More Questions on German WWII Armor Quiz

Answer: The lack of sloped armor

Sloped armor was a prominent feature of the Soviet T-34, which clearly influenced later German designs like the Panther and the Tiger II (Königstiger). Sloped armor has the advantage of sometimes "bouncing off" incoming projectiles; also, the effective thickness is greater when faced with a horizontally incoming projectile.

Answer: Flakpanzer IV Wirbelwind

The Wirbelwind was not very successful against aircraft, as the 20mm was too weak against aircraft in the later stages of the war. Thus, it was often also employed against (soft) ground targets, similar to the US "meat chopper" (quad Browning M2 mount).

The Flakpanzer 38 (t), with a single 20mm barrel, was even less effective against aircraft. For this reason, the later Ostwind was equipped with a more powerful 37mm gun. The Kugelblitz was to be equipped with twin 30mm guns in a fully enclosed turret, but never moved past the prototype stage.

Answer: Wespe

The Wespe was also a self-propelled 105mm gun, but on a PzKpfW II chassis. As the PzKpfW II was obsolete by the start of the war, it was a logical choice for SP guns like the Wespe. Due to the vehicle's success it would eventually be the only PzKpfW II based vehicle in production. Wespes mainly served in artillery units of Panzer divisions.

Funnily enough, all of these are insect names (Wespe = wasp, Hornisse = hornet, Hummel = bumblebee, Heuschrecke = grasshopper). The Hornisse, later called Nashorn, was a self-propelled 88mm gun, and the Hummel was a self-propelled 150mm gun on an otherwise very similar vehicle. The Heuschrecke was a prototype for a self-propelled 105mm gun. Technically, the chassis for the Hornisse and the Hummel was called the PzKpfW III/IV chassis, I admit. But they very much appear to be a PzKpfW IV chassis based on appearance and the Wespe is clearly the "odd vehicle out".

Answer: Sturmtiger

The Sturmtiger mounted a modified depth charge launcher firing massive 380mm projectiles, which had to be loaded in the vehicle by a crane! It was developed following the experiences at Stalingrad in dealing with fortified buildings. By the time the vehicle was ready, however, the German army was on the defensive and did not really have a need for the vehicle. Only 18 vehicles were produced for this reason.

The Jagdtiger was based on the Tiger II (Königstiger) chassis. The Elefant was based on Porsche's (rejected) entry for what would eventually become the Tiger I. The Sturer Emil was a self-propelled gun on "leftover" prototype chassis of what would eventually become the Tiger I.

Answer: Jagdpanzer IV

The vehicle was "nose heavy", which made it difficult to handle in rough terrain. Also the wear on the front road wheels was such that the rubber wheels had to be replaced with steel rimmed wheels. How this relates to a duck is not quite clear to me, by the way. However, Guderian was probably not so pleased with the nickname, as he was actually not in favor of the Jagdpanzer IV.

Answer: Special purpose vehicle

SdKfz is short for "Sonderkraftfahrzeug", which translates as special purpose vehicle. Actually, every German WWII vehicle has a SdKfz designation (for instance, SdKfz 181 for the Tiger I). The term is, however, probably most associated with the SdKfz 251 halftrack, as the vehicle does not have another name.

The closest German translation of AFV is PzKpfW (PanzerKampfWagen), which is used for turreted tanks. The closest German term for self-propelled gun is probably Selbstfahrlafette, which translates as "self propelled [gun] mount".

Answer: StuGIII

The StuG III was relatively cheap and easy to produce, and thus a good way to provide the infantry with armored support. StuG IIIs typically served in dedicated battalion sized units which would be allocated to army corps. After WWII a few copies were used by Syria in the early conflicts with Israel.

The question requires careful reading, as the SdKfz 251 was the most produced AFV, but it was a halftrack. The PzKpfW IV was the most produced turreted tank. The easy "wrong" answer was the Jagdpanther, with just over 400 produced, as compared to over 8500 PzIVs, over 10000 StuGIIIs and over 15000 SdKfz 251s.

Answer: Somua S35

Because of its rather unique feature of having a cast hull (as opposed to bolted or welded) the Somua S35 was very difficult to convert into self-propelled guns, thus it was spared this fate of most captured (French and Czech) vehicles. The Somua S35 did serve in the German army, mostly in second line duty.

It was one of the better French AFVs captured by the Germans, although limited by the one man turret. The one man turret meant that the commander had to load and fire the 47mm main armament, in addition to his commander duties, a design fault shared with many French AFVs. Most of the Marder Is were built on Lorraine 37L chassis, but a few H39 and FCM36 chassis were also used.

Answer: 47mm PaK 38 (t)

The 47mm PaK 38 (t) was a Czech gun, of which sufficient copies were available for use in the Panzerjäger I. As the war progressed, however, the 47mm gun was no longer sufficient against the ever increasing armor of newer enemy tanks, and so the Panzerjäger I was also phased out. The small PzKpfW I chassis was not suitable for mounting heavier weapons like the PaK 40.

The PaK 36 and 38 were the German AT guns of the time, which were used in the field. The FK 36 (r), a captured Russian field gun, was mounted on an early version of the Marder III self-propelled gun.

Answer: September 1942, near Leningrad

Four went into combat near Leningrad in September 1942, resulting in one copy being captured by the Soviet Union, so it could be studied. Despite its wide tracks, the vehicle became stuck in a swamp. Not an auspicious debut for a vehicle that would become so feared by allied tank crews. The early deployment was a result of Hitler's rush to get the vehicle into combat quickly. Hitler was quite fascinated with heavy tank designs, believing in extremely heavily armored vehicles being nigh unstoppable and winning battles almost by themselves. As shown by the Tiger I's debut, and other examples, the reality was quite different.

The vehicle was not yet available at the start of case blue. The deployment in Tunisia was the first time the Western allies encountered the vehicle. Kursk was the debut of other vehicles like the Panther and the Ferdinand, to equally less than glorious outcomes.