The Type 95 Ha-Go light tank was most numerous armoured fighting vehicle fielded by the Japanese during WWII. It also saw action versus the Soviet Union at Khalkhyn Gol in 1939 and during the Sino-Japanese war of 1937-45. It saw action in both Imperial Army and Special Naval Landing Force forces.
Thought of as invincible by the Allied forces in the early stages of World War II, the Japanese soldier was a brave, disciplined, often fanatical, warrior who fought to the death sometimes against overwhelming odds. Conquering all before them and carving out a vast Empire during the opening stages of the war the Imperial Japanese Army were truly a force to be reckoned with.
Due to the deep distrust the Japanese Army and Navy had for each other, joint operations were all but out of the question and the Navy created the Special Naval Landing Forces as a result. First seeing action in 1932 during the 'Shanghai Incident’ of the Sino-Japanese War, the SNLF were highly trained, high quality troops with excellent morale. Each SNLF formation was named after the base in which it as formed.
The armed wing of the Nazi Party, the extremely well-equipped Waffern-SS were rightly feared by their opponents – both for their fighting ability and uncompromising ferocity.
The Fallschirmjager instead acted as elite infantry serving in all theatres in which Germany fought. Supported by two weapons with a high rate of fire – the deadly MG42 general purpose machine gun and the Granatwerfer 34 8cm medium mortar – they were respected by the Allies for their fighting ability and honourable actions.
German officers were capable and often experienced leaders. Junior officers were trained to undertake the role own immediate superiors, enabling them to use their intuition to take control of situations when necessary.
German officers were capable and often experienced leaders. Junior officers were trained to undertake the role of their own immediate superiors, enabling them to use their initiative to take control of situations when necessary.
German officers were capable and often experienced leaders. Junior officers were trained to undertake the role of their own immediate superiors, enabling them to use their initiative to take control of situations when necessary. An officer unit consists of the man himself and can include up to two other men acting as his immediate attendants.
German officers were capable and often experienced leaders. Junior officers were trained to undertake the role of their immediate superiors, enabling them to use their initiative to take control of situations when necessary. The Afrika Korps (DAK) proved this through consistent victories as well as elusiveness in retreat.
From the early stages of World War II, the German army began to equip their Panzergrenadiers with armoured half-tracks that would support their panzers in action. They developed the excellent Sd.Kfz 251 series, made by Hanomag, and steadily produced them in their thousands, with over twenty versions seeing service in most theatres of the war.
Originally developed as an anti-aircraft weapon, the Flak 37 8.8cm (or Eighty-eight as it became known by Allied troops) had a high muzzle velocity to allow it to reach the higher ranges modern bombers were capable of at the time. This would make it an exceptionally deadly anti-tank weapon as many Allied tank crews would learn to their peril. The 88 could also be deployed as a conventional artillery piece – as one infantryman noted, the 88 was 'anti-everything’…
The Sd.Kfz 251/7 Ausf D half-tracked engineer commonly known as the Pionierwagen. Based on the ubiquitous Sd.Kfz 251 Hanomag half-track, the Pionierwagen was a very useful vehicle for the assault engineers of the German Army, seeing service on all fronts, from the vast open areas of the Russian Front to the rubble-choked streets of Berlin in 1945.