Secrets of Secret Weapons
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
May 2014

Much like the genesis of First Axis, I know exactly when I knew that someday there would be a Secret Weapons supplement for Panzer Grenadier. I was working for another publisher, and one day we received a game proposal for an "alternative history" campaign in which the Germans used their gigantic "Maus" tanks that never entered service to help the Finns capture the Murmansk Railroad. For some reason the publisher thought this immensely hilarious and even drew a picture of the armored Disneyesque rodent he proclaimed "Panzer Maus."

While the concept was silly, the fact is we probably could have sold the game. Because gamers love gigantic tanks. Gigantic German tanks that never actually went into battle are even better. Panzer Maus trumps reality every time. And I knew that when Panzer Grenadier finally saw the light of day, that it would someday have a supplement with gigantic German tanks in it.

As John Phythyon shows in our Secret Weapons book, the German giant tanks would not have been much use on the battlefield and a terrible waste of resources, thus hastening Germany's inevitable defeat. Because of that, it's a shame the Germans didn't actually build them. The programs existed to keep young engineers employed on vital defense projects and thus protected from the military draft.

But the projects existed all the same, and we have a wide array of them in Secret Weapons. Not just German giant tanks, but British giant tanks as well plus German, American and Japanese helicopters. Here's a look at what you get:

Helicopters

I don't know why I like helicopters in games. Probably has something to do with finding I was only qualified for helicopter flight training or cooking school when I tried to enter the United States Military Academy as a high schooler. In person they scare me; ever since I covered a death-by-helicopter-blade "accident" as a young newspaper reporter that I only realized years later had to have been a suicide.

Helicopters actually flew during the Second World War, and we have them here. In game terms, helicopters are not really aircraft but rather ground units that can fly. Thus they are rated like a vehicle rather than using the Panzer Grenadier aircraft rules.

The Germans get three basic types. The Flettner Fl.282 Kolibri was a small, very agile machine designed as a scout craft. It performed anti-submarine duties for the German Navy and appears in both Second World War at Sea: Bomb Alley and Arctic Convoy. In Panzer Grenadier terms, it's used to spot for artillery fire. And while the real ones were not armed, we've included the versions studied by the manufacturer to fit a machine gun or some anti-tank rockets.

The Focke-Achgelis Fa.223 was a transport helicopter, and did see some use during the war. It was actually armed, with studies undertaken to give it an anti-tank capability. So we have some up-gunned versions as well. The heavy-lift Fa.284 was not armed, but carried large loads in a special container slung under its frame, much like the modern "Sky Crane" series of choppers.

The United States also flew helicopters during the war, and we have the Sikorsky R4 here to spot for artillery fire. The Japanese get to do the same thing with their Ka-1 autogyro. Neither of these machines is armed, and neither had a cargo-carrying capability. Only the Germans get to conduct heliborne assaults in the Secret Weapons scenarios.

Other Aircraft

The Luftwaffe's Weserflug P.1003 was a tilt-rotor transport plane very similar in concept to the Boeing V22 Osprey. An engine in the middle of the plane powered two propellers that could be tilted to drive the plane like a conventional propeller or allow it to hover like a helicopter. The German version never got past the planning stage; the Boeing plane began development in 1981 and finally entered a combat zone in October 2007. There's no reason think the German team would have done any better, but the plane was too bizarre to leave out of the game and it makes for interesting air assault scenarios.

Just like the tank design bureaus, aircraft studios kept their young talent working on jet projects that could not possibly see actual production to keep the staff out of the draft. One of these projects was a jet-powered ground attack plane designated Me.1099. In its anti-tank configuration it boasted an automatic 55mm cannon.

German Giant Tanks

We know what the fans want: huge German tanks to take on the huge American and Soviet tanks from Iron Curtain. And Secret Weapons provides them.

There is of course Panzer Maus, the huge heavily armored but terrifically slow behemoth. The tank's hitting power is unquestioned; just how it will fare when it's even slower than enemy infantry is a fine question for the scenarios to answer. Slightly better balanced is the E-100 super-heavy tank, designated here as the Tiger III. The beast has an even bigger gun, not quite as much armor but better speed (if you can call it that).

A far more lethal opponent for Allied armor would have been the Panther II, sort of a mixture of the Tiger II and original Panther with a smaller turret mounting an 88mm gun. It's usually stated that only one was partially completed, but my late friend Belton Cooper, an ordnance officer with the U.S. 3rd Armored Division, had a photo taken near Paderborn of a destroyed German tank that sure looked like one.

The Germans also get two types of anti-aircraft tank, the Coelian and the Kugelblitz. These featured a "ball" turret with either 37mm or 20mm guns, and would have been formidable weapons against infantry as well.

British Giant Tanks

When we did Iron Curtain, I really wanted to add British post-war tanks to the mix but there just didn't seem to be enough room — the scenarios were supposed to feature huge masses of armor and the American and Soviet machines ate up all the space on the counter sheets.

In Secret Weapons, the Brits are here and they are exceedingly well-armed. The Centurion would become the main battle tank of many of the world's armies for the next 40 years; a handful of them are still in service today. With the very effective 17-pounder and good protection, the Centurion was slower than most foreign tanks but as a whole most British tank designs were not as fast as those of other nations.

The Centurion's success made the Black Prince infantry tank obsolete as soon as it entered service. A development of the Churchill tank,the Black Prince also had a 17-pounder gun and a level of protection similar to the Centurion, but like all British infantry tanks it was quite slow.

Even slower was Britain's answer to the same questions that gave the U.S. Army its T28 assault gun: a massively armored vehicle designed to attack fortifications. The Tortoise was slow and heavily armored, with new 32-pounder anti-tank gun, and ultimately never saw combat.

Other Weapons

The missile age reaches Panzer Grenadier for the first but not the last time, with the German X7 "Little Red Riding Hood" wire-guided anti-tank missile. They're very effective, and also give air assault forces a serious anti-tank capability. The X7 may have seen action in April 1945 near the Neisse River, claiming a pair of Soviet T-34/85 tanks. Or perhaps not — the claim is disputed.

Missiles became the tank-killing weapons of choice because anti-tank guns had simply become too large and heavy for battlefield use. A prime example is the German 128mm gun, derived from a very effective anti-aircraft weapon. Armor-piercing performance was not far different from the deadly 88mm gun, but the bigger weapon could kill enemy tanks at a much longer range and it fired a heavier high-explosive shell. It was also so heavy that it could not be moved without serious effort — in game terms, the 128mm piece has no limbered side as it is immobile.

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