Crusader III
The Crusader III cruiser tank is famous for its skirmishing and advanced reconnaissance roles in the
North African campaigns of the Second World War.
M3 Lee
Armed with a hard hitting 75-millimeter gun, the American M3 Lee tank proved a formidable fighting
machine in battles with the Germans in North Africa and the Japanese in the Pacific. Produced as a
stop-gap measure in 1940 prior to the introduction of a more battle-worthy tank, the Lee fought the
German Panzer IV and Tiger I in Tunisia and despite heavy losses turned the tide of battle in favour of
the Allies.
M3 Grant
With all the appearance of an armoured chariot, the American-built Grant tank joined the British 8th Army
in North Africa in 1942 and for the first time the German Panzer IV units found themselves matched in both
firepower and armour. The Grant was one of the few multi-turreted tanks to see successful combat in the
Second World War.
PzKpfw III
The PzKpfw III was one of the workhorses of the German Army when the Second World War started but halfway
on the conflict this tank was already obsolete, because its hull was too small for fitting on it a rotating
turret which was large enough for housing a powerful cannon. The successive improvements made on this tank
allowed it to face the Crusader tanks in North Africa, but it was largely outmatched by the T-34 in Russia
and this signaled its retirement from the battlefield. Thereafter the hull of the retired PzKpfw III tanks
was reused for building a series of tank destroyers which were effective until the end of the conflict.
PzKpfw VI Tiger
When the PzKpfw VI Tiger was deployed on the battlefield for the first time, in the late 1942 in Tunisia,
it was more powerful than any other existing tank. The 88-millimeter L/56 cannon and the thick armour were
the strong points of the monstrous German tank, which was an effective response to the Russian T-34, albeit
this one was endowed with greater mobility and mechanical reliability. The Tiger was fitted a stereoscopic
gunsight which facilitated to fire at targets with precision at long distances. However, this tank had some
weak points as well: its vertical armour required greater thickness than sloped armour and this added extra
weight, which caused high fuel consumption and rendered the tank prone to mechanical failures.
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