Weapons 21/02/20 5 most lethal weapons of the Wehrmacht
throughout the Second world war “Junkers 87” (Ju 87) was the main tactical bomber of the Luftwaffe intended to destroy manpower and equipment of the enemy on the battlefield, as well as headquarters, bridges, trains and other military objects. During the war it produced 5700 Ju 87. The figure is not big, but the effectiveness of these aircraft was very high.
“Ju”
“Junkers 87” (“Thing”) was a single-engine monoplane with a crew of two – pilot and gunner. The shooter was placed behind the pilot, back to him, and was armed with a 7.92-mm machine gun. The pilot could actuate the two machine guns located under the wings. “Thing” could take on Board up to two tons of bomb load. Precision bombing in the war was very high plus or minus 15 meters. This allowed almost guaranteed to destroy tanks and other armored vehicles.
From the first day of the war in Russia the Luftwaffe has won air supremacy, and the Ju 87 began striking power of any German offensive. It always began with raids on positions of the Soviet troops is “Pieces”, which systematically ironed bombs strengthening of the red Army. Bomb with specially embedded in them is an aerodynamic device that emits a chilling howl, always terrified.
This was compounded by the fact that “Stukas” were flying with impunity. Soviet fighter aircraft were at that time almost all destroyed. The surviving aircraft had no chance in the battles with the technically and numerically superior German fighters. Anti-aircraft artillery in the Soviet army in 1941-1942 chronically lacking. However, the Ju 87 flew so fast that she was practically useless.
Only as the recreation of the Soviet aviation began to reveal weaknesses “Junkers 87”. From the blows of Soviet fighters they were not protected therefore, they increasingly had to operate under cover of his fighters. And the Germans faced a shortage. The decrease in the number of raids “Pieces” became one of the factors of the loss by the Germans of a strategic initiative. But before the end of the war, they remained a formidable weapon. In case of a sudden appearance of “Junkers” to effectively counter them with ground vehicles had no chance. And not only on the Eastern front, but also on the fronts of the allies.
“Messerschmitt”
Despite the advent of the Germans during the war, more sophisticated fighters, and at the end of the war, and jet aircraft “Messerschmitt” (Me 109), usually armed with three 20-mm automatic guns and two machine guns, before 1945 was considered as the main fighter aircraft of the Luftwaffe. It was unpretentious, reliable and fast machine.
At the beginning of the Second world war, she excelled at combat and flight characteristics of any fighter of the allies. Until the end of the war the Me 109 was superior, or at least not inferior to any kind of Soviet fighters. In battle one on one Me 109 usually came out the winner. These Luftwaffe aces like Erich Hartmann (345 downed Soviet aircraft), Gerhard Barkhorn (301), günther Rall (272), most of his victories were achieved in the “Messerschmitts” (“Messer”, as called them in the red Army).
Tanks T-III and T-IV
Despite the fact that already in the initial period of the war, these German tanks were inferior in its combat qualities of the new Soviet tanks – T-34 and KV-1, they are nevertheless outside the tank battles were very formidable weapon, the primary means of a strategic breakthrough of the Wehrmacht.
With a shortage in the red Army in the first year of the war medium and heavy tanks, these German medium halftracks were often dominant on the battlefield. The Germans used them primarily to break through the infantry positions. The Soviet infantry lacked in the period of anti-tank weapons. Anti-tank guns, even when they (not before 1942) were quitethe number to enter the army, were already ineffective in the fight against these German tanks.
They can be hit only shot in the stern, which, of course, the German tankers did not set up voluntarily. The firing of anti-tank guns are direct fire also was not quite effective, as the gun crew usually earlier was covered by a tank shell.
not surprisingly, the lack of anti-tank weapons and/or lack the ability to use it, the Soviet soldiers developed the so-called “tankoboyazn” that is constantly referred to in army documents, 1941-1943. Only supply the troops with this anti-tank artillery, not her surrogates (like those anti-tank rifles) that occurred in the summer of 1943, helped to cope with this problem. By the time the numerical superiority in medium tanks firmly entrenched in the red Army.
150-mm heavy field howitzer
Fear of this weapon goes back to the days of the First world war, when Russian forces are chronically short of heavy artillery. During the offensives of 1915, the Germans seldom resorted to direct attacks on Russian positions. They first for a very long time fired at them from a far distance of these large caliber guns. The Russian artillery, who also lacked shells, could not answer. Had to retreat, away from the fire. Flight and explosion of a 150-mm shell had a distinctive sound. In the Russian army he was nicknamed “the suitcase.”
in the Summer of 1941, the story is largely repeated. After the boilers were lost most of the artillery of the Soviet border regions, the Red Army also was at the time unarmed in the face of a 150-mm German howitzers, firing fire half from long range. Shelling out them could be to a distance of 13 km. of these howitzers were, however, a significant disadvantage, played a fatal role in the battle of Moscow. At a temperature of minus twenty degrees brake fluid rollback very clearly and the system rollback failed.
a 9-mm submachine gun MP-40
9-mm submachine gun MP-40, incorrectly called the “Schmeisser” (in fact, Hugo Schmeisser was the Creator of the first submachine gun of the German army in 1918), were armed with drums only motorized units of German infantry. Despite this, the Soviet soldiers had the impression that every German soldier armed with such a pistol. This impression made its way into the literature and cinema.
In fact, even early in the war the red Army had more units of automatic weapons than the Wehrmacht, and in the future this inequality only increased. But this weapon was widespread in the red army pretty evenly, but the Germans used it for concentrated. In addition, 9-mm bullet on its lethal force markedly superior to the 7.62 mm bullet PPSH, and the German submachine gun due to its box-like mechanism was more comfortable to handle. Because of this, and has any opinion about the superiority of German over Soviet infantry in terms of firepower.
Russian Seven
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© Russian Seven
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