Deleted member 1487
It was certainly better than the Stuart or any other light tank of WW2 but could not go toe to toe with enemy tanks and was a lot more expensive than an armored car; the Germans dropped their VK1601, pretty much the equivalent tank, for that reason and just continued on with a heavy armored car, which was cheaper and largely did the same job.But as far as light tanks go, was an excellent design for 20 ton tank.
Except it largely faced none and was highly vulnerable to AT guns and infantry AT weapons.Fast, 35mph, with a good ride and reliable, hull was well shaped, and the 75mm was an excellent gun against infantry and other light armor.
Sure, had it be around in 1943 it would have been fine, but only showed up in December 1944, way too late to really matter. Should just have had more Shermans then.Downside was this should have been done sooner, in place of the M7 'Light' tank, and the T45 HVAP ammo for the 75mm should have been put into production.
Yes, but they were largely a waste except against light infantry in COIN operations, like how the Germans used their light tanks after 1941. The Soviet Cold War light tanks were never really tested in combat, but only had the virtue of there being a lot of them, not sure if the US could afford to have a bunch of light tanks that were highly expendable. I doubt either would have stood up well in a serious war:Light tanks continued to be made thru the Cold War, other than the amphibious bit, is superior to the PT-76, that was equipped with with a gun little better than the old ZiS-3 76mm field gun.
It however, got a HVAP round.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PT-76
Great against irregulars, not so hot against enemy with actual AT weapons.
Based on actual German behavior. They kept making nothing but Pz38t's with the chassis IOTL until at least Spring 1942 despite encountering the T-34 and KV-1 in June 1941.That is your opinion..
I agree, but the problem is the Germans IOTL did not do that until Spring 1942. I'd say cancel the production line and start making Pz III chassis instead with a KWK42 in Marder setup.My opinoin: the Pz-38(t) need to be taken out of production, it's hull converted into something toting either a much bigger gun, or the SP Flak..
Sure, problem is the Germans, while being the first to drop theirs, persisted until Spring 1942 for some reason. The Marder III didn't come out until April 1942 IOTL.There we go. In a contested ww2 battlefield, against a more numerous foe, the thinly-armored and weakly armed tanks are waste, niches like 'swimming' or 'paratrooper' tanks aside.
As you said above the problem is the Germans didn't have enough tanks to go around even in 1941 so were forming their new Panzer divisions (22nd-25th) with old French tanks and were still using heaps of Pz IIs and 38ts. They couldn't afford to interrupt production in the run up to Barbarossa and phase out the old light tanks for what they considered a walk over campaign over in 6 months at the most. The T-34/KV-1 discovery wouldn't change that, it would probably that like in the French campaign the Germans use air power and better tactics to outfight them (which they did IOTL Barbarossa).Hence, a better gun to go on the existing platforms informed by this ATL intelligence (I'm assuming this will involve several German mock-up T-34s for testing?).