Flak-Bait – The Bomber Plane that Survived a Total of 207 Missions

    The most impressive thing about the twin-engine bomber is the amount of flak it absorbed while still somehow staying in the sky. As it conducted flights across Belgium, France, Germany, and the Netherlands the aircraft was shot over a thousand times, twice the plane managed to return to base with…

    MG 42 – Hitler’s Buzzsaw

    The design of the MG 42 began in 1937 by Mauserwork to substitute the MG 34. Although it possessed a reasonable rate of fire, the MG 34 had several fundamental drawbacks such as sensitivity to extreme weather conditions, dirt, and mud, and the high-quality metal alloys resulted in skilled labor…

    OSS: The Forerunner of the CIA

    In 1940, the British set up an organization known as the Special Operations Executive or SOE. This was responsible for intelligence gathering and secretive operations throughout Europe. Come 1942 after some training from the British in the previous year, the Office of Strategic Services or OSS was created in the…

    World’s First ATV – The Kettenkrad

    First developed in 1939 the Sd.Kfz. 2 known as the Kettenkraftrad was a light tracked vehicle, known for short as the Kettenkrad. It is clearly a very different-looking vehicle. Unlike many other tracked vehicles of its time like Sd.Kfz. 251 half-track, the Kettenkrad’s front steering ability utilized a single motorcycle…

    Werwolf: SS Stay-Behind Organization

    The idea of creating some kind of behind the lines German resistance organization originated with Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. The original concept was something akin to Otto Skorzeny’s commandos, highly trained and well-armed uniform formations rather than Nazi partisans. Heinrich Himmler taking target practice with a Luger P08 pistol Himmler chose…

    Battle of Kursk – The Largest Tank Battle of World War 2

    Preparing the Offensive The Fuhrer and the military command believed that during the first months of Operation Barbarossa, the city of Moscow would fall to the unstoppable German forces. But they quickly discovered that they had underestimated the Soviet population. Despite successfully encircling and crushing multiple Soviet Armies that surpassed…
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