World War 2 In Review: AFV

Kübelwagen with canvas top erected and rear side windows. The Volkswagen Kübelwagen was a light military vehicle designed by Ferdinand Porsche and built by Volkswagen during World War II for use by the German military (both Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS). Based heavily on the Volkswagen Beetle, it was prototyped as the Type 62, but eventually became known internally as the Type 82.

German Army Kübelwagen crossing a shallow stream in winter. Kübelwagen is an abbreviation of Kübelsitzwagen, meaning "bucket-seat car" because all German light military vehicles that had no doors were fitted with bucket seats to prevent passengers from falling out. The first VW test vehicles had no doors and were therefore fitted with bucket seats, so acquiring the name VW Kübelsitzwagen that was later shortened to Kübelwagen. Mercedes, Opel and Tatra also built Kübel(sitz)wagens.

German Army Kübelwagen with sand tires, captured in Tunisia, 24 February 1943. In November 1943, the U.S. military conducted a series of tests as well on several Type 82s they had captured in North Africa. In U.S. War Department Technical Manual TM-E 30-451, Handbook on German Military Forces, dated 15 March 1945 (p. 416), it states "The Volkswagen, the German equivalent of the American 'Jeep', is inferior in every way, except in the comfort of its seating accommodations."

The German light car Kfz 1 Type 82 Kübelwagen was produced by Volkswagen and used by German forces during World War II. It had a weight of about 1,500 pounds and was powered by a four-cylinder engine of about 25 brake horsepower. The “fat” tires on this Afrika Korps Kübelwagen are called sand tires and they are designed like a camel’s foot. Their predecessors were first used by vehicles traveling the sands of Saudi Arabia in the 1930s. Engineer Richard Kerr of Aramco thought about the “ship of the desert.” After measuring the camel’s foot spread and weight he determined the shape and pressure of the tires needed for the desert. The formula worked—and is still in use today.

Command reconnaissance car captured by the French in the southern Tunis-Bizerte sector, North Africa, 1 March 1943. Vehicle was from a Luftwaffe unit as indicated by the “WL” on the license plate. This was the final version, the type “40,” which had the four-wheel steering omitted and the spare wheel mounted inside. Both changes were incorporated mainly to save on production man-hours.

SdKfz 251 half-track.

SdKfz 251/9 half-track, Schützenpanzerwagen (7.5 cm KwK 37). Equipped with a 75 mm L/24 low velocity gun, using the same pedestal gun mount employed on the StuG III. Nicknamed “Stummel” (stump). In 1944, a revised modular gun mount was introduced to facilitate production that also incorporated a coaxial MG42. This universal gun mount was also used to create the SdKfz 250/8 variant and the SdKfz 234/3.

SdKfz 251 half-track, right.

SdKfz 251/22: 7.5 cm PaK 40 L/46 auf mittlerer Schützenpanzerwagen. Fitted with a 75 mm PaK 40 anti-tank gun. Probably too big a gun for the carriage, overloaded but effective, and the Yugoslav military was still using captured examples into the 1950s.

SdKfz 252 munitions carrier.

Sd.Kfz. 251 engineer half-tracks and crews being transported by train.

The 2 cm ammunition boxes are attached to the side of the SdKfz 10/4, holding 40 rounds each. The crew of seven had very limited protection while in combat due to the lack of armor other than the gun shield. The Flak 30 was fed by a flat 20 round box magazine and had a practical rate of 120 rpm.

A raid into enemy territory bagged a British 25-pdr field gun near the Halfaya Pass, Libya, May 1941.

20mm dual-purpose gun on SdKfz 10 half-track.

The 2 cm Flak 38 anti-aircraft gun was introduced in 1940 to replace the 2 cm Flak 30. Except for the higher rate of fire (450 rpm versus 280 rpm), nothing else changed in the performance of the gun.

The 2 cm Flak was effectively used as a ground weapon against gun emplacements, light armored vehicles and heavy machine gun nests. A crew of the 5th SS Panzer Division “Wiking” is giving covering fire to the advancing infantry during the Battle of Kursk, 5 July 1943.

A makeshift solution to mobilize the 3.7 cm Pak 35 anti-tank gun. This conversion was usually performed in the field and proved fairly successful. A 7.9 mm MG34 machine gun with a 30-round ammunition drum attached is unconventionally mounted over the motor compartment, giving this half-track added fire power.

Towing the 5 cm Pak 38 L/40 was another task for the much utilized 1-ton prime mover.

The 1-ton leichter Zugkraftwagen (SdKfz 10) (1-ton light prime mover) was built by the firm of Demag AG, Wetter/Ruhr. A prototype was first tested in 1934-35 and over 17,500 vehicles had left the assembly line when production ceased in 1944. A unit of the 2nd SS Panzer Division “Das Reich” spearheading the drive on Moscow in conjunction with Panzergruppe Guderian, Army Group Middle. The 1-ton Zgkftwg is followed by a Krupp L2H 143 Protze prime mover for light flak and anti-tank guns. The passenger car is an Opel Olympia.

Flak 20mm training, France.

Wrecked German half-track.

A Panzer IV Ausf. J of the 12th SS Panzer Division (“Hitlerjugend”) on a Normandy road.

JgdPz 38(t) Hetzer in a very carefully applied Hinterhalt-Tarnung. Notice how you can more or less differentiate the different colors by shade.

Repairing a Panzer III (possibly of the 11th Panzer Division) using a Zugkraftwagen 18 t mit Kran (Sd.Kfz. 9/1), Soviet Union, January 1943.

Panzer III on a Sd.Ah 116 transport trailer being towed by a Sd.Kfz.9 Famo.

A knocked-out PzKpfw III tank, with the body of one of its crew lying on the hull, 24 February 1943.

PzKpfw IIIs and SdKfz 250 half-tracks, Russia.

Captured PzKpfw III Ausf G, North Africa.

PzKpfw III, North Africa.

PzKpfw III Ausf E.

German soldiers pull a staff car through the heavy mud of the Russian roads, November 1941.

German soldiers crossing a Russian River on their self-propelled gun on 3 August 1942.

Looking inside a gepanzerte Selbstfahrlafette für Sturmgeschütz 7.5 cm Kanone (SdKfz 142) Ausf B.

Sturmpanzer I Bison self-propelled gun built on the Panzer I chassis.

Tiger I tank in the north of France.

Henschel Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger II in Budapest in 1945.

German Army parade in Berlin in 1939 for Hitler’s 50th birthday. Panzer II light tanks on Faun L900 transporters.

When the PzKpfw III and IV were designed in the mid-1930s, they were supplemented by a third design for the heavy tank role. This was the Neubaufahrzeuge (‘New Construction’—NbFz), built with different armaments and originally named the PzKpfw V and PzKpfw VI. The German Neubaufahrzeuge series of tank prototypes were a first attempt to create a heavy tank for the Wehrmacht after Adolf Hitler had come to power. Multi-turreted, heavy and slow, they were not considered successful therefore only five were made. These were primarily used for propaganda purposes, though three took part in the Battle of Norway in 1940.

NbFz Nr. 1 (Rheinmetall) in the Krupp factory in 1942. During the 1920s and 1930s, a number of countries experimented with very large, multi-turreted tanks. The British built a single example of the Vickers A1E1 Independent in 1926. This inspired the Soviet T-35, which was built in limited numbers from 1933.

PzKpfw NbFz VI Rheinmetall heavy tank. Development of the Neubaufahrzeuge (German for "new construction vehicle" - a cover name) started in 1933 when the then Reichswehr gave a contract for the development of a Großtraktor ("heavy tractor") to both Rheinmetall and Krupp. Großtraktor was a codename for the development of a heavy tank, Germany being still forbidden to develop tanks under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles. The technical details of the Vickers A1E1 Independent were then available to the Germans as they were amongst the information sold to them by a British officer, Norman Baillie-Stewart, who acted as a German spy before his arrest in 1933.

PzKpfw NbFz VI (Krupp) in Norway, 1940. The Rheinmetall and Krupp designs resembled each other to a great extent, the main difference being the weapons placement. Each had a main turret armed with a 75 mm KwK L/24 main gun and secondary 37 mm KwK L/45. Rheinmetall's design mounted the second gun above the 75 mm KwK L/24, while the Krupp design had it mounted next to the 75 mm KwK L/24. Both designs had a secondary turret mounted to the front and the rear of the main turret. These turrets were slightly adapted Panzer I turrets, with the standard machine gun armament.

PzKpfw NbFz VIs in Oslo, 19 April 1940. Rheinmetall's design was designated PzKpfw NbFz V (PanzerKampfwagen NeubauFahrzeug V), and the Krupp design PzKpfw NbFz VI. It was intended that these designs would fulfill the role of heavy tank in the armored forces, but the design proved to be too complex and unreliable for this role. Nevertheless, development continued in order for the nascent German military to gain experience with multi-turreted tanks.

French Panhard 178 armored car with a 5.0cm KwK L/60 gun in German service.

In a carefully posed photo a Lithuanian farm girl welcomes panzer troops in front of their Panhard 178 armored car.

Chassis of PzKpfw I used as a mobile platform for Czech 47mm anti-tank gun. The Panzerjäger I ("Tank Hunter") was the first of the German tank destroyers to see service in the Second World War. It mounted a Czech Škoda 4.7 cm PaK (t) anti-tank gun on a converted Panzer I Ausf. B chassis. It was intended to counter heavy French tanks like the Char B1 that were beyond the capabilities of the 3.7 cm PaK 36 anti-tank gun then in service and served to extend the usable lifetime of otherwise obsolete Panzer I tanks. 202 Panzer I's were converted to the Panzerjäger I in 1940 and 1941. They were employed in the Battle of France, in the North Africa Campaign and on the Eastern Front.

Panzerjäger I entering Rostov, 21 November 1941. The Panzer I's turret was removed and a fixed gun shield added to protect the armament and crew. The anti-tank gun was mounted on a pedestal in the fighting compartment with the wheels, axle and trails removed; it retained its original gun shield. It normally carried 74 anti-tank and 10 HE shells.

15-cm Panzerwerfer 42. Note the canvas cover over the rocket projector barrels.

15-cm Panzerwerfer 42 (SdKfz 4/1) auf Maultier (Opel) heavily camouflaged with branches.

Panzerwerfer 42 in action.

15cm Panzerwerfer 42 on a Schwerer Wehrmachtschlepper (SWS).

Three abandoned 30cm Raketenwerfer 56s in front of munitionspanzers, Oelle, April 1945.

French Canon Automoteur Somua Sau 40 in German service.

The battle over, a Wirbelwind stands abandoned outside the hotly-contested ‘Festung Sankt-Edouard’ in Stoumont during the Battle of the Bulge.

Kfz 13, 1934.

Kfz 13.

A common sight on the first day of the Ardennes Offensive: a road jammed with traffic. At right, SS-Oberführer Wilhelm Mohnke, commander of 1st SS-Panzer Division, stands up in his Kübelwagen in frustration.

German soldiers in what appears to be a civilian car (note the license plate and “WH” on the fender) impressed into military service.

Kfz 15 (Mercedes-Benz 340) used by medical personnel of the Afrika Korps, Tobruk, June 1942.

German motorcycle with sidecar combination in Russian winter.

Waffen-SS troops struggle with a motorcycle bogged down in mud, Karelia, Russia.

Horse-drawn transport of the German army in the melting snow.

German soldiers move their field kitchen by hand.

Concluding the series of “Einheits” passenger cars of the Wehrmacht was the so-called heavy type. Here it is shown as a troop carrier with the Hermann Göring Division. If weather allowed, the windshield folded down. One MG 34 is mounted for anti-aircraft purposes.

The passengers of a Wehrmacht staff car help move it through a watery section of a muddy road in Russia.

Kfz 69 with 2cm Flak 30 mounted on floor, in front of German landing craft.

Horch ambulance, 3rd Panzer Division, Don/Stalingrad campaign, 1942.

Büssing-NAG ambulance.

Ford Kfz 31 ambulance.

MAN Type E2 bus ambulance.

Opel 1.5 ton ambulance.

Phänomen Kfz 31 truck.

Truck speeds through a muddy puddle on a road in Russia.

Ambulance in North Africa. One crew member pours water from a wash basin onto a lone plant in the desert. Note the Afrika Korps symbol and Edelweiss on the rear of the truck's van.

German troops mounted in trucks during a pre-war review.

German trucks carry troops during pre-war maneuvers. Note the Reichswehr (RW) license plates.

Radio communications van in operation.

As the crew of a broken down truck try to fix the problem, another soldier warns following vehicles. The farthest vehicle visible is an Opel Blitz Mod. 3.6-36S (4x2).

Camouflaged truck of a Waffen-SS unit pauses in a field during a battle.

Close up of the cab of a truck with most of the front windows painted over to eliminate the glare of reflection.

Truck begins its trip across a river on a ferry.

Ambulance moves across a small stream over a log bridge.

Truck column pauses by the side of a road during a motor march.

SdKfz 10 leichter Zugkraftwagen 1t half-tracks in use as tractors for the 5cm PaK 38 anti-tank gun.

The le Zgkw 1-ton carried a crew of eight men including the driver, plus their equipment, extra fuel and ammunition boxes. The motorcycle is a 750 ccm BMW R12, adapted unchanged from the civilian version.

A battered 1-ton Demag prime mover with the tactical symbol of a Panzerabwehr¬kompanie (anti-tank unit) of Heeres Gruppe von Kleist. This vehicle is towing a 5 cm Pak 38 (anti-tank gun) which replaced the inferior 3.7 cm Pak. The Pak ammunition is stored in steel containers seen stowed in the prime mover.

Nebelwerfer (rocket projector) units also utilized the 1-ton Demag to tow the mobile 28/32 cm Nebelwerfer 41 which weighed approximately 2,500 pounds.

The Zugmaschine was used primarily as a troop carrier and for towing light artillery and Flak as well as a supply trailer. Note the fender racks which hold additional jerry cans and the tool box wedged between the fenders.

The Kettenlaufwerk (tracks) consists of the front driving sprocket, the idler wheel at the rear and five pairs of pressed steel, rubber-tired bogie wheels.

The driver’s position of the 1-ton Zgkwg (SdKfz 10), to the right of the pre-selective type Demag/Adler transmission, with six forward and one reverse speed. The steering wheel was effective for turns under 15 degrees, and for turns over 15 degrees required the combined action of the front wheels and braking the appropriate drive sprocket by means of steering brakes mounted on the driving shaft.

Leichter Zugkraftwagen 1t Typ D7 (SdKfz 10) pulling a 3.7-cm Pak 35 on the Eastern Front.

An SdKfz 10 towing a 21-cm Nebelwerfer 42.

2-cm Flak 38 (Sf.) auf le.Zgkw. 1t (SdKfz 10/4).

2-cm Flak 38 (Sf.) auf le.Zgkw. 1t (SdKfz 10/4) in Greece. Note the open ammo box with one 20 round magazine partly visible.

SdKfz 10/4.

SdKfz 10/4 in action. Note the stacks of ammo magazines.

SdKfz 10/4: Partly armored version on the Eastern Front. The trailer behind the gun carried additional ammo and the personal belongings of the crew.

SdKfz 10/4: Partly armored vehicle on the Eastern Front. Ammo boxes holding two magazines each are fitted on the outside of the vehicle.

SdKfz 10 half-track with the canvas covered rear compartment and rifle racks on top of the front fenders. Camouflaged in sand with brown-green splotches. Vehicle is operating in the Balkans which had a high level of partisan activity, hence the soldier with his MP ready.

The disk type pneumatic-tired front wheels are fitted on a conventional type axle suspended by a single semi-elliptic spring. The half-tracks in the background are mittl. Zugkraftwagen 8-ton (SdKfz 10) 3-ton prime mover towing 10.5 cm le FH (light field howitzer).

Panzergrenadiers leap from their SdKfz 250 half-track during action on the Russian Front.

German armored vehicles advancing along a clearing north of Lepel to support units in the fight against the partisans. In the lead is a Selbstfahrlafette (Sd. Kfz. 7/1) für 2 cm Flakvierling 38/1, followed by a Nashorn self-propelled gun and two captured T-26 light tanks. Late April-early May 1944.

Resting on a jerrycan, marked by a white cross to indicate it holds water, a soldier is on watch at the MG 34 on an anti-aircraft tripod, while his comrades take cover from the hot noon sun under protective canvas in their SdKfz. 251.

Dismounted panzergrenadiers man an MG 34 position as an SdKfz 251 passes by, while burning oil tanks darken the sky. Eastern Front.

The SdKfz 251 has moved forward as an SdKfz 250 moves up from behind.

SdKfz 251 half-track.

SdKfz 251/3 mittlerer Kommandopanzerwagen (Funkpanzerwagen). Communications vehicle, fitted with extra radio equipment for command use in Ausf. C and Ausf. D versions. 12th SS Panzer Division, 1944.

SdKfz 251/1 II: Rocket launcher (called "Stuka zu Fuß" (Walking Stuka) or Wurfrahmen 40) equipped with six side mounted frames for launching 280 mm or 320 mm Wurfkoerper rockets. In action in Russia.

SdKfz 251 half-track.

SdKfz 251/20 Schützenpanzerwagen (Infrarotscheinwerfer) Introduced in late 1944, it mounted a 60 cm infrared searchlight with a range of 1.5 km for illuminating targets at night. Known as "Uhu" (Eagle Owl), they guided IR sight-equipped Panther tanks to targets that were out of range of their own smaller infrared searchlights.

The SdKfz 252 was intended to serve as an armored ammunition carrier for the newly formed Sturmgeschütz units. The vehicle carried a crew of two men plus the 7.5 cm ammunition and towed additional shells in a single axle trailer (SdAh 32) with a payload of 390 kg (860 pounds).

The ammunition carrier was only lightly armored (15 mm front and 8 mm sides) and differed mainly from the SdKfz 250 by the sloping rear superstructure.

The front view of the SdKfz 252 is identical with the SdKfz 250 armored troop carrier.

A large double hatch allowed for loading and unloading of the ammunition.

Leichter gepanzerter Munitionstransportkraftwagen (SdKfz 252).

Before the autumn rains, a motorcycle with sidecar and a SdKfz 252 half-track ammunition carrier with ammunition trailer from a panzer unit easily fords a Russian stream.

SdKfz 252 munitions carrier with munitions trailer.

A convoy of surrendering SS troops near Enns, Austria.

German infantry and PzKpfw III Ausf F during street fighting, Russia.

PzKpfw III, North Africa.

British soldier inspects a makeshift grave, with a destroyed German Panzer III in background.

Russian mud, an indefatigable enemy. A Tiger I tank stuck on the bank of a river near Znamenka Kirovograd, a village in the Ukraine, April 4, 1943.

Captured Soviet SU-122 in German service.

Captured Soviet SU-152 in German service.

7.5 cm Kanone L/40 für Selbstfahrlafette (Krupp).

Mockup of Sturmgeschütz 40 mit 7.5 cm Pak 42 L/70, spring of 1943.

Destroyed Stug III being examined by Russian officers.

Stug III.

StuG IV with Schürzen painted in the MAN/MNH ‘disc’ pattern Hinterhalt-Tarnung. It seems like there are also some dots applied between the bigger ‘discs’, and indicates that someone spent a lot of time painting this vehicle.

Sturmmörserwagen 606/4 mit 38 cm RW 61 Sturmtiger in a field-applied Hinterhalt-Tarnung. This is a Sturmtiger that was captured in 1945.

Loading shells into a Sturmtiger with the vehicle’s crane.

Local children playing on a knocked out Sturmtiger.

Sturmtiger fires one of its shells.

The now famous Tiger I (8.8 cm) Ausf E Nr 131 from 1. Kompanie/schwere-Panzer-Abteilung 504, captured by the 48th Royal Tank Regiment in Tunisia. It was damaged on April 21, 1943 by a 6-Pounder gun.

Tiger I on a railcar.

Tiger I and armored car on a ferry.

Tiger I being refueled from drums on a cargo truck.

Tiger I in North Africa.

Tiger I.

Crew performing maintenance on their Tiger I.

Tiger I equipped for deep wading.

Retrieving a bogged-down Tiger I.

Refueling a Tiger I.

Tiger I used to train Army troops to prepare them for combat against armored forces, to get used to remaining in trenches while enemy vehicles pass over their dug-in positions.