World War 2 included countries like Great Britain, the United States, Soviet Union, Germany, Italy, Japan, and others. They had designed, developed, and mass produced a large number of planes, tanks, and weapons, to fight the war.
World war two has been the most devastating war so far. It led to the loss of millions of lives of soldiers, their families, and many other innocent people. Different types of weapons systems were used by different countries which fought the war. Here is a list of the armory that was used in that war.
Planes
Amongst the British collection:
- Armstrong Whitley was a bomber and could achieve a maximum speed of 230 mph at 17700 feet. It had five 7.7 mm Browning machine guns and 6985 lb bombload.
- Avro Lancaster was the main aircraft that was put into use during night. It was a seven seat heavy bomber. It could achieve a maximum speed of 287 mph and had nine 7.7 mm Browning machine guns.
- Some others were Bristol Beaufighter, Handley Page Halifax, Hawker Hurricane, Hawker Tempest, and Supermarine Spitfire.
The US used air power profoundly in this war. It had following planes:
- P51 – Mustang was a famous fighter American plane. Its maximum speed was 437 mph and contained six 0.50-cal. machine guns.
- B-29 Superfortress was the plane used to bomb Hiroshima with an atomic bomb. This was a high-altitude heavy bomber that could reach a maximum speed of 357 mph. It had a range of 3250 miles with 10000 lb bombload. There existed one 20 mm cannon and two 0.50 machine guns.
- Many combat aircraft like F4U Corsair, B-17 Flying Fortress, P-38 Lightning, P-39 Airacobra, P-40 Warhawk, P-47 Thunderbolt were involved.
Planes used by Soviet Union included:
- Ilyushin Il 2 Shturmovik
- Yak-7b, and many others.
Some of the German planes that were used included:
- Bf109
- Do 17
- Do 335
- Fw 190
- Go 229
- He 111
- He 162
- Ju 87
- Ju 88
- Ju 188
- Me 262
The Royal Italian Air Force had about 1000 front line aircraft and almost 2000 second string and third string planes. Japan had planes like the Zero and the Hayabusa.
Tanks
Man tanks were used by both allied and axix powers, who fought the war. The tanks from the United Kingdom included:
- Bedford QLD
- Medium tank M4 Sherman Firefly
- Humber
- Bishop
- Morris C8 QUAD
- Daimler Dingo
- Universal Carrier Bren
- Humber MkII
- Morris Mk I
- Tank Destroyer Archer
- Amphibious light tank LIE 3
- Light tank Mk VII Tetrarch
- Infantry tank Mk I Matilda
- Infantry tank Mk III Valentine
- Infantry tank Mk II Matilda II
- Infantry tank Mk IV Churchill Mk VII
- Cruiser tank Mk VI Crusader
- Main battle tank Centurion
- Cruiser tank Mk VIII Cromwell
- Cruiser tank Comet
- Light tank Vickers
The tanks employed by the United States included:
- GMC 6X6
- LVT
- DUKW
- Jeep Willys
- Howitzer M7 Priest
- Dodge WC53
- Howitzer M8
- Combat car M2A2
- Harley-Davidson Motorcycle
- Light tank M.24 Chaffee
- Light tank M3A1 Stuart
- Light tank M.22 Locust
- Medium tank M3A3 Lee
- M20 Utility car
- M8 Greyhound
- Medium tank M3A5 Grant
- Medium tank M2 A4
- Medium tank M4 Sherman
- Medium tank M4 Sherman 105
- Tank destroyer M 18 Hellcat
- Heavy tank M.26 Persching
- Tank destroyer M 36
- Self-propelled artilley M40 GMC
- Tank destroyer M 10 Wolferine
Germany used the following tanks:
- Panzerkampfwagen I
- Panzerkampfwagen II
- Panzerkampfwagen III
- Panzerkampfwagen IV
- Panzerkampfwagen V Panther
- Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger
- Panzerkampfwagen VI Konigstiger
- Panzerkampfwagen Maus
- Panzerkampfwagen 35(t)
- Panzerkampfwagen 38(t)
- Sturmpanzer IV Brummbar
- Sturmtiger
- Panzerjager I
- Panzerjager Nashorn
- Panzerjager Elefant
- Panzerjager V Jagdpanther
- Panzerjager Marder I
- Panzerjager Marder II
- Panzerjager Marder III
- Jagdpanzer IV
- Jagdpanzer VI Jagdtiger
- Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer
- Sturmgeschutz III
- Sturmgeschutz IV
- Neubaufahrzeug
- Kraftrad BMW R35
- Kraftrad BMW R75
- Opel Olympia
- Opel Blitz
- Opel P4
- Bussing-NAG
- Kraftomnibus Mercedes Lo 3750
- Kraftomnibus Opel-Blitz
- Raupenschleper Ost-Steyr RSO
- Hummel
- Flakpanzer IV Mobelwagen
- Flakpanzer IV Wirbelwind
- Flakpanzer IV Ostwind
- Kubelwagen
- Kleines Kettenkraftrad
- Leichter Panzerspahwagen
- Schwerer Panzerspahwagen 7.5 cm
Countries like France, Canada, Poland, Sweden, Romania, Australia, Hungary, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Japan and the Soviet Union also put their tanks to use.
Weapons
- The Karabiner 98k was a German bolt action rifle known for accuracy and a range of 800 meters.
- The Sturmgewher 44 was the world’s first true assault rifle and fired an intermediate cartridge potent enough to hit targets at long distances.
- Thompson M1 or Tommy Gun was a famous submachine gun. A 0.45 Caliber Automatic Colt Pistol cartridge was used along with it.
- MP38/40 was a standard German submachine gun.
- The M1 Garand was the first semi-automatic rifle that fired a clip of eight rounds of 0.30 inches caliber.
- The M1 Carbine was the small arm in American history that had maximum production. It was a carbine version of the Garand rifle.
- The Colt M1911 was a 0.45 inches caliber, single action, semi-automatic handgun. It had a capacity of 7 to 8 rounds.
- A Parabellum Luger P-08 was a semi-automatic, arm-locked and magazine-fed pistol.
- A model of Bazooka could pierce more than 200 mm of armor and had a range of almost 150 m.
- The Maschinengewehr 34 or MG34, was the first modern general-purpose German machine gun. This was succeeded by the MG42. It had a rate of fire of 1200 to 1800 rounds per minute and hence was also called ‘ripping cloth’ or ‘Hitler’s Buzzsaw’. 400, 000 of these were manufactured during the war.
- The Bren was the primary light machine gun of the Britain. This could fire 0.30 caliber rounds at 500 rpm.
- The Sten was a British submachine gun that fired full automatic 9 mm. These had low production costs.
- The Lee-Enfield was a standard bolt action rifle that could fire the standard rimmed 0.303 inches MK VII round.
PIAT or Projector, Infantry, Anti Tank was the first efficient anti-tank weapon based on the HEAT shell.
