witchbottles
Forum Guru
You forgot to mention the Valiant effort put into producing the Valiant (A38) tank....Japanese: They could be forgiven as their intended victims were the Chinese and various European colonies. The did produce very good light infantry support tanks that were long ranged (first diesel powered tanks in the world) and reliable. They however were under armoured and under gunned compared to everyone else. Basically the wrong land war.
Italian: Only in late '42 or '43 did the Italians produce reliable tanks. For most of the war the produced slow, unreliable tanks with easily shattered armour. They simply were death traps. The only saving grace was the use of the 47/32 gun which was about equal to the British 2 lbr but could also fire HE. It was only by '43 that they surpassed the French in AFV capability and the French had been hors de combat for 3 years.
British: While they did produce an amazing menagerie of lash-ups and trials vehicles, especially during the '40 Invasion Scare, they did roughly keep pace with the US, though not with the USSR and Germany (in turn German development driven a good part by Soviet designs). While many of their prototypes were not up to scratch and abandoned, their only real sin was the A13 Mk III Covenantor, a dreadfully unreliable tank with 1771 built. While many of us have heard of reliability issues with the A15 Crusader in the desert, the Germans had similar hair tearing issues. The Germans though had an advantage in that their tank recovery system was far more efficient and speedy. Both sides tanks in the DTO broke down at a similarly depressing rate but the Germans fixed theirs far, far quicker for most of the Desert Campaign. Finally don't forget that they produced the Centurion, a tank that was among the best for some 30 years.
What really condemns the Japanese and Italians in my eyes were their MGs. While I regard most nations' B11 MGs as being a bit overly harshly treated (though some allowance for possible limited ammo supply), the I/J MGs really deserve B11. Many of them required oiled cartridges to work well and what happens when you mix oil and grit? You get grinding paste! Go figure!
In addition, while their medium/heavy MTRs were in general very good, most I/J artillery were WW1 designs or even manufacture.
While we know that Japanese combatants had suicidal bravery, let us not forget Italian tank and artillery crews who often died beside their guns, little evidence of cowardice with them.
It's tough to beat the whole "Here is a prototype AFV- you guys in tank school crawl through it and make a list of everything you see done wrong in its design, okay?" mentality. That does help it top the list of really bad design decisions...