British/American T-34s?

[Thande]

OK, good points on all sides.

It seems unlikely then that this would happen with the US, as the advantage over the Sherman was probably not large enough to warrant the effort of producing T-34s and the necessary propaganda. However I think it might still happen in Britain, with British T-34s being produced as well as the Sherman Firefly and our own homegrown designs.

On reliability - not that the Sherman was bad (it wasn't) but I point you in the direction of this

 

[merlin]

Interesting that someone has had a similar idea to mine, regarding a western version of the T-34.
However as I think I wrote before, it would be impractical to build a T-34 in Britain or the US. But it should have acted as a catalyst to kick start Allied tank development. Especially if a demonstration f its virtues had been made to the British Military Attache in (say) late '41. And if he had the influence to ensure such virtues, were made known to Churchill.
I know its a tall order to expect that the western allies would not look down at anything the Soviets had developed - but who knows!
As many will perhaps, retort - the British were too pre-occupied with producing almost anything - even if it only had a 2pdr!!
Yet being confronted by something that is better than the German pzw 4, it shouldn't be too difficult to realise that the Germans are going to improve their tanks. In OTL the Allies reacted to the AFV that they fought against. Here with Soviet encouragement (or contempt) for what we had, it as I said 'kick started' our development - hence the Black Prince (Churchill with a 17pdr) could've made an appearance early enough (but with a bigger engine), the Comet too would be much earlier, and who knows maybe the Centurian would have seen active service!!
Maybe the Americans would have divered but if so could have had enough fireflys available when it mattered!?

Re: the Valentine & its use for recon - why? Surely it would have been too slow!

 

[DMA]

Re: the Valentine & its use for recon - why? Surely it would have been too slow!

The Soviets got the Mk III onwards model. So they missed the earlier models with the inherent weaknesses. The Soviets found them to be more reliable, than anything else armour wise, ruggard, plus they had either the 6 pounder or 75mm gun, along with satisfactory armour. Although slower than, say, an armoured car for recon, they were nevertheless small, but above all they could defeat anything the Germans deployed as recon. It's interesting to note that by 1944 the Western Allies (well those equipped with UK equipment) likewise used the Valentine for recon as well as other specialist missions, whilst the Kiwis used them as their main tank against the Japanese in Pacific Theatre operations.

 

[Hecatee]

There is also the question of doctrinal use of tanks : the US built the Sherman with a rather weaker armor because for them tanks should not get out and slug it out with enemy tanks, a completely different approach from the russian or german one...