Wehrmacht - One of the Best Fighting Force World ever saw

The Sandman · Mar 5, 2018

Wehrmacht one of the most professional highly trained and a respected military force whose officers and Generals earned respect from their enemies too known for it's blitzkrieg tactics Wehrmacht sweeped through Europe in less than 2 years and reached the gates of Moscow in just 6 months. Wehrmacht was most of the time outnumbered by their enemies but with superior battle tactics and technology excellent use of fast moving Panzers combining them with infantry and with the CAS of the world's best airforce at that time "The Luftwaffe" Wehrmacht always managed to surprise the enemies and most of the inflicted way more casualties to the enemy forces than they received.

Wehrmacht consisted of 3 branches the Heer (army), Luftwaffe (airforce) and Kriegsmarine (navy). Wehrmacht had one of the worlds best tacticians and commanders like Heinz W. Guderian, Erwin Rommel, Erich Von Manstein, Gerd von Rundstedt, Walther Model and many more. So now time to take a look at this legendary fighting force.

Russia 1941 a soldier carrying a "Flammenwerfer"

German_Soldier_with_Flamethrower_Somewhere_in_Russia_1941.jpg

Soldiers with MG-34 and Mortar

wehrmacht_soldiers_with_a_machine_gun_MG_34_and_mortar.jpg

Messerchmitt BF 109 backbone of Luftwaffe
This is a Bf 109 G4/R3 model

Heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen of Kriegsmarine

The Sandman · Mar 5, 2018

@Nilgiri @Joe Shearer @Tps77 and others

Joe Shearer · Mar 5, 2018

The Sandman said:
Wehrmacht one of the most professional highly trained and a respected military force whose officers and Generals earned respect from their enemies too known for it's blitzkrieg tactics Wehrmacht sweeped through Europe in less than 2 years and reached the gates of Moscow in just 6 months. Wehrmacht was most of the time outnumbered by their enemies but with superior battle tactics and technology excellent use of fast moving Panzers combining them with infantry and with the CAS of the world's best airforce at that time "The Luftwaffe" Wehrmacht always managed to surprise the enemies and most of the inflicted way more casualties to the enemy forces than they received.

Wehrmacht consisted of 3 branches the Heer (army), Luftwaffe (airforce) and Kriegsmarine (navy). Wehrmacht had one of the worlds best tacticians and commanders like Heinz W. Guderian, Erwin Rommel, Erich Von Manstein, Gerd von Rundstedt, Walther Model and many more. So now time to take a look at this legendary fighting force.

Russia 1941 a soldier carrying a "Flammenwerfer"
View attachment 6044

Soldiers with MG-34 and Mortar
View attachment 6045

Messerchmitt BF 109 backbone of Luftwaffe
This is a Bf 109 G4/R3 model

View attachment 6046

Heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen of Kriegsmarine
View attachment 6047

Aha! Aha! The Kraken wakes!!

Marshals and Generals, please, and their best victories (Rommel's been done, other than he).

The Sandman · Mar 5, 2018

Joe Shearer said:
Marshals and Generals, please, and their best victories (Rommel's been done, other than he).

Will definitely do but atm i am thinking of doing a thread on non-European war and generals.

Joe Shearer said:
Aha! Aha! The Kraken wakes!!

Hehe was a bit lazy and busy too since the last thread.

Nilgiri · Mar 5, 2018

If you are interested in MG 34 vs MG 42 (or just machine gun tech in general in mostly layman terms), this is a must see:

Same exact round that Gewehr 98 and Karabiner use btw (7.92×57mm Mauser ).

I will try my best to answer any technical etc questions ppl have about the German firearms/weaponry.

The Sandman · Mar 5, 2018

Nilgiri said:
If you are interested in MG 34 vs MG 42 (or just machine gun tech in general in mostly layman terms), this is a must see:

Interested? I love these MG's esp 42 because of it's terrifying sound and excellent rof.

Nilgiri said:
Same exact round that Gewehr 98 and Karabiner use btw (7.92×57mm Mauser ).

Ah never thought about that!

Nilgiri said:
I will try my best to answer any technical etc questions ppl have about the German firearms/weaponry.

Well than i would really love to know difference between

Panzer Faust

Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-672-7634-13,_Russland,_Luftwaffensoldat_mit_Panzerabwehrwaffe.jpg

and

PanzerShreck

300px-Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-671-7483-29,_Reichsgebiet,_Soldat_mit_Panzerabwehrwaffe.jpg

I guess PanzerFaust (like a shotgun) was good at short range and PanzerShreck (like a KAR98K accurate and deadly) at long range?

Nilgiri · Mar 5, 2018

The Sandman said:
Interested? I love these MG's esp 42 because of it's terrifying sound and excellent rof.

Ah never thought about that!

Well than i would really love to know difference between

Panzer Faust
View attachment 6052
and

PanzerShreck
View attachment 6053

I guess PanzerFaust (like a shotgun) was good at short range and PanzerShreck (like a KAR98K accurate and deadly) at long range?

Essentially you are correct. The big difference is the panzerfaust sat at the end of the tube rather than travelling through it...so it only received so much imparted thrust...the early versions were around 30 m/s and the later versions around 45 m/s. There was a last iteration I believe that increased the velocity another 10 m/s without changing the tube design, by adding a secondary burn stage to the projectile itself....but this was very late into the war and did not see much use.

PanzerShreck on other hand is basically a bazooka design, so its muzzle velocity is around 110+ m/s. So it can defeat more amount of armour at every given range (for same amount of HE used etc, basic K.E = 1/2mv^2 etc.)...and it leads to a higher effective firing range. Also the round was more stabilised (given tube travel + fins even on some rounds) so had greater chance of hitting at best angle on the armour (panzerfaust had a problem in this regard in comparison).

But of course its much more expensive system. Both were often used side by side in the defensive doctrines to make use of the economics/optimizations fully. With panzerfaust of course, you were not really restricted by the caliber of the tube (given it sat outside), so at cost of range you can add lot more HE to the round....at some cost to the accuracy etc and of course you take a hit on the range. Germans experimented with a lot of these combinations and doctrine of use.