Yoozername wrote: ↑12 Mar 2019, 18:43
Some good points here. My thought about mentioning the JS-II is the weight class is about the same as the Panther, but I would agree the suspension is basically handling a top speed of around 24 MPH. Could the Panther, if it had no motor or drivetrain issues, really drive at 30+ MPH for
extended periods? Would something else fail? Sprocket? Tracks? Hard to tell with WWII technology.
The Panther did have good cross-country and obstacle climbing characteristics. It was certainly addressing 'East-Front' terrain and weather. But given the distances on the east front, and the actual technical limitations of the Panther, it was limited to long hauls on rail roads and given the nature of the battlefields in the west, this would not work as well as in the east.
Its notweorthy to point out that the documents Art retrieved point out that in summer / autumn 1944, the IS-2 service life was still fairly short, with significant damage to running gear occurring after 700-800km (bend torsions, damaged road wheels, track link damage, engine damage) after road marches with avg. 5-6km/h (time to pause are accounted for).
As You mention, it´s cross country mobility was advanced, giving excellent tactical mobility and speed. The PANTHER had excess running gear capacity for the task at hand. However, the problem with the PANTHER was not in battlefield mobility but in strategic mobility. While it could negotiate deep snow and marshy or soft soil like no other medium AFV in ww2, it also was large and heavy, required an enormous amount of logistic capacity, train operation, a lot of fuel, excess demands in stockpiling of spare parts and maintenance due to many elements failing untimely. This meant less of these resources were avialable for other units and ultimately, it let to a higher ratio of AFV been abandoned whenever fluid maneuvre warfare demanded a great frequency of rapid changes of location.
And this is exactly where the M4 and T34 excelled (not so much the IS-2, though). You could rely on them to execute a deep penetration or a rapid retreat without an undue number of tanks beeing knocked out mechanically, and this helps a lot, preserving the fighting strength of a combat unit.