiveness having the armor being effectively 45mm thick on front and sides

What is a tank? well the definition of a tank is as follows

'a heavy armoured fighting vehicle carrying guns and moving on a continuous articulated metal track.'

'an enclosed heavily armed and armoured combat vehicle that moves on track' (via Merriam- Webster)

So now I am going to run through multiple tanks per blog, who made them and how they were made/used in combat.


-starting off with a tank that I am sure you know the German Tiger 1 with the Tiger Hitler wanted excellence over numbers pretty much opposite of the Russians and Americans with only 1347 Tigers being built for the duration of the war compared to 120000 American Sherman's  and Russian T34's combined.




the tigers hull was 100 millimetres thick with the sides being 80 mm and the rear being 60 mm this beast of a machine was practically impenetrable from the front if angled correctly.


you see if the tank is facing flat on at 90 degrees the shell will impact directly into the armour which has a chance of penetrating the armour and going into the hull resulting in damage to the equipment/crew

a skilled tank crew would angle their tanks as you can see below in the image angling the armour increases its effective thickness allowing the shell to hit the tank at an angle will increase its chance to ricochet off the target the picture below gives an easier understanding to angling that I found on a forum.

http://www.google.ie/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjoubew1PjQAhVKAcAKHd-PDsoQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.worldoftanks.com%2Findex.php%3F%2Ftopic%2F239125-stazs-basic-introduction-to-combating-armor-angling%2F&psig=AFQjCNFGxrgG-jh1HJ0JhwSxzXRzDHCPkA&ust=1481975765572373

more information on tiger found at  http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/nazi_germany/Panzer-VI_Tiger.php

Hello my name is Alex I am doing my blog on the geography of tanks and how they are/were made