http://www.lonesentry.com/intelbulletin/index_subject.html

I found the link above to a site claiming to display allied intelligence reports from WWII on various German equipment. I have no reason so far to believe they are false, but from the ones I have read, like about the Panther and Tiger, it appears like the reports had been through a filter laving a different impression of said weapons than we have today. I.e. not the very dangeous weapons we often focus on but rather highligthing more or less prominent weaknesses. Compared to our perception of allied mythmaking about not at least Tigers there is a great distance to the intelligence reports.

Were the intelligence reports representative of the allied attitude during WWII, or were they rather an example of intelligence services preferring to give good news, or were they simply accurate reports and the later myths just myths.

BTW the allied apparently over estimated the Germans in one serious point - production numbers. See the reporty on "Attack on the German heavy tank - PzKfv. VI http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/ttt_att...iger/index.html were it is mentioned that the monthly production is not above 800. In reality they prodiced 1500 tanks during the whole war!

Regards

Steffen Redbeard

The intelligence corps chaps weren't fighting against the tigers with 2 and 6 pounder equipped guns. If the Mechanization board and other committees had up-gunned/armored british tanks faster it wouldn't have been as big of a deal. A blackprince by '42 would have been more useful. By '45 was just pointless.

The intelligence reports were accurate at the time. IIRC the first Panthers met in Italy lost a fight with Stuarts, and the first Tigers to reach Anzio self-destructed.

In early 1944, GEN Lucas wrote to his old buddy Eisenhower and told Ike that his troops hadn't had any trouble at all dealing with Panthers.

Actually, the problem was the conditions in Normandy which meant the Allied tanks had to advance nose to nose (ie, facing the thickest armor) with the Germans, with no room to maneuver. The fact that the Allied tank crews in Normandy were almost 100% green and facing German veterans didn't help either. After August the Allied tankers had easier times. Creighton Abrams wiped up a German brigade containing a bn of Panthers with a Combat Command of 4th AD in eastern France. In that case the Americans were the vets and the Germans were a green unit.

Black Prince was based on Churchill, and by 1942 most of the Churchills delivered were "not battleworthy." If they couldn't make a Churchill run, how do you think a Black Prince with the same engine and drive train would have fared?

Of course Sherman could have been made with 17pdrs and 90mm guns in 1943, if the gun availability and production priorities had allowed. They wouldn't have had APDS though.

The early Panther info came from the Soviets who were notorious (throughout the life of their empire) for putting a 'failure of the imperialist capitalist running dogs' spin on everything that wasn't Soviet.

There's two interesting Soviet reports on the King Tiger somewhere, the official one which points out nothing but problems, and the 'field' one which portrays it as much more dangerous.