Feldgrau.net

Gentlemen,

Apparently the Luftwaffe captured several (perhaps as many as 20) Caudron Renault 714 Cyclone in 1940, and presumably after the end of Vichy France. Does anuone have any ideas of the markings of the Cyclone in German service?

Regards,

Politruk

Gentlemen,

That does seem to be the case. After poking around a bit, I came up with this link:

http://www.geocities.com/finnmilpge/fmpg_pz40.html

Regards,

Politruk

Gentlemen, While on the topic of foreigners manning Flak, I came to think of the Croatian ambassador who was more or less stranded in Berlin in 1945. He had a Croatian Flak unit at the embassy that apparently served as a guard force and...jazz orchestra. The ambassador would throw parties, and when ...

Thank you so much for the info!

Regards,

Politruk

Gentlemen, I would not consider the PzKwI/III combo to be the early light artillery tractor, since that particular vehicle is a different beast alltogether according to Chamberlain's and Doyle's Encyclopedia of German tanks, page 146. As for the Pz III turret, I'd say that it's an Ausführung D (door...

Gentlemen, First of all, thanks for the translation! I would imagine that this contraption could be a development of the PzKw I:s with an open top and no trret used for driver training. The wood gas generator would be a severe liability in any combat situation, not only due to the low speed but also...

Gentlemen,

As a pun, WH was apparently translated into "Weg nach Hinten" (Way to the rear) amongst the Landsers.

Regards,

Politruk

Gentlemen, The Internet source of the picture seems to be the following: http://www.panzernet.net/panzernet/stranky/tanky/pz1.htm There is a caption in Czech, which unfortunately is above and beyond my language skills, although the text seems to mention training in one capacity or the other. Now, do...

Gentlemen, I am trying to find out the distribution of Panzerkampfwagen I:s in Finland during 1941 and 1942. I assume that they were part of an independent Abteilung or smaller unit, but I have so far only found various armour units with French "Beutepanzer". Also, does anyone know whether...

Gentlemen, In Showell's "The German Navy in WW2", it is mentioned that Kapitänleutnant Hans Bartels constructed the smallest minesweepers of the Kriegsmarine using locally available fishing vessels in Norway. In all twelve of these "Zwerge" (dwarfs) were supposed to have been bui...

Gentlemen, The suggested use of the geballte Ladung seems to have been to place it against a weak spot of a tank (or fortification, other AFV, etc) and then pull the fuse ring and finally depart with some haste. Just throwing the Ladung might not suffice to place the Ladung close enough to a soft sp...

Gentlemen,

The 2nd, 5th, 8th, 9th, 11th and 14th Panzer Divisions took part in the attack on Greece and Yugoslavia.

Sincerely,

Politruk

Hello! It seems quite safe to assume that the combat engineer squads suffered the same fate as the regular rifle squads, and yes, more automatic weapons were added towards the end of the war. TOE:s did tend to differ quite a bit from reality. Also, the organisation of the various combat engineer uni...

Hello!

Unless you already checked up on this, the 99th infantry veterans association has a number of first-hand reports online:

http://www.99div.com/

Sincerely,

Politruk

Attilio,

I would say that the (very nice) picture probably doesn't depict a Ramcke unit, since they do not seem to be wearing Luftwaffe uniforms, although I've seen plenty of whacky uniforms on Germans in North Africa.

Sincerely,

Politruk