The following notes, based on directions issued in 1943 by the German Army High Command, regarding the use and proper care of German infantry weapons during winter campaigns. The instructions in question concern:
• German Luger & Walther P38 pistols,
• the Gewehr 41 rifle, Gewehr 98,
• M.G. 34 light machine gun and the,
• M.G. 42 heavy machine guns.
The article is accompanied by illustrations of the snow sleds used to transport the German machine guns.
Click here to read about the mobile pill boxes of the Nazi army.
Two black and white photographs of the World War II German M.G. 34 (maschinengewehr 34) as well as some fast-stats that were collected by President Roosevelt's Department of War during the closing days of the conflict. An illustrated wartime study by the United States Department of War explaining the German Gewehr 98 and the Gewehr 41: their caliber, weight, range and over-all length.
We highly recommend that you watch the film clip linked below for additional information.
Click here to read about the German M.G. 34. Although the attached cartoon illustrations from "Volkischer Beobacher" depicts a German soldier using a Panzerfaust anti-tank weapon, the intended readership was actually the old men and under-age boys who made up the out-gunned and under-manned Volkssturm militia units at the close of the war. The panzerfaust ("tank fist") has been characterized as the first expendable anti-tank RPG. Also included in this file is the U.S. Army study concerning this weapon.
Its been said that World War Two was the first high-tech war, and a passing look at many of the military tools used between 1939 and 1945 will bare that out to be true. It was not only th the first war in which jet engines and atomic bombs were used, but also the first war to deploy walkie-talkie radios, rockets, and radar. This article concerns what the U.S. Department of War classified as a weapons system just as revolutionary as the atomic bomb: the VT fuse artillery shell (a.k.a. the time proximity fuse). It was used with great success in various theaters: anti-Kamikaze in the Pacific, anti-personnel in the Ardennes and anti V-1 in defense of Britain. This is a short article that goes into greater detail outlining the successes listed above and explains how the system worked; it also is accompanied by a diagram of the shell.
Click here to learn about the timing fuses designed for W.W. I shrapnel shells. "Although the the Pershing M26 didn't get into the fighting in Europe until very late in the game (March, 1945), it was long enough to prove itself. This new 43-toner is the Ordnance Department's answer to the heavier German Tiger. It mounts a 90-mm high-velocity gun, equipped with a muzzle-brake, as opposed to the 88-mm on a Tiger."
The M26 Pershing tank was the one featured in the movie, Fury (2014). | 
