The V-2 rocket was Germany's most advanced weapon of the Second World War, and also the most wastefully expensive. It was the second of Hitler's 'revenge weapons', a large ballistic missile carrying a one ton warhead, which reached the edge of space before descending at supersonic speed to its target.
Schwerer Gustav was the largest-calibre rifled weapon ever used in combat, and in terms of overall weight, the heaviest mobile artillery piece ever built. It fired the heaviest shells of any artillery piece.
The weapon was built by the German arms manufacturer and metallurgist, Gustav Krupp, who in 1941 offered it for free to Hitler's army. Called the “Great Gustav”, the new weapon could fire 10-tonne shells through a 30-meter long pipe. The mega gun was about 12 meters high, 47 meters long and weighed 1,350 tonnes.
The standard German infantry weapon was the rifle, originally designed by Mauser, and dubbed the Karabiner 98k. This weapon was a 5-shot, bolt-action rifle that actually dated back to 1898 when it was first adopted by the Imperial German Army.
One of the most famous artillery pieces of the Second World War, the German 88mm gun had a well deserved reputation for deadly accuracy and destructive power.
Today, the Battle of Stalingrad is universally regarded as the turning point in the European theatre of war, as it forced the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (German High Command) to withdraw considerable military forces from other areas in occupied Europe to replace German losses on the Eastern Front, ending with the rout ...
While serving in Germany's Luftwaffe in World War II, Erich Hartmann flew more than 1,400 missions in the Messerschmitt Bf 109, enabling him to score an astonishing 352 kills.
The V1 flying bomb was one of the most fear-inducing terror weapons of the Second World War. Thousands were killed and wounded by its warhead, but alongside those civilians are the forgotten victims of the V1 the people who made them.
Artillery. Artillery was the most destructive weapon on the Western Front. Guns could rain down high-explosive shells, shrapnel and poison gas on the enemy. Heavy fire could destroy troop concentrations, wire and fortified positions.
By the autumn of 1944, the Germans were fielding large numbers of MG-42s, one gun per 10-man squad. And while accuracy was not a shortcoming of the MG-42, the large quantities of ammunition it used, and its tendency to quickly overheat, certainly were.
The 6th Army was a field army unit of the German Wehrmacht during World War II (1939–1945). It was widely remembered for being the most highly decorated German army unit until its defeat by the Red Army at the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942–1943.
What is less known is the extent of Germany's secret weapons development. Germany pioneered rocket- and jet-propelled aircraft, the pilotless plane, long-range rocket technology, and “robot bombs,” and the world's first super-heavy tanks. Many of these weapons had a real impact on the course of the war.
As part of the accession negotiations of West Germany to the Western European Union at the London and Paris Conferences, the country was forbidden (by Protocol No III to the revised Treaty of Brussels of 23 October 1954) to possess nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.
14. V-2 – Hitler's revenge weapon. The V-2 rocket was Germany's most advanced weapon of the Second World War, and also the most wastefully expensive.
The MG 42 (shortened from German: Maschinengewehr 42, or "machine gun 42") is a German recoil-operated air-cooled general-purpose machine gun used extensively by the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS during the second half of World War II.
Australia lost 34,000 service personnel during World War II. Total battle casualties were 72,814. Over 31,000 Australian became prisoners-of-war. Of these more than 22,000 were captured by the Japanese; by August 1945 over one third of them had died in the appalling conditions of the prisoner-of-war camps.
Chemical Weapons & Poisonous Gas
This brutal war led to the rise and eventually banning of chemical weapons used in warfare. In a post-WWI environment, the banned chemical weapons include five different types. We wisely banned blood agents, blister agents, choking agents, nettle agents, and nerve agents.
The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, killed 70,000 people initially, with tens of thousands more succumbing to radiation sickness over subsequent months and years.
The M1 Garand was the first standard-issue semi-automatic rifle, and General George S. Patton called it “the greatest battle implement ever devised”.
During the Second World War, the Germans created some of the most advanced weapons, pushing the boundaries between reality and science fiction. Throughout the Second World War, the Nazis created a slew of unorthodox weapons, some of which saw battlefield action and some of which never made it out of the concept stage.
Deaths during World War II
The Soviet Union suffered 8,668,400 dead and another 4,559,000 missing. Germany lost 2,049,872 dead and 1,902,704 missing. China lost 1,324,516 dead and 115,248 missing. Japan lost 1,506,000 dead and 810,000 missing.
Audie Leon Murphy (20 June 1925 – 28 May 1971) was an American soldier, actor, and songwriter. He was one of the most decorated American combat soldiers of World War II. He received every military combat award for valor available from the United States Army, as well as French and Belgian awards for heroism.