This is the American M4 Sherman. At the start of production, they were very strong and feared but after the introduction of the Panzer VI Tiger and other strong German tanks, it became quite weak in comparison with other tanks.

The first variant of the M4 was equipped with a low velocity cannon called the 75mm gun M3. It was the same gun featured on the previous M3 Lee and could penetrate 92mm of armor at a flat 90 degrees from 100 meters. This was fine at first but when shooting the Tiger later in the war, it was inadequate so the Americans needed to fit a better gun on the M4.

Another part of the M4 that was quickly outdated was the armor. At the front it is sloped, making it 93mm of effective armor. The sides and rear are only 38mm which can be penetrated by almost anything. This means the driver must keep the tank facing the enemy whenever possible. And still the Americans continued to produce this tank even with its inadequacies.

The M4 Sherman did have attribute that did not become obsolete. Its engine. It had a healthy 400hp and weighed 30.3 tons fully equipped. This comes to a very respectable power to weight ratio of 13.2 hp/ton. This is the fastest of the three tanks.

As said already, the Sherman was a formidible tank but the Americans kept using it and only improved it though variants. At the end of the war, all it could do was blow up bunkers and be infantry support.

The Tiger 1 was one of the most heavily armored tanks in WWII. Its armor and its gun were amazing. You may think Germany could have won the war because of such superior tanks but there was one big problem...

This gun was powerful. The 88mm KwK 36 L/56 packed a punch, often knocking out a Sherman or T-34 with one shot. Normal Armor Piercing could penetrate 132mm of armor at 100m, and with APCR (Armor Piercing Composite Rigid) it could go though 171mm of armor. The only downside is that the shells are bigger and heavier, making them harder for the loader to load.

The armor on this thing was quite good. At a flat 90 degree angle, the front was 100mm. The sides and rear flat-on were both 80mm. Additionally, if you were shooting at the tank when the tank was positioned at about a 30 degree angle, the hull was 120mm+ everywhere. This made it almost inpenetrable. But, not every tiger driver angled the tank, and allied tanks could be shooting at it from multiple angles so it couldn't be 120mm effective all the time.

Because of the armor, the gun, the shells, and the size of the tank, it would take a giant engine to make it near as fast as the Sherman or even the T-34. Coming in at 54 tons, it was a beast. Sadly there were no engines as beast-like. The Maybach HL230 V-12 put out 700 horses, making the power to weight a sad 12.96 hp/ton.

This tank may seem, perfect, almost infallible, but there are 2 big reasons why it was not the "perfect" tank. For one, it was slow and slow to turn so it was vulnerable to flanking. Second of all, towards the end of the war, which was when this thing was made, Germany was running out of resources, and they were only able to make just over 1000 of them. The Russians and Americans just overwhelmed them with endless Shermans and T-34s to win.

The T-34 arguably changed the whole war, starting in 1940. Why? You ask? For one, there were over 70,000 made. It is the most mass produced tank ever. They did that because the crews loved it, and it was a great all around machine.

The T-34 may not be known for its gun, (or anything in particular) but it got the job done. The 76mm F-34 could penetrate 92mm of armor at 500m, making it slightly more powerful than the Sherman's gun.

The actually thickness of the armor on the T-34 may not be impressive, but there a major factor involved. The angle. It was 47 in the front, 45 on the sides, and 40 on the rear, but all the armor is sloped at a 60 degree angle. This allows for many, MANY ricochets as long as the gun shooting at it was not of a high caliber.

This tank was VERY fast, having a 500 hp engine in a tank weighing only 26.5 tons. It was lighter, and had a more powerful engine than the Sherman. The reason for the weight isnot just the armor thickness, but the profile. It was only 8 feet tall, being the shortest of the 3 tanks.

So, overall, nothing special besides the mobility. But the mass production and the fact that everyone loved it, made it an iconic tank. So many of these sadly were just thrown at the Germans, but it was a good enough tank to overwhelm the Tiger.

"Land Warfare Technology." History of World War II. Vol. 3: Victory and Aftermath. Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish, 2005. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 24 Nov. 2015

"M4 Sherman" Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n. d. Web. 24 Nov. 2015.

"Tiger 1." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n. d. Web 24 Nov. 2015

"T-34." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n. d. Web. 24 Nov. 2015