Tankies, UK BBC2 7 ocklock tonight.

[jarndice]

The Second World War ended in September 1945, The Comet entered the war in December 1944 the first 6 Centurions arrived in Belgium in June 1945.
Which makes my statement "Late WW2 British Tanks" totally accurate.

[jarndice]

Your dismissal of the Vickers Comet does it a disservice,
"The Comet was widely respected as one of the best British Tanks of the war"
It continued to serve in the RAC until 1958 remaining in service in foreign armies until the 1980s,
The Comet led directly to the development of the Vickers Centurion whose history hardly needs any comment from me.

[General Jumbo01]

I made no reference to the Comet in my post. The Centurion missed action, too late. Yes the Comet was the best British WW2 tank but completion was minimal! Let's face it, that's why we relied so heavily on the US supplied armour, itself not exactly outstanding. The best was the marriage of the Sherman and the British 17 pounder but even that lacked armour. Thank goodness Hitler attacked Russia.

This is all just my opinion of course. Based on fact

[jarndice]

I made no reference to the Comet in my post"

"Yes the Comet was the best British WW2 tank but completion was minimal! :

Point one, You make my point for me.

And Point two.
Over 500 Vickers A34 Comets had been produced by May 1945 (1800 by the end of 1945).

[General Jumbo01]

The war in Europe, as we are reminded, finished in May 1945. What point am l making for you - l said the Comet was the best British WW2 tank. It had to be, the rest were sadly all inadequate. That doesn't make it compare with tanks produced by Germany and Russia.

Part two is on tonight. Let's see what foulups they feature in that! I guess with Monty getting into his stride we may do a little better. I wonder how they'll explain why we stopped short of Berlin and let the Russians do the job. What a howler of a political mistake that was.

[Exhibitedbrute]

Yeah it would be interesting to see why that decision was made

[jarndice]

General Eisenhower was privy to the agreement made between Stalin, Churchill and Trueman that allocated East Germany to the Soviet Union and West Germany to the British and American armed forces, and in conversation with Georgi Zhukov he assured him that the Western Armed Forces would leave Berlin to the Soviet Army and after the defeat of the German defenders only then would British and American Military Personel move into their allocated Zones,
He was heard to say why would I waste the lives of the men in my command when we would have to hand everything over to the Soviets afterwards.
Before anyone points out that the French had Sectors in both West Germany and Berlin,
The reason was that when General Degaulle learned how Germany was to be carved up he demanded in the charming and persuasive way for which he was famed that France should have their own sectors,
The British and Americans said ok BUT they doubted the Soviet Union would agree,
To their surprise the Soviet Union said they had no objection and that as far as they were concerned the Western allies could give away as much or as little of West Germany and West Berlin to France as they wanted
And that is how the Soviet Union appeared to have a larger sector than the Western Powers,
The carve up happening AFTER the initial agreement had laid down the borders.

[43rdRecceReg]

This show, about the trials and successes of 5th RTR (Royal Tank Regiment) throughout the War, is well researched, well illustrated with archive footage, and well presented by Mark Urban- a former tank commander. It has been on the Box several times before, but is always worth another sofa session.
Interviews with surviving members of the Regiment are characterised by those typically understated, and modest, accounts of hard fighting in the Desert and N.W.Europe. We will never see their like again.

As for knocking British tanks. Well, there's plenty of evidence that it wasn't so much tank-on-tank encounters that revealed some of their shortcomings, but time and time again, the dread 88mm anti-tank gun. I've seen accounts of the Comet knocking a Tiger 1 out, and of the durability- and versatility (bridge-laying, flamethrowing, etc.,) of the Churchill, which went on to serve with distinction (because of its incredible hillclimbing ability) in the Korean War. The Cromwell was fast and manoeuverable, and if they'd managed to fit the 17-Pounder to it, would have been a decent tank.
Until the 17-Pounder came along, all British and American tanks were relatively undergunned for tank-on- tank action, but only when the Tiger, Panther and King Tiger came along.
It's also worth remembering that it was a squad of Churchills that disabled Tiger 131. Given 131s current unique status, we really have to be grateful for the presence of the Churchill in the desert campaign. It was slow, but it had great armour that gave the crew better defensive capability than the Sherman. British tanks had some good qualities, and with time (which was short in Wartime) could have been made much better.

[General Jumbo01]

I enjoyed the frank way in which 5th's war was presented, making the most of a bad deal. Were they hero's or simply soldiers doing their job? Define heros. Are NHS workers heros or simply medical staff doing their job, even when it's not very nice?

It's all words, but again it portrayed our tanks as inadequate with some having a good feature but never a complete package. Comets were notable by their absence. However, that doesn't reflect on the soldiers of the 5th who were clearly unled and lived for French bars and brothels. God bless our boys