Ground Power The Newsletter of AMPS Central Virginia - John Robinson, Editor INSIDE THIS ISSUE: German Vehicle Names 1-3 AMPS-CV Group Build: Tamiya M8 Greyhound Demo: Model Parts in 2D 4 During last month’s meeting, we start following the conclusion of our Military History Weekend 5 kicked off the group build with Mike October meeting. Display Models from August 6-9 Petty giving an overview of the sched- Brian Alfano has already ule. Mike also brought AMPS Boresight 9 been bust creating some in various reference bling for our build that Workbench-Cam 10 sources and aftermar- can be used when we ket accessories that AMPS/IPMS information 11 finish it and want to show you may or may not it off at a convention. choose to use for your This photo does not do it build. Anything goes justice, but hopefully you UPCOMING MEETINGS: here, so be creative will see it in person. Let’s with your choices. Thursday, September 22 just say that it involves Thursday, October 27 Mike suggested that electricity. we gather up the kits/ Be sure to track the build Thursday, November TBD details needed, do the on our website, under research and have the “Events” page. everything ready to MEETING AGENDA: 6:30 BUSINESS 7:00 DEMONSTRATION 7:30 PASS IN REVIEW German Vehicle Naming of World War II 9:00 ADJOURNMENT by Joe Paulchell viations frequently, perhaps without 9:00 BUILD TIME (ends at 11:00) The German Army of the Second World thinking much about what they mean. War employed a remarkable array of Hence, this treatise will shed some weapons and units on the battlefield. light on the German military nomen- The German Army, or Wehrmacht; clature, naming and abbreviations. MEETING DEMO and the Waffen-SS (Schutzstaffel) had The German scheme is very simple but numerous types of armor, guns and with some variations to be aware of. Zimmerit on 1:72 scale models--are you field units. This is perhaps one of the A piece of German armor was named crazy? You be the judge. Glen Martin reasons many armor modelers tend based on a description of its purpose took inspiration from a demo we had to build German WW2 subjects--the and a designation of the variation previously to large number of models and variations within that group. These include the try Zimmerit on create a tantalizing breadth of possible chassis type, the model version within a small scale subjects and paint schemes. that hull type and perhaps the gun model and was The Germans were highly organized type it carried. For example, tanks pleased with were named differently from self- the results. and efficient at categorizing and nam- ing. Combine this with the peculiari- propelled guns and armored cars. In He’ll show us addition, self-propelled guns that were what he did. ties of how German terms are strung together into very long words, and purpose built were named slightly differently from adaptations made to The demo the need for abbreviations becomes previously scheduled for this month, apparent. Modelers or historical buffs Continued on the next page “Building Bases Using Plaster” by Ashley will encounter these names and abbre- Abernathy, is postponed until the Octo- ber meeting. AMPS Central Virginia | ampscv.org | [email protected] 1 German Vehicle Naming of World War II Continued from previous page given a name, a series number using Ro- barrel length on the Geschützwagen III man numerals, and often included the chassis and commonly called the Nashorn, carry a given gun type. Lastly, there was designation of the gun type carried using or Rhinoceros. a standard for naming vehicles adopted the term “mit”, meaning “with.” The gun into the German army from non-German German nomenclature also had special type designation followed the gun naming sources such as the Czech guns and tanks names for the role a piece of armor would nomenclature discussed in my previous that entered German service. play. For example, tank hunters / tank article. Briefly, a gun on a self-propelled destroyers were called a panzerjäeger or Let’s look at tanks first. carriage was called a Sturmkanone or jadgpanzer, and designated Jagd. Other StuK, whereas a tank gun was called a German tanks are called panzerkamp- special purpose armor designations are in Kampfwagenkanone (KwK). The remain- fwagen. This breaks down into three Table 1 below. constituent parts: panzer, meaning der of the gun designation included the When Germany acquired foreign armor, “armor” or “armored”; kampf, meaning caliber and gun barrel length, such as they were designated as Panzers, but “fighting”; and wagen meaning simply the 7.5cm L/48 with a bore diameter of then used a letter designation to indi- “vehicle.” Hence, we get “armored 75mm and a barrel length of 75mm x 48 = cate country of origin. The Czech model fighting vehicle.” Now, since panzerkamp- 3.6 meters. number followed by (t) indicatesg Czech fwagen is a mouth full and quite a bit Assault tanks were designated sturmge- origin, whereas ‘h’ indicates French to write or type, it was abbreviated to schütz (StuG), meaning “assault gun,” origin. So, the Czech LTvz. 35 became “Pz”, “PzKw”, or “Pz.Kpfw.” Following or geschützwagen (GW), meaning “gun the Pz. 35(t) and the Ltvz. 38 became the this was the designation for the design in vehicle.” So the series four assault guns Pz. 38(t). Where the 35(t) or 38(t) chassis the series, typically as a Roman numeral carrying a 75mm gun were designated the was used for an adaptation, such as a car- for German designs and Arabic numerals Sturmgeschütz IV mit 7.5cm StuK 40 L/48, riage for a gun, they were given the Ger- for non-German designs. In the case of translating to assault gun with 75mm man designation for the role they would non-German designs, an abbreviation in bore diameter gun having a 3.6 m barrel play. For example, a tank destroyer was parenthesis indicated the origin. Finally, length. Simple, right? designated a panzerjäeger, leading to the the model variation within the series was Gun carriages that were adaptations of Panzerjäeger 38(t). When the Germans designated by a letter or a letter-number basic chassis designs had a slightly differ- then further modified this variation, a combination where the only difference ent naming scheme. In this case, the gun model designation was added, such as the was the gun. In German this is ausfüh- designation was used first, followed by Panzerjäeger 38(t) Ausf. H. The French rung, abbreviated Ausf., which means auf, meaning “on” followed by the gun Hotchkiss H-35 was renamed the Panzer “model” or “mark.” So, the second model carriage used with an optional vehicle 38H and the Char B1’s became vehicles of the third major chassis design for Ger- common name. So, for example, an such as the Flammwagen auf Panzerkamp- man tanks would be the panzerkampfwa- 88mm PaK gun mounted on the StuG IV fwagen B-2 (f). gen III ausführung B, abbreviated to Pz. III chassis was designated as the 8.8cm PaK Ausf. B. 43/I L/71 auf GW III Nashorn, meaning an Purpose-built self-propelled guns were 88mm bore diameter gun with a 6.248m Continued on the next page Table 1 Name Abbreviation Meaning Flakpanzer FlakPz Anti-aircraft tank Flammpanzer Flame tank Funklenkpanzer Radio controlled tank Funkwagen Fu Wireless tank or wireless car Jagdpanzer Jagd Tank destroyer or Tank hunter Minenräumpanzer Mine-clearing tank Panzerbefehlswagen PzBflswg Armored command vehicle Panzerbeobachtungswagen Armored observation tanks Panzerspähwagen Pz.Spw. Armored car Räumschaufelpanzer Bulldozer tank Schutzenpanzerwagen SPW Armored personnel carriers Schwimmkörper Amphibious tank Selbstfahrlafetten Self-propelled carriers Sturmgeschütz StuG Assault gun AMPS Central Virginia | ampscv.org | [email protected] 2 German Vehicle Naming of World War II Continued from previous page the eight-wheeled armored car carrying nicknames associated with German armor. a 5cm KwK 39 L/60 gun was designated All German vehicles were also given a By no means is this a fully complete or the Sd.Kfz. 234/2 Puma, whereas the unique number in the German ordinance exhaustive treatment of the subject. eight-wheeled armored car carrying a inventory. This number was the sonder- Rather, it is the basics and covers many 7.5cm PaK 40 L/48 gun was designated kraftfahrzeug (Sd.Kfz.) number, meaning of the most commonly encountered terms the Sd.Kfz. 234/4 Schwerer Panzerspäh- “special purpose motor vehicle.” The and abbreviations. There is more detail wagen, or armored scout vehicle. Sd.Kfz. number was often added to the out there and more derivations and varia- end of the vehicle name or used fully in Lastly, we commonly see nicknames tions. applied to an army’s beloved vehicles. place of the full formal vehicle name. Sources: For example, the Pz. III Ausf. N was the These colloquial names have become Sd.Kfz. 141, the Marder II was the Sd.Kfz. synonymous with the vehicles they rep- German Tanks of World War II in Color, 131 and the Elefant was the Sd.Kfz. 184. resent, often replacing the formal name Green, M., Anderson, T., Schulz, F., 2000. in many situations. For example, the Pz. Armored cars, halftracks, and other ve- German Tanks & Fighting Vehicles of V was called the “Tiger,” while the Pz. hicles were generally designated by their World War II, Ellis, C., 1976. VI was called the “King Tiger”. Similarly, Sd.Kfz. numeric designation, such as the special purpose vehicles had nicknames Wikipedia Sd.Kfz. 234 armored cars. These vehicles as well, such as the Sd.kfz.