Worst equipment of WW2

[LWD]

Why do you mention the Sherman, Peter?

Why would he? This is a worst equipment thread.

Of course, but it would be nice to explain why it was bad equipment.

My appologies I read your post to quickly and missunderstood what you wrote (particularly embarassing as it was single simple sentance) furthermore I missed that Peter had actually included it.

...The Sherman tank (aka as "Tommy Cooker") also has a reasonable claim to the title of worst equipment of WW2.

This has come up many times and is simply not accurate. The Sherman was one of the best tanks of the war (and thus clearly not one of the worst pieces of equipment) at least by any reasonable defintion of "best".

[dgfred]

How about Japanese pistols ?

The radios in Market Garden with the 1st AB.

[Helmut0815]

Most useless plane: Breda Ba.88 Lince - underpowered and clumsy, a total failure only good for target practice.

regards

Helmut

[LWD]

How about Japanese pistols ? ...

What is your criteria for "worst"? For instance the Japanese pistols were better in almost every way than the "Liberator" pistol. It did have the advantage that you could drop them to resistance groups without using a parachute or worrying about the opposition using them if they fell into the wrong hands. Of course this means that if critieria is worst military pistol then it probably qualifies, if however it's best pistol to drop to resistance groups especially when there is a high likelyhood it will be captured it may be the best.

[Felix C]

I thought the wet storage used in later Shermans during WW2 significantly reduced the fire hazard issue.

[redcoat]

I thought the wet storage used in later Shermans during WW2 significantly reduced the fire hazard issue.

It did.
However the fact that early Sherman's had a tendancy to burn when hit is really not a very good reason to claim it was the 'worst' tank, a lot of tanks had a tendency to burn when hit due to poor ammo stowage, the T-34 if anything was worst in this respect.

[WEISWEILER]

Most useless plane: Breda Ba.88 Lince - underpowered and clumsy, a total failure only good for target practice.

regards

Helmut

I found a top 10 of 'worst airplanes' and Breda is on spot No 2. This Polish PZL.30 Zubr is on 3th place, and IMO the most ugly one. On their No 1 is the English Fairey Battle, who was famous for... losing battles.

[WEISWEILER]

And what do we think of the Salatschüssel?

[JD]

Most useless plane: Breda Ba.88 Lince - underpowered and clumsy, a total failure only good for target practice.

regards

Helmut

Agree with this.

Add to it the Lee/Grant tank, the Brewster F2A Buffalo, the Italian L3 tankette and the Udet rescue buoy.

I think a fair case could be made against the RAF bomber fleet - all of it. The escape systems were so poorly thought out that any aircraft shot down would have about an 85% chance of killing its crew because they could not get out.

[LWD]

...Add to it the Lee/Grant tank,

When they first saw service they were probably the best tanks on either side. In the Pacfic they proved quite useful through the end of the war.

the Brewster F2A Buffalo, ...

From what I've read it made or would have made a very useful training aircraft.

[AVV]

Hello!

From what I've read it made or would have made a very useful training aircraft.

And the Finns used them with relative success too.

Best regards, Aleks

[LWD]

Indeed. I wasn't sure exactly which model the Finns used so I didn't mention it. Looked it up they used the F2A-1's as opposed to the USN using the F2A-2's. The 2's were "upgraded". Unfortunately the upgrades while making the plane stronger and tougher to some extent had a negative impact on performance.

[AVV]

Just a small addition - please note kill marks
http://www.asisbiz.com/il2/F2A-2/MkI-FA ... nd-01.html

Best regards, Aleks

[Seppo Jyrkinen]

One of worst was Me 262.

A weapon is a tool and is it a good one or a bad one depends not only technology but also tactics, training, operations etc. How you use it, when you use it. When Me 262's dropped bombs, did they ever got good results? I doubt even if I'm not very familiar with it. - So, was it a bad one? Same thing with Brewsters.

[LWD]

One of worst was Me 262.

A weapon is a tool and is it a good one or a bad one depends not only technology but also tactics, training, operations etc. How you use it, when you use it. When Me 262's dropped bombs, did they ever got good results? I doubt even if I'm not very familiar with it. - So, was it a bad one? Same thing with Brewsters.

If you don't know why do you say it was bad? In any case Me 262's were used mostly as fighters from what I've read. I'd agree that they weren't ready for operational use but does that make them bad or not? The Finn's really like the Buffalo's and they performed well in for them. However we are wandering off topic which was not bad equipment but "worst equipment".