Light Tanks

This little group shows a Roco M41 Walker Bulldog, Roco Tiger I and a Paul Heiser Models M24 Chaffee light tank. The Tiger tanks had massively thick armor and powerful guns. An M24 tank hit by one of those would be totally destroyed and not have any realistic chance of doing much against the Tiger.























So why not field a wargame army of nothing but Tiger tanks and other large powerful armored vehicles? In real lift the cost of a Tiger tank is three or four times that of a medium tank and perhaps five or more times the cost of a light tank.























Light tanks are very valuable for many uses. Since they are so cheap, nations could make them in large numbers and they were very capable. This M24 would have a coaxial .30 caliber machine gun, a hull mounted .30 caliber machine gun and a .50 caliber machine gun on the roof, in addition to the low velocity 75 mm cannon. That is a powerful weapon system. Four men each with a weapon to employ against the enemy, much stronger than four men with rifles or with a single machine gun. They were very useful against infantry, trucks, bunkers, and armored cars and armored personnel carriers.























Light tanks were able to cross bridges that heavy tanks could not, and would not tear up the roadways like a 70 ton heavy tank would do. Light tanks were used for recon missions, they would go ahead of the other medium and heavy tanks because they could scout over bridges, and narrow places the larger tanks may not be able to go. The map may say the bridge could hold 70 tons but you don't know until you get there and the light tanks are a good choice to go check it out. So get some light tanks and check out some bridges.