Famous, funny or suitable nicknames for weapons/equipment

WW1 shells were nicknames. "wiizzbang " for the high velocity 77mm field guns. German 150mm shells used a filling which generated a big black cloud of smoke giving them the name "Jack Johnsons" after the world heavyweight boxing champion.

Although not strictly nicknames British soldiers tended to name any German machine gun as a "spandau," while all incoming high velocity rounds were "88"s and most tanks were "Tigers" Similarly, The Luftwaffe seem to have identified most defending fighters in the Battle of Britain as "spitfires."

 

You mean the soviet 76mm anti-tank-gun, nicknamed Ratsch-Bumm by the Wehrmacht?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/76_mm_divisional_gun_M1942_%28ZiS-3%29

The italian Brixia Model 35 mortar was called Spucker (or Spitter in english) by Rommel's soldiers in Africa. Due to the very limited effect of the shells.

And there was the famous knee mortar
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6y3CVx9EBuA[/video]
Maybe the most stupid nickname of the entire war.

 

It's odd that the Boys Rifle didn't stick around as a long range sniper. The modern Barrett is used that way, both against personnel and lightly armored vehicles as well as chewing up brick and stone buildings that are otherwise impregnable without artillery. Add some good glass and the Boys would have been a man-portable gun that could do the work of a sniper rifle at much longer range as well as much of the work of an M2, which because of the weight was strictly a defensive weapon or something you had to mount on a vehicle to employ offensively.

 

It wasn't very well liked by most users because of its weight 35lbs (6lbs more than a Barret) without a scope, massive recoil and it was very cumbersome being 5'2" (62") long. The Finns in '39/40, were an exception and did like the rifle. In Korea, once the fighting stabilized into relatively static warfare, the Marine Corps did experiment with its use as a long range sniper rifle and found it effective to in excess of 2000 yds.

 

As I recall the Russians also tried using the PTRD as a sniper rifle. However due to the crudely made rounds it proved less than accurate.

 

I'm sure the mortar and light machine gun guys didn't much care for packing around that gear either! I see it as more of a specialized weapon held at the company level, or maybe something employed by the heavy weapons company where needed. I'm not sure how the Barrett is employed today; surely it isn't something packed around at the platoon level. I've never fired a Barrett, but have been able to play around with one (they're employed by the USCG to knock out boat engines from the air). The barrel actually recoils against a spring to soak up some of the recoil, and as a semi-auto the action itself helps to spread the recoil. I'm sure pulling the trigger on a bolt action rifle like the Boys must have been a jarring experience, especially from a prone position. I used to compete with a 45/120 Sharps which probably has less than half the recoil of a .50 BMG, and even that was extremely painful. Even a single round would leave your shoulder bruised and sore.

 

I was lucky enough to see one at an air show. You really can hear the air whistle through the wing root oil coolers, both during high speed passes and also when the power was cut on final approach. Another name for the F4U was "The Ensign Eliminator" due to its brutal low speed handling especially during carrier takeoffs.

Ju52 was called Tante Ju by German soldiers (Aunt Ju)

 

That would be carrier landings, and likely came about from the first time it failed it's carrier qualification.

 

The landings crashes were bad but often survivable. The takeoff stalls caused a sharp falloff onto one wing and were pretty deadly

 

Unfortunately, you are likely thinking of the carrier landing "bounce" that was caused by the oleo struts of the early Corsairs. However, this is not what I am talking about.

The wing stall could occur when the F4U was flying close to stall speed. When taking off, the F4U was only briefly within the stall envelope. However, when landing, the F4U was required to spend more time within said envelope - Hence, such wing stalls were more likely to occur during carrier landings.

 

The Rooskies called Spam that was lend-leased to them "Roosevelt Sausage". Not sure if they like it as much as the Hawaiians did, but hungry beggars can't be too choosy, even commie ones. Nikita Khrushchev boldly claimed that they wouldn't have been able to feed their armies without good ole Spam.

Here's some Spam, not in Russian colors or lettering though. Couldn't find any of that stuff.
Ummm good.



The Rooskies also liked the Studebaker US6 (G630) that was mainly shipped to them. The truck was affectionately known as the Studer by the Rooskies. It was a effective platform for the earlier mentioned Stalin's Organs. But it was mainly used to haul artillery and supplies around as with other armies.

Here's the Studer in it rocket launcher format.



I think that the Rooskie had other names for the stuff we gave to them, some good and some not so good. They did not like the M3 Lee tank, calling it the Coffin for 7 Brothers, or Grave for 7. Once Soviet manufacturing got ramped up and going well, they produced tanks of their own design. The lend-lease Lees (and Stuarts and Shermans as well) did see action, but were usually relegated to the peripheral areas if possible.

Here's a pic of two M3s, supposedly at the Battle of Kursk.




They were rather fond of the Bell manufactured P-39 though, referring to it as the Little Cobra, or Dear Little Cobra at times. The P-39 did not operate well at higher altitudes that were required of the RAF and USAAF missions, but on the Eastern Front they came in very handy. Not much high altitude work there you know.

Here's a few P-39s in VVS colors.

 

No I mean the German WW`1 version - as commemorated in song.long before Op Barbarossa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjuTbJ9H--M


The French WW1 trench 58mm mortar was called the Crapouillot - the little Toad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mortier_de_58_mm_type_2#/media/File:MWP_Dumesille_mortar.JPG The Monument des Crapouillots at the Moulin de Laffaux on the Chemins des Dames commemorates the 12,000 trench mortarmen who died. http://www.memorial-chemindesdames.fr/pages/monument_detail.asp?monument_id=24&monument_type_id=2&lang=ang

The French 240mm Mortar bombs were known as "marmites" or "cooking pots" while the British version fired "flying pigs" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9.45-inch_Heavy_Mortar Around 80 rounds would more or less guarantee the destruction of any dugout.

 

In the similar fashion it was called "Emma" in Finland - according to a popular hit song at the time, which the "turntable" was "playing".


"The Finns nicknamed the T-28 Postivaunu ("mail coach" or "postal wagon") after a lone Soviet T-28 tank commander was captured with his knocked out tank that carried the monthly salary of and mail addressed to the 91st Tank Battalion (this occurred 19–20 December 1939, during the battle of Summa).[4] The T-28 was also nicknamed Kivitalo ("stone building") by the Finns due to its large size."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-28


In 1939 the Soviet Foreign Minister, Vyacheslav Molotov, claimed the Soviet Union was not dropping bombs on Finland, but merely airlifting food to starving Finns. The Finns, who were not starving, soon dubbed the RRAB-3 cluster bomb "Molotov's bread basket" ironically, and named the improvised incendiary device that they used to counter Soviet tanks the "Molotov cocktail", as "a drink to go with the food".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov_bread_basket

T-34 was called "sotka" / a kind of duck (Aythya) in Finland, because it resembled a swimming water bird.

 

One of the funniest was "Ass Ender" for the XP-55 Ascender


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtiss-Wright_XP-55_Ascender

 

Another nickname for it was "Second Front" on the grounds that it was their Allies' contribution to the war.

The Lend-Leased Lee tank was called the "coffin for seven brothers". Despite the humor, they seem to have appreciated anything that would help them kill fascists.

Their own LaGG-3 fighter, made largely of wood, was the "varnished wood coffin".

 

Civilian Label SPAM



Military Label Spam.

 

In Finland the IL-2 Sturmovik was called "maatalouskone", or "The Agricultural machine" - because it really cultivated the earth while attacking, also because "maataistelukone (a ground attack plane) sounds almost the same in Finnish.

 

Imagine how those Indians at Adobe Walls felt being hit by one.

 

The 9th Australian Division made some use of the Boys in the long-range sniping role, I believe. The Australians were often short of equipment in the desert, so if something could shoot at all they'd find a role for it.

 

The Marine Boys used in Korea used a double charged .50 cal round so it had even more kick than the standard .50 BMG round.