What single weapon was the most crucial to Germany?

von_noobie · Post by **von_noobie** » Wed Jul 05, 2006 11:33 pm

So LL saved the Russians at the most critical moments of the war.

phylo_roadking · Post by **phylo_roadking** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 6:38 am

wouldn't say saved, would say HELPED save. And none of those weapons would have helped much on the OFFENSIVE lol

phylo

cpa95 · Post by **cpa95** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 6:47 am

Hi,

It helped to win time in critical situations 1942,
time to produce masses of weapons and equipments.

Greetings
Thomas

oleg · Post by **oleg** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 1:06 pm

von_noobie wrote:So LL saved the Russians at the most critical moments of the war.

How people manage to arrive to this conclusion is beyond me. As of January 1st 1942 RKKA had 7700 tanks of all types. During 1942 it received 27900 tanks. During the same year it lost 15000 – mostly light ones. As of January 1st 1943 it had 20600 tanks. If we assume that none of LL has arrived it would mean that RKKA would had about 15000 tanks. Now how one deduce form the above that if it was not for LL RKKA would run out of armor?

phylo_roadking · Post by **phylo_roadking** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 1:28 pm

Ah, heres a question.....given that after the war, Britain had to send BACK to the USA a huge amount of what it got in LL.....how come the Russians didnt send any back to Britain??? Im sure SOME matildas and valentines survived somewhere, and Hurricanes.....

oleg · Post by **oleg** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 2:28 pm

phylo_roadking wrote:Ah, heres a question.....given that after the war, Britain had to send BACK to the USA a huge amount of what it got in LL.....how come the Russians didnt send any back to Britain??? Im sure SOME matildas and valentines survived somewhere, and Hurricanes.....

probably because most of it was destroyed during the war. I know that what we have returned to US was usually dumped off right out of 20 –mile Soviet costal zone.

von_noobie · Post by **von_noobie** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 2:59 pm

I would say an important HELP at least, Without these tanks blocking the German Pnz div The Germans would have over run a lot of ground before the Russian tanks got there in numbers.

oleg · Post by **oleg** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 3:10 pm

von_noobie wrote:I would say an important HELP at least, Without these tanks blocking the German Pnz div The Germans would have over run a lot of ground before the Russian tanks got there in numbers.

This is puzzling – what makes you think that LL tanks got “there”- to stop German tanks before Soviet tanks were available in numbers ? Where is this “there” and when did it happen? Obviously the aid was important – but do not see how it was critical – critical being a difference between loosing and winning the war.

matthall · Post by **matthall** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 5:07 am

What about cotton then? I've read somewhere that the U.S. supplied around 90% of the cotton needed, but I can't remember where I read it. Do you have any figures Oleg?

phylo_roadking · Post by **phylo_roadking** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 7:52 am

Oleg - have you any provenance on that Hurricane? Most gate guardians in the West have known service histories. I ask cos its a MkII with the desert air filter intake. Didnt ever hear of any cannon-armed Hurris being sent....

phylo

oleg · Post by **oleg** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 9:03 am

phylo_roadking wrote:Oleg - have you any provenance on that Hurricane? Most gate guardians in the West have known service histories. I ask cos its a MkII with the desert air filter intake. Didnt ever hear of any cannon-armed Hurris being sent....

phylo

This does not appear to be a gatekeeper

This one sits in the town of Revda on Kola Peninsula. USSR got some amount of canon armed Hurris –in 1941 – mostly form British Indian and eastern squadrons. We also got some armed with 40 mil canons in 1943. This one said to be IIc Trop. I’ll try to track it down but I cannot promises anything.

oleg · Post by **oleg** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 9:07 am

matthall wrote:What about cotton then? I've read somewhere that the U.S. supplied around 90% of the cotton needed, but I can't remember where I read it. Do you have any figures Oleg?

err not very likely, although I don’t know for sure. Main production points for cotton in USSR were in central Asian republics –those were pretty much unaffected by war. How much cotton was supplied by US (in tons) ?

phylo_roadking · Post by **phylo_roadking** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 9:24 am

well weird, i didnt think the RAF in India had anything like this to give away in '41....when you see the list of absolute cr@p Singapore had to defend itself with! AND given that the Desert Air Force was always short of useable aircraft, particulalrly Hurribombers and cannonarmed aircraft.

wehrmacht soldat · Post by **wehrmacht soldat** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 5:55 pm

I would say the single most crucial weapon for Germany was the K98 Mauser. Almost every soldier was armed with one it showed it's power on the battlefield. Without this weapon, the entire German empire would be without a worthy rifle that was easy and cheap to produce.

Hans · Post by **Hans** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 10:01 pm

The shorthandled spade [entrenching tool]. Very versatile, especially in hand to hand combat. Seems however that there was a continuous shortage.

- Hans