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Originally Posted by gi-rene
Well I'd have to stick with my dad's guns on this one and say it could be from the Schpzabt 506. Also Magna brings up a good point, every tank is a "Tiger" just like every artillery/AA piece is an "88" and every machinegun was a "42" just because those were the things feared most in the German Army...
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Those are good points. I suppose it was also because they were the best known - in a lot of cases maybe the only ones known.
A funny example I have was from talking to a veteran years ago. He broke his leg in training so he didn't go to the front with his unit. While he was in hospital he heard a lot of stories of 88's and Spandau's from wounded troops. he was eventually posted to Italy and caught a lift in a truck to Monte Cassino. The bloke driving the truck told him to follow a track to where his unit would be. He followed the track but didn't know his unit had moved. There was no one so he kept going around the side of a big hill.
Others had explained what a nasty looking thing an 88 was and he said he froze when he tramped around a corner and there was a large gun shield about 100 yards away with a big barrel pointing at him. That was when it fired at something further down the hill. He woke up at the bottom of the hill on a stretcher.
He couldn't remember what happened but he thinks he dived over the edge. He used to tell people he was the only person to survive a direct hit from an 88 (his helmet had a dent from going over the side of the hill. It was steep and a fair way down - he got a lot of free drinks with the story). The thing is he realised later it couldn't have been an 88 because the gun shield wasn't even 3 feet tall - he just assumed and everyone else did too.
He was sent back to England to recuperate. Why ? On the way down the hill he had broken his other leg !
Poor bugger.
P.S. I can recommend those books for sure. The Wermacht Divisions are in one and Panzer Grenadier in another. They are published by Spellmount and they have more coming.