Build Your Own WWII Army

[ABWorsham4]

If you were a leader of an unnamed county in WWII and could choose one weapon system from each of the major participant countries to supply your armies, what weapons would you choose.

The countries are U.S, Germany, USSR, Great Britain, Japan, Italy.

[Witt]

Evening Worsham.
Easy question for me: Germany, of course!

[Gargantua]

American Factories produce German planes and tanks.

I would select American Industry as my weapon/tech

Then I would choose the following…

Command: Patton
Infantry: Mechanized SS Panzer Grenadiers
Standard Assault Rifle: STG-44
Paratroopers: 101st Airborne
Artillery: Katyusha/Nebelwehrfuhr
Ground: King Tiger Tank
Fighter: ME-262
Bomber: B-52 Super fortress
Battleship: USS Iowa
Anti-Aircraft: Quad 50 cal Halftrack
Anti-Tank: Panzerfaust

Target? : Communist Filth.

[Tall Paul]

Gar & Others,

@Gargantua:

American Factories produce German planes and tanks.

I would select American Industry as my weapon/tech

Then I would choose the following…

Command: Patton
Infantry: Mechanized SS Panzer Grenadiers
Standard Assault Rifle: STG-44
Paratroopers: 101st Airborne
Artillery: Katyusha/Nebelwehrfuhr
Ground: King Tiger Tank
Fighter: ME-262
Bomber: B-52 Super fortress
Battleship: USS Iowa
Anti-Aircraft: Quad 50 cal Halftrack
Anti-Tank: Panzerfaust

Target? : Communist Filth.

––The above sounds like a WAR WINNING COMBINATION,….although I’m not sure B-52’s were WW2 weapons. The only thing I might even consider changing would be a Panther tank instead of a King Tiger.
----Charrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrge!

“Tall Paul”

[Witt]

Very nice Garg.
Sorry for misunderstanding your question Worsham.
Was working and misread.
On the tank: I agree with Tall Paul, despite the King Tiger’s resilience and killing power, the Panther’s practicality would make it a better choice for main battle tank.
AA: the Germans had the Wirbelwind. (They had to have excellent AA.)
Fighter: agreed, ME262; AT: yes, Panzerfaust; Assault Rifle, yes, Std44.
Inf: SS Pzg(not enough).
Paras: US.
Bomber: B29.
Artillery: not German .
Command: Model.

[Gargantua]

Apologies - I was typing quickly.

I meant to say B-29 Superfortress, not the B-52 Stratofortress.

As for the Panther… I did consider it, but there are Superior American and Soviet designs… and with American Industry being the back-bone, I figured the fuel for the King Tiger’s was readily available.

Impenetrable front armor, combined with control of the air, and Mechanized SS troops is a Nye-unbreakable offensive. ;)

[Witt]

I am going to Bovington in two weeks and I will stand in front of their King Tiger and not move from it. It is a thing of beauty. They have the massive unstoppable Jagdtiger too. I remember reading how a platoon of them held up the Americans somewhere in the last days of April. Think they abandoned their tanks when they ran out of ammo.
Imagine the shock of those GIs, then the exhilaration and relief as you climbed on an abandoned one!

How different would 44-45 have been if all of your above mentioned German weapons had come together in mass numbers, with the fuel and experienced crews to man them?
Like you Garg, I do not know why more were not turned against the Russians.
The Budapest offensive was too late( should have been in December) and should have been on the Oder.

[toblerone77]

@Gargantua:

Apologies - I was typing quickly.

I meant to say B-29 Superfortress, not the B-52 Stratofortress.

As for the Panther… I did consider it, but there are Superior American and Soviet designs… and with American Industry being the back-bone, I figured the fuel for the King Tiger’s was readily available.

Impenetrable front armor, combined with control of the air, and Mechanized SS troops is a Nye-unbreakable offensive. ;)

You’re not too far off Garg B-52’s at one time had a straight leading edge on the main wing and I believe pusher props. The jet engines for power plants and swept wings were a re-design.

[CWO Marc]

A very interesting question, ABW – this will be a fun exercise to do.  I can think of a few of my probable answers right away, but for some weapon categories I’ll have to check my reference books at home.  I’ll post my answer once my list is complete.

[CWO Marc]

Here’s the equipment I’d pick.  In some cases the choice was easy, but in the equipment categories with which I’m less familiar the selections may be less than optimal.

Heavy tank: Russian IS-2
Medium tank: Russian T-34/85
Light tank: American M24 Chaffee
Tank destroyer: German Jagdpanther
Light utility vehicle: American Jeep

Heavy artillery: German 240mm Kanone 3
Field artillery: Russian 76mm field gun model 1942
Anti-tank gun: German 88mm PAK 43
Rocket launcher: Russian M-13 132mm Katyusha
Heavy AAA: German 88mm FLAK 37
Light AAA: 40mm Bofors (Swedish-made but used by many countries)

Full-power rifle: American M1 Garand
Assault rifle: German Sturmgewehr 44
General-purpose machine gun: German MG42
Submachine gun: German MP40
Anti-tank rocket launcher: American Bazooka

Heavy bomber: American B-29
Medium bomber: British Mosquito (used in multiple roles)
Land-based fighter: British Spitfire Mk XIV (or higher)
Naval fighter: American F6F Hellcat
Land-based escort fighter: American Mustang
Land-based ground-attack plane: Russian Shturmovik
Naval torpedo bomber: American TBF Avenger
Seaplane: American PBY Catalina
Transport plane: American C-47 Dakota
Light reconnaissance plane: German Fiesler Storch

Carrier: American Essex class
Battleship: American Iowa class
Heavy cruiser: Japanese Takao class
Light cruiser: American Cleveland class
Destroyer: American Fletcher class
Submarine: American Tench class
Naval transport: American Victory Ship type

A lot of the choices turned out to be Allied equipment, and a lot of the Allied equipment on the list turned out to be American.  The reason is that, owing to the fact that technology evolves over time, choosing the best possible equipment generally meant choosing late-war models rather than earlier ones.  This in turn often meant picking Allied models because, in very broad terms, the Axis mostly had better equipment than the Allies at the start of the war, and the Allies mostly had better equipment than the Axis at the end of the war.  A good example would be the Mitsubishi Zero, which was a first-rate carrier-based fighter at the start of the war in the Pacific but which was overtaken and surpassed within a couple of years by new American designs.  In some cases I also gave the edge to Allied designs over Axis ones owing to production capacity.  The Panther, for example, was in some ways more sophisticated than the T-34 (of which the Panther was an improved copy), but for various reasons the Russians were able to crank out far greater numbers of the simple but effective T-34 that the Germans were able to do with the more complex Panther.

[aequitas-et-veritas]

ARMY of AeV:

Industrial Base: Germany w. A.Speer in charge

Command: H. Guderian

Infantry: GD Großdeutschland

Mechanized Infantry: GD Großdeutschland

Standard Assault Rifle: STG-44 and , M1 Garand

Elite Rifle: FG42

Sniper Rifle: Mosin Nagan

Pistol: Browning

Machine Gun: MG42

Anti Tank Inf.: Panzerfaust

Grenades: Stielhandgranate 43

Anti Aircraft Gun: 8,8-cm-FlaK 18/36/37 hauled, mobil

Light reconnaissance: Sdkfz 222 Light Armoured Reconnaissance Vehicle

GROUND:

light Artillery: Panzerhaubitze Wespe (Sd.Kfz. 124)/mobil

heavy Artillery: Hummel (Sd.Kfz. 165)/mobil

super heavy Artillery: Panzerwerfer 43 (Sd.Kfz. 4/1)

Tank units: Panzerkampfwagen V „Panther“ (Sd.Kfz. 171) lead by 5. Waffen SS Division Wiking/Viking

Heavy Tank units: Panzerkampfwagen VI „Tiger“ (Sdkfz 181)

Anti Tank units: Sturmgeschütz III Ausf. G, Jagdpanzer 38(t), „Hetzer“

Anti-Aircraft tank: Flakpanzer IV Kugelblitz (“ball lightning”)

Heavy reconnaissance: Sd.Kfz. 234 PUMA armoured car

AIRPOWERS:

Paratroopers: 101st Airborne

Fighter: Me 262

Air Transport (light): Tante Ju Junkers 52

Air Transport (heavy): Me 323 „Gigant“ modified

Bomber: B-29

Dive Bomber: JU 87 R

Tactical Bomber: JU 88, He 123

GROUND TRANSPORT:

Light utility standard vehicle: VW Type 128 and 166 Schwimmwagen

for the Troops: Sdkfz 250 ,Sdkfz 251 halftracks, Kätzchen modified

Supplies: „Maultier“ (Sd.Kfz. 3)

Truck b: Sd.Kfz. 9 FAMO 18 tons

HOME FLEET:

Submarines: Type XXI submarine

Battleship: Bismarck class

Destroyers: Fletcher class

Heavy Cruisers: Admiral-Hipper-class

Seaplanes: Catalina

Aircraft Carrier: Independence-class

[poloplayer15]

Stealing some from CWO Marc…
US Industry
Heavy tank: Tiger I
Medium tank: M4A3E8 “easy eight” Sherman
Light tank: M3 Stuart
Tank destroyer: Jagdpanther
Light utility vehicle: American Jeep

Heavy artillery: M1 155mm “Long Tom”
Field artillery: M2A1 105 howitzer
Anti-tank gun: German 88mm PAK 43
Rocket launcher: T34 Calliope
Heavy AAA: 8.8 cm Flak 18/36/37/41
Light AAA: 40mm Bofors (Swedish-made but used by many countries)

Full-power rifle: American M1 Garad
Assault rifle: German Sturmgewehr 44
General-purpose machine gun: German MG42
Submachine gun: US Thompson
Anti-tank rocket launcher: Panzerfaust

Heavy bomber: B-17G Flying Fortress
Medium bomber: B-25 Mitchell
Land-based fighter: Spitfire MK XIV
Naval fighter: American F6F Hellcat
Land-based escort fighter: P47 Thunderbolt “the jug”
Land-based ground-attack plane: F4U Corsair
Naval Dive Bomber: SBD Douglas Dive bomber
Naval torpedo bomber: Nakajima B5N
Seaplane: PBY Catalina
Transport plane: Douglas C-47

Carrier: Essex Class
Battleship: Iowa Class
Heavy cruiser: Baltimore Class
Light cruiser: Cleveland Class
Destroyer: Allen M Sumner Class
Submarine: Type XXI U Boat
Naval transport: US Liberty Ship

[KurtGodel7]

People have gotten a little away from the OP’s original question. There are some very good responses here, don’t get me wrong! But they’re not responses to the question he’d asked.

You’re allowed to pick one weapons system from each of the six major participants. As some of the earlier posts made clear, there were a lot more than just six weapons systems present during WWII. I assume that, other than the six weapons systems you choose, your nation will have fairly standard-issue WWII fare. This means that the OP is asking us to identify one weapons system per nation which goes above and beyond standard-issue WWII fare. Below is my list:

Germany: Me 262. Late in the war, Germany, Britain, and the U.S. fielded operational jet aircraft. However, the Me 262 was much more aerodynamically advanced than any jet the Allies put into the air.

Other options for Germany: Panzerfaust (by far the best handheld anti-tank weapon of the war). FW-190. Assault rifle (the only assault rifle of the war). Type XXI u-boats (significantly more advanced than any non-German subs of the war). R4M air-to-air missiles. Flying wing jet aircraft. General von Mannstein. Wasserfall surface-to-air missile. Highly lethal chemical weapons at least ten years ahead of anyone else’s. (Though they never got used.)

U.S.: atom bomb. This one is pretty self-explanatory.

Other options for U.S.: Superfortress heavy bombers. Fleet carriers. Liberty ship transports. Iowa class battleships. General Patton. Proximity fuses. (I interpret “weapons system” narrowly enough to exclude the American industrial base.)

U.S.S.R.: T-34-85. This tank was slightly obsolete, at least by late war standards. But it was good enough; and unlike Panthers and Tigers it was simple and easy to manufacture.

Other options for the U.S.S.R.: Sturmovick ground attack planes. Kataushka rockets.

U.K.: Code-breaking apparatus. (Including code breakers and Colossus computers.)

Other options for the U.K.: Mosquito medium bombers. Lancaster heavy bombers. Centurion tanks. Proximity fuses.

Japan: Long-lance torpedoes. These had triple the range of standard-issue WWII torpedoes.

Other options for Japan: submarines (the second-best of the war after Germany’s Type XXIs). Yamato battleships.

Italy: Sahariann Scout Car

The subject of tanks is a sticky issue. The type of tanks everyone should have been building would have weighed 50 - 75 tons, with sloping armor, heavy guns; and would have been simple to mass produce. However, none of the participants built a tank like this during the war. Britain didn’t begin mass production of its 50 ton Centurion tanks until November 1945. Germany’s Panther, Tiger, and King Tiger tanks were good, solid designs; but were too difficult to manufacture. That problem would have been solved with the Entwicklung Series tanks; but the war ended before these could be put into production.

Piston fighters are also a tricky subject. The Soviet Union’s late war La-7 was one of the best piston aircraft of the war. The same could be said about late model Spitfires or late model FW-190s. Even Japan had better late war piston aircraft than you might think. America’s P-51 Mustang wasn’t as good in dogfights as some of the other aircraft on that list. But it was still solid, and had a very long range.

[aequitas-et-veritas]

Build Your Own WWII Army, is basically what most of us read and did Kurt Godel7, maybe. I did!  :-D

If it really would have come down to build my own Army I would have gone for a small one.

Something like a Platoon is consisting of 7 Peps.(has also a dedicated armoured/personnel carrier.
One Platoon leader ,1 MG 42 man,1 Radioman, 1 Engineer (handy w. explosives and such) 3 Reg. Inf. men.
3 Platoons a Group , 3-4 Groups a Brigade.

7 Tanks a Platoon ,3 platoons a group ,3-4 Groups a Brigade.
Platton consisting of 1 Command Tank, but diffrent in design ( More Armour no heavy Gun, 2cm maybe for defence)
2Heavy tanks such Tiger or Panther,JS I or equivalent, 2 Med Tanks like P IV class or Sherman and 2 Tank Hunter like StuG, Hetzer (whatever fits Best).
Each Tank Platoon gets 3-4 dedicated Selfpropelled Artillery Guns w. Ammo carriers.(Wasp,Priest etc. 10.5 cm o.e. shells)
Each Tank Platoon gets 3 Fighters and 4 Bombers wich they can be called upon any given time via Liason officers who are on board the Command Tank.

I just wanted shorter Communication ways and the combined best of everything, my thoughts behind the build your Army.
I think less is most of the times better then to much.
The most important equipment of course would have been the Radio then.

These Brigades combined with Reg Inf. and Tank Divisions as rearguard Divisions would have done any Job they would have been asked for, whereby the Reg Division would have taken the part to secure and hold the gain Positions and Terretories conquered.

This all apllies for Land based Operations.

What do you all think of it??