In mid-1942, Rommel had 561 German and Italian tanks, but he relied most on his 250 German medium tanks. But even they were completely outclassed in guns and armour by the 167 American "Grant" tanks which now formed the backbone of the British armoured strength of some 850 tanks. Only Rommel's 19 Mk III Speci al tanks could hold their own with the Grants. When the Grants came along armed with the American 75mm gun, they were able to stave off the enemy for a while, but there were not enough Grants at Tobruk, so the British were baack on their 2 pdrs again. Unfortunately, the Grant had the serious handicap of being unable to fire from a hull-down position because its powerful 75mm gun was mounted in the tank's hull and so possessed a very limited traverse. The British had a large number of Crusader tanks with the 2 pdr gun, that gave them a qualitative and quantitative superiority based on armor and guns alone. However, these tanks, which formed the bulk of the British armor, were unreliable, partly due to poor maintenance and partly due to short track life. The American Stuart were armed with a 37mm gun. Although the fastest moving tank in the desert, the "Honey" had to get to close quarters before its small gun had any chance of penetrating German armor. Back to Table of Contents -- Wargamer's Newsletter # 156 To Wargamer's Newsletter List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1975 by Donald Featherstone. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com