The Wehrmacht In Pictures: A Look At One of History's Legendary Fighting Force

[airmarshal]

Although nothing to do with Wehrmacht thread.

The Autobahn was inaugurated in 1935 (I think?). The highway network became the inspiration of US Highways when Eisenhower saw German Autobahn and copied that idea.

The Germans are true innovators. I give them credit as they were a defeated and heavily sanctioned country after WW1. Yet, through their ingenuity and enterprise, they single-handedly gave so many unique innovations to the world. Hitler was bad but his rocket man, Von Braun, was brought to USA and he helped get the US space program running. The initial research in nuclear weapons was done in Germany. It was their ideas which helped build the first nuclear weapon which Americans dropped on Japan.

 

[mingle]

Although nothing to do with Wehrmacht thread.

The Autobahn was inaugurated in 1935 (I think?). The highway network became the inspiration of US Highways when Eisenhower saw German Autobahn and copied that idea.

The Germans are true innovators. I give them credit as they were a defeated and heavily sanctioned country after WW1. Yet, through their ingenuity and enterprise, they single-handedly gave so many unique innovations to the world. Hitler was bad but his rocket man, Von Braun, was brought to USA and he helped get the US space program running. The initial research in nuclear weapons was done in Germany. It was their ideas which helped build the first nuclear weapon which Americans dropped on Japan.

Autobhan were also main reason that Germany fall quick in 1945 due to rapid troop movements.
They also used autobahn as airstrip for luftwaff another new idea.

 

[SecularNationalist]

The German Wehrmacht remains one of history's most effective fighting force. Known for the discipline of its men, the legendary stiffness of its Prussian officer corp, and the daunting tasks to which this organized fighting force would commit itself to on all the major fronts of the European theater, earning the admiration of both friend and foe alike, the Wehrmacht remains yet to be paralleled by any other Army to this day. On every major front and against all odds, the Wehrmacht held its own against numerically superior adversaries

Well i think before saying so you should not forget they got their a$$es handed over to them by the russian red army.So decide who was the best during WW2.

 

[Desert Fox]

Well i think before saying so you should not forget they got their a$$es handed over to them by the russian red army.So decide who was the best during WW2.

Mmmmm, cool story bro, I guess.

 

[Hassan_Ishtiaq]

Well i think before saying so you should not forget they got their a$$es handed over to them by the russian red army.So decide who was the best during WW2.

You need to review your history before yapping, would do you good:

One Germany vs. Russia, America, Britain (colonies included), France (colonies included).

It took the combined might of all four of these countries to defeat Germany. Now that is GREATNESS!

by the russian red army.

Yeah the red army that got its a$$ handed to it by the Germans and had to go beg Americans for assistance

Just look at the KD ratio on the eastern front. Russians lost 15 combatants for every one German.

Seriously kiddo, brush up on history before yapping.

 

[SecularNationalist]

You need to review your history before yapping, would do you good:

One Germany vs. Russia, America, Britain (colonies included), France (colonies included).

It took the combined might of all four of these countries to defeat Germany. Now that is GREATNESS!


Yeah the red army that got its a$$ handed to it by the Germans and had to go beg Americans for assistance

Just look at the KD ratio on the eastern front. Russians lost 15 combatants for every one German.

Seriously kiddo, brush up on history before yapping.

lol this faggot invented his own version of history and war statistics.
Soviets never begged americans.Americans jumped into the scene at the end of the war to take credit.A fight from moscow to berlin was a one for one fight between the red army and Wehrmacht.Germans were failed to defend their cities like the red army defended their cities of Stalingrad and moscow.There was little resistance from the cheese eating french because they surrendered too early and the brits were too busy defending their own cities. Without the red army you would be speaking german today.Though i agree the wehrmacht was better trained than the british,other european and american armies but eventually they were defeated by the red army.So calling a wehrmacht the best is utter non sense.As the saying goes "har ustad ka aik ustad hota hai "
Now stop yapping from your moms basement kiddo
@vostok

 

[vostok]

lol this faggot invented his own version of history and war statistics.
Soviets never begged americans.Americans jumped into the scene at the end of the war to take credit.A fight from moscow to berlin was a one for one fight between the red army and Wehrmacht.Germans were failed to defend their cities like the red army defended their cities of Stalingrad and moscow.There was little resistance from the cheese eating french because they surrendered too early and the brits were too busy defending their own cities. Without the red army you would be speaking german today.Though i agree the wehrmacht was better trained than the british,other european and american armies but eventually they were defeated by the red army.So calling a wehrmacht the best is utter non sense.As the saying goes "har ustad ka aik ustad hota hai "
Now stop yapping from your moms basement kiddo
@vostok

I've noticed that there are a lot of Nazi fans on this site. I suppose they all are tall and blond and have Nordic chin.
And about 15:1 losses. In this reality, where we all living, it was 10 mln Soviets vs 8-9 mln Nazis (Germans, Hungarians, Romanians and all others who attacked USSR).

 

[Signalian]

Lot of design teams were somewhat joined at the hip given the larger need for cooperation in time of war etc. I believe Harley Earl (GM design studios exec) and the ordnance corps had several meeting of the minds especially when the M2/M3 chassis was deemed not sufficient for sustained use (past M3, M4, M5 etc) and a newer concept was developed for both tank and tank destroyer chassis (w.r.t suspension, layout, powertrain etc). There are notable differences between M-18 and M-24 chassis if you look close...but you are right there is lot of convergent evolution too. It is pretty indicative phenomenon of that era more broadly to achieve enough economy of scale quickly.

I think Stug-III was a decent ambush vehicle, minus the deficiency that loss of tracks will incapacitate it firing ability and mobility. Same for Marder (I,II,III), Nashron and Ferdinand.
Russians also has turret-less TD's (SU-series) where as USA's tank destroyers had turrets.

King Tiger tank of schwere Panzer Abteilung 503. Tank number 231

King Tiger

Panzerkampfwagen V Panther in combat

Panzerkampfwagen V Panther number 442

Were there any Panthers in Afrika Korps?

 

[Nilgiri]

I think Stug-III was a decent ambush vehicle, minus the deficiency that loss of tracks will incapacitate it firing ability and mobility. Same for Marder (I,II,III), Nashron and Ferdinand.
Russians also has turret-less TD's (SU-series) where as USA's tank destroyers had turrets.


Were there any Panthers in Afrika Korps?

Yes, there was a good debate back then of turret vs casemate design in interests of production economy, profile height, available chassis optimisation etc etc for especially TD's that influenced the final choice on the matter. The simplicity and no need for turret swivel etc...often meant you can uprate the gun you can put inside in a casemate. This is notable esp with stug III (which was assault gun originally and then transitioned into TD role over time as the war changed)...they were able to take the panzer III and put a much bigger gun in it because of the casemate simplicity and robustness.

The last major casemate armoured vehicle (past APCs, IFVs and howitzers) was the S-tank of Sweden I believe....again highly optimized for profile and defensive/delay role (against large invading soviet formations).

@Desert Fox @The Sandman

BTW @Signalian do you follow Nick Moran (The Chieftain) on youtube?....he goes into a lot of this subject in detail as hes exploring the various tanks inside and out.

Were there any Panthers in Afrika Korps?

I don't believe there were. The (esp heavy) logistics were too finicky to stretch over there (not to mention when Panther came into service, African theater was on the wane, and the priority focus was switching quickly to buttressing up the eastern front)....Germans largely made do with panzer 3's and 4s in african theater.

 

[The Sandman]

Were there any Panthers in Afrika Korps?

No first production units of Panthers were riddled with all kinds of mechanical problems. By the time these issues were addressed in mid to late 1943 N. Africa Campaign was over.

Yes, there was a good debate back then of turret vs casemate design in interests of production economy, profile height, available chassis optimisation etc etc for especially TD's that influenced the final choice on the matter. The simplicity and no need for turret swivel etc...often meant you can uprate the gun you can put inside in a casemate. This is notable esp with stug III (which was assault gun originally and then transitioned into TD role over time as the war changed)...they were able to take the panzer III and put a much bigger gun in it because of the casemate simplicity and robustness.

The last major casemate armoured vehicle (past APCs, IFVs and howitzers) was the S-tank of Sweden I believe....again highly optimized for profile and defensive/delay role (against large invading soviet formations).

@Desert Fox @The Sandman

Tho Stug 3 was more reliable and deadly TD esp later in defensive roles i like Jagd Panzer IV (for extremely low profile and accurate gun it looks really beautiful to me hehe) and Jagd Panther (for that sloped armor and way more deadly gun) more.

 

[Zhukov]

Truth being told. Axis forces ripped apart the old Colonial world order out of the sky.
The Rise of Modern Ideology driven Age defeated the Axis Power i.e the Americans and Soviets.
No matter what anyone wants to believes. Axis powers tore apart British empire which subsequently led to freedom of its colonies from British rule. Same goes for France. If their was no Empire of japan ripping Great Britain apart in Asia and Germany back home in Europe Forget about Independent India or Pakistan.
When Americans and Russians Came of Top as Super powers they came with their own rules of engagements i.e Democracy and Rule of the People and old colonial powers were forced out subsequently.
The Predominant Colonial powers France and United Kingdom Completely Lost to Germany and Japan.
It was USA and USSR that actually Defeated the Axis so European friends should not try to take much credit for Fall of the Axis

 

[Nilgiri]

No first production units of Panthers were riddled with all kinds of mechanical problems. By the time these issues were addressed in mid to late 1943 N. Africa Campaign was over.

Tho Stug 3 was more reliable and deadly TD esp later in defensive roles i like Jagd Panzer IV (for extremely low profile and accurate gun it looks really beautiful to me hehe) and Jagd Panther (for that sloped armor and way more deadly gun) more.

Hehe, we have a Jagdpanzer IV at the national war museum in Ottawa here in Canada. Some snaps I (or my buds, I cant remember) took of it before:

Points if you can recognise the tanks flanking the jagd.

This war museum has an excellent collection btw of armoured vehicles, this area where this jagd is....is like a full large basement/atrium of glorious 20th century armour/guns/vehicles just lined up (coz they didnt have room in the main exhibit areas in the higher floors).

@Vergennes @Desert Fox @Signalian @GeraltofRivia @Psychic

 

[Vergennes]

I've noticed that there are a lot of Nazi fans on this site. I suppose they all are tall and blond and have Nordic chin.
.

One must wonder why..

 

[The Sandman]

Ah what a beautiful machine.

Points if you can recognise the tanks flanking the jagd.

Looks like Cromwell and Panzer I.

This war museum has an excellent collection btw of armoured vehicles, this area where this jagd is....is like a full large basement/atrium of glorious 20th century armour/guns/vehicles just lined up (coz they didnt have room in the main exhibit areas in the higher floors).

Looks like i have to go to Canada now.

 

[Nilgiri]

Looks like Cromwell and Panzer I.

Close enough....Churchill and Panzer II

With the churchill, what always gives it away quickly is the multiple (11!) bogie-(smaller) wheel suspension.

Looks like i have to go to Canada now.

Yeah lot of Wehrmacht stuff here in this museum...because a lot of it was war spoils etc that Canadian army brought back with it after WW2 ended....and originally a lot of it was just stored in army warehouses etc...till they made this newer large museum (to replace the old one which was running out of room). There are still a cpl or so full fledged armour storage museums that are not official museums (more like collections)....simply no room for it all in one place.

I remember visiting it (quite frequently, since thursday evenings were free of cost) when I was studying in college and my buds and we would snoop around to peek at what they were doing behind the scenes...and getting a glimpse of stuff we couldn't really make out....so I remember where they were restoring this beauty (though I couldn't tell exactly what it was)...that finally did come out when it was good and ready:

BTW @Desert Fox have you come across this channel before? They seem to do lot of heavy post processing/speeding etc to give a more dynamic feel to the video footage: