DID THE WW2 GERMANS HAVE BODY ARMOR?

[MausPanzer]

i have often wondered if the wehrmacht had body armor. like flak jackets. does any one know?

[Christian Ankerstjerne]

No. No army at the time had either, as far as I know...

Christian

[Daniel L]

Christian, the Russians had body armor. I know that there were German body armor during th great war but haven't seen any from the second.

Best regards/ Daniel

[R-Bob The Great!]

Well the allied airmen did. At least im pretty sure they did...

[Champymiddle]

no both sides did not have...... you must be thinking about MOHAA or Return to castle Wolfenstein

[Dennis Redler]

As far as I know, the Germans never used body armor.
The U.S. Army Air Force made use of several types of body armor for bomber crews in WW2.
Dennis Redler

[Martin Kirkegaard]

Some Allied airmen used flak jackets like this one, which was made out of overlapping steel plates.



I remember reading somewhere once, that commando elements of the British army used body armour too. But I am not completely sure about that, since I can't remember the source

[Christian Ankerstjerne]

I was referring to ground forces, so I didn't mention flak jackets. I think someone in an old thread mentioned that they were unable to stop gunfire, only scrapnel...

Christian

[Oleg Grigoryev]

Soviet Assault detachment used body armor since the Winter war –was good against small fragments and 9x19mm.

[Daniel L]

Here are some pictures from a previous discussion.

Best regards/ Daniel

[gabriel pagliarani]

These Soviet armoured life-vests were used only for propaganda purposes. I am sure that 9x19 Parabellum bullets "full metal jacketed" could pierce it easily. No effective mobile body-armours before kevlar!

[Oleg Grigoryev]

These Soviet armoured life-vests were used only for propaganda purposes. I am sure that 9x19 Parabellum bullets "full metal jacketed" could pierce it easily. No effective mobile body-armours before kevlar!

yea forget all the stuff that veterans who actually used them told -propoganda -sure thing :roll:

[Kokampf]

Does anyone have an accurate weight for this Soviet body armour? As a WW1 buff it looks to me in shape and concept quite like some WW1 Italian types, or a refined and modified version of the WW1 German breastplate with articulated groin-plates (the 'lobster tail') which was sometimes worn by sentries in conjunction with the stirnpanzer bolt-on bulletproof plate on the front of the helmet. The Soviet armour does look more compact (with the right shoulder cut-out, for instance, which no doubt made weapon handling much easier), but in order to achieve an effective thickness against shrapnel and low-powered projectiles using metal plates it would (based on WW1 experience) need to be heavy enough to limit the wearer's movement to a tactically significant degree.

Were the men issued with this armour perhaps hand-picked for their high strength and endurance to be able to operate effectively with it? Oleg, please let us know what the Russian sources say.

[Daniel L]

These Soviet armoured life-vests were used only for propaganda purposes. I am sure that 9x19 Parabellum bullets "full metal jacketed" could pierce it easily. No effective mobile body-armours before kevlar!

Unless you have a source for this statement I take it as a pure baseless speculation from your side.

Best regards/ Daniel

[Scott Smith]

German sentries guarding pillboxes in WWI used steel body armor and helmet reinforcers (what the big lugs are for on a 1917 Stahlhelm). This was otherwise too heavy for combat but looked about like the Soviet breastplates in the photos above. It could deflect .30 caliber rifle or machinegun fire.