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00:30The Western Allies first encountered the legendary Tiger tank here, in Tunisia, in December 1943.
00:52Rommel's desert war had been going from bad to worse for the hard-pressed men of the Africa Corps,
00:57and they urgently needed a morale booster.
01:02They got it in the form of the new Panzer VI, the Tiger, the new German heavy tank,
01:09weighing 56 tons and mounting a fearsome 88-millimeter gun.
01:14The Tiger tank was, of course, what would have been the heavy tank component in the modern German Panzer divisions,
01:23made up, of course, from the battle tanks, the medium battle tanks, the Panzer,
01:27number five, and number six, the Tiger.
01:30As it turned out, of course, the Tiger reached the battlefield well before the Panzer,
01:35which the Panzer was a totally new concept and took longer in the end.
01:44The Tiger boasted a squat, purposeful shape,
01:47and its deadly high-velocity gun attained such notoriety that soon,
01:51the mere appearance of the Tiger on the battlefield was enough to cause panic in the Allied forces.
01:59Given the relative inferiority of British tanks to German tanks during much of the desert war,
02:04the British actually invested a considerable intelligence effort
02:08in ensuring that they had advance warning of any new German type of tank
02:13that they might be meeting in battle soon.
02:15This meant that, in fact, the British did gain advance warning of what they knew at the time
02:22as the Panzer Mark VI, later known as the Tiger, for the campaign in North Africa.
02:30The Russians had first met the tank in September 1942,
02:35but the British had gained actually very little in the way of intelligence from the Russians
02:39about the nature of this tank.
02:41But through various intelligence sources, by August-September 1942,
02:46the British were actually well aware that a new type of German heavy tank
02:52might be used against them in North Africa.
02:55And by October-November 1942, British Enigma decrypts made it quite certain that a new type of tank
03:04had actually been delivered to Rommel and was about to be used against them.
03:08But at this stage, beyond various technical details, the British really had no clear idea
03:15about how effective a tank it would be.
03:18The psychological power of the Tiger legend was so powerful
03:21that soon, the mere approach of any German tank force was enough to set the rumour running
03:27that the Tigers were on the way.
03:51This is a very rare beast indeed.
04:20This is the Tiger Mark I, one of the 40 or so machines that was actually sent to Tunisia
04:28in early 1943 to try and resist the Allied landings which had taken place in the Operation Torch campaign.
04:36As you can see, it's a huge and imposing sight and it represented quite a shock for the Allies
04:43to suddenly be confronted with armour of this size and this kind of potency.
04:48Up to this point in the campaign, the Allies had had to face the Panzer II, III and IV, all of which they had an
04:56answer to and they had anti-tank weapons which they could knock out.
04:59This was completely different. It was hugely armoured and it was very, very dangerous on the battlefield.
05:07The reason for that is this enormous high-velocity 88mm gun which you can see here.
05:14This was completely capable of taking out any Allied armour at any distance, any sensible distance you could care to
05:22mention on the battlefield and really they had no answer to this.
05:26For the crew of the Tiger, it was a slightly different experience.
05:30What we've done here is to recreate how a Panzer crew might have looked on the Tunisian campaign in 1943.
05:38Behind me here you can see the driver in his position. It was his job to steer the vehicle
05:44and obviously to make sure it went where the commander wanted him to go.
05:48Tucked away behind him in the murky depths of the interior, we can see the radio operator.
05:54It was also his job to man the machine gun in the hull.
05:59Moving along, we have the very important position. This is the gunner.
06:04His job was to lay the gun and make sure that they were on target and that they actually hit
06:10any enemy vehicles they were firing at. Above him is the most important man in the tank. He's the
06:16commander. It's him that's making the decisions. It's him that's deciding which targets to engage and
06:21where they're going to go. Tucked into his right, we have the loader also up there in the turret.
06:27So as you can see, it's a fairly cramped interior. You've got five men in a very small area.
06:33In addition to that, they also had to make room for at least 92 of these. This is a replica
06:40of an 88mm shell. Obviously, there were a few decisions that had to be made. The commander,
06:47for example, had to decide whether to load with high explosive or with armour piercing. High
06:53explosive would be used against other infantry and armour piercing would be used against other tanks.
06:59The thing they were terrified about, obviously, was running out of ammunition because
07:03even a machine as big and imposing as this without shells, it's almost impotent. What many crews would
07:10do was actually to lay shells on the floor of the tank so they can sometimes get more than 100 rounds,
07:16because in those kind of actions, every single round counted. So you can imagine it was a very
07:22claustrophobic, a very dim, and in the desert, a very hot interior to be in. With the very limited
07:30numbers which actually reached Tunisia, the Tiger menace was in some respects as much psychological
07:36as physical. Nonetheless, their rarity was no consolation for the Allied tank crews who actually
07:43had the misfortune to meet the Tiger. Tank crews of the Allied forces were disadvantaged by the superior
07:52range, killing power and armour of the Tigers. Allied tank men watched in horror as their own shells
08:00simply bounced off the thick armour plate of the Tiger. Although there were very few in number,
08:07one or two Tigers became worth a tank squadron in their morale effect upon the Allies.
08:12There were never any shortage of volunteers to man the Tiger tank, and one of the reasons for that lies up here.
08:24You can see here in profile the frontal armour of the Tiger I. This is 100mm thickness of armour,
08:31and when you think that in 1939 they were sending tanks into battle which had only 15mm of armour,
08:38you can see how quickly the designs have progressed over the war years. This was almost completely
08:45impervious to any Allied gun on the battlefield during 1942 and 43, and it certainly gave the crew
08:54a feeling of immense security. As a piece of tank design it's not perfect, because really the armour
09:00should be sloped, which would give it the effectiveness of almost doubling the armour. However, this was such
09:06an incredible thickness of metal at that time that there was nothing that could get through it. So, despite
09:12the very flatness of the frontal armour, it worked perfectly. Of course, under these conditions a set
09:19up like this looks very tame and calm, but it's not too difficult to imagine in action what something like
09:25this would have been. You had the roar of the engine, you had the gun firing, you had gases escaping from
09:31the gun into the driving compartment. The crew had to communicate by means of headphones because there
09:38was so much noise within the tank. In action you would also have the commander calling out his targets,
09:44the loader trying to do his work, possibly the radio operator firing the machine gun, the driver reversing
09:51and moving and responding to the commands of the commander. So it would have been a very claustrophobic
09:57world of heat and noise and sweat. This was not the kind of calm interior that we see here today.
10:21In response to the Allied landings under Operation Torch in November 1942, the German High Command
10:35had at last sent reinforcements to the hard-pressed German forces in Tunisia. At an earlier meeting,
10:42Hitler had personally promised Rommel that he would have the new Tiger tank as soon as it was available.
10:48And sure enough, it was among the reinforcements to arrive in Tunisia. But as with all of Hitler's
10:55pledges, there were certain omissions.
11:04The actual Tiger strength was just two companies of Schwerpanzer Abteilung 501 with 18 Tigers each,
11:11and one company of the Schwerpanzer Abteilung 504 with eight machines.
11:16These units later merged to form one Abteilung. The miracle machines were in such short supply that
11:24it led to a certain amount of unseemly squabbling among the German commanders.
11:29Field Marshal Erwin Rommel recorded that before the start of his thrust towards Tabessa,
11:34he had asked General von Arnim to send him the 19 Tiger tanks that were the 5th Panzer Army.
11:40From Armin refused on the grounds that all Tigers were undergoing repair.
11:46Rommel later pointed out with some pique that this statement was patently untrue.
11:54Against all expectations, a British Army unit, 48 Royal Tank Regiment, actually captured one of the
12:01precious Tigers at Medeth Elbab on 21 April 1943. The Tiger, in company with supporting Panzer III and
12:11IV tanks, had already knocked out the leading machines in a formation of Churchill tanks,
12:16when a shot from one of the remaining Churchill's six-pounder guns hit the bottom of the Tiger's gun
12:22mantlet. The shell was deflected into the turret ring, which jammed the gun turret.
12:29When another shell then hit a turret lifting bracket and wounded the Tiger's commander,
12:35the German crew then abandoned the Tiger, allowing the British to thus capture an intact tank.
12:42Shipped back to Britain, the tank was stripped down and provided much intelligence on German tank technology.
12:48This is the hull of the Tiger tank, number 131 of 504 Schwer-Panzer-Abteilung.
13:03It rests today in Bovington Tank Museum, Dorset.
13:07We've come here today to the Muckleborough collection in North Norfolk to have a look at this.
13:26This is the British Churchill tank, and this was the kind of vehicle that the British Armed Forces
13:34hoped would provide the antidote to the Tiger. Certainly the early signs were not good. These
13:41machines were first used in earnest on the raid in Dieppe, where they'd proved very unsuccessful,
13:47and in fact none of them had even really managed to get off the beach, and all were knocked out.
13:52Nonetheless, they were taken to North Africa, where they did prove rather more successful,
13:59and ultimately they were used in action in Italy, and right through the European campaign,
14:04into the final battles in Germany.
14:08In theory, the Churchill should have been the equal of the Tiger, but in practice that never really
14:13happened, because the Tiger was a far more mobile machine, and the high calibre 88mm gun was always
14:22going to come out on top in a battle against the Churchill, who, although they used the very effective
14:28British six-pounder gun, couldn't match the Tiger for mobility or armour protection.
14:34The Germans were absolutely horrified by the Churchill. They thought it was something left over from the
14:37First World War. They couldn't believe that the British had built this tank, and I think the very
14:42fact that it turned up at Dieppe must have made them imagine that it was something we were trying to
14:46get rid of. They criticised nearly every aspect of it. Don't forget, by this time, they were beginning
14:52to get experience of the Russian front, and there they were meeting some mean tanks, and their view
14:57of the Churchill was so dismissive that beyond testing a few, they never even bothered using them.
15:03Interesting that in the end, of course, the Churchill comes back to haunt them right to the end of the war.
15:08By comparison to the Tiger, the humble machines which had begun the desert battles only two years
15:13earlier were so primitive as to be almost comical. The North African desert was, in many respects,
15:20the ideal battlefield for tanks. But the desert was to prove a harsh mistress. It offered the tantalising
15:29promise of success, only to withdraw its promise just at the point where victory seemed within reach.
15:35In turn, the Italians, the British, the Germans, and finally the Americans each experienced the thrill
15:42of conquest, followed by an unexpected defeat. The first to experience the roller coaster ride
15:49of ebbs and flows of tank warfare in the desert were the Italians. Italian tanks were no match for the
15:57British tanks and tactics, and in consequence, the British army enjoyed great success against the
16:03Italians. In particular, the Italian light tanks were ineffective in the extreme. Even the Italian
16:10medium tanks had their limitations. What you got here is something that in the pre-war days was known as a
16:15tankette, rather twee word for a lightweight fighting vehicle. In the case of the M1340, you have at least
16:23a sensible medium tank which is comparable in many ways to its British counterparts 1939-40.
16:32It's powered by a V8 diesel. It's got a reasonably powerful anti-tank gun mounted in a fully rotating
16:39turret and twin machine guns in the front of the hull. Being Italian, as you would expect, the automotive
16:45package is good. It was something they're masters of, always have been. But the construction of the tank,
16:52even by British standards at that time, and that's not saying much, is grim. It's not even riveted. The
16:58whole thing is bolted together. And the risks of rivets breaking up are bad enough. Bolt heads are bound to
17:05break up. All you need is an impact from a high-exposive shell, and this thing will probably disassemble itself
17:11before your eyes.
17:14In contrast to the Italian tanks, the British Matilda tank was very slow, but effective.
17:20The Matilda was an infantry support tank with a top speed of just eight miles per hour.
17:25For that reason, it had excellent armor plating, which was up to 80 millimeters thick.
17:29The Matilda was so heavy that two Leyland diesel engines had to be coupled to a single propeller
17:36shaft to push the Matildas along. The tank gun was the standard British two-pounder, which was then
17:43the best anti-tank gun on the battlefield. But it was Matilda's ability to absorb punishment that earned it
17:50the nickname Queen of the battlefield. The unmistakable squat shape of the Matilda fought throughout the desert
17:58campaign. Some captured Matildas were even used by the Germans against their former owners.
18:06While the Matilda took on the job of supporting the inventory, the armored punch of the British tank brigade
18:12was provided by the Crusader tanks. It was their job to engage enemy tanks.
18:19The Crusader turns up in 1941, and initially it is an impressive looking machine. It's a five-man tank.
18:27That's three men in the turret, a driver in the little kind of box thing on the right,
18:32and another poor wretch in a small machine gun turret to his left. This first feature was the
18:38the thing they rapidly got rid of. The chap in there was nearly cooked in the desert heat, and after you'd
18:43fired off a belt or two of ammunition, you'd virtually gassed yourself to death anyway. So it became very
18:49uncomfortable. They tended to remove that turret and use the area beneath it for ammunition storage.
18:55The gun at that time was the 40 millimetre, the British two-pounder, and certainly as anti-tank guns
19:00went, it was probably the best on the battlefield in the North African desert at that time. Go through
19:05anything that got in its way. The drawback was that the Crusader was woefully unreliable.
19:12The engine is a First World War V12 gasoline aviation engine built in the USA, but modified by a British
19:21company. The engine tended to shake to pieces in a tank that could quite comfortably do about 30 miles
19:28an hour on Christie's suspension. This ended up leaking oil, leaking water until the tank would break down.
19:37You had problems with the fan drives. They were chain driven, and you either had the chains too weak
19:42for the fans or the fan was too weak for the chain, one or the other, and they fell apart. You got sand
19:47into the coolant water. That got into the white metal bearings of the water pump,
19:51et them up, and you have more cooling problems. You reach a point when the Crusader has such a dreadful
19:58reputation that the crews are beginning to dread going out in it, and yet it's the first tank the
20:05British choose to fit a bigger gun to. No one, when they designed the Crusader, had any idea that it would
20:12be working in a desert environment. As an example of that, the air cleaners are actually on the wings,
20:18as it were, outside at the back. It's the last place you want them where sand is about because
20:24they came clogged up very easily, and it wasn't a good tank. It was never a good tank, but what its
20:30faults were, the desert exacerbated and turned it into a disaster. British forces had been stationed in
20:39Egypt since 1815, and they knew the desert. As a result of their superior training, the smaller British
20:46forces took the fight to the Italians, and appearing from nowhere with aggressive tactics, soon won the
20:53day. The British success was so swift and comprehensive that the campaign was nearly over
21:01when Hitler at last decided to help his Italian allies.
21:09German forces entered the campaign in February 1941, and their tactics, leadership, and superior
21:17weaponry immediately changed the status quo in the desert. Rommel was an aggressive commander, and
21:24exploited any weaknesses in his enemy to the full. The entry of the Africa Corps into the North African
21:31theatre heralded a new phase of the conflict. Now, balanced tank forces backed with artillery fought
21:39each other head-on in what ultimately was to become a war of attrition. The objective was to knock out the
21:46other side of the other side's tanks, deny the enemy the battlefield so he couldn't recover and repair losses.
21:53At the same time, it was necessary to attack his supply routes and bases, making difficult the maintenance
21:59of his mechanized forces. Tanks of each side took fearsome toll of each other, and contrary to popular
22:07belief, British tanks gave as good as they got. In the early months of the campaign, the British in fact
22:15had the advantage in the ever-changing balance between armour and armament. The most numerous
22:22German tank was still the obsolete Panzer II. This is the Panzer II. This was the tank which was the most
22:31numerous in the Africa Corps. As you can see, it's by no means a big machine, neither is it very
22:38formidably armed. It has this fairly small calibre 20 millimetre cannon. It was a three-man machine
22:46with the commander in the turret, who also operated the main armament, and down here in the hull,
22:51we had the driver and the radio operator. It's by no means a formidable vehicle, but this was the
22:58the main state of the Panzer IV in 1939 and 1940, and it was still used extensively in 1941 and 1942.
23:08This particular machine is done out in the Africa Corps colour. We can see here the symbol of the
23:13Africa Corps in front. This 20 millimetre cannon wasn't nearly as effective as the main armament of
23:21the British tanks. So, to an extent, the Panzer II was outclassed as a battle tank. However, they were
23:29superbly handled and handled in mass under the German ownership of the famous Erwin Robbeau. And
23:35what that meant was that the Panzer II, along with fairly good numbers of Panzer III's and IV's, were able
23:42to hold their own in the desert campaign. One of the main tactics used by the Germans in North Africa was
23:49to use machines like this to lure the British tanks into a charge against prepared defences. So, the
23:5888 millimetre anti-tank guns would lie in wait, and little tanks like this would lure the British into
24:04battle to find that they'd been dragged into a killing zone which had been prepared with anti-tank guns.
24:11In 1941, if you were in the Panzer Corps and a driver would sit in here. As you can see, again,
24:17he's got a very limited view of the world. In action, this would actually be closed down,
24:22and the driver would rely on these two tiny holes here for his view of the world. The commander had
24:28a reasonably good view in normal situations, but again, in action, both of these hatches would be
24:33closed, and the commander would rely on a little periscope in the middle here for his view of the
24:39world. So, vision, as always in armour, is very limited. And the main thing about this tank is it
24:45has very, very thin armour for the period. It was already effectively obsolete by the time in the desert campaign.
24:53In the early phase of the desert war, the German Panzer III had only 30 millimetres of frontal armour,
25:00and the Panzer IV had even less at 20 millimetres. Both of these machines could easily be pierced by
25:06British anti-tank weapons. In contrast, the early Crusaders enjoyed 40 millimetres, whilst the doughty
25:14Matildas had double that at 80 millimetres. The 50 millimetre gun of the Panzer III could not pierce the armour
25:23of the Crusader except on the side. While the armour of the Matilda could not be penetrated, even at ranges as close as 500 yards.
25:42Despite the limitations of his armour, Rommel's conduct of battle was bold and resourceful.
25:47In panzer attacks, the tanks would be used as a wedge, the Panzerkail, closely supported by other
25:55services. Artillery to soften the objective, pioneers to deal with obstacles, infantry to take and hold
26:02ground, and of course, the Stukens to act as supplementary artillery.
26:12Rommel led from the front and specialised in the concentration of a superior force
26:17against a single point, saying,
26:19Kotsen nicht klecken, in other words, spew, don't dribble.
26:24Where the Africa Corps had the definite edge on the British was in anti-tank guns. By 1941, the early
26:32war 37 millimetre anti-tank gun had been replaced with the larger 50 millimetre Pak 38.
26:40The Germans also employed the famous 88 millimetre anti-aircraft gun in the anti-tank role.
26:48This gun could take out the sturdy Matilda at ranges of up to 2000 yards.
26:56Placed defensively, Rommel could use a screen of 88 millimetre guns to knock out
27:01British tanks before the panzers were even engaged. This innovative use of weapons substantially reduced
27:09the advantages which came from superior numbers of British tanks.
27:15A major difficulty experienced by the British tanks in the desert was the lack of a dual-purpose gun,
27:21which could fire high explosives as well as armour-piercing shells.
27:25The two-pounder anti-tank gun, which was standard in the British tanks, could not fire the effective high
27:32explosive shells which were required to deal with anti-tank guns and infantry on the battlefield.
27:37This problem had actually been foreseen prior to World War II, and the interim solution was to
27:44provide two close support tanks for each squadron. Fitted with a three-inch howitzer,
27:49the gun was of low velocity and short. Used mainly as a means of laying smoke screen,
27:56the close support tanks carried a few high-explosive shells on board. Generally,
28:00the Crusader was used in this role.
28:03Instead of the normal two-pounder gun, which you found in every British cruiser tank of this period,
28:08this one is fitted with a rifled, breech-loading mortar. It's known as a close support tank. That
28:14means it's there to give support to the fighting tanks. Now, close support, in British terminology
28:20developed before the war, meant literally firing smoke shells. The gun is perfectly serviceable. It's
28:26quite capable of firing a high explosive round. But for reasons of tactical dogma, as far as I can
28:33see, they were actually provided with only four high explosive rounds and 20 or 30 smoke rounds.
28:40So here you've got a tank, the whole purpose of which is to trundle about the battlefield making
28:46clouds of smoke. It really does seem a bit ridiculous. In the desert, the battlefield was now
28:53dominated by the tanks. Infantry were helpless without armoured support.
29:04The balance of power between the Allied and Axis forces tended to be measured by who could field the
29:10most tanks. Keeping these tanks in the field was another matter altogether.
29:15They required intensive servicing and repair. The harsh activities of the desert exacerbated this
29:24problem and the supply line organisation assumed vital importance in bringing forward vital fuel,
29:30ammunition and spare parts. This overextended supply line also dealt with replacement vehicles and all of
29:39the myriad requirements for an army in the field. Attacking supply lines on land, sea or air became of crucial
29:47importance to both sides. The more equipment and backup stores one could destroy meant less to face on the battlefield.
29:55The importance of the supply system extended to the recovery of tanks from the battlefield.
30:06Not all tanks knocked out by enemy fire were actually destroyed. Often they were brought in to be repaired.
30:13Those not immediately repairable provided much needed spares for others. At the same time,
30:20the enemy had to be denied the opportunity to use the battlefield losses in this way. Repaired enemy
30:26vehicles could be pressed into service against their original owners. And enemy equipment salvaged from
30:33the battlefield provided intelligence on the latest vehicles, armour, weapons and ammunition.
30:40This is the back of the Tiger and obviously this is the place where the enemy would most like to get to,
30:46where the armour's thinnest and where the machine is the most vulnerable. It also has some quite
30:53interesting features because behind me here you can see this massive steel tow rope which would be used
31:00either to pull this vehicle out if it got bogged down or on occasion another vehicle. Although technically
31:07they were forbidden from doing that because the strain of pulling another Tiger on a tow rope would often
31:13ruin the engine of the first Tiger. The official regulations that they were supposed to wait for
31:19the breakdown truck to come and tow them out but there were very few of those and in any event they
31:25were unlikely to get into a minefield or into action. So the crews of the Tiger were very concerned about
31:31breakdowns and how these vehicles would be retrieved. So they actually often hung these steel ropes in
31:38position ready to pull their own vehicle or to give assistance to another vehicle in action.
31:44The recovery mechanics and tank transporter drivers of both sides often plied their trade under fire.
31:52In the event that your Tiger did break down, this is what you needed to be able to move it. This is a
31:59famo prime mover. In addition there was also a recovery version of this which had a huge spade on
32:07the back which would dig into the ground and give it the anchorage it needed to pull the Tiger. In
32:13practice what they found was you actually needed three of these vehicles linked together to effectively
32:19move a Tiger. So it was a difficult operation and as you can imagine these were in fairly short supply
32:25and a big target like this isn't necessarily going to be taken on to the battlefield with any degree
32:30of safety or certainty. So it was a real problem if they did bog down or couldn't be moved for any
32:36reason. These were always in short supply, there were never enough of them to go around and there
32:41were a great deal of other tasks that they were required for. They were the prime movers for example
32:46for the biggest guns in the army and they needed to manufacture as many of these as quickly as they could
32:53to make the army as mobile as it needed to be. In the Halfaya Pass battles the British lost 91 tanks
33:01which included 64 Matildas. A considerable number of these were due to mechanical breakdowns
33:07but a combination of time and shortage of transporters meant most ended up being left on the battlefield.
33:14In this instance the Germans were able to utilize the captured vehicles. Rommel himself utilized this
33:21captured British armored command truck which he named Mammoth. In August 1942 General Sir Bernard Montgomery
33:31took over as commander of the British 8th Army. He was to reap the benefit of the new equipment and
33:37reinforcements pouring into the desert campaign. But Monty, as he was known to his troops, was a different
33:45breed of commander. He had taken the lessons of World War I and the opening phase of victory in France to heart.
33:52He talked to his men, was seen by them and gave them a victory at Alam Halfa. He soon stamped his positive
34:01personality upon the 8th Army. His son, the present Viscount of Alamein, recalls the galvanizing effect of his personality.
34:11When my father, better known as Monty, went to the desert in August 1942, he found a demoralized army
34:19which was standing on the brinks of the Delta, who were very battle-hardened. They'd been there for a long time.
34:26They were quite tired and they needed a new face and they were very suspicious of this new general who'd arrived.
34:32But he quickly inspired confidence by going around and talking to the officers and I think that probably
34:38his initial address to the officers of the 8th Army was probably one of the most inspiring addresses that
34:44has ever been recorded. He wanted to make sure that every single person in the desert in his army knew
34:51what was required of them. This was extremely important. As he said at the beginning, he said,
34:57we are going to stand here and fight and if we can't fight here, we will die here. This was something
35:04very novel to the soldiers under his command. In 1942, there was more good news for the British.
35:11The American M3 medium tank, known to the British as the Grant, was introduced to the campaign and
35:18first used at Gazala. We've come here to Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset to have a look at the World War
35:262 Hall and where we'll find this, the M3 known to the British as the General Grant. This was a very
35:36welcome addition to the desert war because at that stage the British certainly felt that their tanks
35:44were outclassed by the German machines and the emergence of the General Grant into the desert began
35:51to redress the balance in the desert war. At that time, we were in Valentine tanks, which was a British
36:00tank, which was completely outgunned, I'm afraid, by the German Tiger tanks, which are pretty well known.
36:08Fortunately, very soon, these were switched and we had a number of different tanks then, all from the
36:15United States, all named after American generals, starting off with the General Stewart, which was
36:22quite a small tank, up through the Lee and the Grant and finally the Sherman, which was the latest tank
36:30that we had in Africa. The Grant mounted two tank guns to provide the solution to the need for a gun to
36:37fire high-explosive and armour-piercing shells. The 75mm howitzer was placed in a sponson on the right-hand
36:45side of the tank. This gun was a welcome upgrade to British firepower. At last, the British tank forces
36:54had a good high-explosive capability which could be used against German anti-tank guns and their crews.
37:00The other gun on the ground was the anti-tank weapon. It was mounted in a small turret perched
37:06on top of the tank, which produced a dangerously high silhouette. For the very first time, the British
37:13had a tank mounting a gun that could fire armour-piercing or high-explosive rounds, and this
37:19made a terrific difference. It meant that things like anti-tank guns, which are tiny little targets,
37:25could be fired at with a high-explosive shell. You've got the chance of a bang going off pretty close,
37:29and if it doesn't actually kill or wound the crew, it puts them off. Whereas you can spend all day
37:35shooting the shield of an anti-tank gun with armour-piercing rounds, and really you've just
37:41got to hit it direct on to do any damage. So, yeah, the presence of that gun made a tremendous difference.
37:46But the big disadvantage of the tank is, of course, its size. It towered over nearly everything else in
37:50the desert with that little 37mm turret up the top there. This meant that it was always a very obvious
37:56target. Now, one of the great ploys of tank warfare is to adopt what is known as a hull-down position,
38:02that is, you hide as much of the tank as possible behind, we'll say, a sand dune, with just the
38:06turret poking over the top, and you can pick off the enemy tanks. They don't know where that shot's
38:10coming from. Obviously, if you try and adopt a hull-down position when the main gun is already in the
38:15hull, as this 75 is, you've still got a lot of tanks sticking up in the sky, so that advantage is lost.
38:21The other problem in a manoeuvre fight, when you're actually on the run, is that the driver
38:27has to pay a much greater part in the proceedings in this tank. He's got to swing the tank onto the
38:32target to a much greater extent than he would if there was a fully rotating turret. And since the
38:37British liked to fight driving, this also became a bit of a problem.
38:41The ground was very much an interim solution. The most important American tank to enter the North
38:48African campaign was the M4A1 medium tank, the Sherman. Shermans first appeared in action at El Alamein
38:56in November 1942. This tank would eventually become the mainstay of the Allies on all battlefields.
39:05It was not a particularly heavily armoured tank, but its real strength was derived from the sheer
39:11quantity manufactured. In a war of attrition, the US manufacturing muscle would beat German technical
39:18superiority. The Sherman suffered the terrible attribute of bursting into flames even when hit
39:26by a non-explosive anti-tank shell. This led to its being given the nickname of Ronson, because,
39:33as the soldiers quipped with macabre humour, it lights first time.
39:37It always had a bad reputation for bursting into flames, but, in fact, most British and American
39:44tanks used in the desert, in particular, had the same problem. It's always blamed on fuel,
39:50and it has led to a belief, a completely inaccurate belief, that German tanks were diesel-fueled. They
39:55were not. Every single German tank that saw service in the western desert had a petrol engine,
40:00or gasoline engine in it. The reason our tanks caught fire, and a lot of ours were diesel-fueled,
40:05was because the ammunition was not safely protected inside the tank. It meant that
40:10the smallest shard of hot metal coming through the armour, getting into one cartridge case,
40:14igniting the cordite, and the tank's gone like that, so quick, it was darn difficult for the
40:19guys to get out. And all of our tanks, up until the time we introduced protected ammunition
40:24storage, suffered from that one way or another. The German nickname was equally cruel. Because of the
40:30number they saw catch fire, they christened it, the Tommy Cooker. Despite its limitations,
40:37the volume of Shermans on the battlefield was ultimately to prove to be a deciding factor.
40:43Until the advent of the American tanks, which, generally speaking, were more reliable,
40:48and had superior firepower, it was only the fact that we tended to outnumber them. Courage has come into it,
40:56a lot of people who know their tank is inferior are still going up against tanks that could
41:00theoretically destroy them. There's no doubt about that at all. But numbers have a great deal to do
41:06with it, and the statistics of almost every one of the major North African battles is one where
41:12the British in particular have the advantage in numbers, and that must count for a great deal.
41:19The US was not the only producer of new tanks in 1942.
41:22The British had introduced the A-22, named the Churchill. This tank first appeared in March of 1942.
41:31Armed with the standard British two-pounder gun, Mark III and IV were up-gunned to a six-pounder,
41:3757-millimeter gun. Churchill weighed in at nearly 40 tons, and was powered by a 350 BHP Bedford engine.
41:45Although it was a slow tank, reaching only 18 miles per hour on a good day, its frontal armor was a massive
41:53102 millimeters, which gave a great deal of comfort to the five-man crew. Three Churchills took part in the
42:02Battle of El Alamein for evaluation purposes. They passed the test, and the British 21st Army Tank Brigade,
42:11which arrived in North Africa in March 1943, was fully equipped with Churchill's.
42:25Tank strength of the 8th Army had by August 1942 reached 935 machines, with an effective strength of
42:33tanks fit for action of 762. The numbers game was running against the Germans. Rommel could field
42:45only 200 tanks, but their qualitative situation had improved. A hundred of the tanks were now Panzer III,
42:53with the long-barrelled, high-velocity 50-millimeter gun, and 50 were the Panzer IV, with the even more powerful 75-millimeter gun.
43:04At the Battle of Alam Halfa, the main contest was between upgraded Panzers and the American-made ground tanks.
43:12For once, the British refused to be drawn into Rommel's carefully prepared anti-tank killing zone,
43:18and fought on ground of their choosing. This time it was the Africa Corps who withdrew,
43:25leaving as casualties nearly 3,000 men, 49 tanks, 400 vehicles, 17 artillery pieces, and 38 anti-tank guns.
43:35The tide had turned. Ahead lay the Battle of El Alamein, after which the Africa Corps would be pursued to the
43:44final battles in Tunisia. As the Africa Corps began to retreat, they also lost the battle for another
43:53important aspect of desert tank warfare, recovery and repair. Tanks knocked out in battles by shells,
44:01mines, or breakdown, could not now be rescued on the retreat.
44:06The German response to the superior numbers of allied tanks lay in the development of more new
44:19tanks and upgunning of existing models. The Panzer IV was now the mainstay of the German tank divisions,
44:26and it was found to be capable of further development.
44:29Only a few modifications were required to upgrade the tank to accept the highly effective
44:37long-barreled L-43 gun. The gun itself had to be fitted with a muzzle brake in order to prevent the
44:45gun recoil from taking off the breech block. The muzzle brake on a gun is fitted on the barreled end to
44:52allow gases to vent from behind the shelf before it leaves the muzzle, thus reducing the recoil force.
44:59Many of the early Panzer IVs were actively fitted with the new long L-43 gun in the field.
45:09The last variants of the Panzer IV to appear in Africa were fitted with an even more powerful gun,
45:15the L-48, which fired a shell at even higher velocity.
45:22The Panzer III's were also modified. Increased use of the Panzer IV in the anti-tank roll
45:28left a need for infantry support tanks. The British called these upgraded tanks the specials.
45:36As the Panzer III was being fitted with the short-barrelled infantry support gun,
45:41which had originally equipped the Panzer IV,
45:43in effect the two tanks had swapped roles in mid-campaign.
45:53Rommel had wished to concentrate on the Akkaret line, which could not be outflanked, but his superiors thought otherwise.
46:01On February the 15th, 1943, the rear guard of the 15th Panzer Division took up these positions in the Mareth line.
46:11The long retreat from El Alamein was over.
46:14After the retirement from Libya, the German forces gained some breathing space in and around Mareth.
46:24Rommel knew that Montgomery was a cautious commander.
46:27And he used the time to concentrate the mass of his remaining motorized forces
46:31and attack the British-American forces in western Tunisia with the aim of forcing withdrawal.
46:38This operation was codenamed Spring Wind.
46:41The Kasserine battles began with an attack on February the 14th, 1943.
46:48The 21st Panzer Division was now up to strength once again and was the lead formation.
46:57Their attack was a success and resulted in the capture of over 1600 American prisoners
47:02and 150 tanks, including 86 US medium tanks lost.
47:11With the sudden movement of the Germans, the Allies threw all the forces they could muster into northern Tunisia.
47:19Fighting came down to control of the passes.
47:22The weather made the going bad for vehicles, but at the same time kept the Allied air force at home.
47:28Air attacks would have been disastrous within the confines of the narrow passes.
47:40Rommel thought the Allies weakest at Kasserine and continued to focus the weight of his attacks there.
47:45Nebelwerfers were also deployed for the first time in Africa and proved very effective.
47:53By 1700 hours on 20th of February 1943, the Germans controlled the Kasserine Pass.
48:01Driving through the debris of the aftermath of the battles,
48:04Rommel was impressed with the Americans, who the Germans described as fantastically well equipped.
48:11One commented that we the Germans had a lot to learn organizationally.
48:16One particularly striking feature for Rommel was the standardization of vehicles and spare parts.
48:23The success at Kasserine was to prove a Pyrrhic victory.
48:34With the prospect of real success opening up,
48:37Rommel pushed his meagre resources beyond their capabilities.
48:40The advance was pursued too far, and the Allies were able to exploit their superior numbers to turn the tables on Rommel.
48:50In the wake of his failure, Rommel rushed south to join his remaining forces in the Marath Line
48:57and once more confront Montgomery's Eighth Army.
49:03While both von Arnhem and Rommel wished to mount some kind of offensive
49:08to disrupt and delay the Allied advance in Tunisia, the Kasserine battles were in fact characterized
49:15by muddle and indecision and confusion within the German high command.
49:19With the rivalry between Arnhem and Rommel, there was never the coordinated effort,
49:24which might have turned these tactical successes into something much greater.
49:29This meant that von Arnhem's battles around Sabaitla, while tactically very impressive
49:34and causing a panic amongst the Americans initially, were quite easily held due to their piecemeal
49:41commitment of German armour. And when Rommel mounted his attack on the Kasserine Pass in February 1943,
49:50again due to the dispersal of his armoured spearheads, the veterans of the Afrika Korps
49:56and the newly arrived 10th Panzer Division were unable to convert tactical success into operational victory.
50:05And when his last attack began to peter out on the 18th of February, it really was Rommel's last
50:13glimpse of glory in North Africa. The Marath Line lay 80 miles inside the frontier of Tunisia,
50:21between the sea and the Matmata hills. It was overrated as a defensive line. The original defenses
50:29were a line of antiquated blockhouses built by the French, of little use in modern warfare except for
50:35sheltering from artillery fire. The French had hoped that the salt marshes and steep waddies to the south
50:42would prevent the position being outflanked. Rommel's inspection of the area led him to believe that
50:49well-trained soldiers could surmount these difficulties. The British forces' advance proved him correct.
50:59This is Rommel's command position, from which he commanded his last action in the desert war,
51:06the unsuccessful German assault on the British forces opposite the Marath defenses.
51:10This time, it was the German tanks which were smashed by British anti-tank guns.
51:20After the German defeat at Marath, the German-Italian forces concentrated in Tunisia,
51:25and were being threatened from the north and west, and British 8th Army from the east.
51:29To the north, the sea, controlled by the Allies. To the south, the Sahara Desert. By the 13th of May 1943,
51:41all was lost. 230,000 German and Italian soldiers were captured. Only 700 escaped to fight another day.
51:51The German-Italian was managed to pani-tank guns. A city of the
52:08перекritus of the night in the east it became a man who was injured. The German-Italian was blood found on the east of the north.
52:12And there was aNI-Talian had a big concern for one day.
52:15And there was a little bit of death for the state of the West, and the east.
52:18After the last, the member-to- terrorists were killed.
52:19The German-Talian was placed in the east and the east.
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