A German Soldier's World War Two Story

[moot]

http://users.rcn.com/jim44/max1.htm

Lengthy..  Here's a snip from one of the biography's first parts:

Dear Reader,*

First of all, I would like to present a brief background upon how I came to know Max, our eventual friendship, and just what led to editing and thus providing you the reader with his life's story.

Many years ago now, when the internet was really nothing more than a fanciful bunch of interconnecting bulletin boards relaying information via "mainframes" to the many hubs within the United States and elsewhere, I happened to enjoy haunting the hundreds upon hundreds of places a person could "dialup" and go to read on history, military wherewithal, etc. I was doing just that on the old "Prodigy" server, when I came upon a page that promoted a somewhat heated discussion on the various weaponry used around the "Eastern Theatre" of operations during W.W.II.

While reading some of the posts there, I came upon an argument that an idiot kid from the United States was having using an ID by the name of Wren1. Now the kid, who for the purposes of this informational we will call "Dummy", was posting all sorts of information about how the German 20mm Gun, "couldn't dent the side of a T34/76 no less destroy an HT for that matter." The discussion became somewhat heated, mainly because there were other "Posting Readers" of a knowledgeable kind, who knew that velocity notwithstanding, Russian Armour was never what it amounted to be, mainly because of the inferior metals used around the Urals at the time.

Well, finally, as I continued to return to this particular BB to see what may or may not have developed in these replies, a gentleman who's id was MK1 began to post. He clearly stated that a 20mm gun could in fact penetrate a hull of a T34/76, and could do a, "Hell of a lot" more damage than that.

Well, it was on!

The "Dummy" came back with all sorts of measurements, statistics about the gun mantlet, the hull, the sloping armour, the thickness versus velocity penetration, etc. etc. etc.

Oh it was a laugh....

MK1 would respond, simply...."nope".

Now please remember, for a couple of years before this I would return to many places on the WWW to copy, perhaps do further research on armour plating for a Museum Curator in Mattituck Long Island, or just learn about the many assortments of diversified German material during the time...but this "Mk1" individual astounded me. In fact so much so, that I responded (which I did then very rarely) to one of his replies, and asked quite simply, "How do you know these things?" I did so, because here was "Dummy", burning up the web with his constant number crunching, his material intelligence, his scientific proof, etc....

Well, to my astonishment and mainly because I really didn't think that there were many of them left anymore, the reply to me and to "Dummy" was very simply...

"Because I was there."

[Fleksta]

Do you know if there is an actual print copy of this work? The web page refers to the chapters as drafts from his book.

[moot]

No idea, I think I found it on a WWII history/aviation forum, and I've been through a lot of sites and books recently, so I can't remember where it was exactly.  If I run into it again, I'll post the reference here.

[BaDkaRmA158Th]

Good point, and duely noted.

its always interesting learning the diffrance of what happens on paper, vs. what happens on the field.
How armor can get weaker or stronger depending on what time of day it was, how cold or how hot.


So many things come into play in the real world, its hard finding the balance in a game.
HTC! we need freezing cold russian air, so armor brakes with 20mm hits! (see?)


Shame, hopefully someday some game or engine will come along so mindblowingly realistic, people wont play it because it makes thing's too real.


Good read m00t. 

[Rich46yo]

                              It is fact that Russia had problems with the quality of their steel during the war. Most of the steel for their tanks was produced in the Magnitogorsk region and the tale of this production line is a short story for the eventual fall of communist economic model. First off during the war the emphasis was on quantity and not quality which is never a good thing when making steel. Now during the war those plant managers who failed to make the quotas assigned them could look forward to a prolonged stay in a Gulag if they were lucky, and one to the back of the head if they weren't. This motivational tool was used all the way down the production line which caused many weapons makers to order more steel then they needed, which resulted in much of it sitting out in the elements for prolonged times, which weakened the steel even more.

                             Overall Soviet industry was under great stress during the war, most of all in the first 2 years. Much of it was literally picked up and shipped east of the Urals further stressing an already stressed road and rail system, which again further degraded the quality of weaponry reaching the front lines. Its actually even more remarkable the Russians achieved what they did all things considered. The communist economic model just plain didn't much help a steel industry laboring under terrible conditions with much of their machinery already old when the war started.

                            On the other end of the spectrum was American steel which was the best in the world. Probably the last, and the best, product of the Yank WW-ll steel industry was the construction of the Iowa class BBs which were constructed with what was widely considered the best steel of the war.

                           There was a German troop carrier armed with a 20mm cannon. I forget the model of it but it wouldnt surprise me if it was the one that shot up the T34.