The most effective tank force proved to be the German, composed in 1939 of 3,195 vehicles, including 211 Pz. IVs. What made the German panzers so formidable was that, instead of being divided between various infantry and cavalry tank units, they were all concentrated and used in massed formations in the panzer divisions. The successes of the panzer divisions during the first two years of World War II led the major armies to reorganize most of their tanks into similar formations; this resulted in a dramatic increase in production.
The campaigns of 1939–41, in which armoured forces played an important role, also intensified the technical development of tanks and other armoured vehicles. The German Pz. IV and Soviet T-34 were rearmed in 1942 with longer-barreled, higher-velocity guns; soon afterward these began to be displaced by more powerfully armed tanks. In 1943 the Germans introduced the Panther medium tank with a long 75-mm gun having a muzzle velocity of 936 metres (3,070 feet) per second, compared with 384 metres (1,260 feet) per second for the original Pz. IV and 750 metres (2,460 feet) per second for its 1942 version. The 43-ton Panther weighed almost twice as much as its predecessor and was correspondingly better armoured. Germany also introduced the still more powerful Tiger tank, armed with an 88-mm gun. Its final version (Tiger II), at 68 tons, was to be the heaviest tank used during World War II. To oppose it, the Russians brought out the JS, or Stalin, heavy tank, which appeared in 1944 armed with a 122-mm gun. Its muzzle velocity was lower than that of the German 88-mm guns, however, and it weighed only 46 tons. At about the same time the T-34 was rearmed with an 85-mm gun.
In contrast to the breakthrough role of the earlier heavy tanks, the Tiger and JS tanks functioned chiefly to support basic medium tanks by destroying enemy tanks at long range. German and Soviet armies also developed other heavy vehicles for this purpose, such as the 128-mm-gun Jagdtiger and the 122-mm-gun ISU, which in effect were turretless tanks. In addition, all armies developed lightly armoured self-propelled antitank guns. The U.S. Army developed a specialized category of tank destroyers that resembled self-propelled guns in being relatively lightly armoured but that, like tanks, had rotating turrets.
The turretless-tank type of vehicle originated with the Sturmgeschutz, or assault gun, introduced by the German army for infantry support but subsequently transformed into more versatile vehicles particularly suited for destroying enemy tanks. No such vehicles were produced in Britain or the United States. Throughout the war, however, the British Army retained a specialized category of infantry tanks, such as the Churchill, and of cruiser tanks, such as the Crusader and Cromwell. The former were well-armoured and the latter were fast, but none was well-armed compared with German and Soviet tanks. As a result, during 1943 and 1944 British armoured divisions were mostly equipped with U.S.-built M4 Sherman medium tanks.
The M4 was preceded by the mechanically similar M3 General Grant medium tank, which was also armed with a medium-velocity 75-mm gun but had it mounted in the hull instead of the turret, because this could be put into production more quickly when tanks were urgently required in 1940 and 1941. Production of the M4 began in 1942 and eventually 49,234 were built, making it the principal tank of U.S. and other Allied armoured forces. Successful when first introduced, it was by 1944 no longer adequately armed and should have been replaced by a new medium tank. But the U.S. Army, like the British, adhered to the fallacious doctrine that armoured divisions should confine themselves to exploitation of infantry breakthroughs and did not, therefore, need powerfully armed tanks. Only toward the end of the war did the U.S. Army introduce a few M26 Pershing heavy tanks with a 90-mm gun comparable to that of the original German Tiger. Similarly, the British Army introduced the prototypes of the Centurion tank with a 76-mm gun comparable to that of the German Panther. Otherwise, U.S. and British tanks were well behind the German and Soviet tanks in their gun power.
Postwar tank development
After World War II it was generally recognized that all tanks must be well-armed to fight enemy tanks. This finally ended the division of tanks into under-gunned categories of specialized infantry and cavalry tanks, which the British Army retained longer than any other. Still not fully recognized, however, were the advantages of concentrating tanks in fully mechanized formations, and the British and U.S. armies continued to divide tanks between the armoured divisions and the less mobile infantry divisions. After World War II, tanks also suffered from one of the periodic waves of pessimism about their future. New antitank weapons, such as rocket launchers and recoilless rifles, and the mistaken belief that the value of tanks lay primarily in their armour protection caused this attitude. The Soviet army, however, maintained large armoured forces, and the threat they posed to western Europe as the Cold War became more intense, together with the havoc created by Soviet-built T-34/85 tanks during the North Korean invasion of South Korea in 1950, provided a new impetus to development.
The development of tactical nuclear weapons in the mid-1950s provided further stimulus to the development of tanks and other armoured vehicles. Nuclear weapons encouraged the use of armoured forces because of the latter’s mobility and high combat power in relation to their vulnerable manpower. Moreover, armoured vehicles proved capable of operating in relative proximity to nuclear explosions by virtue of their protection against blasts and radioactivity.
As less emphasis was placed after a time on nuclear weapons and more on conventional forces, tanks retained their importance. This was based on their being recognized, particularly from the early 1970s, as the most effective counter to other armoured forces, which formed the principal threat posed on the ground by potential aggressors.