Second World War museum; North wing; weapons (by Fenna Kootstra): 3D Gallery

King Tiger tank

Never have
so many tanks been used as there were used in World War II. Over 250.000 tanks
were produced in WWII, about 50.000 of those made by the Germans. The tank was
first used in World War I. Between the wars the tank was further developed and
in WWII some were capable of destroying entire buildings. Several of the
greatest tanks used in WWII were made by Nazi-Germany. The Nazi’s named almost all
their tanks after animals. For example: The Panzer
(panther), the Tiger, the Löwe (lion), the Maus (mouse) or the Ratte
(rat). The most used tank by Nazi-Germany was the Panzer IV.

Karabiner 98k

If we’re
talking about weapons used in World War II the gun needs to be included. You
can divide guns in different categories: pistols, rifles, machine guns,
submachine guns and antitank weapons. Millions of guns were used in WWII. In
the beginning of the war guns were not only used to shoot other soldiers, but they
were also used to eliminate civilians. Meaning by this, Nazi’s would line up
Jews or other targets and shoot them one by one. But this way of killing,
wasn’t quick or efficient enough for them. So, they created the gas chambers. (for more information about the gas chambers
walk to artefact 10)

Bismarck

The Second
World War was not only fought on land, but also on sea. In Germany, the naval
battles were fought by the Kriegsmarine, the German navy from 1935 to 1945. The
Kriegsmarine fought with Great Britain and Norway for example. Many of
Germany’s naval successes were caused by the U-boats. U-boats were submarines, made
to take down British ships that were transporting supplies. This way Great
Britain’s economy would weaken. In WWII over 1000 warships (including the
U-boats) were produced. At the end of the war almost every single one of them
had sunk or had been destroyed.

Junkers Ju 88

Besides the
battles on land and sea, many battles were also fought in the sky. In Germany,
the battle in the air was fought by the Luftwaffe. It fought mainly against the
RAF (British air force), but also against the USAAF (the united states’ air
force) or the Armée de l’Air (French air force) for instance. At the beginning
of WWII, the Luftwaffe was one of the most technologically advanced air forces
in the world. During WWII Germany won over about 70.000 hostile planes, but
also lost 70.000 planes of its own.

Butterfly bomb

During
world war II a huge number of bombs were dropped by both the allies and the
axis. The bombs would not just be dropped anywhere but countries would use
strategic bombing. This meant that places such as railways, harbours, cities
and industrial districts would be attacked. This way supplies couldn’t be
produced or transported, and by attacking cities it would also cause civilians
to lose hope. In Germany, for example, coal couldn’t be moved from the mines or
hundreds of tanks couldn’t be transported to the war front.

V2

Modern
rocket artillery was first used in World War II, by the Nazi’s and the
Russians. Nazi-Germany was one of the few countries in Europe that was busy
with rocket development. This was partly because Hitler wanted to create a
super-weapon. The rocket scientists failed to do that, but did create various
effective rockets. In Europe Germany seemed to be superior in rocket
development, but in other parts of the world more countries made heavy use of
rocket artillery. For instance, the USA. They launched their rockets across the
Pacific Ocean to Japan, and Japan, of course, fired back.

Schwerer Gustav

A railway
gun is a huge cannon placed on a railway wagon. It was transported on a railway
because it was so huge and heavy. In WWII railway guns were mainly produced and
used by Nazi-Germany. Some of them were capable of firing across the English
Channel. But the railway gun also had its disadvantages: building it cost a lot
of money, time and material, a lot of men were needed to use it, it took a lot
of time to get it ready to fire and they were easy targets for airplanes. With
the upcoming use of rockets, it wasn’t needed anymore and after WWII it has no
longer been used.

S-mine

In WWII, it
was especially Germany that made great use of landmines. In Lorraine, France
they filled a single field with 12.000 mines. They considered the mine very
effective. It was used as a part of their defence. There were two kinds of
mines used: the anti-tank mine, created as a reaction to the invention of the
tank, made to destroy or immobilize the tank, and the anti-personnel mine, made
to kill or injure people. Today, WWII mines are still spread over Europe. Mines
can still be found in France and The Netherlands for instance. Luckily, the
Nazi’s mapped most of their mines. Though in North Africa loads of mines that
are unmapped are still buried.

Gas chamber at former concentration camp, Auschwitz

A
well-known weapon from WWII is the gas chamber. The gas chamber was a room,
where a gas would be released that immediately killed the people inside. These
gas chambers would be located at concentration and extermination camps. This
weapon was only used by the Nazi’s. It was mainly intended for Jews, prisoners
of war, Romani people, ethnic Poles, Serbs, political prisoners, homosexuals,
disabled people, Jehovah's Witnesses and Eastern European intellectuals, but
other people were also sent to the camps/chambers. This weapon caused the death
of millions of people.

Propaganda

Many people
may not see propaganda as a weapon, but it was. It played a huge part in the
Second World War. In the 30’s Hitler got the attention of the people because of
all the propaganda he spread out. Before WWII there were several kinds of
propaganda: anti-Semitic, those telling Ethnic Germans in countries such as
Czechoslovakia, Poland, the Soviet Union, and the Baltic states that their
blood ties to Germany were stronger than to their new countries and
nationalistic ones for example. During the war, there was also propaganda
recruiting people for the army or ones telling people Germany was on the
winning side.

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Second World War museum; North wing; weapons (by Fenna Kootstra)