----- Original Message -----
From: "Andreas Mehlhorn" <a.mehlhorn@t-online.de>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 04, 2000 6:06 PM
Subject: [MV] Sd kfz
Raimondo L. Torelli schrieb:
> NOW: knowing Andreas, I may imagine what is it a "Sd.Kfz. 2"... but
> what is it a "Sd.Kfz 181"? I know what is it an M4A4 (a Sherman tank.
> Here in Italy they are all Sherman for us...!).
> Please (I said PLEASE!), explain what is it a Sd.Kfz. 181!
>
> Regards and
> Panzergrau rules! (Andreas likes it, you know!)
>
RAL 7021; cool.
> Raimondo - MVPA 15878 & IMPS 2320
>
> P.S.
> Sd.Kkz. 2 = Kettenkrad
Korrekt!
> Sd.Kfz. 181 = is a Panther tank, IIRC?
No. Sd.Kfz 181 is the TIGER tank. Tiger I to be more precise.
>
Sd.Kfz 181 PzKpfw VI to be pedantic.
If I get any of this wrong Andreas will be at me with the keyboard in a
femtosecond.
These German designations do mean something and are highly necessary when
your language uses whole sentences with the spaces left out as a
description. Mike Stallwood has just mentioned the unsurpassed Vanderveen
Bibles in the shape of the Old Testament (pre 1940), the New Testament
(WWII) and post 1945 Revelations and again I urge anyone with any MV
interest to buy any copy on sight, they can be had, I bought the pre 1940
and post 45 last year for 24 UKP the pair in little used condition.
Of added importance is the excellent preamble of several pages to each
nations MV listings detailing the structure and background of their MV
industry and the meaning of the abbreviations.
So Sd.Kfz is Sonderkraftfahrzeug - special motor vehicle.
PzKpfw is Panzerkampfwagen - tank
We seem to use the word flak as a colloquialism in the west, as in "he got
the flak" meaning someone got his ass chewed off/had a serious earpounding
(delete as appropriate for country), and we all understand flak to be
anti-aircraft fire, in actuality it is Flak and stands for
Fliegerabwehrkanone literally "Flying anti-cannon" - AA gun.
Similarly Pak is Panzerabwehrkanone "tank anti-cannon" - AT gun.
Raimondo, I'm surprised you didn't ask about the Heeresanklopfgeraet, just a
Pak 35/36 and called the "Army door-knocker" such was its dreadful
performance, much the same as our 2pdr pop-gun and of entirely similar
calibre.
Richard
Southampton - England
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 01 2000 - 21:37:37 PST