There were really two different groups of tank destroyers in WW2.
The US and UK wanted something that would prevent a situation akin to what came up in the Battle of France, where fast-moving German armor penetrated French lines at Sedan and performed a successful massive exploitation through that breach.
They had fast vehicles that were intended to fight from concealed, defensive positions. But those vehicles had to be able to get out in front of an armored breakthrough in time to parry the thrust. What was critical was speed.
Germany and the Soviet Union, out on the Eastern Front, needed heavily-armored vehicles with big guns to slug it out over open fields with long fields of fire.
While, yes, both were aimed at fighting armor, they weren’t really aimed at the same role, and I kind of wish that the two groups of vehicles had gotten different names, rather than “tank destroyer” being applied to both.
There were really two different groups of tank destroyers in WW2.
The US and UK wanted something that would prevent a situation akin to what came up in the Battle of France, where fast-moving German armor penetrated French lines at Sedan and performed a successful massive exploitation through that breach.
They had fast vehicles that were intended to fight from concealed, defensive positions. But those vehicles had to be able to get out in front of an armored breakthrough in time to parry the thrust. What was critical was speed.
Germany and the Soviet Union, out on the Eastern Front, needed heavily-armored vehicles with big guns to slug it out over open fields with long fields of fire.
While, yes, both were aimed at fighting armor, they weren’t really aimed at the same role, and I kind of wish that the two groups of vehicles had gotten different names, rather than “tank destroyer” being applied to both.