The best weapon of WW2?

OK, let me voice my opinion consicdering best and most effective weapons used during the war...
As far as armored vehicles are concerned, I'll go for T-34 and StugIIIF series. Both weapons were highly effective and reliable.
MP-40 is my hand weapon of choice
And in the ar department I am in for Sturmovik.

 

This is a though one...

But I'd say that for handguns I'll choose:
- Garand
- P-38
- MG-42
- The Soviet sub-machine gun... what's its name?

Artillery:
- German 88mm AA and AT gun.
- American 105mm Howitzer
- Soviet 76mm AT and field gun

Armour:
- T-34, both versions
- Tiger I
- Sherman 'Firefly'

Planes:
- Mustang
- Stormovik
- Spitfire
- Zero

And to add the supply masters: the M4 lorry, the Jeep, the amphibious DWK (Spell?) and the C-47.

 

Herr Generale, I'm so glad you mentioned the DUKW, (and we are getting of the topic big time now!) I don't have much admiration for American WW2 vehicles, but this one is brilliant:

Cargo: 25 troops or 5000 pounds of cargo, 50 mph on land and 5.5 knots in the water, range 400 miles at 35 mph!!!

 

Brat, American combat vehicles were indeed not what we'd call charming and powerful, but we must accept that in supply and logistics matters they built quality and quantity.

We just need to remember that the DUKWs landed more supplies than the Mulberries during D-day and saved the day at Iwo-Jima, by example.

The Jeep and the M4 lorry were just powerful and reliable. Truly amazing.

And not to mention the C-47, which made whole campaigns possible - more noticeable, Burma.

We always forget about logistics, don't we?

 

Yep, ant that were all that econ mumbo jumbo is!

LOL

 

PPSh41? from all I've read it was indeed a very good gun.

 

Yep the PPSH was supsidly the best SMG of the war!

 

Yes, I think it is the PPSH 44 the one you're talking about... Anyhow, it was that submachine-gun entirely done in metal with high rate of fire and so cheap and easy to manufacture...

 

This is my first post here and let me say thank-you in advance for this opportunity. Now as far as a hand held combat weapon, I cannot say. I have always felt that the only true way to judge a weapons combat worthiness is to do combat with said weapon. The fact that I have not personally been in that situation with those weapons I cannot say which is the best. I have had the opportunity to fire some rounds from a variety of weapons from that era and can pass on what I found evident of the weapons some 50 years post service.
My personal favorite was the BAR or Browning Automatic Rifle. I found that for all its cumbersome downfalls, the rifle I fired was both reliable and repeatable. This may or may not be the case for the majority. I also like the stopping power of the 30-06 round especially compared to the prevalent more modern .223 round. The Russian rifle/sub guns from the era that I’ve had contact with were terribly inaccurate. Once again this may or may not be the norm. I also love the 8mm Mauser bolt action for accuracy, very repeatable patterns, but this was not breaking edge technology in 39, it pre-dates the conflict.
As far as the greatest weapon of WWII, I find myself impelled to write that, in my opinion, that the nuclear bomb was the greatest jump forward that warfare has ever seen. (It is arguable that the introduction of the firearm into warfare was the greatest, but the initial result was not near as effective.) And the introduction of the nuclear technology in warfare has saved more lives since 1945 than any technology. The threat has weighed heavy on the minds of every human conscious of the ability to phathom the true threat that the “nuke” holds, yet it held the west and east at bay from full war for 50 years. No nuclear power every dared engage in “total war”. That is because total war meant the possible/probable? end to life as we know it. The Korean or Indochina conflicts surely would have been escalated to enormous scale if not for the fear/knowledge that no one wins, if no one survives. In almost a Dr. Strangelove way nuclear weaponry kept the “big Dogs” from fighting with just the shear magnitude of the outcome.
From the Trinity tests to right now no WWII era weapon has made near the impact as the 2 bombs that changed the world. There were effective weapons, this include all the handheld weapons mentioned previously in the thread. There were tactical advances; this includes blitzkrieg and mass arial bombardment. There were technological advances such as the V2 and the jet. I still nuclear technology was a leap forward. There weren’t thousands dropped, only 2. Those 2 changed the course of history.

 

Hello, Die Nibelungen - a very warm welcome to these Forums ; and thanks especially for such a well-phrased posting.

I certainly shan't argue with you over the A-bomb; logically, you've an excellent point.

As an aside re smallarms, 'best' itself can be endlessly debated. So much depends on the context in which the weapon saw action. If one fired a PPsH41 under range conditions today, I'm sure it would be quite inaccurate and feel very crudely-made to boot.

But under Eastern Front conditions, the crudity and simplicity of the gun meant that it went on firing whatever happened. The relatively sophisticated feature of the chromed bore was clever - the average 'Ivan' rarely cleaned his gun. And the huge drum magazine was extremely handy in close-in combat conditions.Plus it was simple to manufacture.....

So given it's context, it probably was the best smallarm.
( But I'd still prefer the MP44 ! )

 

Indeed, an amazing posting to start with - welcome, Die Nibelungen!

 

Most welcome to the forums, Die Nibelungen! Hope you enjoy yourself a lot in here!

I must say that it was a very good first post too!

 

I think that the M1a1 Thompson was the best weapon. Although it was inaccurate at long ranges, it was quite a reliable weapon. I love the thompson and in my point of view it was the best weapon of the war.

 

It's a fine gun and of course, has a real 'mystique' about it. It also packed a real punch a close range thanks to the heavy calibre bullets. Downside was the weight - it feels really heavy ! It must have been a real drag to lug one of these things around the Ardennes in sub-zero temperatures.

Also, on the A1 model the bolt was extremely heavy too, making the gun very difficult to control. If you read Donald Burgett's D-Day memoir, 'Currahee' , he gives some memorable impressions of using the Thompson under combat conditions.

 

I personally love the soviet small arms of WW2, Keenly the PPsH and the Mosin Nagant. I personally own a Mosin 91/30 model. I actaully acquired it very recently and thus have not had the time to shoot it yet, but I cannot wait. I also have the M38 version, which is a carbine, shorter barrel and therefore I am guessing less accurate but more portable.

I haven't found a working PPsH on the market.. the one I did find was disabled and could not shoot..

The best gun, as forementioned, is highly debatable.. Although, IMO, I would believe it to be one of the key snipers (Mauser, SPringfield 03', Mosin Nagant 91/30, etc). They have the highest accuracy (heh, duh), longest range, and also in the hands of a good soldier, can eliminate countless soldiers without any real danger to the man firing. (Simo with his open sighted Mosin, for instance ). I am not a big fan of spraying thousands of rounds at men and hopign to hit em.. I'd rather sit back and pluck them off those machien guns to save my comrades.

As for the best plane, P-51!!! I love the looks, performance, everything about that aircraft.

 

Very good thoughts about the 'Tommy gun', Martin! But I'd like to add that the thing was hard to mantain and that it cost $125 to manufacture each one.

 

That is why they switched to the M3!

 

I liked the FG-42 I believe it was called....
Auto sniper.....very strong and accurate....

 

Hello, I am new here as well. Was told about this Forum from a new member at a Online Club (Band of Brothers) for the Game(s) of Combat Mission. I also feel honored to be allowed to be a part of this community.

When I think of the "best" weapon I tend to lean toward the line of thought of what weapon had the most impact on the war itself. When I read the title the first weapon that came to mind was the 88mm gun. It did an excellent job at all three 3 of it's pratical roles. Artillery, Anti-Aircraft, and Anti-Tank.

I also realized that no one had mentioned a weapon that probably had more a direct affect on Ally Infantry troops than any weapon mentioned so far, the MG42. IMO the BEST gun of any type of the entire war. It also still lives on in many modern machine guns today, the M60 is a direct descendant. A close second to the MG42 is the US .50 cal!

I'm not a big Naval buff but it seems the Essex class Aircraft Carrier should get a mention.

 

I'd have to say the 3-inch for the Americans.. for awhile it was pretty much the only gun they had capable of taking on the German heavies, save for the 90mm it was probably the only reason the Sherman droves weren't annihilated all through France. Not counting the thousands of fighter-bombers

The 128mm also comes to mind. As for small arms, I'd have to say the Panzerfaust and the Sturmgewehr. The Panzerfaust because it was one of the main reasons 250,000 Soviet soldiers died in Berlin alone IMO (those things make an awful big bang, although that can be a bad thing when you're using them in your own cities), and the StG because it gave birth to the assault rifle family which has been the mainstay of all armies ever since.

The V-2, of course, because it pioneered the ICBM family.. the 262 because it pioneered the jet family.. the Panther, because it pioneered the MBT family.. wow, does anyone else see a pattern of Germany giving birth to modern warfare as we know it?

Other things that need to be put on the list: Japan's Navy.. even though the US had it's own carriers, Japan really sort of invented modern Naval warfare as we know it. Maybe because they were the first ones to use it at Pearl Harbour, but whichever. Another one is the T-34, because it showed that you can mass produce something so cheaply and quickly, yet still have it quite powerful. Germany's Fritz-X and Hs-293 guided bombs.. although they weren't really all that tide-changingly wonderful, they were still fairly ground-breaking. The Fi-156 was a good plane, too, in that it was even used by, Monty was it? In North Africa because it was so reliable and capable a liason plane. And I have a personal affinity for the Mistletoe.. even if it is a bit queer, it's beautiful in my eyes. Germany may not have had the guts the Japanese did to actually kamikaze a pilot into a ship, but they made up for it with some clever engineering.