Side topic:

I have read that the Wehrmacht's tanks, esp. the later ones that
were so large, suffered badly from final drive failures. So much
so that a road march of them for any distance would disable
say 33%. This helped me better understand Allied anti-railroad
tactics...forcing them onto the roads.

[They also lacked tank retrievers of enough strength to
salvage them....]

The failures were because of 2 basic reasons: they lacked
sufficient chromium to fully harden the gearing, and the second
was my question.....

This source (that I now can't find again...) said there was a
way to better design/machine the ring gears needed, but Germany
lacked the tooling/resources to use that approach, and instead
used less strong methods. I inferred the better way needed more
time or a better mill but beyond that, I don't know.

I'm curious about what that might have meant, and wonder if anyone
can speak to gear design issues...


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