Friday 30 October 2015

German Tank Bunkers

Rounding out my collection of Soviet tank turrets dug in for defensive purposes, here are some designs for German attempts at the same thing. These three light tank turret designs appear mostly identical: a relatively short turret ring with a wider fighting compartment beneath it. Ammunition storage is not shown, but presumably it would be placed along the walls of the compartment.




11 comments:

  1. That's very useful as I have a few spare turrets lying around:)

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  2. Here's a thought... would these tank bunkers have made much of a difference if the Nazis had created a turret specifically for the 75s or 88s that could have been produced and planted in large numbers along the Siegfried line, etc.? Say, one turret for every half mile or mile depending on availability. Just imagine, 10000 of these with at least a 75mm gun. If you placed MG34 or 42 nests in between each gun emplacement or next to said guns, this would be incredibly formidable. Who knows, it might have changed the outcome if this tactic had been adopted as early as '39 or '40 and established on every defensive line during the war along with the concrete fortifications. Instead of silly wastes of material such as the Gustav guns or the 2 Bismarck class ships. Thank the gods of war that the Nazi elite were idiots.

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    1. Once you breakthrough at one point, the entire line is compromised. So the rest of the line will be cutoff and has to be abandoned.
      Even the bolsheviks could figure that out.

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    2. Ever heard of the Pantherturm?

      And 10k is, idk, almost the sum total of *actual* tanks the Germans managed to put together during the entire period or so...

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    3. germany roduced over 24,00 tanks excl the pz1 and pz2 yet they destroyed over 200,000 tanks..

      they destroyed over 80% of russias tanks by 44 the only thing that won ww2 for the criminal ALL-LIES was the atrocity propaganda that is still believed despite having no facts or proof


      The fact that the USSR produced 54 550 T-34s Undoubtedly the T-34 went a long way to enabling the USSR to be ultimately victorious, but the price was huge with approximately 44 900 T-34s (82% of total production) being irrecoverably lost. Soviet output during WWII was 99 150 fully tracked AFVs (including all types of assault and self-propelled guns) produced from June 1941 to May 1945, and an additional 11 900 tanks and self-propelled guns received via Lend Lease.(22) The Germans are often criticised for their low tank production during WWII: being accused of producing too few high quality tanks with too many refinements and excessive quality control during production. In support of this statement the figure of only 26 900 German tanks is quoted as being produced during WWII. However tanks formed only part of German AFV production: they actually produced 26 925 tanks, 612 command tanks, 232 flame tanks, 10 550 assault guns, 7 831 tank destroyers, and 3 738 assault and self-propelled artillery AFVs, from 1938 to May 1945.(23) A total of around 49 900 fully tracked AFVs out of a total production of 89 254 AFVs of all types. This represents around 50% of Soviet fully tracked AFV production during WWII. It should be remembered (a fact that seems to be often forgotten) that Allied strategic bombing reduced German AFV production by at least 10% in 1943, 40% in 1944 and even more during 1945, exactly when German AFV production had peaked.

      There is no doubt that German tanks possessed many refinements, subtleties of design and high quality components which contributed to a relatively slow production rate. In comparison Soviet tanks had a generally rough and ready finish, and lacked many features which were assumed essential by German tankers and to a large extent by their Western Allied counterparts. There were of course considerably more Soviet tanks, which ultimately helped them to win the war. Nonetheless, it was these same refinements and subtleties of design which gave German tank crews the edge in combat at the tactical level, and it is these which are picked up in the methodology detailed in Part II-‘The Operation Barbarossa: the Complete Military Simulation- The Barbarossa Simulation’s Resource Database’. As always, the Soviets had a choice regarding weapon system production during WWII: they could have mass produced more lower quality and less refined AFVs, or produced less more refined and higher quality AFVs. They chose the former and achieved strategic success, but payed an exceptionally high price in terms of human life. In terms of AFVs, this ‘price’ was the loss of 96 500 fully tracked AFVs compared to 32 800 German fully tracked AFVs (on the East Front) during WWII (2.94 to 1).(24) The German losses include all SP guns, SP artillery, and several thousand vehicles captured when Germany surrendered.

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    4. >exceptionally high price in terms of human life.

      The Red Army did not sustain a significantly higher amount of casualties than the Germans and their allies on the Eastern Front http://tankarchives.blogspot.ca/2015/06/common-questions-matter-of-ratios.html

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    5. They did it.
      The Germans made extensive use of Panther's 75mm L70 turrets (usually repaired Ausf.D turrets, but also purpose built) in several areas in Italy, from southern Gustav Line (south of Cassino) to the Gothic Line (nothern Tuscaany and Emilia-Romagna area), and along many important points (Futa Pass, on the Appennines, etc.).
      They were quite effective at times (the Gustav Line bunkers had the best score ratio), but they also were quite prone to being outflanked (many were abandoned because of this) and damaged fron the allied bombings.

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  3. Huh, I've never seen early panzer turrets in emplacements. I mean, there's the pantherturm and the 30.01 turrets on the Atlantic wall, but these are cool.

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  4. Sorry for mig English, but the diffrence according to Siegfred Line wasnt canons but Hitler by Model had used all the infantry and most part og the other personal.

    Nice site - And why only Shermans. For Christmas I would like to have an Hellcat - and if not a german sturmkanone with panzerkanone instead oh howitzer and if not a Pershing if Idont have to cary i.

    Have a nice day

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  5. Very interresting guys thankyou for the information. Now I know what to do with my spare 38t turrets in the psc marder kits,A great diorama idea.

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  6. Could the Chinese build something like this on one those man-made islands they have in the South China Sea?

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