Tiger Heat: German Panzers on the Eastern Front

PPSh-41 – The PPSh-41 is a magazine-fed selective fire submachine gun using an open-bolt, blowback action. Made largely of stamped steel, it can be loaded with either a box or drum magazine, and fires the 7.62×25mm Tokarev pistol round.

The PPSh saw extensive combat use during World War II and the Korean War. It was one of the major infantry weapons of the Soviet Armed Forces during World War II. Around six million PPSh-41s were manufactured.

Sherman Tank – The Sherman evolved from the Grant and Lee medium tanks. It kept quite a bit of the previous mechanical design, but added a main 75 mm gun mounted on a fully traversing turret, with a gyrostabiliser enabling the crew to fire with reasonable accuracy while the tank was on the move. The designers ensured it had mechanical reliability, ease of production and maintenance, durability, standardisation of parts. Although being a petrol engine with a 400hp and later 470hp they were prone to catching fire. These factors made the Sherman superior in some regards to the earlier German light and medium tanks of 1939-41. The Sherman ended up being produced in large numbers and formed the backbone of most of the Allied offensives, starting in late 1942.

SS – These were the defence corps of the Nazi party and commanded by Himmler. The SS was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. It began at the end of 1920 as a small, permanent guard unit known as the “Saal-Schutz” (Hall-Protection) made up of NSDAP volunteers to provide security for Nazi Party meetings in Munich. Later in 1925, Heinrich Himmler joined the unit which had by then been reformed and renamed the “Schutz-Staffel”. Under Himmler’s leadership (1929–45), it grew from a small paramilitary formation to one of the largest and most powerful organizations in Nazi Germany. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Himmler’s command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II.

V-2 – The V-2 was the second of the German terror weapons after the V-1 and unmanned drone with a high explosive warhead. The V-2 was an even more advanced weapon and essentially the first cruise missile. It was based on rocket technology. The V-2 used a 74% ethanol/water mixture (B-Stoff) for fuel and liquid oxygen (LOX) (A-Stoff) for oxidizer.

At launch the V-2 propelled itself for up to 65 seconds on its own power, and a program motor controlled the pitch to the specified angle at engine shutdown, after which the rocket continued on a ballistic free-fall trajectory. The rocket reached a height of 50 mi after shutting off the engine. The V-2 was guided by four external rudders on the tail fins, and four internal graphite vanes at the exit of the motor. The LEV-3 guidance system consisted of two free gyroscopes (a horizontal and a vertical) for lateral stabilization, and a PIGA accelerometer to control engine cutoff at a specified velocity. The V-2 was launched from a pre-surveyed location, so the distance and azimuth to the target were known. Fin 1 of the missile was aligned to the target azimuth.

BIOGRAPHY

Tanks: 100 Years of Armoured Warfare – Robin Cross; 11 Aug. 2016

Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front 1941-1942: Robert Forczyk; 28 Feb. 2014

Tiger I and Tiger II (Images of War Special) Anthony Tucker-Jones; 15 Jul 2013

COPYRIGHT

© Steve Stone 2017

Second Edition

Steve Stone has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

Published by Digital Dreams Publishing 2017