This is the second of the Ge3rman Heavy Infantry.

“By the time of the opening of the Rifts, all major belligerent nations of the Second World War had conducted significant experimentation with infantry body armour, seeking to reduce the number of gunshot and shrapnel deaths incurred, particularly in close-quarters combat.

The Soviet Union had long issued its assault engineers with the simple SN-42 steel breastplate, which was reasonably effective but cumbersome and unpopular, and protected only the chest and groin, while the Allies had developed the so-called ‘flak jacket’ for their bomber crews and sailors.

None of these designs were truly satisfactory in reducing combat casualties, although they were certainly better than nothing, but their weight and inconvenience often led to soldiers discarding them in favour of increased mobility and a reduced load.

What was needed was nothing short of a modern suit of plate armour, strong enough to resist incoming fire but well-fitted and lightweight enough to not overly impede a soldier’s combat movement. Until the Rifts opened and the mysterious signals began to be deciphered, there simply was no such technology in existence.

The Germans, desperate to halt the Allied advance in the West and simultaneously drive the Soviet Union back in the East, were the first to introduce viable heavy armour into service. Known as Panzerharnisch 44 (a reference to the harness of the medieval knights featured so heavily in German propaganda), the earliest types saw service in June 1944 as the Allied forces pushed inland from the Normandy beaches.

These examples were little more than crude exoskeletons with armour plating bolted to them, powered by a miniature rift-tech powerplant, and were halting and clumsy in their movements. However, their durability proved a powerful psychological tool, allowing the wearers to fight with far greater aggression and confidence than before, and filling inexperienced enemy troops with dread as their bullets ricocheted harmlessly off the sinister-looking suits.

Rapid refinements of the designs were in progress even as the prototypes were in action, with the subsequent Panzerharnisch 45 and the definitive 46 series introducing a vast number of improvements.

By 1947, heavy armour had been rolled out en masse to a significant number of Panzergrenadier units, which became the preferred elite troops of the Wehrmacht, often used in what would be termed (with typical soldiers’ humour) ‘langsamer Blitz’ (slow lightning) attacks, grinding forward with significant armoured support to overwhelm enemy positions.

Concealed beneath gasmasks and ballistic goggles, armed with the StG-44 assault rifle and the proven MG-42 light machine gun, and festooned with Panzerfaust and Panzerschreck anti-tank weapons, German heavy infantry soon gained a reputation as incredibly tough soldiers, capable of chillingly resolute advances in the face of murderous incoming fire.

Information from Warlord Games.

Back to more Japanese tomorrow.