I think you are mixing up the Tigers - the Tiger I frontal plate was 80mm thick and vertical - it was penetrated on a few occasions by heavy shells. The Tiger II glacis plate was 100mm thick and sloped at 40 deg - as far as is known it was never penetrated in action.
The Sherman turret was cast but wasn't cast iron - it was cast steel.
The advantage the German tanks had was that they could engage at long range, often over 1500m, and have a reasonable chance of getting a kill, long before the Sherman's gun was in range. The longest range kill in WW2 was 4300m when a Nashorn (8.8cm L/71 gun) got a lucky hit on an IS-2.
Regards,
Charlie
|