the major problem for both Porsche and Henschel's design, was that tank development was still
extremely new, the knowledge of what works, and what doesn't, wasn't well established until well into the 1950s, and we're
Still on a learning curve today as industrial processes that weren't even
dreamed of in 1940 are being outmoded by methods developed in the last 30 years.
so it's kind of unfair to criticize what was cutting edge thinking in the second world war-they didn't have things like realistic computer modeling or computer aided drafting, or even much real development into materials sciences by today's standards to tell them things like 'flat armor bad', or how to get the most out of each scrap of metal.
much of the raw pragmatic knowledge ("This gearbox is too fiddly") hadn't really evolved or dispersed yet, when those tanks were made.
AND...Germany had a problem. The problem they had, was plenty of coal, and after France, plenty of iron, but the metallurgy was still...kinda shit, honestly. Rare earths like Molybdenum, Tungsten, and Carbides were pretty thin on the ground in the ground they were on, and Germany's not exactly sitting on a lake of oil. The big oil deposits like the North Sea fields weren't just unknown, they were unreachable had they even BEEN known.
so 'tis not really fair to mock the designs-they were the best the Germans could do with available knowledge, given their industries and the ironhanded central control of their economy (a feature of that sort of governance, but also a major flaw of it.)
one of the main reasons that these:
were still in use ten years after the war in front line units, while these:
weren't? is because all that extra armor and huge main gun were overkill for most of the actual roles required, and the weight of all of it was more than the hardware and suspension it was built with could actually handle.
also because the Sherman, was designed to be built and maintained quickly, with easily serviced parts that could be shipped across oceans, making upgrades easier, maintenance simpler, and reliability higher.
The tank you have, if it works, beats ten tanks parked in the lager waiting for spares or broken down on the highway on the way to the battlefield. It's the same principle as "Only shots that hit, do damage." If you can't get your shootahs to the battle, they're of no value in the battle.
