German nicknames

[chuckfourth]

Sorry cant resist posting this,
The Russians called the M3 lee "coffin for 5 comrades".
Chuck.

[Shan]

chuckfourth said:
Sorry cant resist posting this,
The Russians called the M3 lee "coffin for 5 comrades".
Chuck.

LOL - we should collect more of this. Again, I couldn't find many nicknames for weapons - most of them are for other things. Some more examples: 'Eisbeinorden' - a medal for taking part in the disastrous fighting in russia in winter 41/42 - an Eisbein is a typical german dish, a pig's leg bone, and word-by-word this would be translated as 'icy leg' , hehe...

'Bildungskanone' ('educational gun') - field library

'Betonorden' ('concrete decoration') - medal for taking part in building the 'Westwall'

[evan]

point to ponder though; how many of the American/British tank 'nicknames' were those of the soldiers and how many the work of the properganda departments. Most of the allied armour is named after generals; the british SP artillery after clergymen (why was that does anybody know?) and before the outbreak of the war both the British and Americans simply made do with an alpha numeric designation.

evan

[chuckfourth]

Hi Even
I think I read somewhere that people thought the priests platform where the 50 cal firer stands resembles a priests pulpit, hence the name. The convention of naming by catagories comes from the british navy
Best Regards Chuck.

[Marek_Tucan]

US meat tin-cans were sometimes called "Second front" among Russian soldiers

[MajorDisaster]

I dunno if it was a name the Germans or hapless American tankers gave the Sherman but I read somewhere it got the nickname of "Ronson" cos of the way it lit up after being hit. And somewhere else I saw the Germans calling the Tiger "Furniture Van" (Soz, dont know the German for that), due to it's err... manouverability. (That might have just been a one off and not generally used cos I only read it in one source).

[Shan]

'furniture van' = Moebelwagen - that was the widespread nickname for the Flakpanzer IV because thats what it looked like with its high all-round skirts- maybe also a less-common name for the Tiger I, never heard of it though.

[PanzerBob]

chuckfourth said:
Sorry cant resist posting this,
The Russians called the M3 lee "coffin for 5 comrades".
Chuck.

Actually it was "A coffin for 7 Brothers"

Cheers, Bob

[TreadHead]

Here's some more links. These two are specific to vehicles:

http://www.totalmodel.com/workshop/p...shop_284.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...les_of_Germany

This one is a laundry list of terms:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossar...military_terms
(repeated from above, but with complete link)

This one has some interesting statements on common "facts":

http://www.panzerworld.net/facts


Ross