German heavy fighters in Panzer General games (I)

Many ideas that look good on paper are not successful when they face the challenges of the real world. One such idea was the concept of heavy fighter that was popular in the pre-World War 2 years. The single-engine fighters lacked range to escort bombers to their target on enemy territory so twin-engine aircrafts were designed to play this role.

One such design was the Messerschimtt BF 110. It belonged to a category that the Germans called Zerstörer, which means destroyer. It had good range (1094 km ~ 680 mi) compared to the single-engine Me-109's 600 km (370 mi) . It also had a great top speed compared to other pre-war planes: 550 km/h (340 mph) . Its high velocity would allow it to escape enemy fighters that were more maneuverable. Anyway, its lack of agility would prove fatal when performing its originally intended role.

BF 110 was able to deal with weaker fighter planes during the Polish campaign and the invasion of Norway. However, during the Battle of France, it began to suffer losses to the RAF's Hurricanes and Spitfires. When employed in the Battle of Britain, it proved to be a costly mistake: a Spitfire could easily defeat the BF-110 being a lot more maneuverable and also being faster than the bigger Zerstörer. At the time, it was the only choice for the Luftwaffe as an escort for the German bombers, as the BF-109E did not have the range to fly over targets located farther than southeast of England.

However, Bf-110 was able to perform ground attack missions. Thanks to its powerful forward armament (four 7.92mm machine guns and two 20mm cannons), it could attack ground enemy units by strafing them. Some of the models were fitted with bomb racks, increasing its effectiveness against larger targets (such as ships)

In aerial combat, BF 110 was particularly useful  in the interceptor role. Unescorted enemy bombers would prove vulnerable to the Zerstörer's array of machine guns and cannons. Later models of BF 110's were equipped with a 37 mm cannon or rockets; a single hit from any of these would destroy any allied heavy bomber. But again, the appearance of escort fighters like the American  P-51B Mustangs caused heavy causalities in the BF 110 squadrons.

During its last part of its service life, BF 110 was successfully used as a night-fighter, becoming the backbone of the Nachtjagdgeschwader. For this role, it was fitted with radar antennae in the nose and special upward-firing gun systems.

In the next parts I will analyse the use of BF-110 planes in the Panzer General I and II games. I will also talk about the BF-110 successors: Me 210 and Me 410.

Best Anti-Tank Gun of WWII: the German 88

© S H Photos

While the best tank of the war is controversial, I think we can find more agreement on the best anti tank gun of the WWII: the 88mm Flak.

Originally used as anti aircraft gun, the 88mm Flak became famous when used as a anti-tank weapon.

Here is an example about its efficiency. The Real Reason for the 88’s Success:

During Operation Battleaxe from 15th to 18th June 1941 the Commonwealth forces are known to have lost 92 AFVs including 82 tanks to the I./Flak-Regiment 33, a Luftwaffe mixed flak battalion with 12 88s.(7) The only other heavy flak battalion available to Rommel through 1941 was the identical I./Flak-Regiment 18. By the end of 1941 these two Luftwaffe flak battalions (authorised a total of 24 88s) had destroyed 264 tanks and 42 aircraft.(8) During this period the Allied forces had over three times as many 3.7inch AA guns available as the Axis forces had 88s, yet the German and Italian tank crews probably never even got to see one.(9)

Panzerlied

Who knew there was a song for the Panzers?
The song starts at 1:30, but the rest of the movie provides a nice context. I was curios what is says, so here are the lyrics in case you are curios too:

In blizzard or storm,
Or in sun warm and bright,
The day hot as hell
Or bone-chilling be the night,
Our faces may with dust be laid,
But spirits never fade,
No, never fade;
Relentless, our tank
Thunders out on a raid.

With engines a-howling,
Fast as is the wind,
We head for the foe,
Safe, as we're in armor skinned.
Our comrades still behind us roam;
We fight the foe alone,
Yes, fight alone.
We stab through the line
To break the foes backbone.

Whenever the foe
May appear in our sight,
We'll ram throttle full,
Then we'll humble all his might!
Of what use is our life if we
Our country serve freely?
Yes, serve freely!
To die for our country,
Our honour shall be.

With tank traps and mines,
Our foe tries to impede.
We laugh at his ruses;
We know he'll not suceed.
And when, in threat, his cannons stand,
Half hidden in the sand,
Yes, in the sand,
We can find our way
Over much safer land.

And should at long last,
Fickle Lady Luck leave,
And we remain here,
Leaving family to grieve,
A bullet with our name on it,
Find us and seal our fate,
Yes, seal our fate,
Our tank will our grave be
On that final date.

The most produced panzer tank of world war II

It is indisputable that the allies have built the largest number of tanks during the second world war. The production numbers for their most used models, such as the Soviet's T-34 and Western Allies' M4 Sherman tanks dwarf those of the most produced German Panzerkampfwagen.

Germany's most famous tanks were the Tiger and Panther models. But, unlike their counterparts in the allied armies (T-34 and Sherman), they were not the most used tank in the German army. That honor goes to a model designed before the war broke out.


In his famous book, Achtung Panzer!, Heinz Guderian described his vision of a successful warfare strategy, that goes under the name of Blitzkrieg. Among other things, he outlined the roles of primary battle tanks and support tanks. The primary battle tanks would constitute the mainstay of the armored divisions and fight the enemy's tanks, while the support tanks would attack anti-tank guns and fortifications.

Two models were designed before the start of the war in order to fulfill these roles: Panzer III and Panzer IV. Being designed as the primary battle tank, Panzer III was intended to be build in larger quantities than the slightly heavier Panzer IV. Anyway, in the first year of the war, including the invasion of Low Countries and France, the Germans would wage their armored battles using mostly the Panzer I and Panzer II light tanks. This is because the army wasn't yet properly equipped for war, so they had to win the first campaigns with tank models that were actually designed for training and reconnaissance.

A lot of these small tanks (Panzer I) were used in the successful campaigns of 1939 and 1940

But fortune favours the bold, so the Axis managed to decisively win these first campaigns. They also used the Panzer III and Panzer IV variants, and they found out that beating allied heavy tanks like the French Char B1 and the British  Matilda wasn't an easy feat at all. It seemed that their guns (the 37 mm caliber of the Panzer III) just couldn't penetrate the armor that the allied heavy tanks had.


Naturally, the solution was to upgrade the guns to larger calibers, but the Panzer III  could only carry up to a 50mm gun, because of its smaller turret. In order to cope with increasingly frequent T-34s in the battlefield, they had to use larger guns, like the 75 mm KwK 40 L/43, mounted on the Panzer IV G model. So, gradually, Panzer III was taken out from production, and they started making a lot of Panzer IVs.

New panzer models have appeared starting in 1943: Tiger and Panther. Now the Germans finally had some tanks that were superior to the allied armor. But they kept manufacturing an improved version of the Panzer IV tank until the end of the war, and still fielded a lot of these on both the western and the eastern fronts. There were probably several reasons for this, including the use of the already existing production lines.

Production of tanks gradually increased during the course of the war, except for the last few months of the war. This was in spite of allied aerial bombing campaign that seriously disrupted the existing production. The Germans found ways to make up for the damaged factories and streamlined the manufacturing process. In total, they build around 9000 Pzkw IV tanks, making this model the most produced panzer tank of the second world war.

Version H was the most produced Panzer IV model

Most-produced tank of the WW2 and the 2nd most-produced tank of all time

You know which one is it?

Maybe you'll recognize it in these gorgeous photos from Miroslav Petrasko.

Still not sure?
Of course is the Tridsatchedverka, T-34.

A little bit of history..

In 1994, Panzer General, a PC turn-based strategy game was launched. Set in World War II, the player had the chance of taking the role of a German general leading his elite fighting units to victory. The longest campaign started in ’39 with the invasion of Poland and ended in ’45. The player’s performance as a strategist determined whether the last battle in 1945 was defending Berlin against allied onslaught or storming Washington for the ultimate victory.

Probably Panzer General wasn’t the first computer strategy game with a WW2 background, but for me and many others it was *the* game. I played it many times, in order to try its various scenarios (yeah, it was fun to purposely lose some key battles in order to go with your super-army into the defense, an easy one at that).

Then, a few years later, Panzer General II, came out. Like its predecessor, it was a turn-based strategy game. It had improved graphics (isometric perspective), some new concepts appeared (like the use of leaders that would add benefits to the unit they commanded) but it lost the grand-strategy feeling. The battles were confined to small tactical situation in a greater campaign context. Nevertheless, PG2 was a very nice game, indeed and I guess even more people played and liked it (that is, has a greater fan base than PG1)

PG2 had also an scenario editor (it was becoming the norm for real-time and turn-based strategy games to ship with an editor). I used it to start working on a campaign for the Romanian army, but I think I was the only one playing it ;-)

Panzer General 3 jumped in the 3D madness bandwagon. It also brought in some interesting features, like relying more on the unit commander concept. I didn’t play PG3 too much, and I could say this was true for other PG fans I know. It was the last game in the Panzer General series.