July 14, 2025 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, in World War I, tanks were considered support tools. But by World War II, they had become the centerpiece of ground warfare. Historian Stephen Ambrose explains how German engineering produced the deadly Tiger and Panther tanks — and why the American Sherman became known as the “Queen of the Battlefield.”
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American Stories. Stephen Ambrose was
one of America's leading biographers and historians. He passed in
two thousand and two, but his epic storytelling accounts can
now be heard here at our American Stories, thanks to
those who run his estate. Our next story is the
story of weapons used in World War Two. Here again
(00:32):
is Stephen Ambrose.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
A lot of improvement in the tank by the time
the Second World War came along, and then a lot
of improvements were made in the tank during the Second
World War, so the tank became the queen of the battlefield,
the decisive weapon of ground warfare. Everybody had their own tanks,
and their own tank design, and their own ideas about
tank tactics. The first to come along with a doctrine
(00:59):
that was put into practice and proved to be in
its initial use at least extraordinarily effective, was the Blitzkreed
method that the Germans used. There had been dispute between
theorists all through the period after World War One and
before World War Two over what the proper role of
(01:20):
the tank was. Right this grossly simplifies the argument, but
in general, the old line regular infantry officers, the men
who were in their thirties and World War One who
would be the general officers in World War Two tended
to regard the tank as an auxiliary to the infantry. Yeah,
(01:44):
whose function was to support the infantry any attack or
in defense. So that the right way, the first uh
the the to make that decisness, say the the the
right use of the tank is to support the infantry.
Then then dictates the design of your tank. If that's so,
If that's the role you're going to use the tank for.
You don't want speed in a tank. You don't want
(02:04):
a tank that's going to go faster than marching infantry.
Which you do want is an awful lot of heavy armor,
so that that tank becomes practically a moving fortress that
creeps its way along the battlefield at about the pace
of an advancing soldier and provides protection for them and
provides he can get in behind it, and provides firepower
form in front. You want as much firepower as you
(02:26):
can get. You're not concerned about how many miles to
the gallon that tank's going to get or what its
range is. You want a tank that is designed less
for operating on a road at high speed. Then you
want a tank that is capable of getting across ditches
and through muddy fields. And most of all, you organize
the tanks by spreading them out. If their role is
(02:48):
to protect the industry, you got to spread them out
with the infantry, so that there's a battalion of tanks
in every division of infantry, and they're divided up into
their respective companies and fed out among the regiments the
battalions of the infantry, and the tanks operate then directly
with the infantry as individual weapons. Again, I know I'm
(03:08):
grossly oversimplifying here, but the other way of looking at
tanks was the proper role of the tank is an
independent one. That the great advantage of the tank brings
to you is mobility and speed. And the way to
utilize mobility and speed is to build light fast tanks
that can operate on roads and get a lot of
(03:29):
miles to the gowns so that their range is very great,
and put them all together into armored divisions and let
the infantry break through the enemy's prepared defensive position. But
once the entry is broken through, then you bring the
tanks in as units and they pour behind the enemy
lines and encircle the enemy and cut off as front
(03:50):
line troops and separate them from their headquarters and from
any hope of reinforcement, and shoot up headquarters back in
the rear, and in short, have the independent function. The
victors of World War One tended to look at the
tank in the first way, that is, its proper role
was with infantry, because after all, they won the First
(04:11):
World War, and they won it with infantry, so they
didn't see much point in changing tactics or doctrine. The
people who lost the First World War figured they'd done
something wrong and they'd better figure out some new doctrines
and some new tactics, and the Germans did. Even though
it was British authors Liddell Hart and JFC Fuller most
(04:33):
of all, who foresaw the role of the tank as
an independent weapon, it was the German serving officers who
picked this up. Gadarion Ronald and Hitler was a revolutionary
in his attitude towards weapons. Hitler had been at the
cutting edge of the First World War. He'd been a
runner in the trenches on the Western Front. It had
(04:57):
an impression, made it a pression line like anybody else
that was in that that was the trench system of
the First World War. It was determined to avoid that
if at all possible, And he was very keen on
new ways of doing things and new ideas, and he
was thus receptive to what his tank commanders, his younger
(05:18):
tank commanders, were telling him about the possibilities of the tank.
And so Blitzkrieg became the doctor of the German army
and the tank took an independent role, and the German
tanks of nineteen thirty nine forty were characterized by lightness, speed, maneuverability,
durability and range. Germany's strategic needs changed in the course
(05:42):
of the war. By nineteen forty two, Germany was on
the defensive, no longer on the offensive, and for defensive
warfare those light, fast tanks were inappropriate. Now the Germans
needed big, heavy tanks they could both or a infantry
position and take on a defensive role. So that Germany's
(06:06):
tanks tended to grow during the war, and then grow
some more, and then grow some more until they doubled
and then doubled again in size. And the armament went
up from fifty caliber machine guns to seventy five millimeter
cannon to eighty eight milimeter cannon and the armor thickness
increased on them, and they got bigger and bigger and bigger,
up to sixty eight tons, and then even bigger than that,
(06:27):
and consequently they got less and less miles to the gallon,
and so their range was reduced drastically, until by the
climax of the war, the winner of forty four to
forty five, the Germans were turning out their new Tiger tanks,
which were twice as big as any tank that the
Americans had, and almost four times as big as the
tanks Germany was using the Mark one and two at
(06:50):
the beginning of the war, carrying an eighty eight milimeter cannon,
a formidable weapon. That German Tiger tank terribly clumsy and
awfully slow, with very little range to it. The Sherman tank,
the basic American tank of the Second World War, was
(07:12):
a relatively light, relatively lightly armored, not really very well armed.
It carried a seventy five millimeter cannon. But it was fast,
it was maneuverable, it was small. It was half the
size of a tiger. The Tiger got a third of
the mile to the gallon of gasoline. The Sherman was
(07:34):
close to three miles per gallon of gasoline. That's a
three times that's nine times better. And the Sherman was
small and compact relatively, so that for the same deck
space that would get you one hundred t thirty fours
across the Europe and into the battle with the Sherman,
you could get two hundred into the battle. American tankers
(07:55):
complained all through the war and have complained to this
day about being inadequately equipped to fight against Panzer regiments
and divisions because the Tiger and the Panther that preceded it,
and German tanks in general were tank for tank better
than the American tanks. But you didn't have to fight
(08:19):
the Tiger face to face gun to gun. You could
slip around. You can move so much faster than it
could it had such a slow traverse to it. Also,
you had so many more Shermans. The tactics were developed
by the tankers in the course of the Second World
War that two guys would spot a Tiger and they'd
call it in two more Shermans, and they would circle
around and keep it occupied, and guys would get in on
(08:40):
the side of it and then fire into the boogie
wheels and decommissioned that tank, and it was done over
and over again.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
And what storytelling by Steven Ambrose on the weapons of war,
and terrific explanation of the differences in these tanks and
their very functions, and my goodness, the difference in what
the Germans were looking for in the beginning, speed and
as time went on size. It's like David and Goliath.
In the end, huge opponent, the other guy's got the
sling shot. There are ups and downs. You have to
(09:12):
make choices and trade offs in the weapons of war,
and that's what we learned here. The Germans in the
end went for the size. We went for the speed
and the mobility and the range. The stories of the
weapons of war with Stephen Ambrose here on our American
Stories
And we continue with our American Stories. Stephen Ambrose was
one of America's leading biographers and historians. He passed in
two thousand and two, but his epic storytelling accounts can
now be heard here at our American Stories, thanks to
those who run his estate. Our next story is the
story of weapons used in World War Two. Here again
(00:32):
is Stephen Ambrose.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
A lot of improvement in the tank by the time
the Second World War came along, and then a lot
of improvements were made in the tank during the Second
World War, so the tank became the queen of the battlefield,
the decisive weapon of ground warfare. Everybody had their own tanks,
and their own tank design, and their own ideas about
tank tactics. The first to come along with a doctrine
(00:59):
that was put into practice and proved to be in
its initial use at least extraordinarily effective, was the Blitzkreed
method that the Germans used. There had been dispute between
theorists all through the period after World War One and
before World War Two over what the proper role of
(01:20):
the tank was. Right this grossly simplifies the argument, but
in general, the old line regular infantry officers, the men
who were in their thirties and World War One who
would be the general officers in World War Two tended
to regard the tank as an auxiliary to the infantry. Yeah,
(01:44):
whose function was to support the infantry any attack or
in defense. So that the right way, the first uh
the the to make that decisness, say the the the
right use of the tank is to support the infantry.
Then then dictates the design of your tank. If that's so,
If that's the role you're going to use the tank for.
You don't want speed in a tank. You don't want
(02:04):
a tank that's going to go faster than marching infantry.
Which you do want is an awful lot of heavy armor,
so that that tank becomes practically a moving fortress that
creeps its way along the battlefield at about the pace
of an advancing soldier and provides protection for them and
provides he can get in behind it, and provides firepower
form in front. You want as much firepower as you
(02:26):
can get. You're not concerned about how many miles to
the gallon that tank's going to get or what its
range is. You want a tank that is designed less
for operating on a road at high speed. Then you
want a tank that is capable of getting across ditches
and through muddy fields. And most of all, you organize
the tanks by spreading them out. If their role is
(02:48):
to protect the industry, you got to spread them out
with the infantry, so that there's a battalion of tanks
in every division of infantry, and they're divided up into
their respective companies and fed out among the regiments the
battalions of the infantry, and the tanks operate then directly
with the infantry as individual weapons. Again, I know I'm
(03:08):
grossly oversimplifying here, but the other way of looking at
tanks was the proper role of the tank is an
independent one. That the great advantage of the tank brings
to you is mobility and speed. And the way to
utilize mobility and speed is to build light fast tanks
that can operate on roads and get a lot of
(03:29):
miles to the gowns so that their range is very great,
and put them all together into armored divisions and let
the infantry break through the enemy's prepared defensive position. But
once the entry is broken through, then you bring the
tanks in as units and they pour behind the enemy
lines and encircle the enemy and cut off as front
(03:50):
line troops and separate them from their headquarters and from
any hope of reinforcement, and shoot up headquarters back in
the rear, and in short, have the independent function. The
victors of World War One tended to look at the
tank in the first way, that is, its proper role
was with infantry, because after all, they won the First
(04:11):
World War, and they won it with infantry, so they
didn't see much point in changing tactics or doctrine. The
people who lost the First World War figured they'd done
something wrong and they'd better figure out some new doctrines
and some new tactics, and the Germans did. Even though
it was British authors Liddell Hart and JFC Fuller most
(04:33):
of all, who foresaw the role of the tank as
an independent weapon, it was the German serving officers who
picked this up. Gadarion Ronald and Hitler was a revolutionary
in his attitude towards weapons. Hitler had been at the
cutting edge of the First World War. He'd been a
runner in the trenches on the Western Front. It had
(04:57):
an impression, made it a pression line like anybody else
that was in that that was the trench system of
the First World War. It was determined to avoid that
if at all possible, And he was very keen on
new ways of doing things and new ideas, and he
was thus receptive to what his tank commanders, his younger
(05:18):
tank commanders, were telling him about the possibilities of the tank.
And so Blitzkrieg became the doctor of the German army
and the tank took an independent role, and the German
tanks of nineteen thirty nine forty were characterized by lightness, speed, maneuverability,
durability and range. Germany's strategic needs changed in the course
(05:42):
of the war. By nineteen forty two, Germany was on
the defensive, no longer on the offensive, and for defensive
warfare those light, fast tanks were inappropriate. Now the Germans
needed big, heavy tanks they could both or a infantry
position and take on a defensive role. So that Germany's
(06:06):
tanks tended to grow during the war, and then grow
some more, and then grow some more until they doubled
and then doubled again in size. And the armament went
up from fifty caliber machine guns to seventy five millimeter
cannon to eighty eight milimeter cannon and the armor thickness
increased on them, and they got bigger and bigger and bigger,
up to sixty eight tons, and then even bigger than that,
(06:27):
and consequently they got less and less miles to the gallon,
and so their range was reduced drastically, until by the
climax of the war, the winner of forty four to
forty five, the Germans were turning out their new Tiger tanks,
which were twice as big as any tank that the
Americans had, and almost four times as big as the
tanks Germany was using the Mark one and two at
(06:50):
the beginning of the war, carrying an eighty eight milimeter cannon,
a formidable weapon. That German Tiger tank terribly clumsy and
awfully slow, with very little range to it. The Sherman tank,
the basic American tank of the Second World War, was
(07:12):
a relatively light, relatively lightly armored, not really very well armed.
It carried a seventy five millimeter cannon. But it was fast,
it was maneuverable, it was small. It was half the
size of a tiger. The Tiger got a third of
the mile to the gallon of gasoline. The Sherman was
(07:34):
close to three miles per gallon of gasoline. That's a
three times that's nine times better. And the Sherman was
small and compact relatively, so that for the same deck
space that would get you one hundred t thirty fours
across the Europe and into the battle with the Sherman,
you could get two hundred into the battle. American tankers
(07:55):
complained all through the war and have complained to this
day about being inadequately equipped to fight against Panzer regiments
and divisions because the Tiger and the Panther that preceded it,
and German tanks in general were tank for tank better
than the American tanks. But you didn't have to fight
(08:19):
the Tiger face to face gun to gun. You could
slip around. You can move so much faster than it
could it had such a slow traverse to it. Also,
you had so many more Shermans. The tactics were developed
by the tankers in the course of the Second World
War that two guys would spot a Tiger and they'd
call it in two more Shermans, and they would circle
around and keep it occupied, and guys would get in on
(08:40):
the side of it and then fire into the boogie
wheels and decommissioned that tank, and it was done over
and over again.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
And what storytelling by Steven Ambrose on the weapons of war,
and terrific explanation of the differences in these tanks and
their very functions, and my goodness, the difference in what
the Germans were looking for in the beginning, speed and
as time went on size. It's like David and Goliath.
In the end, huge opponent, the other guy's got the
sling shot. There are ups and downs. You have to
(09:12):
make choices and trade offs in the weapons of war,
and that's what we learned here. The Germans in the
end went for the size. We went for the speed
and the mobility and the range. The stories of the
weapons of war with Stephen Ambrose here on our American
Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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