just read chapters five and six, as scanned by AK on their site; there are NOTABLE differences between the manga and the anime with regards to the first battle against the british team onwards;
first: while the lee is the first to get knocked out, the Type 89 scores a successful kill against a matilda by shooting its side armor from a hiding spot in the garage (As opposed to the lift version, where it just detonates a fuel tank)
second: the order to move into the city (which is part of the battlefield) is made explicit due to full knowledge that their tanks are inferior to the british vehicles.
third: no tank hypermaneuverablity: while Ooorai's panzer IV takes out two of the three tanks, one of them is immobilized via destruction of the tracks and the other is killed via a hit to the side of the turret, as is consistent with the Panzer IV Ausf D's capabilities. The bum rush at the Churchill (which ends the same way as the anime) is very clearly an option of last resort rather than a valid tactic.
fourth: the battle against Saunders is barely mentioned at all in chapter six, other than a page showing the flag sheman being taken out via a hit to the turret above the gun mantle; chapter six focuses primarily on the
much needed (and this is explicitly recognized) overhaul of equipment due to obsolesence as demonstrated in the battle against Saunders; the Panzer IV is upgraded from its Ausf D. configuration to the Ausf G. configuration, complete with its L44 75mm, and the search for new tanks resumes, which turns up (as of the end of chapter six) a French Char B1 Bis, the monster-whale of a breakthrough tank that the Germans struggled to defeat upon their initial invasion of france in 1940; records document that it sometimes faced 12:1 odds and survived, despite the
distinct disadvantages that the lack of radios and the one-man turret provided; for its time, it was so good that:
In direct meetings with German tanks the Char B1 usually had the better of it, sometimes spectacularly so as when on 16 May a single tank,
Eure (commanded by Captain
Pierre Billotte), frontally attacked and destroyed thirteen German tanks lying in ambush in
Stonne, all of them
Panzer IIIs and
Panzer IVs, in the course of a few minutes.
[2] The tank safely returned despite being hit 140 times. (see: wikipedia)
this will be especially relevant against the upcoming match with Anzio (italian tanks were, for the most part, light and cavalry tanks that earned infamy as horrific deathtraps); the B1 could probably defeat them all by itself.
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