Grunthos
Kennel Enthusiast
- Joined
- May 6, 2018
- Messages
- 3,763
- Reaction score
- 6,648
A Lost History:
"With AT-ATs to the Reich"
By Grunthos
Above: Inspection before Barbarossa. Below: On maneuvers, SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Wittman
labors with poor communication.
Unknown to many historians, the Nazis and their fellow Axis had close but highly secretive
ties with the Galactic Empire of the despotic Emperor Palpatine.
Here for instance we see the only three known surviving photographs from WW2 of
Imperial AT-ATs (All Terrain Armored Transport) that are known to exist.
The empire loaned the Wehrmacht 50 of the vehicles plus their five-man (Clown) crews and 1000
ground troops on the understanding that once the war was over the Fuhrer would send 100 of his best
soldiers to enhance the gene pool and training of the imperial troopers. (In later years human mercenaries from
many nations were highly regarded and feared throughout the galaxy, though this is a story for another time.)
To say this brief alliance was a disaster is an understatement!
SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Michael Wittman, arguably Germany's Best Tank Commander of WWII,
was not impressed from the start...
"When I first saw the thing (AT-AT) all I could think of was, my God, it's too big (25 meters tall) it will be
seen for miles around, why don't we just paint a damned bullseye on the side and have done with it!"
The Hauptsturmfuhrer's words were indeed prophetic, for when battle was joined with the meager Soviet forces in the early days of operation Barbarossa the vulnerabilities and other shortcomings of the imperial walkers became glaringly evident.
Though the AT-AT was an imposing and spectacular sight on the battlefield its lack of compatible communications, speed, mobility, armaments, and most importantly its lack of effective armor was it's Achilles heel, it was all too easily out outmaneuvered and outgunned by even the lightest of Russian fighting vehicles.
The main problem lay in its total lack of protection against armor-piercing and high explosive
shells of almost any caliber!
The imperials had designed the defenses of all their combat vehicles and personal body armor around the effects of "energy" weapons (particle beam, laser, pulse, etc) and this it apparently could do very well indeed, however, against "primitive" societies using "primitive" projectile weapons, the AT-AT proved all too horribly
vulnerable as Grenadier sergeant Alfred Gunther explains.
"We're sitting in the troop compartment of this "Sardine tin," when all of a sudden we were raked by a heavy
Ruski MG somewhere out on the left flank, the bullets tore through the paper-thin sides and
went ricocheting around the compartment like a swarm of angry hornets, of the thirty men onboard only eight got away unscathed, Christ we hated them, it was safer to trudge behind the rotten things than ride in them!"
After the initial shock wore off, the Soviet anti-tank gunners and tank crews looked forward to a little,
"Elephant hunting" as they unimaginatively called it.
Communication was the other big hurdle that had to be overcome and this was only partially achieved.
Alfred Gunther again, "We had radio, they had something else, God knows what!
We spoke German they didn't, if we were trying to coordinate an attack on a village all we
could do was point madly and shout Bang!-Bang!
Yes, the imperial troops were well-disciplined, brave, and aggressive there weapons were effective and
terribly "colorful and pretty" to watch going off, though they never seemed to hit much with them, this and
the lack of clear communications made the whole thing laughable!"
Hauptsturmfuhrer Wittman also wrestled with poor communication. "Much to my horror I was put in command of an AT-AT. Its imperial crew, despite the language barrier, were enthusiastic and obviously well trained and it was easy to teach them the meaning of, forward, reveres, left, right, etc but the main problem was that they all seemed to be conditioned to wear their combat helmets at all times except when
told to stand down by their superior imperial officers.
Now I was not issued with a compatible coms system so how on earth was I supposed to issue orders
to my crew in the heat of battle? My solution was simplistic.
My makeshift position in the vehicle was perched above and directly behind the driver who sits on the right the engineer/co-driver on the left and the commander/gunner in the center, if I wanted to go forward I would tap the back of the driver's helmet with my boot, once for forward twice for stop three times for reverse, and a tap on the right or left shoulder for my desired direction. As for the gunner, all I could do is fire a stream of tracer from my MG (we were not permitted to use their weapons...) at the desired target and the gunner would fire the main armament, it was crude but still effective after a fashion but still, no way to fight a war!"
The weaponry of the AT-AT, though being effective against personnel and other soft targets, had little or no real effect on the more heavily armored Soviet tanks the "charge" being dissipated on contact with the thick steel hull. However, if a bolt hit an open viewport directly the resultant plasma blast would prove decisive!
Though it was a true all-terrain vehicle it could be stymied by simple barbed wire entanglements that were
laid in-depth, couple this with its inability to turn quickly to engage flanking targets, the overly
high and simplistic slab-sided design and the inability to withstand all
but small arms fire added to its hopples vulnerability.
Unaware of the true origin of this lumbering and seemingly inept enemy, General Georgy Zhukov wondered allowed if, "The fascist designers have been drinking a little too much Schnapps or are
trying to be too clever or for their tank men's good!"
After it's disastrous debut during operation Barbarossa (37 of the original 50 AT-ATs being destroyed in
the opening few days) it was relegated to transporting supplies and troops but they too became
easy targets for marauding IL-2 Sturmoviks and other attack aircraft of the resurgent Soviet forces later
in the war and all were ultimately destroyed.
Many have wondered why Emperor Palpatine didn't try to invade Earth, the answer must lie in the
performance (or total lack of) of their "superior weaponry."
To design and produce weapons to subjugate the inhabitants of just one "primitive" world, who would have
no doubt put aside their differences and allied together to fight the invaders, must have
been a daunting prospect even for the power-mad and expansionist Emperor Palpatine...
To put it in a nutshell, I quote one of Germany's great tank and motor vehicle designers, Ferdinand Porsche,
"These men from the stars may know everything about crossing the cosmos, but they know nothing about building a half-decent Panzer!"
Grunthos
Outgunned and outclassed,
a defeated AT-AT!
"With AT-ATs to the Reich"
By Grunthos
Above: Inspection before Barbarossa. Below: On maneuvers, SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Wittman
labors with poor communication.
Unknown to many historians, the Nazis and their fellow Axis had close but highly secretive
ties with the Galactic Empire of the despotic Emperor Palpatine.
Here for instance we see the only three known surviving photographs from WW2 of
Imperial AT-ATs (All Terrain Armored Transport) that are known to exist.
The empire loaned the Wehrmacht 50 of the vehicles plus their five-man (Clown) crews and 1000
ground troops on the understanding that once the war was over the Fuhrer would send 100 of his best
soldiers to enhance the gene pool and training of the imperial troopers. (In later years human mercenaries from
many nations were highly regarded and feared throughout the galaxy, though this is a story for another time.)
To say this brief alliance was a disaster is an understatement!
SS-Hauptsturmfuhrer Michael Wittman, arguably Germany's Best Tank Commander of WWII,
was not impressed from the start...
"When I first saw the thing (AT-AT) all I could think of was, my God, it's too big (25 meters tall) it will be
seen for miles around, why don't we just paint a damned bullseye on the side and have done with it!"
The Hauptsturmfuhrer's words were indeed prophetic, for when battle was joined with the meager Soviet forces in the early days of operation Barbarossa the vulnerabilities and other shortcomings of the imperial walkers became glaringly evident.
Though the AT-AT was an imposing and spectacular sight on the battlefield its lack of compatible communications, speed, mobility, armaments, and most importantly its lack of effective armor was it's Achilles heel, it was all too easily out outmaneuvered and outgunned by even the lightest of Russian fighting vehicles.
The main problem lay in its total lack of protection against armor-piercing and high explosive
shells of almost any caliber!
The imperials had designed the defenses of all their combat vehicles and personal body armor around the effects of "energy" weapons (particle beam, laser, pulse, etc) and this it apparently could do very well indeed, however, against "primitive" societies using "primitive" projectile weapons, the AT-AT proved all too horribly
vulnerable as Grenadier sergeant Alfred Gunther explains.
"We're sitting in the troop compartment of this "Sardine tin," when all of a sudden we were raked by a heavy
Ruski MG somewhere out on the left flank, the bullets tore through the paper-thin sides and
went ricocheting around the compartment like a swarm of angry hornets, of the thirty men onboard only eight got away unscathed, Christ we hated them, it was safer to trudge behind the rotten things than ride in them!"
After the initial shock wore off, the Soviet anti-tank gunners and tank crews looked forward to a little,
"Elephant hunting" as they unimaginatively called it.
Communication was the other big hurdle that had to be overcome and this was only partially achieved.
Alfred Gunther again, "We had radio, they had something else, God knows what!
We spoke German they didn't, if we were trying to coordinate an attack on a village all we
could do was point madly and shout Bang!-Bang!
Yes, the imperial troops were well-disciplined, brave, and aggressive there weapons were effective and
terribly "colorful and pretty" to watch going off, though they never seemed to hit much with them, this and
the lack of clear communications made the whole thing laughable!"
Hauptsturmfuhrer Wittman also wrestled with poor communication. "Much to my horror I was put in command of an AT-AT. Its imperial crew, despite the language barrier, were enthusiastic and obviously well trained and it was easy to teach them the meaning of, forward, reveres, left, right, etc but the main problem was that they all seemed to be conditioned to wear their combat helmets at all times except when
told to stand down by their superior imperial officers.
Now I was not issued with a compatible coms system so how on earth was I supposed to issue orders
to my crew in the heat of battle? My solution was simplistic.
My makeshift position in the vehicle was perched above and directly behind the driver who sits on the right the engineer/co-driver on the left and the commander/gunner in the center, if I wanted to go forward I would tap the back of the driver's helmet with my boot, once for forward twice for stop three times for reverse, and a tap on the right or left shoulder for my desired direction. As for the gunner, all I could do is fire a stream of tracer from my MG (we were not permitted to use their weapons...) at the desired target and the gunner would fire the main armament, it was crude but still effective after a fashion but still, no way to fight a war!"
The weaponry of the AT-AT, though being effective against personnel and other soft targets, had little or no real effect on the more heavily armored Soviet tanks the "charge" being dissipated on contact with the thick steel hull. However, if a bolt hit an open viewport directly the resultant plasma blast would prove decisive!
Though it was a true all-terrain vehicle it could be stymied by simple barbed wire entanglements that were
laid in-depth, couple this with its inability to turn quickly to engage flanking targets, the overly
high and simplistic slab-sided design and the inability to withstand all
but small arms fire added to its hopples vulnerability.
Unaware of the true origin of this lumbering and seemingly inept enemy, General Georgy Zhukov wondered allowed if, "The fascist designers have been drinking a little too much Schnapps or are
trying to be too clever or for their tank men's good!"
After it's disastrous debut during operation Barbarossa (37 of the original 50 AT-ATs being destroyed in
the opening few days) it was relegated to transporting supplies and troops but they too became
easy targets for marauding IL-2 Sturmoviks and other attack aircraft of the resurgent Soviet forces later
in the war and all were ultimately destroyed.
Many have wondered why Emperor Palpatine didn't try to invade Earth, the answer must lie in the
performance (or total lack of) of their "superior weaponry."
To design and produce weapons to subjugate the inhabitants of just one "primitive" world, who would have
no doubt put aside their differences and allied together to fight the invaders, must have
been a daunting prospect even for the power-mad and expansionist Emperor Palpatine...
To put it in a nutshell, I quote one of Germany's great tank and motor vehicle designers, Ferdinand Porsche,
"These men from the stars may know everything about crossing the cosmos, but they know nothing about building a half-decent Panzer!"
Grunthos
Outgunned and outclassed,
a defeated AT-AT!
Last edited:
