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PzKpfw’s and Ausf’s

VK’s and E’s

L/XX’s, KwK’s and PaK’s

Jagd's, StuG's and artillery guns

Other abbrieviations

Captured vehicle naming and numbering

Tank names

The original source for this information was the book 'The Tiger Tank’ by Roger Ford, with bits added by myself.Getting confused by all this VK3001 (H) and PzKpfw VI Tiger I Ausf E and L/56 business? Then read on, for all shall be explained.The 2nd-generation tanks with which Germany fought WW2 were called Panzerkampfwagen (Literally translates to ‘Armoured battle vehicle’. The Germans have a habit of sticking words together to create bigger words, as you’ll see) and were initially abbreviated to ‘PzKw’ but this caused some confusion, as personnel carries were known by the abbreviation ‘PKw’. Armoured battle vehicles therefore became designated ‘PzKpfw’ or ‘Pz.Kpfw’, though not until halfway through the war. A Roman numeral was used to distinguish one vehicle type from another – PzKpfw IV, for example – and models or versions were distinguished by a capital-letter alphabetic Ausführung (meaning model or design) number, usually abbreviated to Ausf. The Ausf designators were not always allocated in alphabetical order, the original Ausf suffixes of the Tiger were ‘H’ and ‘P’, and these referred to the designers Henschel and Porsche. And yes, this is the same Porsche that makes cars, but that does not give you the right to refer to you 911 as your ‘PzKpfw CMXI Ausf P’. Subvariants sometimes received an Arabic number after the alphabetic designator: PzKpfw IV Ausf F2, for example. Ausf number could be changed retroactively; the PzKpfw VI Tiger Ausf H became the PzKpfw VI Tiger Ausf E. Similarly, the King Tiger lost its VI Roman numeral number, simply becoming the Tiger II.From 1938 prototype and experimental tanks first received a ‘VK’ designator, followed by a 4-digit number. The first pair of numbers was the approximate weight in tonnes, while the second pair differentiated one prototype from another. When an identical specification was given to two or more manufacturers, a simple abbreviation of their name was used in brackets such as in VK3001 (H). There are two potential meanings for 'VK', the first: Versuchskonstruktion (‘Experimental design’.) The second: 'Vollkettenfahrzeug' ('Full-tracked motor vehicle'.) It seems likely that it should stand for 'Versuchskonstruktion' as they were experimental designs, however this could mean literally any design, 'Vollkettenfahrzeug' would specify what type of design it was, making this meaning likely also. Interestingly enough, many books state that it means 'Vollkettenfahrzeug', whereas many internet sources state 'Versuchskonstruktion'. I personally have no idea which one it actually is, so I'll leave it up to you which one you choose. From 1943 onwards, experimental tanks and those under development were given a simpler ‘E’ (for Entwicklungstyp meaning ‘Developmental type’) designation, followed by an approximate weight-class. As a side note, the ‘DB’ in ‘VK3002 (DB)’ stands for Daimler-Benz.I’ll start with KwK and PaK, as these are the easiest to explain. Simply, KwK stands for ‘Kampfwagenkanone’ (Battle vehicle gun. I.e. The gun on a tank) and PaK stands for Panzerabwehrkanone (Armour defence gun. I.e. Anti-tank gun). In artillery guns, the calibre is not the diameter of the barrel, but instead refers to the length of the gun. (The Germans measure this from the rear of the breach to the muzzle. If a muzzle brake is fitted, it is not included.) A gun with 56 calibres has a barrel 56 as long as its nominal bore (the bore width usually excludes the rifling.) The calibre is expressed as 'L/(Number)', e.g. L/71. The 'L' stands for 'Länge' (Length). The number after KwK show the year the gun was first tested. (To save myself typing out 'gun first tested in...' I shall use 'model'.) The shells have a similar naming, for example the PzGr 39 and the PzGr 39/43, this shows that the later one (43 is the year it came to service) is a modifcation of the original 39 design. So for the KwK 36 8.8cm L/56 we have tank gun model 1936, with a bore of 8.8cm (The Germans measure artillery gun diameters in centimetres, as opposed to millimetres) with a calibre of 56. (So the total barrel length is 56 x 8.8cm, equalling 4.928 metres.) Tanks of the same type but with different guns were differentiated by a reference to the main gun, either by its nominal bore, by its own type designator or by its calibre. So a PzKpfw III with the 7.5cm gun may be referred to as a PzKpfw III (75). Tigers were often differentiated from King Tigers by reference to their main guns. The Tiger being PzKpfw VI (8.8cm KwK 36 L/56) and the King Tiger the PzKpfw VI (8.8cm KwK 43 L/71).The ‘Jagd’ bit in ‘JagdTiger’ and ‘JagdPanther’ comes from the German word Jäger (Hunter). Thus a PanzerJäger is a tank-hunter - I.e. a tank-destroyer – and this simply gets abbreviated to ‘Jagd’ and put in front of the chassis which the PanzerJäger is based upon (So a JagdPanther is based on the Panther chassis.) StuG stands for ‘Sturmgeschütz’ (Assault gun, ‘sturm’ literally means storm, in this sense meaning ‘to storm’) and the III or IV distinguishing whether it was based on a PzKpfw III or PzKpfw IV chassis. StuH 42 stands for ‘Sturmhaubitze 42’ (Assualt Howitzer model 1942). As for the artillery guns; sIG means 'Schweres Infanteriegeschütz' (Heavy infantry gun.) leFH stands for 'Leichte Feldhaubitze' (Light field howitzer) and sFH means 'Schwere Feldhaubitze' (Heavy field howitzer.)In general, most of the abbrieviations and/or words you need can be found here , however if you cannot or have one to suggest that isalready on that website, feel free to make a reply about it.FuG stands for '[FunkGerät' (Radio Unit).FlaK means 'Fliegerabwehrkanone', 'Flugzeugabwehr-Kanone' or 'FlugabwehrKanone' (depending the source) meaning 'Air defence canon' i.e 'Anti-aircraft gun'.PzB means 'Panzerbüchse' (Anti-tank rifle)PzSpWg stands for 'Panzerspähwagen' (Armoured reconnaissance vehicle)SchPzWg or Schütz Pz Wg means 'Schützenpanzerwagen' (Armoured troop vehicle.)Source: Achtung Panzer!You may have noticed some odd lettering appear after German tank names that do not match the initials of any tank producers or designers, the chances are that it is a foreign tank pressed into German use. In order to classify captured/foreign equipment, a numerical block system was introduced. All vehicle were divided into following categories.200 - armored cars300 - halftracked vehicles400 - armored halftracked vehicles600 - fully-tracked artillery tractors630 - armored artillery tractors700 - tanks800 - gun carriers / self-propelled gunsIn addition numbers were followed by letters. Letters were used to recognize the previous user (not a producer) of a certain piece of the equipment. For example: Panzerkampfwagen T-34 747[r].Czechoslovakia - (t) - TschechischBelgium - {b} - Belgien (The odd brackets are to avoid theemoticon and embolding things.)France - (f) - FrankreichGreat Britain / Canada - (e) - England / KanadaHungary - (u) - UngarnItaly - (i) - ItalienNetherlands - (h) - HollandPoland - (p) - PolenSoviet Union - [r] - Russland (Square brackets to avoid ®)United States of America - (a) - AmerikaHere are the definitions of some of the tank names (Yes, I do realise some are obvious, but 'Tiger' could mean 'Desk' in German for all some people know):Hummel – Bumble bee (Though Hitler hated this name, he thought it too 'cute'.)Grille – CricketWespe – WaspMarder – Marten (A ferret/weasel thing.)Bison – BisonHetzer – Agitator or Baiter.*Maus – MouseFerdinand - Ferdinand Porsche (Designer)Elefant – Elephant (This was the same vehicle as the Ferdinand.)Luchs – LynxLeopard – LeopardPanther – PantherTiger – TigerNashorn – Rhinoceros (This was sometimes known as 'Hornisse' meaning 'Hornet')Brummbär - Growler***There are two meanings to the word "hetzen" in Germany. One is a social meaning which would roughly translate to "stir up hatred" (by saying bad things about someone/something). The other one is a special type of hunting with dogs, that is usually done to hunt down red deer with the intention to make the deer become tired so that he can't run away anymore. It seems that this is the more likely meaning, but I didn't want to put this in and ruin the neat look of the list.**Brummbär" was never used by the germans, it was the nickname the Allied Intelligence gave it. The germans used the nickname 'Stupa' wich was just a contraction of the term:rmnzerWell, that concludes this gateway to understanding all those German tank names. I hope you found it useful, and please tell me if anything is wrong, whether it is something factual or simply an grammatical or seplling error, it’d be much appreciated, and I’ll give you a mention below. (I have a feeling I've mixed up the terminology regarding bores and calibres, but I'm not sure, clarification is appreciated.)Thanks to:2ndPzDiv, Lert, Blizzard36 and Itum for helping with the meaning of 'L'.PostMisanthrope1 for confirming the meaning of 'DB'.stygium for the meanings of sIG, leFH and sFH.gorbi and Djerin for helping with the meaning of 'VK'. (Though they provided opposite views, making me confused.)derkb for explaining the numbering of guns and shells.Christian_Ankerstjerne for the meaning of PzSpWg and SchPzWg.seraph013 for the meaning of 'Hetzer'.xthetenth for (t) meaning 'Tschechisch' and for reminding me about the foreign tanks section.boxtosser for 'Hornisse' meaning 'Hornet'.austrian_avenger for the meaing of 'FuG'.Djerin for the hunting spin on 'Hetzer'.theta0123 for the meaning of 'PzB'.Reanoe for correcting the meaning of 'KwK'.MetalForever for the meaning of 'FlaK'.Kameho for the info on 'Brummbär' and the Hitler fact regarding the 'Hummel'.These are all great people!Things I shall add in at some point:- SdKfz- The shell names (E.g. PzGr.)- Names of equipment (E.g. 'Ketten' meaning 'tracks'.)- Any other odds and ends I feel appropiate.