Portal:World War II/Equipment
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The Illustrious-class was a class of aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy that were some of the most important British warships in World War II. They were laid down in the late 1930s as part of the rearmament of the Royal Navy in response to the threats of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and Imperial Japan.
Each of these ships played a prominent part in the battles of WWII. Victorious took part in the chase of the Bismarck, Illustrious and Formidable played prominent parts in the battles in the Mediterranean during 1940 and 1941 and all three took part in the large actions of the British Pacific Fleet in 1945.
The Illustrious class consisted of three vessels; Illustrious, Formidable and Victorious. Three further similar ships were built as the war progressed, to modified designs in order that they could carry larger air wings. Indomitable had a second half-length hangar deck below the main hangar deck and the two ships of the Implacable-class, Implacable and Indefatigable had two hangar levels, albeit with a limiting 14 feet head room.
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The Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausf. B was a German heavy tank of the Second World War. It was also known as Sonderkraftfahrzeug 182 (Sd. Kfz. 182), or informally Tiger II or Königstiger (German: Bengal Tiger, often literally translated as King Tiger) and by the British as Royal Tiger.
The Tiger II combined the heavy armor of the Tiger I with the sloped armor of the Panther. The design followed the same concept as the Tiger I, but was intended to be even more formidable. The Tiger II chassis supplied the basis for the Jagdtiger turretless tank destroyer. The Tiger II weighed 68.5 (early turret) to 69.8 (production turret) tons, was protected by 150 to 180 mm of frontal armor, and was armed with the 88 mm KwK 43 L/71 gun.
The very heavy armor and powerful long-range gun gave the Tiger II the advantage against virtually all opposing tanks. This was especially true on the Western Front, where the British and US forces had almost no heavy tanks with which to oppose it. In a defensive position it was difficult to destroy. Offensively it performed with less success, and its performance was a great disappointment to Hitler when it first saw action.
The Tiger II performed very well against Allied and Soviet tanks being able to kill the M4 Sherman, M26 Pershing and IS-2 at respectively 2500m, 1800m and 1200m. The Tiger II was widely photographed due to its large size and propaganda value.
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The Mitsubishi A6M Zero ("A" for fighter, 6th model, "M" for Mitsubishi) was a light-weight, carrier-based fighter aircraft employed by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service from 1940 to 1945. Its history mirrored the fortunes of Imperial Japan in World War II. At the time it was introduced, the Mitsubishi A6M was the best carrier-based fighter plane in the world and was greatly feared by Allied pilots. Tactics were developed by 1942 by Allied forces to engage the Zero on equal terms. By 1943, American and British manufacturers were producing fighters with greater firepower, armor, and speed and approaching the zero's maneuverability. By 1944, the Mitsubishi A6M was obsolete but remained in production. In shifting priorities during the final years of the War in the Pacific, the Zero was utilized in kamikaze operations.
It is universally known as Zero from its Japanese Navy designation, Type 0 Carrier Fighter (Rei shiki Kanjo sentoki, 零式艦上戦闘機), taken from the last digit of the Imperial year 2600 (1940), when it entered service. In Japan it was unofficially referred to as both Rei-sen and Zero-sen. The official Allied code name was Zeke (Hamp for the A6M3 model 32 variant); while this was in keeping with standard practice of giving boys' names to fighters, it is not definitely known if this was chosen for its similarity to "Zero."
A combination of excellent maneuverability and very long range made it one of the finest fighters of its era. In early combat operations, the Zero gained a legendary reputation, outclassing its contemporaries. Later, design weaknesses and the increasing scarcity of more powerful aircraft engines meant that the Zero became less effective against newer fighters.
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The Supermarine Spitfire was an iconic British single-seat fighter used primarily by the RAF and many Allied countries through the Second World War and into the 1950s.
Produced by Supermarine, the Spitfire was designed by the company's Chief Designer R. J. Mitchell, who continued to refine the design until his death from cancer in 1937. Its elliptical wing had a thin cross-section, allowing a higher top speed than the Hawker Hurricane and other contemporary designs; it also resulted in a distinctive appearance, enhancing its overall streamlined features. Much loved by its pilots, the Spitfire saw service during the whole of the Second World War and subsequent years, in all theatres of war, and in many different variants.
More than 20,300 examples of all variants were built, including two-seat trainers, with some Spitfires remaining in service well into the 1950s. Although its great wartime foe, the Messerschmitt Bf 109, in its many variants, rivalled the Spitfire's production statistics, the Spitfire was the only British fighter aircraft to be in continual production before, during and after the Second World War.
The Air Ministry submitted a number of names to Vickers (the parent company of Supermarine) for the new aircraft, tentatively known as the Type 300, including the improbable Shrew. The name Spitfire was suggested by Sir Robert MacLean, director of Vickers at the time, who called his daughter Ann, "a little spitfire." The word dates from Elizabethan times and refers to a particularly fiery, ferocious type of person, usually a woman. The name had previously been used unofficially for Mitchell's earlier F.7/30 Type 224 design. Mitchell is reported to have said that it was "just the sort of bloody silly name they would choose", possibly an oblique reference to an earlier, much less successful aircraft of his design that had been given the same name.
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The Sten (or Sten gun) was a family of British, 9 mm submachine guns used extensively by the British Empire and Commonwealth forces throughout World War II and the Korean War. They were notable for their simple design and comparatively low cost of production. The name STEN is an acronym, deriving from the names of the weapon's chief designers, Major Reginald Shepherd and Harold Turpin, and ENfield, the location of the Royal Small Arms Factory (RSAF) at Enfield Lock in London. Over 4 million Stens in various versions were made in the 1940s.
The official designation Carbine, Machine, Sten should not be confused with the common understanding of carbine; the Sten was a typical, almost stereotypical submachine gun while the term carbine is used to refer to short, light rifles.
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The German eighty-eight is probably the best known artillery piece of World War II. The name applies to a series of anti-aircraft guns officially called the 8.8 cm Flak 18, 36 or 37, and could also include newer and more powerful models, the FlaK 41 and 43, although these were different weapons. FlaK is a German contraction of either Fl(ieger)a(bwehr)k(anone) or Flugabwehr-Kanone (hence the capital K, nowadays one word) meaning anti-aircraft gun, the original purpose of the eighty-eight.
Success as an improvised anti-tank gun led to a separate line of guns for anti-tank use, referred to as PaK 88 (Panzerabwehr-Kanone, anti-tank gun) and as the main armament for tanks such as the Tiger 1.
In informal German use, the guns were universally known as the Acht-acht, a contraction of Acht-komma-acht Zentimeter (8.8 cm = 88 mm). Note that the Allied slang for anti-aircraft fire, ack-ack, does not come from the German, but is "AA" in the World War I Signallers' Alphabet. By World War II the German word "Flak" was the preferred Allied term for German AA fire.
