Overall Favorite Weapon

HMS Warspite ! Great !

I am forever enraged that this country lacked to foresight to preserve this wonderful veteran

 

Martin

Well you could write to anyone and try to help save the Vengeance appeal: the last surviving RN Carrier of WW2.

http://www.fleetairarmarchive.net/vengeance/

She would look great moored at Portsmouth or Chatam and form a good focus for the FAA Anniversary.

Jumbo

 

Give me the 88mm Flak!

It could easily destroy Shermans, Matilda's, Cruisers, ... !

 

Hello, Albert - and a warm welcome to the forums !

Yes indeed, the 'dreaded 88'- if you browse through some of the other 'threads' on the forum, you'll find that it's a favourite topic for discussion....

 

Wilkommen, Albert!

And Martin is right: the 88 is quite some thread by itself, very argued here. And certainly much more charming and better than the who-the-hells-know-what pounders

 

You know... That's Friedrich...

 

Unfortunately...we do.

 

Hahaha! And you can't avoid it!!!

 

Back to the feared weapons of ww2.

The Katjusha rocket launcher by Russians. The easiest way to destroy the enemy morale...

Russian 7.62 cm "rauch-boom " AT-gun. The name comes from the granade´s high speed, first you hear the explosion, then the sound of firing. I do think it was not just AT but the book I have now mentions it was AT.

One special weapon again.In spring of 1945 Me 163´s had SC 500 "Jagdfaust". It had five 50 mm rockets in upward position in both wings. It had a trigger for light so as the bomber shadow would cover the gun it would fire. ( What about clouds ? I wonder?? )

 

Stalin's Organs?! I love them! According to my grandfather they sounded like HELL. It certainly broke the morale of the Germans. As the Nebelwerfer did to the Western Allies.

 

Wasn´t Nebelwerfer called in the west by the nick name "moaning Minnie" or something like that? Never heard the Russians calling it anything, even Nebelwerfer. Maybe Vodka has something to do with it?

 

Certainly it has. A litre of wódka a day might be the reason! But I don't believe that it's for the cold anymore...

 

Yes the Americans called the German Nebewerfer "moaning mimies". The Russians called them "smoke throwers". They were very effective against infantry for saturating an area, however, they were not too accurate. The really effective ones where the 15cm types that the Germans used towards the end of the war. There is a famous photo of a German unit during the Battle of the Bulge showing a German half track with these 15cm Nebelwerfers mounted to it! Now that is cool!

Matt

 

A neighbour of mine when I was a kid was a Normandy Vet from the DLI. He had terrible shell-shock from moaning minnies, and only ever spoke about it once. Everyone used to nod sagely and say "He had a bad war did Fred"...

We also had a WW1 vet, an original 1914 BEF one too. He remembered doubling back all the way from Belgium to the Marne, firing at this "Grey wall" as he put it, all the way.

Jumbo

 

I have three favorites.

1) The .50 machine gun. Standard weapon on USAAF planes. Was also a pretty effective against low flying planes.

2) The Colt .45. Favorite amoungst soldiers. Standard firearm. Was also used in WWI.

3) And of course, the P-51 Mustang. Accounted for 48.9% of all damage inflicted upon the enemy from warbirds, not bombers, in Europe.

[ 15 October 2002, 08:46 PM: Message edited by: Mustang ]

 

Heh. Actually, the Russians often called them "Vanuisha". This is of course a variation of their own Katyusha!

I've also seen them referred to as "ishak", which means "donkey".

[ 17 October 2002, 06:46 AM: Message edited by: Heartland ]

 

Thanks for the info, Heartland! Always appreciated.

As well I have wondered the western front Nebelwerfer name and found out it was called "screaming/moaning Minnies/Meemies" whichever you combination you choose. Not just moaning Minnies, like I thought at first.

 

OK, I may well be completely mis-remembering something here, but was there a nickname for the nebelwerfers that had something to do with cows?

I know, I'm Crazy, but that popped into my mind from somewhere...

 

Actually not so crazy, CrazyD88!

I used two words "cows" and "nebelwerfer" and as one of the found sites there was this:

"We had to carry an unexploded “cow” shell. A “cow” or a “wardrobe” was the name we had given to the German rocket launcher (Nebelwerfer)..."

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Port/2945/Jezioranski/Joe2c.html

Hmmm.Learning all the time...