One criticism holds that German equipment pursued engineering perfection under conditions unlike those in which it had to operate. A counterargument rejects the swing from treating every German design as exceptional to treating all of them as useless. Panthers and Tigers had transmission problems, but the Pershing is offered as an Allied comparison. The stronger shared complaint concerns continual changes and too many models to support. Four Panzer IVs in one unit are used as an example of vehicles that could require distinctly different supply arrangements. Small performance improvements become costly when each creates another set of parts to stock and distribute.
Notable Point · 3:04:57-3:08:15
German tank variants and the cost of avoiding standardisation
The debate separates individual German vehicle performance from the supply burden created by continually changing designs.