People probs will tell me were to go as i am only 34 but apart from the airforce the german's had better equipment right across the board than the allies,same as the pride of our fleet was the ageing HMS Hood and everyone knew what happened to her,and if the Germans got more of the king tigers into action who knows what might of been as for the 88's did we have anything to compare ?
small note : the only thing going for the German navy till wars end was their speedy little S-boot. all other shipping was garbage, found and sunk.
I think after all Germany's capital ships were sunk the days of the battleship was over,look at ours Prince of Wales ,Repulse,Hood all sunk in the early years of the war,but apart from the Hood German ships seemed more well known Bismark,Graf Spee,Tirpitz,Scharnhorst,Prinz Eugen
Start with small things, like uniforms. German uniforms may have looked snazzy, but from a combat perspective, they were a joke. To take a dump, they had to completey remove their combat harness and coat so that they could slide their gallouses off over their shoulders. Getting mostly undressed with the potential of being shot at is not a good idea. K-98 is better than the Garand? They had nothing to compare with C, D, or K rations, nor the 10in1 or British Compos. The Jeep? The P-51, the Mossey, the Corsair (yes, I know they didn't face off against Me-109s, etc, but they still were a good aircraft)? German capital ships had sizeable problems. See this site for a comparison of the Bismarck class with other nation's BBs. Sub-par fire control was an issue the the Bismarck and by extension, other capital ships faced. If you can't hit your target as well as your enemy can, long range guns are of no use. The Bismarck's bulkheads below the armored deck had no passages through them. To get from one compartment to the next required climbing above the armored deck, walking to another scuttlehole beyond the bulkhead and then back down into the compartment you needed to reach. I am not saying that the Germans did not have some or even a lot of equipment superior than other nations, the MG43 come to mind immediately, but to use the phrase "across the board" is just not factual.
Barrow, I suggest you give a good read through the "Weapons in WWII" section, otherwise this will become a tiresome repetition of arguments. You will find there an enourmous amount of information, both pro and against, most of it written by very knowleadgeable people. Do read the threads there to help you form some ideas and come back then.
Yeah like i said i would get a bit of stick,I'm no boffin on WWII But same as b4 Dunkirk trying to get them little troop carrier's with a gun on the front ??compared to what they had is a joke we were trying to fight a war like WWI Which it wasn't
As Kai says, we've gone over this ground before. But it's worth keeping in mind that although the Germans designed and produced some remarkable weapons ( from the P.38 and MP44 to the V2 via the Tiger, Panther, Me262, giant mortars etc etc ) they were often unnecessarily complex and resource-intensive to produce - resources which Germany simply didn't have. They also suffered from lack of time - again, time which Germany didn't have -for proper development which led to unreliability. So yet again it comes back to the question of how one defines best ? ( And don't forget - the Bismark was crippled by a string-and-fabric biplane....)
i Don't know whether you live in the U.K. but if you do, you can go on a day trip from Harwich to Hoek vna Holland and visit the Atlantic Wall museum they have a German "Biber" mini submarine on display there. These were very rare manned pocket topedos in fact. It shows the Germans had not much left of a marine after their proud ships were sunk.
It just seem's the documentries i have watched it seem's to favour the German equipment above our equipment and agree with the comment that the Germans producing weapons that were too complex was a factor towards their downfall
Some German equipment was more innovative, the k98 is a heck of a bolt action rifle. The vampir was an interesting development as was the A-4. The Germans had some cutting edge technology for the time but as mentioned before had difficulty mass producing, training and fielding them in numbers to effect the outcome of the war. Certain designs remain today. The Ak-47, MP-5, G-3, and M-60 all have origins in German design.
Did the giant mortar's like 'Karl' get deployed on the western front ? If so what battles and were they successful ?
