Glass Cannon/Real Life: Difference between revisions

 

* Since the introduction of gunpowder in the High Middle Ages, Artillery Cannons are (probably) the very first and oldest definition of this trope: Deadly when given a chance to attack from a safe distance but easily neutralized by the destruction of its crew and/or the cannon itself.

** American tank destroyers during [[World War II]] were ''very'' lightly armoured, in most cases lacking a roof for their turret which exposed the crew to all kinds of nasty unpleasantness like enemy fire, grenades, and worst of all, rain, which is just plain mean-spirited on the part of the idiots who came up with that idea to shave off some weight. They usually mounted a bigger gun than friendly tanks and were [[Fragile Speedster|extremely fast]]: the [[wikipedia:M18 Hellcat|M18 Hellcat]] can clock up to 55 mph on good roads. However, the whole American doctrine was more or less bunk, since by that time the Germans were on the defensive, and the undergunned American Shermans often wound up facing them instead, without any tank destroyer help most of the time. The Germans and Russians on the other hand, made theirs more akin to [[Mighty Glacier]]s instead.

*** M36 Jackson had the excellent 90mm gun which could destroy any German tank at distance. Sadly, it had Sherman chassis and lightly armoured body. It could stand against most infantry and light arms, but against heavier German or North Korean tanks, its first round had to count. (Fortunately, it usually counted.) The Yugoslavians converted M36 into a real tank by up-armouring it and changing the diesel into that of T-62. They served in the Croatian Army to 2005.