Kettenkrad - the WW2 german ATV

The German "Kettenkrad" - or Sdkfz 2 or in short-german (lol!!!) " Kleines Kettenkraftrad HK 101" was a light half-track gun tractor originally designed for civil use but in 1939 the manufacturer NSU got a military order. It was used on all battlefields during the war, especially on the Eastern front. It could carry 3 crewmembers and a small trailer. Its big advantage was its capacity to go over difficult and soft terrain, like mud and sand, It could also fit into a Junker 52 transport plane.It main use was to transport small amount of ammo and fuel, as well as being used on airfields to tow airplanes to reduce use of planefuel which was in short demand. Many of them were used by airborne troops, but it was not dropped in parachute. Over 8000 was made during the war, and after the war the production for agricultural use continued until 1948/49. Its a fun little vehicle isnt it, and its easy to draw lines from this vehicle to more modern ATV`s and also to some degree the modern snowmobile.

Junker 88 some photos

I recently visitied the Technical Museum in Berlin and toke a couple of photos of the restored Junker 88 they have on display there.

The Junker 88-Ju 88- was a bomber and nightfigher used by Germany in WW2 and it was a very succesfull aircraft. As many as 15 0000 was manufactured, and it is along with the Heinkel 111 the most known german bomber from WW2. It was used in all battlefields where the germans fought, but it is especially as a nightfighter we remember it.  One version even had cannons pointing upwards so it could shot at bombers while hiding under them!

The photos show a nightfighter, take notice of its nose with the radar standing next to the plane.

Messerschmitt bf 110 some photos

The Messerschmitt bf 110 , usually just called ME 110 was one of the most known and used of the german fighters during WW2. It was produced from 1937 and when production stopped in 1945 over 6100 had been produced.  It was originally used as a fighter, but during the Battle og Britain it proved to hard to manouver against smaller fighters like the Hurricane and Spitfire so it was gradually used more for high-altitude escort and as a night-fighter, the last role being the most succesfull. The most notorious of all german night-fighters, Major Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer flew only ME 110 and claimed 121 victories in only 164 combat missions. It was also, with some success, used as a fighter-bomber, mainly on the Eastern Front.

These photos were taken by me in teh Technical Museum in Berlin that have a very nice restored ME 110 on display.

Interesting fact:
The famous and quite impressing "peace-flight" by Rudolf Hess from Germany and far into Britain in 1940 took place in a ME 110

Elefant -with a killing trunk

The Elefant was a german tank-destroyer based on the Tiger-chassis, its official german name was Panzerjäger Tiger (P) called Ferdinand at first, but after modifications it was renamed" Elefant" (german for elephant)

The origin for the Elefant was 100 chassises made for the Porsche-version of Tiger. When this version was discarded, it was decided to use these 100 chassises to build an anti-tank with the new 88mm Pak anti-tank gun. 91 were built during a few months in early 1943.

In action, several flaws were discovered, and in september 1943 the 50 surviving  units were called back for modifications. After the modifications ( which in short was adding a MG, adding Zimmerit and wider tracks) the germans ended up with the version we call "Elefant".

Action:
When the first version was thrown into battle, it was almost without testing, and the battle of kursk sonn showed big problems-they were to vulnerable to infantry! Later, the Elefant saw action mainly in Italy, but even if it had an enormeous firepwer compared to most allied armoured vehicles, its weight and mechanical issues reduced its effect on the battlefield.

Even so-during the Battle of Kursk, the 653rd Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion (German: schwere Panzerjäger-Abteilung, sPzJägAbt) claimed to have taken out  320 enemy tanks, for the loss of 13 Ferdinands. This impressive average ratio was due to its extreme firepower and protection, which gave it an enormous advantage when used in head-on combat or a static defensive role. In fact, most Ferdinands/Elefants were lost due to small problems with tracks, fuelshortage etc which forced the crew to destroy&abondon them.


Surviving units:
Only two Elefants survived the war- one is in the Kubinka Tank Museum in Russia, the other one is at the United Staes Army Ordnance Museum at Fort Lee Virginia USA.

Numbers:
Weight: 65 tons
Length:8.14 metres
 Width: 3.38 metres
Height: 2.97 metres
Armour: up to 200 mm of steel....
Armament: 88 mm PaK or 43/2 L71
Speed: 46 km/h (road)

Eye of the Tiger -Tank ace Kurt Knispel

Kurt Knispel is widely recognized as the number one tank-ace of WW2, he had 168 confirmed kills with his tank, some sources as high as 195-Knispel wasnt known for being to occupied with numbers and didnt quarrel if there was debate around a destroyd vehicle. (Note-kills here do not mean confirmed people killed, but vehicles destroyed!)

Kurt Knispel was from Czechoslovakia but enrolled in the german army in 1940. He received basic training with Panzer I-IV before being sendt to action in summer of 1941. He took part in Operatin Barbarossa-the attack on the Soviet Union and variuous other campaigns on the eastern front. In 1943 Knispel was sendt back to Germany to train with the new Tiger tanks, at that time he had "only" 12 confirmed kills, but Knispel soon felt very familiar in the new Tiger, which many allied tanks would experience...

Allied tanks was soon being blown away from the map by Knispel and his Tiger-and later King Tiger, one soviet T-34 heavy-tank was destroyed from a distance of about 3000m-while driving..... Knispels skills as gunner was unparallelled.

Unfortunately for Knispel-his behaviour was not up to the same standard-at least not from the Nazi-point of view. Long hair,goatee- beard, unwillingness to obey orders he disagreed with was one thing, refusing to take part in attacks on civilians was another. On one occiasion he attacked an officer from a "Einsatzgruppe" when he saw him mistreating soviet POW`s.

Even if he received the Iron Cross I and II class, the Panzer Badge and the German Cross in Gold he never got the same honours as many of the other german war-aces-not that he cared, by his fellow soldiers he stood in the highest regards.

Knispel was killed ten days before the war ended in a battle with overwheliming soviet forces near Wostitz. In 2013 his body-still with the dog-tags- was  recovered behind a  church wall in Urbau in Czechia.

Post-war Panthers

I`ve earlier wrote about the german Panther tank and whiole doing so, I found some interesting facts about the post-war use of the Panther tank, which was bigger than I knew before.

Red Army-Russia:
The Red Army captured many german tanks in the later years of the war, and the Panther was especially "popular" with the russian forces, who used them alongside their own tanks.  The Red Army had several Panthers also after the war ended, but they did not (as far as I have been able to find) se active duty after spring 1945.

Photo showing captured "russian" Panthers, probably 1944


Bulgaria:
Bulgaria received 15 captured Panthers from the Red Army spring 1945, these were used for training purposes. Many of them ended up dug down as pillboxes on the Bulgarian-Turkish border already in the late 1940`s. The exact fate of these are unclear, but they were probably scrapped in the 1950`s.

Romania:
Romania received 13 Panthers from the USSR in 1946, who formed the 1.st Armored Brigade but but in 1947 the equipment was ceded to the Soviet-organized "Tudor V. Division" which was transformed from a volunteer infantry division into an armored one. The Panther tank was officially known as T-5 in the Romanian army. These tanks were in bad shape and remained in service only until about 1950, when the Romanian Army received T34-85 tanks from the USSR. All of the Panther tanks were scrapped by 1954.

Sweden:
Sweden picked up a Panther i France in 1946, this was used in Sweden fopr training and testing until 1961.

France:
France had the largest number of Panthers after the war, and they actually equipped the 503e Régiment de Chars de Combat with fifty-yes 50- Panthers after the war! These remained in service until 1950

Not good quality photo but as far as I have found, this is French Panthers with the 503.th around 1947



Great Britain:
After the war a few (some sources indicate 9 total) Panthers were in fact built- under allied control of course. Two (one PAnther and one Jagdpanther) were sent to Britain for testing and trials. They are now both at the Bovington Tank Museum, Dorset.

Panther at museum

German Panzers in WW2 with numbers

Even if Germany made some of the best tanks in WW2, they (luckily) never stood a chance against the combined production rate of allied tanks and anti-tank weapons. Russia alone produced far more T-34`s than Germany produced tanks all together. I think its interesting to see what tanks Germany had- and maybe even more-how many they had of each type. The list starts with the earliest tank and ends with the last produced

1. Panzer 1 

Produced: 1934-1937

Number built:1493 

In service: 1934-1945

2. Panzer 2

Produced: 1935-1943

Number built: 1856

In service: 1936-1945

3. Panzer 3

Produced: 1939-1943

Number built: 5774

In service: 1939-1945

4. Panzer 4

Produced: 1936-1945

Number built: 8553

In service: 1939-1945 (Germany) up til 1967 other countries

5. Panther

Produced: 1943-1945 (some sources include up till 46- for British forces)

Number built: 6000

In service: 1943-1945 (Germany) also post-war by other countries

6. Tiger

Produced:1942-1944

Number built: 1327

In service: 1942-1945  

7. King Tiger

Produced: 1943-1945

Number built: 493 

In service: 1944-1945