Танки создаются не для того, чтобы воевать с by tanks. Their task is different, and it is enclosed (depending on the class of the vehicle) either in rapid advance along the enemy’s rear areas to cover defensive areas, or in direct hacking of enemy fortifications. In the first case, light tanks are used, in the second - medium and heavy ones.
The greatest tank battles in the history of thiskind of troops occurred in the XX century, during the Second World War. Each of these battles was the result of erroneous actions of the general staffs, which necessitated the adoption of emergency measures to prevent a breakthrough of the front. However, such situations have arisen in the past century more than once.
If we evaluate the greatest tank battles bythe number of combat vehicles that took part in them, several such historical episodes can be considered in such super-battles, in which hundreds of armored vehicles fought simultaneously.
Little North African village El Alameinbecame world famous due to the fact that in 1944 in the desert not far from it, six hundred German and Italian tanks met with British tanks, which numbered 1,200 vehicles.
Были на Западном фронте и в Африке другие великие tank battles, but they are far from the scale of the Kursk operation, which in general was a gigantic head-on battle when each side tried to break the enemy’s defenses by breaking them and launching a decisive attack.
In the same year, the large-scale American counteroffensive in the Ardennes was a response to the Germans' attempt to defeat the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe, moving the SS Panzer Division against it.
The real picture of this great battle is different fromthe one with whom the Soviet moviegoer is familiar with the film "Liberation". The advantages of the thirty-fours in maneuverability were partly offset by the fact that the Germans, in cases where it was possible, realized the main plus of the "royal tigers" and "panthers" that had appeared recently, that is, a long range of aimed shooting. Like many other great tank battles, Prokhorovka did not become a place of final triumph for either side, each of which suffered heavy losses. Hundreds of cars were burned, the victims of the Germans turned out to be less significant, but they became fatal for the Wehrmacht because of the smaller possibilities for the reproduction of the destroyed equipment.
In the second half of the 20th century,the greatest tank battles, in which armored vehicles taking part on both sides were calculated in four-digit numbers. In the “Doomsday War”, the steel fist of Syria fell on the position of the Israeli army. It happened in early October 1973. Arab troops had a sevenfold advantage, their cars were equipped with night vision devices, which gave undoubted advantages during the battles in the dark, but they could not succeed.
Modern anti-tank weapons, includingwhich ATGMs, mines, cumulative shells, assault aircraft, and much more, made the tanks extremely vulnerable. Despite this, the production and continuous improvement of armored vehicles continues, because there are no other ways to occupy the territory. Tactical methods of using machines are changing, which are less and less attacking head-on. About the oncoming battles have not been heard for a long time, and, apparently, the greatest tank battles will remain on the pages of textbooks on military history.
