WWII Trivia

[kobayashi]

Lets see who can answer this the fastest.

Number of T34-76 built

1940 - 115
1941 - 2800
1942 - 12553
1943 - 15812
1944 - 3500

total 34,780

Guess how many Panzer IV (all turreted variants Ausf F2 or higher - i.e. anything armed with a 75mm L/43 or L/48 but not L/24 ) were built?

 

[Questerr]

Less than 8,000.

 

[Siggy]

About 6000 were built with the L43 and higher. Exact number is quite difficult to estimate. Some earlier models were retrofitted with better guns. (Upgrading L24 to L43) Do these also count? Then the number Questerr named could be quite accurate. My exact count is 5697.

How about the other conversions? Hummels? Nashorns? JpzIV? Wirbelwind?

[This message has been edited by Siggy (edited June 14, 2001).]

 

[Siggy]

And another question: How many PzV were produced during the war?
a. How was this type generally known?
b. Which types did appear as MBT (thus leaving out the jagdpanzer version, artillery observation, and "berge" conversion.
c. And in which numbers were each of the types produced?
d. During what major tank battle did this type first appear?

(I know, I know, the first and last one were give-aways; every wwII enthousiastic should know this)

 

[kobayashi]

Originally posted by Siggy:
About 6000 were built with the L43 and higher. Exact number is quite difficult to estimate. Some earlier models were retrofitted with better guns. (Upgrading L24 to L43) Do these also count? Then the number Questerr named could be quite accurate. My exact count is 5697.

How about the other conversions? Hummels? Nashorns? JpzIV? Wirbelwind?

I seem to have a higher number (not counting retro-fittings and conversions). 8544 Pz IV of all types were produced. A/B/C versions were test vehicles made in small numbers. Take away 229 Ausf D, 233 Ausf E and 487 Ausf F1, the remaining F2, G, H and J models should number 7595. This includes about 200 sold to Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Spain, Finnland and Croatia.

Anyway you look at it, Pz IV was the most numerous German tank but the Russians built 4.5x as many T-34-76s.




[This message has been edited by kobayashi (edited June 14, 2001).]

 

[kobayashi]

With regard to the precusor to today's MBT

Panther Ausf D was produced from December 1942 to September 1943, 850 built.

Ausf A was produced from August 1943 to May 1944, 2000 built.

Ausf G was produced from March 1944 to April 1945, 3126 built.

I think that makes 5976.

329 Befehlswagen but they were were converted from existing MBTs and not built from scratch. Some Befehlswagen were not air ground liason vehicles (sdkfz 268) but command tanks (sdkfz 267).

359 BergePanthers or recovery vehicles produced. These were not conversions.

The battle of Kursk was delayed until the first Panthers were available but those first models were prone to mechanical and electrical problems.

How many T34-85s were manufactured?

 

[Leglaen]

See my sig.

------------------
"World War II. The great powers were at one another's throats. Armies clashed across rolling countryside. Air forces sowed death from above. Then, in 1942, everything changed. A new front opened in World War II-when an alien race attacked the Earth..."
-from Harry Turtledove's Colonization series

WW2 trivia:
What company originally made the Bf(Me)109?
What day did the German invasion of Poland begin
(trick ques.)

 

[Squirrel2004]

I'm gonna make a wild guess and say BMW or Mercedes-Benz.

 

[kobayashi]

Originally posted by Squirrel2004:
I'm gonna make a wild guess and say BMW or Mercedes-Benz.

That would be Bayerische Flugzeugwerke - a piece of juicy info supplied by WillemO in an earlier thread.

BMW made the radial engine for the FW190 series. That was a rather elegant design and not a giant clunker like the Wasp.

 

[Leglaen]

..and the other question? (it's not Sept. 1st)

------------------
"World War II. The great powers were at one another's throats. Armies clashed across rolling countryside. Air forces sowed death from above. Then, in 1942, everything changed. A new front opened in World War II-when an alien race attacked the Earth..."
-from Harry Turtledove's Colonization series

WW2 trivia:
What company originally made the Bf(Me)109?
What day did the German invasion of Poland begin
(trick ques.)

 

[kobayashi]

Wednesday

 

[Leglaen]

Ok, here's another question.

What was the best German tank made during the war at fighting in the night?

------------------
"World War II. The great powers were at one another's throats. Armies clashed across rolling countryside. Air forces sowed death from above. Then, in 1942, everything changed. A new front opened in World War II-when an alien race attacked the Earth..."
-from Harry Turtledove's Colonization series

WW2 trivia:
What company originally made the Bf(Me)109?
What day did the German invasion of Poland begin
(trick ques.)

 

[kobayashi]

Originally posted by Leglaen:
Ok, here's another question.

What was the best German tank made during the war at fighting in the night?

Another trick question. That would be the Panther again! - that is to say those equipped with the FG1250 infrared searchlight.

 

[SunTzu]

Here's a question, what German tank was a deathtrap in city battles?

 

[Leglaen]

Ok, here's a hard one. Who was Eva Braun's sister?

------------------
"World War II. The great powers were at one another's throats. Armies clashed across rolling countryside. Air forces sowed death from above. Then, in 1942, everything changed. A new front opened in World War II-when an alien race attacked the Earth..."
-from Harry Turtledove's Colonization series

WW2 trivia:
What company originally made the Bf(Me)109?
What day did the German invasion of Poland begin
(trick ques.)

 

[kobayashi]

That was a hard one. I actually had to search for the answer.

Eva had a sister who was three years older named Ilse and she would also have a sister three years younger named Margarethe, who was always called Gretl

he he he...so lets up the stakes:

Who was herman Goering's wife?
What nationalisty was she?
What year did they get married?
Where and when did she die?

 

[Siggy]

Originally posted by SunTzu:
Here's a question, what German tank was a deathtrap in city battles?

In fact: every tank is a death trap in city battles. They're simply not suited for it. Tanks can only operate in city battles when covered by huge numbers of infantry. Tanks are only suited in city battles for infantry fire support. Tankbattles in urbanised areas were fatal because there was no distance. Even heavy guys like Tigers lost their advantages in armour and gunning. A 76.2mm shell is capable of knocking out a Tiger under 100 meters distance.

British parachutists managed to knock out some (at least one) Tiger II during the fights in Oosterbeek during market Garden. They had no heavier than 6 pounder at guns over there. At that stage of fighting most of those were allready destroyed so they probably did it by PIAT or Molotov cocktail. I think it doesn't really matter what type of tank it is. Every type of tank is a possible death trap in urban battles.

 

[Siggy]

Originally posted by kobayashi:
With regard to the precusor to today's MBT

Panther Ausf D was produced from December 1942 to September 1943, 850 built.

Ausf A was produced from August 1943 to May 1944, 2000 built.

Ausf G was produced from March 1944 to April 1945, 3126 built.

I think that makes 5976.

329 Befehlswagen but they were were converted from existing MBTs and not built from scratch. Some Befehlswagen were not air ground liason vehicles (sdkfz 268) but command tanks (sdkfz 267).

359 BergePanthers or recovery vehicles produced. These were not conversions.

The battle of Kursk was delayed until the first Panthers were available but those first models were prone to mechanical and electrical problems.

How many T34-85s were manufactured?

Well, there seems to be some discrepansies in the sources <IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/smile.gif" border=0> My final count comes to 6042. 534 PzVD, 1768 PzVA and 3740 PzVG. Another source states 850 D's, 2000 A's and 3126 G's which makes 5976... I must say I do not like those exact numbers like 850 and 2000. It might be possible that this numbers were actually ordered. That doesn't mean these numbers where actually produced.

In "my" figures, there were less PzVD and A prdoduced which is quite logical. If it is possible to produce an advanced type before the whole original order is produced, I guess the industry would switch to the more advanced type. I once read about just finished panzer's (I donnot recall the exact type) which were just finished and hadn't leave the factory yet. They were still refitted with more advanced gear, turning them in a more advanced type. (for example: making a PzVA out of a D)

The first 12 Bergepanthers (prototypes) were actually damaged D's returning from the front. They were produced in 1943. The main problem is that in this sentence, the source is talking about damaged PzVD,s which were actually converted to Bergepanthers. In my source they are still talking about production when they actually mean converting damaged MBT's returning from the front. In any case I cannot imagine the German industry using brand new PzV hull's for vehicles like this. It puts an extra stress on the allready stressed tank production. It seems far more logical to use damaged MBT's for this. My source states 347 produced Berge panther's. Exact 12 difference... Maybe those converted damaged D I was earlier talking about? Hell, I don't know... <IMG SRC="http://forums.civfanatics.com/ubb/smile.gif" border=0>

Can any of you exactly tell me the differnces between Tiger II Henshel and Porsch turret? I really don't know. I even saw some pictures of TigerII with Krupp production turrets. Was that a complete other design? Or was it a Porsche or Henschel turret produced by Krupp?



[This message has been edited by Siggy (edited June 21, 2001).]

 

[kobayashi]

Krupp produced the Henschel turret ecause the Henschel factory was completely destroyed in an air raid. It is hard to describe the visual differences between the two versions. The porsche turret is more rounded and curved at the front while the henschel turret had more definable surfaces and was flat at the front. The easiest way to tell the difference is that the Porsche version's 88mm gun is in two pieces.

To summarise why there were two designs:

1. Both Porsche and Henschel were asked to design the Tiger II.
2. Porsche proposal (VK4502) was an upgrade of an earlier heavy tank model (VK4501 series) which was never built.
3.Henchel design (VK4503)was picked because it had common parts with the Panther.
4.To save time, Henschel worked on producing the hull while the the Porsche turret was used as it was already ready.
5.After using the Porsche turret for a while, it was discovered that there was a shot trap below the mantlet so the Henschel turret was used after the first 50 were built.



[This message has been edited by kobayashi (edited June 22, 2001).]

 

[Leglaen]

Sorry I haven't replied to your questions, but I was on vacation for 2 weeks. I have looked but couldn't find the answers. You have me on those. However, I am going to give you 3 questions:

1.Who were the Decima MAS?
2.What was their best mission?
3.What were operations Mars and Jupiter?

Good Luck. The score is 0-1.

------------------
"World War II. The great powers were at one another's throats. Armies clashed across rolling countryside. Air forces sowed death from above. Then, in 1942, everything changed. A new front opened in World War II-when an alien race attacked the Earth..."
-from Harry Turtledove's Colonization series

WW2 trivia:
What company originally made the Bf(Me)109?
What day did the German invasion of Poland begin
(trick ques.)