Questions on Allied tank tactics/numbers in Normandy

[GliderRecon]

I was wondering if any of the resident armour grogs could help me out with the following questions:

1. Tactical use of smoke. How common was it for Allied tanks to attempt to 'blind' enemy tanks/TDs/AT guns with smoke shells, rather than engage them with AP/HE?

2. Tank positioning. Was it standard practise for a tank aware of a threat at 12'o-clock to re-orientate slightly to reduce the risk of oblique hits?

3. Tank types in Normandy. Where can I go to find information on Allied AFV rarity in the Normandy campaign? For example, I know there were more Shermans on the ground than Cromwells, but I'd like to know the rough ratio.

Many thanks,

Tim

[ebitt]

Appendix 6 of Niklas Zetterling's book "Normandy 1944" gives a daily cumulative total for US and British tank strength. It also gives tanks types for many of the units, but this information is not complete. The TO&E for the unit type is given but not necessarily the exact model of the tank.

[Runyan99]

Despite what a generation of gamers learned playing Steel Panthers, my reading is that smoke was never widely used in WW2.

[Wilhammer]

Despite what a generation of gamers learned playing Steel Panthers, my reading is that smoke was never widely used in WW2.

And Squad Leader / ASL

[Affentitten]

Assuming you see the Panther / Tiger / Jagdpanzer first and probably have time to get one or two shots in before he lights you up, do you opt for (a) a smoke shell that might obscure his field of view, unless of course he just moves a bit, or ( an AP or HE shot that might kill him so you'll survive?

[gunnergoz]

Well, if I'm driving around the battlefield and have my choice of one round to have at the ready, stuck up the old main gun tube, it's sure as heck not going to be smoke.

[Michael Emrys]

...my reading is that smoke was never widely used in WW2.

Oh, it was fairly widely used, but it didn't usually come out of the barrel of a tank. Artillery fired smoke at times to shield movement through open terrain, although they fired vastly more HE. Later in the war the Allies used smoke generators, both static and on vehicles, to mask river crossings. Might be a tossup whether it hindered more than helped operations.

Michael

[Affentitten]

The mass smokescreens were used quite extensively in the European theatre, with the best and most successful example being the Rhine crossing. But as Emrys says, the CM thing of banging a smoke round in front of an enemy vehicle to block its LOS is not really the way things worked.

[Michael Emrys]

Just to clarify, unless they knew for a fact that enemy armor was around, they usually had HE in the tube. And even if they ran into an enemy AFV they would fire the HE at it. Reason being that was the fastest way to unload the round. And even if it failed to do any damage, it might rattle the enemy crew enough to give them time to load an AP round or in extreme cases to initiate a bug out.

Michael

[GliderRecon]

Thanks chaps. That's all very helpful.

[Affentitten]

Also the mix of Allied tank types depends a lot on the nationality, the individual unit and the point in the campaign. Eg 7th Armoured was fullly kitted out with Cromwells plus 25% Fireflies, whilst other Commonwealth units had more Shermans. Recon units also used a ratio of Cromwells as their support because they moved faster than Shermans.