German Assualt Guns 1939-1945

First, a definition of "assualt gun." An assualt gun is a tank chassis that, instead of having a traversable (movable) turret has a anchored gun jutting out of the front of the vehicle. The advantage of this is that it can mount heavier guns and heavier armor. The disadvantage is that it cannot turn to the sides without turning the entire body, so it is much more vulnerable to flank attacks. Also, it usually mounted only one machine gun (a co-axial) as opposed to the two on a tank.

Ok, so on to the German Assualt Guns.

Nashorn:

A light assualt gun mounting a 8.8cm L/71 main gun, it was vulnerable to enemy tank and mortar fire, so it was best to be used in ambushes against heavy Russian tanks like the K-V line. It had less frontal armor than other assualt guns (in fact having an open front), so it was an easy target once discovered. It mounted one MG-34 machine gun for anti-infantry defense. By the way, a "Nashorn" is a rhinoceros.

Ferdinand:

A heavy assualt gun (it was also known as the "Elefant"), it was mounted on a Tiger chassis. It had a 8.8cm L/71 cannon, like the Nashorn, but unlike the previous vehicle, it had 200mm of frontal armor, enough to withstand any shelling. It was named after Ferdinand Porsche, who developed and built the tank (along with the more famous car). An interesting side note would be provided by General Heinz Guderian, the father of German armored warfare, who in his book Panzer Leader lambasts Porsche for building the original gun without any machine guns, leaving it defenseless against close infantry. Later versions would rectify this situation.

JagdPanzer IV:

Also known as the "Neur Art", this assualt gun was built using a Mark IV chassis and stripping the turret, replacing it with a 7.5cm L/71 cannon, like the one on the Panther. This was a common conversion for the outdated Mark IV, and over 1500 were made.

JagdPanther:

Taking a Panther chassis and turning it into an assualt gun created this beast. It mounted an 8.8cm L/71 cannon, and 200mm of frontal armor. Deadly against any enemy tank, especially those on the Western Front, it became one of the most feared of the war.

JagdTiger:

This assualt gun mounted the largest caliber cannon of any German tank of the war, a 12.8cm L/55. The JagdTiger arrived to late in the war to make any difference, and only 77 were built anyway. Here would be a good time to note that "Jagd" is a variation of the German "Jäger", or "hunter". So "JagdTiger" would translate to "hunting Tiger." Just an interesting side note to make this longer.

StuG III 7.5cm

This was the first German assualt gun and was mass produced in large quantities along with it's later variations, the StuG III 10.5 cm and the StuH '42 (also mounting a 10.5cm gun). Very effective, even later in the war.


This would be a good time to mention that all these pictures, along with the ones from the previous Russian tank post, come from Battletanks.com, which I found to be very useful in researching these articles. Most of the gun information comes from Close Combat III. When the sources conflicted, I went with CC3.

And The Nominations Are In...

...To head the World Bank, the UN organization tasked with evaluating the credit ratings of developing countries and lending them money in just the right amounts to promote economic development. Who are the two leading nominees? Why, none other than Paul Wolfowitz, one of the key architects of the Iraq War (obviously a big fan of helping the little guy) and Bono, lead singer of U2, who likes poor people but knows jack shit about economics.

Don't get me wrong, I love U2, but not leading the World Bank. And Wolfowitz for World Bank is almost as asinine as John Bolton for UN Ambassador. Are these really the most qualified individuals out of the 6.5 billion that inhabit the Earth? What about, say, Jeff Sachs, a world-famous economist (oxymoron!) who recently wrote a book about how to help the poor through the World Bank? Huh? Huh? huh....damn, Bono it is.

Why All The Idiocy? (Part IV)

Those assholes:

ANWR Drilling

A straight vote in the Senate down party lines, 51-49, so we can drill for more oil. I even signed a petition against it!

Why Hardcore Sucks

So I was listening to my Minor Threat demo the other day (pffff, it was $4), and I realized how lame it was. First off, they lollygag through eight songs in a lethargic nine minutes. Next, they have lame song titles like "Guilty of Being White," which, to my dismay, was not a brilliant tirade against the oppressiveness of affirmative action but was rather Ian McKaye yelling "Guilty! Of being white!" about 30 times (in about 15 seconds, mind you) followed by McKaye shouting out his "charges" and the guitarist/three-chord master shouting out "Guilty!" The rest of the CD consists of him bitching about his lower-middle class life and elsewhatever. And the drums are the same exact ride/bass - ride/snare combo that every crappy punk band loves to use in every song. And Minor Threat is no exception. The problem is these guys are emblematic of the entire genre, and, oddly enough, are also considered the great-great-great-great-grandfathers of emo (SDRE is the grandfather of the second wave, which is more accurately emo). But yea, we're talking nine minutes here. I've written single songs that are longer.

The Russian Wave: Soviet Medium and Heavy Tanks, 1941-1945

This is a companion to my piece on German tanks, just so I don't seem like a Nazi sympathizer.

Let us start by analyzing why tanks were such a deciding factor on the Eastern Front. Compared to the wooded and heavily populated West, the Eastern Campaign was fought mainly over the plains of Ukraine, Belarus, Russia, and Poland, sparsely populated regions with very long lines of fire. And unlike in the West, where American and British air superiority, by sheer numbers, forced the Luftwaffe from the sky and kept German tanks pinned under cover during the day, in the East the air forces were relatively well-balanced. While the Russians were much more numerous, the German pilots were more experienced and their aircraft were of better quality. Therefore, neither side was able to get uncontested time to strafe the enemy tank columns. It was left to the ground units to fight for themselves. And because the terrain was so open, infantry anti-tank (AT) weapons, such as the Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck (a carbon copy of the American Bazooka), were of much less use since they could not be fired from cover. AT guns were still of use, but because of the open terrain, tanks could often knock them out of combat before they fell within the gun's range. Therefore, tank-tank combat became the centerpiece of the battle.

T-34

The T-34 was the main Russian tank. A good picture of the original model can be found here. It was better armored than the German tanks of the time (Mark IIIs and IVs, see my earlier piece for more information), well enough in fact that the German tanks would be unable to penetrate its armor without getting behind it and firing into the engine grille. Sporting a 7.62 cm L/31 main gun, it could knock out most mid-war German tanks with one shot. However, the small turret caused trouble, such as the commander being required to load the main gun since there was no room for a loader, and the T-34 '43, brought out in 1943 (surprise!) sported a larger turret. A later refinement, the T-34-85, was a T-34 '43 with an 8.5 cm L/42 cannon. It was capable of knocking out all but the heaviest German tanks. The T-34 was the tank on which the Red Army rode to victory, quite literally.

K-V I + II
The K-V line was an intermediary tank between the T-34 medium tank the the Josef Stalin (IS) tanks of the late war. They were slow, cumbersome behemoths, but nothing the Germans had at the time could beat it in a straight fight. They had very short guns for tanks of their size, a 7.62 cm L/31 gun (similar to that on the T-34), but still packed a decent punch.

IS-2
The Josef Stalin II (IS-2) was the most powerful tank to see combat in World War II. And yes, Stalin was enough of an asshole to name not one, but two tanks after himself. With 150mm of frontal armor and a 122mm L/43 gun, it was unopposed by all but the heaviest German tanks, notably the Königstiger, and the JagdPanther and JagdTiger assualt guns. It mounted a total of four machine guns (two front, one rear, one anti-aircraft (AA)), allowing it to prevent ambush from any angle. This was the heaviest tank of the war.

IS-3
The Josef Stalin III was bigger, faster, better armed, and better armored than the IS-2, but most historians believe it never saw action in World War II. The first time it was confirmed by Western observers was during the Russian May Day military parade in 1945. Equipped with 230mm of frontal armor, it was almost inpenetrable, even to the JagdTiger's 12.8 cm gun. The IS-3 sported a 122mm L/43 gun, like the IS-2, but was much faster and more manuveurable. It was truly a pinnacle of tank design, and a far cry from the early tanks of the war.

Why All The Idiocy? (Part III)

Wow, this is becoming a series, I think.

So Bush is being a douchebag again. He needed a new UN Ambassador, and who does he nominate? Why, John Bolton. Who is that, you may ask. Well, if you're too lazy to read the article, I'll tell you. If you read the article, I'll tell you anyway.

John Bolton has spent his life hating the United Nations. He publicily opposes the International Criminal Court, or any other body that has potential jursidiction over Americans, and views the United Nations as nothing more than a way for the world to control the US. He opposes negotiations of any sort with Iran and North Korea (preferring to let them build nukes alone, I guess) and has pissed off the Chinese on numerous occasions. And you don't piss off the Chinese, or else they overrun you.

Even the Republicans in Congress are puzzled by this one. But don't worry, he won't get confirmed. He's a dick, and dicks never win (except the guy who is named Dick...but not Richard Nixon, a.k.a. "Tricky Dick").

CDs - Ranked!

The idea here was to go through my collection in my CD cases and see what was worth listening to. I didn't even bother with the CDs in my bin. All in all, I found I have more than 80 CDs laying around! Wowser.

Ask me next week, and the order of these'll be quite different, except at the very top (1-5) and the bottom (30+)

1. Bright Eyes - Fevers And Mirrors
2. Saves The Day - Stay What You Are
3. Mineral - The Power of Failing
4. Mogwai - Happy Songs For Happy People
5. Appleseed Cast - Mare Vitalis
6. At The Drive-In - Relationship of Command
7. Sunny Day Real Estate - Diary
8. Rufio - Perhaps, I Suppose...
9. Explosions In The Sky - How Strange, Innocence
10. Mogwai - EP + 2
11. Mars Volta - De-Loused In The Comatorium
12. Sparta - Wiretap Scars
13. Bright Eyes - Digital Ash In A Digital Urn
14. Saves The Day - In Reverie
15(T). Blink-182 - Buddha
15(T). Mogwai - Rock Action
15(T). Brand New - Deja Entendu
18. American Football - American Football
19. Blink-182 - Dude Ranch
20. Thrice - The Artist In The Ambulance
21. A Perfect Circle - Mer De Noms
22. Explosions In The Sky - Those Who Tell The Truth Will Die, Those Who Tell The Truth Will Live Forever
23. Get Up Kids - Something To Write Home About
24. Brand New - Your Favorite Weapon
25. Saves The Day - Ups & Downs: Early Recordings And B-Sides
26. Rufio - MCMLXXXV (1985)
27. Blink-182 - Chesire Cat
28. Thursday - Full Collapse
29. Radiohead - Hail To The Thief
30. Coheed And Cambria - Second Stage Turbine Blade
31. The Used - The Used
32. Jets To Brazil - Perfecting Loneliness
33. Mogwai - Come On Die Young
34. Further Seems Forever - The Moon Is Down
35. Mono - Walking Cloud And Deep Red Sky, Flag Fluttered And The Sun Shined
36. Green Day - Dookie

Everybody from here on down should feel ashamed since they're after a CD named synonymously with shit.

37. Thursday - War All The Time
38. Yellowcard - Ocean Avenue
39. Sparta - Porcelain
40. Straylight Run - Straylight Run
41. Incubus - S.C.I.E.N.C.E.
42. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake It's Morning
43. Offspring - Americana
44. Jets To Brazil - 4-Cornered Night
45. Green Day - Nimrod
46. No Use For A Name - Leche Con Carne
47. Incubus - When Incubus Attacks Vol. 1
48. No Use For A Name - Hard Rock Bottom
49. Yellowcard - One For The Kids
50. AFI - Black Sails In The Sunset
51. A Perfect Circle - 13th Step
52. Incubus - Fungus Amongus
53. No Use For A Name - More Betterness

Yea, that's it. Plus the 30 or so in the crate I didn't bother to look at.