German Wehrmacht soldiers wearing M42 and M43 uniforms.
Hallo everyone! Today I plan on flexing on all of you with my German uniform I’m sorry but I really had to do it to ya (I’m putting that in for comedic effect). So you may be asking me “Well what does a German uniform consist of”?? And I’ll answer that now. German uniforms are simple because for around every two years a new German uniform was made and designed. So the first German tunic that was used by German soldiers in WWII was the M36 field tunic or jacket. “M” stand for model and “36” stands for the last two digits of the year it was first produced and adopted. So Model 1936 field tunic. The same goes for the iconic German Stahlhelm or “steel helmet” in english. The first version of the Stahlhelm was the M16 Stahlhelm which was larger than the M35 stahlhelm and didn’t have the vent horns on it. The thing with the webbing, straps and ammunition pouches is that only usually two were made and not one new one every two years or one year. So what’s my favorite uniform? I think the Dutch Waffen SS volunteer uniforms are pretty cool and just the standard field grey M40 tunic. I think If I had to choose a uniform it would be a 1942 or 43 themed uniform. I would have a M42 Stahlhelm with an M42 wool tunic and maybe a camouflage smock over that. I would also wear my fieldgaru or “Field grey” undershirt, gas mask canister, bread bag, black Kar98k ammunition pouches (Kar98k was the standard German rifle of WWII), my post war German or Austrian grey wool trousers, black leather jackboots with hobnails, black belt with a standard “Gott mit uns” belt buckle, A drame (a better and smaller version of the older German tornister/backpack, m42 side cap and my modified Yugoslavian M48 A rifle (After WWII the Germans were forced to give their weapon manufacturing machines to Yugoslavia, so Yugoslavia made rifles that looks just like Kar98k’s and they’re much cheaper). You may ask “wElL gReySon wHy dOn’T yOu haVe tHe Nazi fLAg arM bAnd???” and to that I say “get off my blog”. I’m just joking and that is a sort of good question, but pretty much every German soldier involved with the military (soldier, general, officer, etc) never ever wore them only people involved with German politics and maybe higher ranking military members. So why do I want a uniform? Well for reenacting, pictures/photography, airsoft and instead of seeing pictures of German soldiers I can actually be in the uniform and get a feel of the equipment myself. Again I don’t believe in the Nazi ideology I’m just very interested in the German, European, wars, geography, etc and WWII interested me very much and the German army really stood out to me because of their strategise, vehicles, uniforms, and so much more. Now what if you you’re hot inside of your Wool tunic?? Well thanks to German engineering they made a summer HBT tunic which isn’t wool and made for the Afrika Korps and warmer weather. I think that wraps up this blog post! I’ll see you next time when I either talk about Nazi flag controversy or world war 1 German uniforms. Thanks and see y’all later!
Hey everyone! Today I’ll be talking about German U boats (Pretty much submarines) so sit back and relax while I take you through a journey of stench, claustrophobia, and horrifying situations! Ok so you may be wondering what in the world is a U boat?? Well before WWI Germany had produced their first U boat which is a submarine but due to the exhaust and short battery life of the electric engines they were considered more of a “diving vessel”. There were many many kinds of U boats but the most highly produced one and one of the most effective is the Type VIIC U boat. This U boat could only go 8,500 nautical miles before it needed re-fueling and where will you find fuel in the middle of the Atlantic ocean? The Type VIIC was also fitted with 4 torpedo tubes located in the bow of the ship and 2 torpedo tubes in the stern. The crew would consist of about 25 officers and 25 crew members yes that’s right 50 men on one Type VII U boat. You can go into a Type VIIC U boat to this day but sadly it’s in Germany. However, you can go into my favorite U boat ever built (U-505) which is in Chicago actually. It is surprisingly in good condition. The Type IX/C U-505 is quite larger than the Type VII U boats. Next I’d like to talk about some of the uniforms. From what I have found, the U boat men would have 3 uniforms. A dress uniform
Me and the boys
when they would leave and come back to the port, undress uniform which was a greyish brown denim jacket and finally my favorite, the foul weather clothing. Foul weather clothing is highly waterproof clothing that goes over your standard uniform. It consisted of: pants, stylish jacket, shoe or boot covers and a sou’wester hat. They only wore these on the deck on the conning tower (the tower looking thing on top of submarines). Water absorbent sweaters such as the Aran sweater were also very common among crew members because Aran sweaters can absorb 30% of the sweaters weight in water until you’ll actually feel wet. The next question you may have is: “When do submarines actually leave and go places??”. That is a good question and the answer is that when a submarine is done being built or repaired and they have all 50 crew members they go out on patrols lasting 3 weeks to 6 months. Imagine being stuck in a metal coffin in those horrible conditions just waiting to be hit with a depth charge or being detected by a plane or a ship. Speaking of ships and airplanes spotting you, what do you think would happen when you were spotted and the enemy starts firing at you? Just bring the U boat underwater? Well actually it’s more complicated than that. It would all start with someone on lookout on the conning tower detecting the enemy and then they’d shout “ALARM!!!!” then the bridge officer would activate the alarm bell (different situations required different alarms). After that the men on look out would drop down the conning down and close the hatch then the Captain or
German U boat firing the deck gun with their foul weather clothing on.
Chief Engineer would yell “FLUTEN!!” which meant to flood the ballast tanks. Let me quickly explain how ballast tanks work. there are big tanks located outside the ship but still connected to the ship that when are diving on a submarine fill with water, and the air keeping them above the surface is blown out. the opposite when surfacing. The bow planes or hydroplanes located at the bow of the ship were angled at the maximum down angle. Then most crew members would do what is called a “trim party” so most of the crew members run through the narrow submarine to the bow of the ship and squish together giving the ship more momentum and a quicker dive. A few second later the rear ballast tanks were flooded so the stern of the ship didn’t raise out of the water so enemy ships couldn’t spot it. The vents and diesel engine would be shut off or else if they had left them on the air would be sucked out of the U boat in a matter of seconds the smaller electric motor was used. After that the bow planes would be angled to the angle desired and the sub would usually stay at 70 to 90 meters below the surface then the crew would be allowed to stand up and run to where ever in the ship. Anyway that about does it for this blog post! Thank you!!
Three German Wehrmacht soldiers or in German “Soldaten” with snow and ice on them in Stalingrad, USSR
Hello, everyone! Today, I’ll be talking about the Eastern Front in WWII. Not on the Soviet side, but mostly through the German view. There were many fronts in WWII such as the Mediterranean front, Western front, Pacific theater, African front/campaign and of course, the Eastern front. So let’s get started!
On September 1st 1939, Germany invaded Poland and the Soviet Union. A famous pact was signed on September 28 1939 called the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and this pact would agree that the Soviet Union and Hitler would both split poor Poland’s land 50/50. Although Joseph Stalin (leader of the Soviet Union) and Adolf Hitler signed this pact to keep peace between the two countries, Hitler planned to take half of Poland first then make a direct invasion in to the Soviet Union in 1941. The code name for this operation was called “Operation Barbarossa”. The Germans kept this a very good secret and caught the Soviets by surprise. The Soviet quickly put together an unstable and under trained fighting force compared to the Germans. The Germans advanced quickly. Encircle and capturing millions of Soviet men. Hitler had three objectives to capture on the Eastern front. 1. Moscow, 2. Leningrad and 3. Stalingrad. The German army was very close to taking Leningrad but the Soviets pushed them back. The closest the Germans ever came to Moscow was 12 miles, but the winter set in. Heavy snow and temperatures often dropping below zero caused the Germans to starve and usually just die to the cold. The Soviets had snow camouflage and used skis to move around just like the Finnish in the Russo-Finnish war. But the largest battle Tank and bloodiest battle in history took place on the Eastern Front. The largest tank battle was the battle of Kursk that lasted through July 5 1943 – August 23 1943. It may have only lasted a month but 6,000 tanks, 4,000 aircraft and over 1 million men participated in The Battle of Kursk. The battle of Kursk was a turning point in WWII with this time, the Soviet Union pushing back the Germans. The Russians end up pushing the Germans through Poland and the Baltics to Berlin and win
German machine gunner and assistant machine gunner on the Eastern Front with their white snow camouflage jackets.
the battle of Berlin and force the Germans to surrender. The Germans were better trained but had less men. The Soviet Union had the largest army at the time but the men were rushed into uniform and sent to the front and there are many cases of the many not getting a rifle but a shovel or a knife. The Germans were very well equipped and no side showed mercy on the Eastern front except those who didn’t feel bound by their oath of the German army anymore. there were 150,000 Soviet casualties during the first 5 months of the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Germans utilized “Blitzkrieg” like they did in Poland with fast motorized infantry and tanks followed by the German Air Force or “Luftwaffe” giving air support. But as the months passed by, the Russian terrain became very muddy and the Germans got bogged down and this allowed the Russians time to resupply and set up better defensive positions. Then in Winter, the ground froze and the temperature plummeted below zero. The temperature even got to -58 degrees fahrenheit. No matter how well you think you handle the cold you’ll freeze, most likely to death with the clothing the Germans were wearing. The germans would wear their M41 feldbluse, M40 Feldbluse or M36 Feldbluse which is pretty much like the standard wool uniform. Those uniforms would be used all over the place in the German army like France and so on. Those were not made for the winter at all so the Germans issued long wool coat known and the “Greatcoat”. You would wear your actual uniform under this coat and of course your undershirt. But in Russia, that isn’t going to
A still image taken from Stalingrad 1993. You can see the German soldier in the middle of Russia while -0F and horrible winds from the lack of trees. Notice the men carrying the “Pak 40” or in German the “PanzerAbwehrKanone 40” Anti-tank gun.
keep you very warm, but Germany thought they’d take Russia before winter but the mud had slowed down the German advance very quickly and Germany hadn’t issued proper winter clothing for the German troops. The Germans ended making a camouflage, reversible and thicker jacket which was better but it wasn’t really issued to ordinary low ranking infantry but it was issued to the “Feldgendarmerie” or “Military police” and officers but some standard infantry got those jackets. Many Germans just wore russian gear like the “Bekesha Tulup” sheepskin coat that Soviet officers wore. So you’ll here this many times in history class by teachers but you should NEVER invade Russia in the winter. For example it’s -35 degrees F right now in the largest city in Siberia right now. But not only the Germans fought in Stalingrad. Actually a large amount of Romanian and also Italian soldiers fought in Stalingrad. But a small little country that half of the land is in the Arctic circle also invaded the Soviet Union after a little piece of land known as the Karelian Isthmus and a lake called lake Ladoga. But that’s for another post. Now i’m guessing most, if not all of you have seen a war movie or historical movie. Have you ever been able to point out the inaccuracies if you know a lot about whatever the movie is about? Well since I devote most of my free time watching and reading history videos I can point out most inaccuracies. I watched a two movies about Stalingrad, 1. Stalingrad 2013 and 2. Stalingrad 1993. Stalingrad 2013 is a modern hollywood graphics and CGI with explosions and Nazi killing all over it which I despise. On the hand Stalingrad 1993 is an amazing and very very historically accurate movie. The thing I like most about Stalingrad 1993 is that they humanize the Germans and show that the Germans were all humans too. It follows these men as they are on leave in Italy in 1941 from Africa and now after they fight in the scorching heat of Africa they fight in one of the least survivable climates on Earth. They start as straight standing men, closely tied to their oath to Nazi Germany and you slowly see these men decay and fall further away from the Nazi ideology. Anyway, you guys may be wondering what the purpose of this blog post is? Well I didn’t tell you at least I hope I didn’t, and the reason why i didn’t tell you was to hopefully change your mind about the Germans in WWII. From thinking of them as ruthless barbaric humans to humans who have a family back in Germany and you don’t believe the Nazi ideology but your parents fought in WWII and their parents in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-1871 so your family and ancestors look up to you. You just want to make them proud and have to do as the higher ranks tell you to do. I hope you enjoyed this blog post and took away something. Next blog post I might talk about the Kriegsmarine and the hunt for the Bismarck. See y’all later!
Good day everyone! how are y’all? Well if your doing absolutely horrible then I’m here to spit some
A poster encouraging Danish men to join the Danish Free corps or In German the Danmark Freikorps
interesting facts at you and take your mind of your horrible day. I’ve got a very special topic today and that is the Foreign SS volunteer units. Now in order to understand the Foreign SS units you need to know what the SS is. The SS or in German the Schutzstaffel was a German elite branch In the german army and tank corps and was founded by Heinrich Himmler. So there are SS infantry men with guns on the ground and stuff, then there is an SS tank corps which are in tank (obviously). The SS was usually better trained and armed the normal german army. Same thing goes with the tank corps. So now that you know what the SS is now you need to know what Foreign means. It means someone or something from another country so put Foreign and SS together then you have people from different countries in the SS. When Germany invaded France they took French soldiers who wanted to fight for the German Army or Panzer/Tank corps and put them in the SS. All of the SS volunteers would have a shield insignia with an emblem or flag of their country inside the shield. The shield insignia would be stitched on their left arm just below their elbow on the tunic. I’ll just list off as many SS foreign
the 5th SS Panzer Division aka Wiking on the Eastern front in StuG IV’s
volunteer countries as I can. So their was Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, India, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Spain, Soviet Union, Sweden, Switzerland, Territory of Serbia, and The United Kingdom. My favorite/most interesting SS volunteer unit would probably be the Norwegian or Danish units. The most famous SS volunteer division I think is the 5th SS panzer Division or “Wiking”. It was a Norwegian, Finnish, Swedish, Belgian, Estonian, Danish and Dutch volunteer tank/panzer division. The Wiking division served mostly on the Eastern front in Russia/Soviet Union. A famous battle they fought in was the battle of Kursk when Germany launched Operation Citadel which was the plan/operation to pinch and take the Soviet salient around the city of Kursk. The Germans didn’t have enough men or artillery compared to the Soviets so they decided to use their Tanks. The Germans had more better made tanks but the Soviets had worse made tanks but still decent and had TONS of them. Fun Fact: At one point in 1945 the Soviets had more soldiers than the Germans had ammo. But the battle of Kursk was a crushing blow to the Third Reich and that Wiking Division I was talking about earlier participated in that battle but retreated into Austria and hid away from the Allies until the Americans found them and the whole division surrendered. Now you have to remember that these volunteers although they were in the SS may wanted to be under Nazi German control rather than Soviet or communist control. Well I think that wraps up this blog post! thank you for reading and you can check out my last blog post or the next one, which is about the Kriegsmarine aka the German Navy and more specifically U-Boats! Auf wiedersehen!
Hey everyone! today I’ll be discussing one of my favorite subjects ever, and that is guns of WWII (more specifically German guns of WWII). Okay where do I get started.. Ah yes probably the standard issue guns a squad would use. In WWI pretty much everyone would be using a bolt action rifle and towards the end of the war we would see the use of SMG’s (or submachine guns). Submachine guns are hand held machine guns that fire the same caliber bullet as a pistol. Let’s start with the squad leader. A squad would consist of 10 men and one squad leader, that squad leader in
Mp40
1941-1945 would carry an Mp40, which is that submachine gun I explained earlier. The squad leader would carry 6 magazines of ammunition with 32 bullets in each magazine for the Mp40 or Mp41. Almost the rest of the squad would carry a Kar98k. A Kar98k is a bolt action single shot rifle that fired a very very large bullet compared to the Mp40. In 1943 the Gewehr 43 would be issued to some of the riflemen in replacement of the
German squad. Don’t know why there are 11 men though
Kar98k. The Gewehr 43 fired semi-automatic (which means you pull the trigger once and one bullet is fired). But the Gewehr 43 was more expensive and faced multiple problems on the battlefield. Now for my favorite gun, the Mg42 and Mg34. The Mg42 was an LMG (light machine gun) which means it fires the same bullet as the Kar98k and Gewehr 43. I can’t even explain the fear an allied soldier felt when he was met with an Mg42. This ABSOLUTE UNIT of a machine gun fired 1,500 bullets per second!!! The barrel faced so much friction with the bullets being fired from it that the barrel of the Mg42 would glow
on the top is the Mg42 and on the bottom is the Mg34
red from the heat (for something to glow a dim red from heat is 977 degrees Fahrenheit). The machine gunner would also carry a p38 pistol. The Assistant machine gunner would carry boxes of ammo and a spare barrel for the Mg42 and Mg34 (because the barrel got so hot). The rest of the squad would carry a Kar98k or later in the war the Gewehr 43. You guys would probably like to know about the Grenades too well I’ve got loads of information about grenades too. The grenade was first used in WWI and heavily used by the German Stormtroopers who would raid an enemy trench and throw his explosives in the trench. But in WWII the grenade saw heavy use on all fronts. The Germans came up with
German stormtrooper throwing a practice grenade. Alright I know it’s a WWI German soldier but it was too good not to add in.
the Stielhandgranate model 24. It has it’s iconic wood handle which would actually help the grenade travel further than the allied baseball style grenades (except the Soviets). The wood handle would almost carry the grenade through it’s flight because the handle would increase the momentum and travel further. While the Allied
grenades relied on shrapnel (metal fragments from an explosion) the German grenades relied on the actual explosion to kill or damage whatever it was thrown at. Well, that was a lot of information and sorry for probably confusing you guys with not even all my knowledge about German weapons that is stored in my massive brain. But hopefully you guys took away at least one thing from this. I want all of you to write me a report about what you learned against your will. See y’all later when we discuss probably either the foreign SS volunteer units or the uniforms of the Germans.
have a M42 Stahlhelm with an M42 wool tunic and maybe a camouflage smock over that. I would also wear my fieldgaru or “Field grey” undershirt, gas mask canister, bread bag, black Kar98k ammunition pouches (Kar98k was the standard German rifle of WWII), my post war German or Austrian grey wool trousers, black leather jackboots with hobnails, black belt with a standard “Gott mit uns” belt buckle, A drame (a better and smaller version of the older German tornister/backpack, m42 side cap and my modified Yugoslavian M48 A rifle (After WWII the Germans were forced to give their weapon manufacturing machines to Yugoslavia, so Yugoslavia made rifles that looks just like Kar98k’s and they’re much cheaper). You may ask “wElL gReySon wHy dOn’T yOu haVe tHe Nazi fLAg arM bAnd???” and to that I say “get off my blog”. I’m just joking and that is a sort of good question, but pretty much every German soldier involved with the military (soldier, general, officer, etc) never ever wore them only people involved with German politics and maybe higher ranking military members. So why do I want a uniform? Well for reenacting, pictures/photography, airsoft and instead of seeing pictures of German soldiers I can actually be in the uniform and get a feel of the equipment myself. Again I don’t believe in the Nazi ideology I’m just very interested in the German, European, wars, geography, etc and WWII interested me very much and the German army really stood out to me because of their strategise, vehicles, uniforms, and so much more. Now what if you you’re hot inside of your Wool tunic?? Well thanks to German engineering they made a summer HBT tunic which isn’t wool and made for the Afrika Korps and warmer weather. I think that wraps up this blog post! I’ll see you next time when I either talk about Nazi flag controversy or world war 1 German uniforms. Thanks and see y’all later!
