Editing Nazi Equipment (section)

====Tanks====
German tanks were in general well designed, but in hindsight were overengineered and prone to breakdowns in the field. For example, take their ''Schachtellaufwerk'' (interleaved wheel system for the tracks). The idea was: more roadwheels = weight distributed more evenly over track = less ground pressure = less bogging down and/or a higher maximum load. It was also supposed to lessen tank shaking and allow the panzers to fire (relatively) accurately on the move. Great idea on paper, and a pretty good one when testing prototypes at home... but an absolute hell on the Eastern front, where the almost supernaturally awful mud (caused by the spring thaw, or ''rasputitsa'') infiltrated between the wheels before freezing and breaking everything. Cue hour after hour of work for the maintenance teams, removing the track and wheels for cleaning before mounting them again [[FAIL|each and every time the goddamn tank sortied]], where a more traditional slack-track system would have required much less cleaning, [[Fail|and it didn't even work]] post war testing showed no real advantage, hence why no tank in the post war period used a similar system. And those were just added on top of the already quite large list of ''traditional'' mechanical breakdowns that plagued any and all vehicle pool of the epoch...

Another big weak point in the German Panzerwaffe was the lack of standardization between individual tank models. The Allies more or less made all the variations of their tanks (which were standardized for every company and factory making them) from existing models and fitted them with weapons they deemed appropriate for the task at hand([[Leman Russ (tank)|just like the Leman Russ, in fact]]), which eased supply and maintenance, whereas the Germans designed entirely new vehicles for every purpose and spread them across multiple manufacturers, each with their own specifications, tooling and production lines. In practice, this meant that parts between German vehicle types were mostly incompatible with each other; i.e. a gear made for a Panzer IV "A" could not go into a Panzer IV "J", compared to T-34s being basically entirely interchangeable. It quickly became a logistical nightmare to keep all the tank units in the field sufficiently supplied with spare parts or even fuel (the Germans never could make their minds up if they preferred gasoline or diesel). That's not to say that they didn't know or realize this (thoughts in this direction lead into the E-Series of design studies, planned to be a series of tank models that more or less shared all parts with each other except armament and chassis) but by 1944 Germany lacked the industrial capacity and resources to switch to a more economical model of production. Furthermore, the German model of tank production didn't help too; all of the German tanks were hand-crafted, using expensive and elaborate methods with strict tolerances to produce the best results possible, which becomes positively idiotic when you compare the results to the colossal production runs of the T-34 and the Sherman. As an example: the most produced German tank of the period was the Panzer IV, with 8,553 produced from 1937 to 1945. The Soviets, meanwhile, built ''over 57,000'' T-34s from 1940-1945. In 1943, they were cranking out 1,300 of the damn things a month, compared to Germany's puny monthly average of 252 Panzer IVs. The T-34 wasn't perfect, but it was good enough, and "good enough" is really all you need when you have 57,000 to your opponent's 8,550. Moreover, while the Germans kept tinkering with and refining the IV's design, the Soviets ignored any modification that would slow production and focused on finding ways to build T-34s as quickly and cheaply as possible. The "5 to 1 ratio" of Allied vs German tanks is as much the result of the modus operandi of the German war industry as it is of failed planning, overly complicated designs, fascist inefficiency, a whole lot of nepotism and corruption and having the SHIT bombed out of them.

In the end, the true selling point of the ''Panzerwaffe'' was not the tanks themselves, but the way in which they were used, the men manning them, the mechanics supporting them, and the radios installed in every tank that allowed for a level of coordination between armor, infantry, and artillery never before seen (all of which formed the core of ''Blitzkrieg'' tactics). This, along with some powerful late-war designs, occasionally gave German tanks an edge over Allied tanks until production problems, stability issues and most of all fuel shortages became overwhelming.

German tanks are called "''Panzer''", which when directly translated means "''armor''", and more specifically is the shortened version of "''Panzerkampfwagen''" (Armored Fighting Vehicle). The name is often abbreviated to just "PzKpfw" or even "Pz". The habit of naming tanks, airplanes and other pieces of equipment after animals, mostly predators, was introduced after a suggestion by Goebbels in 1944 to increase the propagandistic value of the vehicles. This is why earlier vehicles have none of these names and were named "at face value". At no point in time did these nicknames show up in official records of the Wehrmacht aside from anecdotal mentions in field reports. The official records of the Heereswaffenamt (Army armory office) used the ''Sonderkraftfahrzeug'' ("Special purpose vehicle", Sd.Kfz. in short) system of designations instead.
* '''Panzer I:''' Designed and produced in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles, the ''Panzerkampfwagen I'' was the first Nazi tank. It was small, weighing only 5.4 tonnes, and was armed only with two MG-13 machine guns. Some 1,493 were made, and were most notable in that they allowed the Heer to start training tank crews, and (after being sent to Spain) allowed tank doctrines be developed that the Nazis would use to steamroll Poland and France. They saw some use at the beginning of WWII, but were pretty soon deemed to be out of date even for scouting missions. Until they were deemed totally obsolete, they were continuously upgraded and specialized, and had several variants including a potential recon paratrooper-tank. Primary Nazi tank of the Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War.  [[File:Panzer I.PNG|thumb|right|300px|Mein Herr! Can't ve get somezing better zan zis Panzer I?]] As with a lot of Nazi tanks that became obsolete, the old PzKpfw I's were sometimes stripped to the chassis and repurposed for things such as artillery and tank destroyer roles, though this was relatively rare. It should also be noted the Panzer I is the textbook example of a tankette rather then a full tank, though since early WWII would define the important strategic difference of tankettes vs tanks it's not surprising it became the primary armoured vehicle before the war.
* [[Panzer_II|'''Panzer II:''']] The ''Panzerkampfwagen II'' was designed using the experience gained in the Spanish Civil War. Heavier than the Panzer I at 8.9 tonnes, it was designed as a stopgap, as the Panzer III and IV were experiencing delays in production. It was armed with a dinky automatic 20mm cannon that was little better than an antitank rifle. Common during the early war, it was made obsolete by the arrival of the Panzer III and IV, and relegated to reconnaissance duties, training, or conversion into open-topped tank destroyers. Much like its younger brother, it too was pushed through several variants; however, instead of trying to upgrade it to keep it frontline-capable, it was turned into a better scout tank so that the Panzer III could take over the role of frontline tank. Primary Nazi tank for the invasions of Poland and France.
** '''Panzer II Ausf. L "Luchs"''': The final version of the Panzer II, with a redesigned turret housing the same 20mm autocannon in a new turret and a modified chassis. Speedy little bugger (it could reach up to 60 kph under optimal conditions) that served as a scouting verhicle for the tank divisions, with 100 being built. 
* [[Panzer_III|'''Panzer III:''']] One of the two main German tanks of the war, the ''Panzerkampfwagen III'' was about when Germany really got the hang of this whole tank design thing. Introduced in 1939, it weighed 23 tonnes, carried a 37mm anti tank gun, and notably had a turret big enough for three guys (which is actually more important than you might think, as it allows the crew to share the workload, e.g., the loader's only task is to load the gun with the correct ammo as fast as possible, the gunner focuses on aiming and firing the gun, while the commander can retain situational awareness and, well, give orders). Contemporary tanks, most notably the T-34, often had two or even one-man turrets, forcing the crew to share responsibilities and lowering their combat efficiency; the Germans themselves noted that a good panzer crew could get off three shots in the time it took a T-34 crew to fire one. The Panzer III was designed from the ground up to engage enemy tanks, rather than the infantry and light vehicles of earlier models. In Poland, France, and North Africa it did well, even though some French vehicles still outgunned them. Against Soviet T-34s, however, it was completely insufficient, unless upgraded to a 50mm gun and firing APDS. Thankfully, unlike the French and Russians, the Panzer IIIs were all equipped with radios, allowing them to outmaneuver the better tanks. Production stopped in 1942, but since they had built 5,774 of them, they stayed in service until the end of the war. The chassis was used to produce the StuG assault cannon (although "Geschütz" is hard to translate to English: it's neither a mere gun, nor a cannon, being more of a tank destroyer, i.e., a "sniper"-style tank), which would be the most widely produced German vehicle of the war, clocking in at 10,086 units. Ultimately, the III switched roles with the Panzer IV to become the infantry support tank with a short barrelled howitzer, though this was soon also replaced with a dual-purpose gun. Primary Nazi tank for the invasion of the Soviet Union.
* [[Panzer_IV|'''Panzer IV:''']] Ultimately the most common German tank, with 8,553 units being built over the course of the war (now compare those numbers with the nearly 50,000 Shermans and 57,000 T-34s that the freeaboos and commies built), the ''Panzerkampfwagen IV'' was the Panzer III's big brother. The Panzer IV was originally intended to be used against infantry and was armed with a low-velocity 75mm gun for blowing stuff up with explosive shells. After the invasion of Russia they switched to a 50mm anti-tank gun, and later a 75mm high-velocity cannon while also being up-armored to the absolute weight limit of the chassis. After that upgrade, it was generally on par with the T-34 and M4 Sherman (on average, at least — they had a less powerful engine, but better optics). Unlike early Soviet tanks, every Panzer IV generally had a working radio receiver. Its chassis became the foundation of many German vehicles of all classifications. Primary Nazi tank from 1942 to the end of the war in 1945.
* [[Panther|'''Panzer V Panther:''']] The Panther was introduced in 1943, and [[Skub|to this day history nerds, Wehraboos, Russaboos, and rivetheads are still arguing whether it or the T-34 was the best tank of the war]]. It copied many features of the T-34 and improved on them. It was listed as a "medium tank," despite weighing in at 44.8 tonnes (due to the Germans labeling tank classes with the intended use in mind, not weight). Its 75mm/L70 gun was one of the most powerful tank guns of the war, and could destroy any Allied tank. Quite mobile for its weight, its frontal armor was more effective than that of the Tiger's thanks to sloping. It truly was a swift and hard as nails death machine... when it was in working order, that is. The Panther was rushed into service so that it would be online in time for the Kursk offensive and had even more mechanical problems than the Tiger did due to its rushed design. The transmission, for example, broke down on average after just 250 kilometers (that's 155 miles for you Yanks), leading to a lot of abandoned tanks, and its turret initially came with a rounded front mantlet that acted as a shot trap, deflecting shells down through the thin top armour. On the plus side, the Panther was only about 20% more expensive to produce than the Panzer IV, and the Germans managed to produce 6,000 of them, though switching over did cost them in terms of other production due to the necessary retooling time. Along with the Tiger, the Panther was enough of a threat for the Western Allies to up-gun their Shermans (the 'Firefly' with the British 17-pounder gun and the multiple American (76) variants sporting a more powerful 76 mm gun) and the Soviets to make up-armored and up-gunned T-34-85's (with, you guessed it, a 85 mm gun in the turret). Along with the aforementioned US and Soviet tanks, the Panther eventually became one inspiration for the post-war "Main Battle Tank" concept, the other being the British Centurion. An upgraded Panther II was planned, but never entered production. [[File:Panther_Tank.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Zis vill do nicely! Danke!... Gott im Himmel, zat's a lot of Shermans!]] In recent years the tank has been associated with a phenomenon known as the "Panther Paradox", based on the general consensus that it was one of the war's best tanks. Essentially the tank itself, on paper, vastly outclassed the Sherman and T-34 in combat and wasn't much more expensive to build compared to the Panzer IV, yet when looking at its actual field performance the Panther did horribly. The actual answer comes in the form of "hard" values and "soft" values."Hard" values are the typical stuff people think about when they talk about tanks, like armor, speed, and firepower. "Soft" values are things like price, crew comfort, ease of maintenance, etc. While the Panther got top marks in the former, it was pretty terrible in the latter. The moral of the story, kids, is that what makes an effective weapon can't be narrowed down to a bunch of values you can put on the back of a cereal box.
* [[Tiger_1|'''Panzer VI Tiger:''']] Even before invading Russia and France, the generals of the Wehrmacht were requesting a "breakthrough tank" that could be used as the speartip of an armored assault, crushing any resistance and allowing its smaller brothers to exploit the hole it made in enemy defenses. The work on this concept began in 1937, but the first prototypes were a far cry from the monster the Nazis rolled out in 1942. The "Durchbruchwagen" (breakthrough tank), or DW for short, had many iterations with many problems, such as faulty transmission, overloaded and unreliable chassis, and failed unification with Pz.III (yes, that Pz.III, the medium tank, that was also developed in 1937-1938) lengthening the project significantly. It culminated in Typ 100 Leopard, a tank with 100mm armor and 88mm gun, a prototype of which was completed in March 1941. However, the shock of encountering the previously unknown Soviet KV-1s and T-34s spurred the actual implementation of heavy tanks as perceived German tank superiority was shattered. The Nazi top brass took this as a challenge to refine existing prototypes into the ultimate heavy tanks, and the result of said project were "the Big Cats". The first of these was the Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger heavy tank, built around the Typ 100 turret and gun, which entered service in 1942 (yes, the Pz. V actually came out after the VI did). "Heavy" definitely described the Tiger: it weighed 54 tonnes, had a 690 hp engine, had up to 100mm of armor, could reach 40 kph in good conditions to keep up with the little guys, and was armed with a hueg 88mm cannon that could take out a T-34 or Sherman from 2 kilometers with ease. In fact, it could do this to ''any tank the Allies would have at any point of the war'' from one kilometer away, barring IS-2s and Churchill VIIs. Despite this, the Tiger was over-engineered mechanically and somewhat under-designed chassis-wise. It was expensive, a drain on strategic resources, labor intensive to build, chugged gas like an alcoholic at an open bar, had reliability issues, and was [https://youtu.be/CVDDtbiGDxA?t=148 horribly maintenance-intensive once in the field]. Since the groundwork for the Tiger was laid out pre-Barbarossa, it did not implement the sloped armor concept of the T-34, which made the Tiger heavier and slower than it could have been for the same armor effectiveness. In short, it was essentially an upgraded Pz. IV and therefore a [[Metal Boxes|metal box]]. Only 1,347 Tigers were built, but they did have a colossal effect on Allied morale. In one instance a single Tiger destroyed most of the 22nd Armoured Brigade and forced them to retreat at the Battle of Villers-Bocage. The Tiger is without a doubt the most famous tank of WWII, known even to those illiterates who think WWII was only fought between America and Germany, and if most video games are to be believed, every Nazi tank was a Tiger. That is, however, somewhat understandable given just how often Allied tankers yelled 'Tiger' whenever they lost a tank, even to a regular Pz IV (which could be mistaken for a Tiger at a distance). The Tiger and Panther tanks, like a used car, came with an owner's manual (the Tigerfibel and Pantherfibel, respectively), and Heinz Guderian (German general with an ego that would make MacArthur seem modest, who wrote memoirs that are very good as literature and very bad as a primary source because he made himself look good at the expense of everyone else, especially Adolf) wanted every tank crew to read the manual. But even back then, people understood just how few guys actually read the instruction manual for anything. So it was written as a fun book to read, with humor, poetry, and naked girls alongside the information about how to use two of the most famous heavy tanks to be fielded in WWII.
* [[Tiger_II|'''Tiger II:''']] The Tiger II, sometimes known as the King Tiger (from an incorrect translation of ''Königstiger'', meaning "Bengal Tiger", but which literally translates to "Royal Tiger"), was the ultimate German tank, and introduced in 1944 as a successor to the Tiger. It weighed 68.5 tonnes (more than most modern tanks) and had 150mm of frontal armor, which was even sloped (a huge step forward from the boxy Tiger I)! Even so, between limited resources and an increasingly bombed-out industrial base, only 492 of these behemoths rolled off the assembly line before the war ended. These tanks were considered to be just as temperamental as the Tiger I, but for different reasons. The designers learned how to fix some of the problems with the Tiger I, and promptly over-built the Tiger II even more after patching the holes, because they thought they had wiggle room or something. It was damn near unkillable, but a fuel guzzler to the extreme, barely maneuverable, and prone to mechanical failures of almost any kind. Some historians argue that the King Tiger was only effective as a propaganda piece and little else, since the added size and weight often made maintaining the tank a nightmare, leaving aside its preexisting reliability issues. In the best conditions there was often a 50/50 chance they would even show up to fight, and in bad conditions you would be lucky if any made it. Interesting fact: since the Nazis were famous for constantly overcompensating, the first proposal of mounting a monstrous 8.8 cm Flak with a barrel 71 calibre long, that was ultimately made into 8.8 cm KwK 43 (the one Tiger II rocks), on a tank dates back to 21st of June, 1941, even before the invasion of the Soviet Union! 
** Of note is the vehicles more recent reputation as a meme in historical groups as many Revisionists (armchair generals who believe war should be fought like WW2 again) often insist [[What|that it was the best tank ever made and could 1v1 the Abrams with ease.]] It could not, what makes modern tanks a lot more deadly than their ancentors are composite armour and advanced ammunition which are far more effective than the AP shells used in the WW2 era and this is not even accounting for other auxiliary systems like reactive armour, laser-guided missiles and reconnaissance via drone. Add to that that composite armour is so damned resilient that its protective value is measured in ''hundereds'' of millimeters of armoured steel and that tanks only a generation after the King Tiger were designed to operate on a nuclear battlefield. Since then it is often brought up in mockery of the group.
*'''Anything they could steal:''' From French [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Char_B1#Operational_history B1 heavy tanks] to Soviet [http://www.achtungpanzer.com/panzerkampfwagen-t-34r-soviet-t-34-in-german-service.htm T-34's] to American [http://beutepanzer.ru/Beutepanzer/us/M4_sherman/m4-75-sherman-01.htm Shermans], the Nazis used everything they could get their hands on like Orks in spiffy uniforms (not that the Allies were any different: the Soviets, for example, had several companies armed with captured Panthers that they used as tank destroyers). This became so chronic that the British had a rule in place that said any tank which could not be repaired or salvaged was to be destroyed so the Germans wouldn't pinch it. They deployed stolen tanks pretty much everywhere, and of every type; hell, even Renault FT-17s were used in police roles in some areas.
**[['''Panzer 38(t)|Panzer 35(t) and 38(t):''']] the most famous tanks the Nazi <s>stole</s> were supplied with by puppet governments all across Europe were the PZ 35(t) and 38(t). Light tanks, both were Czech designs (hence the (t), for ''Tschechisch'') Germany acquired when they took over first the Sudetenland and then the rest of Czechoslovakia. While very useful early in the war, the designs were rendered obsolete by 1942 (they simply couldn't compete against a T-34), and the chassis was instead used to produce Marder 2 and Hetzer tank destroyers. A version of the 38(t), called the Stridsvagn m/41, was also used by Sweden. [[Katanas are Underpowered in d20|The vehicle's Czech steel was lower-quality than German stock.]]