The Panther was the best all-round German tank of the war and although conceived as a medium tank, at 45 tons and with frontal armour over 100mm thick, it could easily be rated more highly.

After the the initial spectacular success of the German invasion of Russia in 1941 the invasion slowed to a crawl as the weather and hard fighting ground down their formations. Desperate to shore up the front seven regiments were formed of non-flying personnel taken from the German air force, the Luftwaffe. These regiments were equipped with standard infantry weapons, and sent to quieter areas of the front to gain experience.

Germany Assault Pioniers were skilled at building all manner of fortifications, communications lines, tank traps and minefields. In addition to building useful structures, they were adept at the destruction of similar enemy positions, blowing railway lines and making roads unsafe for the enemy to travel along.

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.

Panzergrenadier units in armoured half-tracks, trucks and field cars helped the infantry to keep pace with their armoured brethren. By the time of the invasion of Russia in 1941 the panzergrenadiers had equipped their troop leaders’ half-tracks with the standard anti-tank gun of the day – the 37mm PaK 36. By replacing the front machine gun with this useful light gun the panzergrenadier units could rely on a modicum of fire support as they charged swiftly across the battlefield, supported by their platoon’s personnel carriers.

Perhaps a more famous adaptation was the Opel Maultier „Mule” half-track. Introduced in 1941 following the dire Rasputitsa conditions of the Eastern Front that had brought the entire army to a stand still. This conversion, utilizing the track system of the obsolete Panzer I, gave the German army a very competent all purpose mover and it would see action through out the rest of the war.

Formed around a core of Veteran Troops and armed with the new StG44, the Volksgrenadiers head to battle in defense of their homeland!

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.

The Sturmgeschütz (StuG) III was a well-armed and armoured vehicle based on the tried and tested Pz.Kpfw III chassis. Manned by the artillery originally, as it was considered a mobile howitzer, it went through many variants during WWII, and indeed was one of the few German AFVs to serve throughout the war on all fronts.

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.

Amongst the most feared tanks in the Second World War, the mere mention of the name 'Tiger’ was enough to cause panic amongst Allied armoured formations.

Tough, lavishly equipped and politically indoctrinated, SS troops formed over 38 divisions and numerous other regimental and battalion-sized units, totalling nearly a million men under arms.

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.

Germany’s aggressive campaigns of conquest ensured that her armies would fight in many countries far from the fatherland and in starkly contrasting terrain and weather conditions. German soldiers were well-equipped for their venture into Europe, and later North Africa, but found themselves ill-prepared for the bleak, freezing and unforgiving Eastern Front. When the Russian armies failed to collapse, the Wehrmacht found itself caught out on the Russian plains, freezing, literally in many cases, to death.

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.