Accordingly, the American role of tanks was not to fight other tanks, but to smash through enemy lines and raise hell in their rear, the traditional role of cavalry. Heinz Guderian and others as well as the Wehrmacht’s blitzkrieg battlefield successes, American armor advocates took away only that part of German tank doctrine that suited them: mass, speed, and maneuver. As such, though Army armor advocates studied writings by armored warfare philosopher Gen. Herr (whose office was not disbanded until 1942). Army was a latecomer to tank warfare, not fielding a mechanized armor corps until 1940, and was prejudicially influenced by horse cavalry advocates led by Chief of Cavalry Maj. Despite a World War I flirtation with (other countries’) tanks, in practical terms the U.S. The reasons for that boiled down to differences in tank doctrine and philosophy based on tradition, prejudice, and circumstance. There was one very good reason for that fear: they didn’t have a weapon powerful enough to stop it. The swampy forested terrain was not conducive to effective armor attacks. The Tiger was first deployed to Leningrad despite opposition from Gen. A Tiger tank at the front near Leningrad, circa 1943.
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