im only 14, and I THINK I know alot for my age, but, probably not. Heres some random junk I know.

Allies:
Main tank: Sherman
Main Rifle(s): M1 Carbine and M1 Garand
Sub-machine Guns: Thompson and Grease Gun
Snipers: Springfield 08? or 09?
HMG: .30 cal Browning
LMG: BAR Browning Automatic Rifle
Fighters: P-47 Thunderbolt P-51 Mustang
Bombers: I can never get the B-00 right, so here it goes, B-51? Haha.

Germans:
Main Tank: Panzer IV?
Main infantry rifle: Kar98K
Submachine Guns: MP40(personal favorite)
HMG: MG42
Sniper: Scoped Kar98K
LMG: MG40/42?
Fighters: Tons, heinchels, ect, cant name all
Bombers: Stuka, plus many more.

Japanese:
Only name one fighter: Zero


Itailian:
N\A

Russian:
Tank: T-34?
Submachine gun: PPSH

British:
Rifle:Lee Enfield
Sniper: Scoped Lee Enfield
Submachine Gun: Sten
LMG: Bren

About all, I know most of this from games, books and documentaries from The History channel and discovery. But for 14, its not bad? Hehe thanks everyone.


Grant

you're a lot better than i was at the same age.

the sherman was the US army's main tank. it was classed as a medium tank but the notion of a "main battle tank" then was vague.

the main battle rifle was the garand. the carbine was a self-protection weapon, basically for behind the lines though some army men preferred them for jungle fighting over the garand.

the HMG would be the browning .50 cal while the .30 cal would be your LMG. the BAR was the BAR.

as far as europe is concerned, you hit the fighters on the button, for the US that is.

the (heavy) bombers were b-17, b-24 and b-29

you got all the germans right save for the fighters.

the russian, japanese and british are basically correct.

Russias main rifle: Mosin Nagant and LMG: DP,
Italianos main rifle: Carcano and HMG or LMG would German weapons or old WW1 stuff, and their SMG would be a Beretta *something*
Japanese main rifle: Arisaka, and their tin-can tanks: Chi-ha, Ha-chi, Ha-go etc.


And aint it Heinkel, not Heinchel?

And guess what, im 15. Glad to get someone else, a bit younger form the main crowd here!

__________________
“It is well that war is so terrible, or we should get too fond of it.”

G'day mate well close enough on them but firstly don't believe what you see in games and not everything in documentaries most of those a hostprians opinions on subjects. About not believeing games I once played a game that said a particular bridge wa destoyed when in fact the bridge still stood till the end.

The 'allies' are the british, american and soviet forces although it is mainly used to describe the americans and british.
the BAR stands for Browning Automatic rifle, it isn't classed as a machine gun.

about the american bombers it is B-52 not B-51 but don't worry I still get them mixed up and the B-25 mitchell

The germans had the STG\Mp 44 which was the first real assualt rifle.

German fighters: BF ME109, FW 190, ME 262, ME 163, BF ME 110.

German Bombers: Ju87, Ju88, He111, Do17.

British: would be the M1 Sherman as well

You must rememeber that there is many different types of things eg. in tanks there are light, medium. heavy and super heavy tanks, same as bombers, there are different types of fighters for differenet roles such as intercepters, fighter-bombers, close support escort and so on.

__________________
They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them. Lest We Forget

Very interesting, Grant!! That was a delightful read. Forgive me, but what's "LMG" stand for?

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WWII-era pen-advertisement
P-51 Mustang fighter-plane.
Parker '51' fountain pen.

I like your style Grant, welcome aboard.
Hope you add loads more to your knowledge while hanging around here.

To fill a few of those gaps, this is a great site for tanks of other nations:
TANKS!

Cheers,
Adam.

__________________
"Wars cannot be fought with dream stuff" - Sir Percy Hobart.

Light Machine Gun

__________________
“It is well that war is so terrible, or we should get too fond of it.”

No, I didn't get it ALL from games, just some. Ive watched so many WWII Documentaries, movies, shows, reenactments, ect. Seen Band of Brother series 10+ times. Saving Private Ryan 15+. Catch my drift? But yes I did get some from games, I've played and beaten all Call of duty game, even 4, which isnt WWII .

Thanks man.

Just like I said only believe the basics in the games and the doco's, but for the best information ever Books, books, books they are the best and most reliable sources, but not just one but many on the same subject. eg. if you want to learn more about tanks in particular don't just read one book read 10 different ones and compare the facts and figures. You will probably find that some of the figures dont match up but are relatively close. Same as if you see a fact in a book, to verify whether it is most probably true read others then compare and if three other say the same thing it is probably ture.

But anyway I have found ww2 very interesting since as long as I can remember I consider myself to know a little about alot of things I don't specialise in one particular area, I do find certain areas more interesting then others of course. I have read many books and seen many documentaries as well, movies 'play' the facts to make a good story, here is a website to tell you what I mean about lack of historical realism in movies.

Saving Private Ryan mistakes, goofs and bloopers

and about games remember it is a game not fiction, it is made and changed to be fun, if the designers don't like the fact that the germans didn't have many tanks on the contentin peninsula (D-day utah beach) they will change it and give you the ability to have for example the 21st panzer divison that is fiction, the Germans only had old french tanks in that area and still there werent enough to make a real good use out of them.

But good learning anyway, we all start somewhere.

For the British main tank you could have M4 Sherman/Cromwell.

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Ok so you know some WWII Weapons,Vehicles and Aircraft. What else do you know of about the War?Counties, Battles ,Tactics Personalities,Politics,Units, Orginizations,Theatres,Campaigns Ect? I realize that some people like to concentrate on certain aspects of the War. What other knowledge do you have?

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman

Like i said, Im not a WWII Guru. I only know so much, and I'm still learning, and For those Saving private Ryan mistakes, I really dont care, its still a GREAT movie. I know im not as smart on WWII as you guys, plus im on'y 14.

Grant I started the long haul when I was about 6 years of age in all forms of war. May I suggest you dump the games and go purchase books, if that is not affordable then a trip to your library and check out the history shelves and fill your head with hours upon hours of information .........

Keep at it Grant.
Welcome to the world of military history.
Keep at it, like Erich says visit the local library, I think I read all the WW2 books on the shelves when I was your age.
We didn't have 'puter games back then, it was old fashioned wargaming with figures & dice.

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Erich, I read ALL the time. Usually during school, hence I finish work quick. When I'm at home, I mostly play RTS games and FPS, but thats me. My favorite game of all time is Company of Heroes, and CoH: Opposing Fronts, which is a MMORTS. But I do read alot, I have a book called WWII in photographs, which shows real pictures, along with over 400 pages of text about the war, from Battle of the Buldge, to The Haloucaust, and its over 2 weeks late to my school library. Hehe

I would also say if you can get your hands on some of the old paper wargames like those put out by Strategy and Tactics Magazine or Avalon Hill do so. They are far better learning aids than computer games. You learn the actual mechanics behind what works and doesn't. Plus you can "see" the history better when you compare things to a book. Sometimes a slower pace is a better learning tool.

__________________
Truth is stranger than bullshit!

That's no prob. I started reading and studying Military History when I was around 9 years old and have been ever since. As most here have stated stay away for the most part from Video and Puter games. They were made first and foremost as entertainment not as a learning source. Some people tend to get a "Videogame Knowledge of History and Mentality" from them. I have quite a collection of Books,Magazines,DVD documentaries,PDFs and other sources that I have collected over the years. And you can find some fine documentaries for a good prices at WalMart. "Victory at Sea" and "Crusade in the Pacific" for examples.

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For the first time I have seen "History" at close quarters,and I know that its actual process is very different from what is presented to Posterity. - WWI General Max Hoffman

ehem, i'm glad i never had such glowing experts to tell me how i should study ww2 when i was 14. one's entitled to pure fun up to maybe age 18.

the real world isn't worth it.

I'm reminded of General Kenney's first encounter with MacAuthur's Chief of Staff General Sutherland. Kenney in his usual blunt manner on being lectured about air power by Sutherland took a sheet of paper and drew a small dot on it. He then shoved it under Sutherland's nose and said "You see this sheet of paper?" Sutherland replied "Yes?" He then said "That dot represents what you know about air power. The sheet of paper represents what I know. Either I see MacAuthur right now or you can find someone else to run your air forces!"
That was the last time Sutherland bothered Kenney.

__________________
Truth is stranger than bullshit!

don't let us discourage you from playing ww2 games they are great fun (I love them too) and gives at least a sense of ww2 by putting you in the shoes of a general or squad leader, or even hitler. Don't worry about not knowing alot it will come in time you wont remember everthing in 1 or 2 years, in fact no one will probably ever know everything. I would recommend finding something that interest's you and focusing on that then sowly expand on that.

Plus stick around here reading the posts made by all members here and you will learn many more things about ww2, it is really fasinating, for some interesting facts read JCFalkenbergIII threads he puts out about random things they are great.

If you have any questions about ww2 just post them in the Information area in the forum and someone will know the answer you seek, and don't worry about being young everyone starts from scratch at one time or another, none of us just suddenly knew what we know.

__________________
They shall grow not old as we that are left grow old Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We shall remember them. Lest We Forget

Trust me, I'm not discouraged. I know they do change stuff to make the game funner, but I'll still play them. And thanks everybody!


Grant