If you could take one WWII Weapon, back to WWI, what would it be? (1942 limit)

[Gargantua]

It’s the middle of 1942, the axis is at the high water mark.

Suddenly a genie appears and a portal opens back to 1914 opens in front of you.  The genie says you must take yourself, and 1000 of any one thing or persons from WWII (1942) back to WWI, or be killed.

What do you choose?

[Gargantua]

I’m going to call it first :)

1000 Bismarck’s.

[Witt]

Navy is a good idea.
U-Boats.

[Makoshark13]

1000 Maginot lines stretched all over France.  (Or Germany)

[CWO Marc]

Assuming that by 1914 Garg means the Western Front after it had settled into a pattern of trench warfare (not the early period of mobile warfare of the early months), I’d take back 1,000 pieces of tracked, self-propelled artillery.  One of the chronic problems that each side ran into on the Western Front was that, even after they had achieved breakthroughs by whatever means (mass infantry attacks, tank attacks or infiltration tactics, all preceded by artillery bombardments on variable scales), the attack always bogged down when the advancing infantry outran its artillery support.  SPA would have helped them to fully exploit those breakthroughs, especially in the second half of the war when large numbers of tanks were being added to the equation.

[ABWorsham4]

Love the question!

I would be aiming for a German victory in WWI, the Allies had their chance and screwed up.

1000 Ju-87 would open the Western Front to Paris falling. I would try to get a few German Generals who were great WWI soldiers like Rommel and Paulus to win the ears of the current General Staff of using the Storm Troopers earlier in the war.

[Gargantua]

oooo Stuka Dive bombers…. VERY good call.

Definetly liked the word on SPA too.

[Makoshark13]

How about a bunch of historians who already know what’s going to happen? “By the way, you might not want to do that attack at the Somme.”  :-)

[Clyde85]

@ABWorsham:

I would be aiming for a German victory in WWI, the Allies had their chance and screwed up.

A German victory in WW1 would be ideal here, but I believe that you wouldn’t need to bring and weapons back with you, just a history book, and point to the few mistakes Germany made and say, “ok, now don’t do that, do this instead”.

If I had to choose a weapon though, i’m kinda torn. On the one hand, bringing back the StuG III would be great to help the Germans break the dead lock without a doubt, but I wonder how well German industry could support them once they went into action, long enough to break the front? Maybe. On the other hand, if I were to bring back the MG42, I know that German industry could support and and keep these weapons running, meaning longer usage and a greater chance of this weapon tipping the balance for a German victory.

[ABWorsham4]

@Clyde85:

@ABWorsham:

I would be aiming for a German victory in WWI, the Allies had their chance and screwed up.

A German victory in WW1 would be ideal here, but I believe that you wouldn’t need to bring and weapons back with you, just a history book, and point to the few mistakes Germany made and say, “ok, now don’t do that, do this instead”.

If I had to choose a weapon though, i’m kinda torn. On the one hand, bringing back the StuG III would be great to help the Germans break the dead lock without a doubt, but I wonder how well German industry could support them once they went into action, long enough to break the front? Maybe. On the other hand, if I were to bring back the MG42, I know that German industry could support and and keep these weapons running, meaning longer usage and a greater chance of this weapon tipping the balance for a German victory.Â

Awesome points, the MG 42 would have shredded Allied ranks between the lines.