True, although you can argue about well made. Consider that there were only about 1200 Tigers made for the entire war. The Russians made about 40,000 T-34's. About the "well made", that's subjective and arguable. We talk about over engineered at times, but the fact remains that the early German tanks were little more than machine gun carriers (panzer I's), mortars/howitzers (panzer II's) at the start of the war. The French had much better and more numerous tanks (like the Somua or Bis 1) but used them improperly and piecemeal. The later tanks like the Tiger and Panther were horribly unreliable with transmission failures most common. It's been said more of the Tigers and Panthers were lost to breakdown and abandonment than to enemy action. On top of that, repair was a nightmare. You have to remove the turret to get to the transmission. At best a swap out may be a two day job. VS 4 or 5 hours for the Sherman. Many tank guys think the Panzer IV was their best tank overall. If the Panther came out a little earlier with the bugs worked out and in number, that could have been a game changer. But when you deploy 24 tanks and 2 out of 3 don't go beyond 20 miles before a major breakdown, well you know.
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