G U R P S, Warehouse 23, and the all-seeing pyramid are registered trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. W W I I, P y ra m i d, I ron Cro s s, and the names of allproducts published by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated are registered trademarks or trademarks of Steve Jackson Games Incorporated, or used under license.

G U R P SW W I I :I ron Cro s s is copyright © 2002 by Steve Jackson Games Incorporated. All rights reserved. Some art based on photographs copyright www. a r t t o d a y.com. Some art based on photographs from the National Archives and Records A d m i n i s t r a t i o n .

ISBN 1-55634-593-3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

STEVE JACKSON GAMES

A dditional Mat e rial by H a n s - C h ristian Vo r t i s ch

Edited by Steve Jackson with Loren WisemanG U R P S Syst em Des ign S t e ve Ja ck s o n

M a n ag ing Edi tor Andrew Hack a r dG U R P S Line Edi to r Sean Punch

G U R P S W W I I Line Edi to r Gene Seab o l tPro je ct A d m i n i s t rat o r Monique Chap m a n

Des ign and Production Gene Seab o l tP r int Buye r Monica Stephens

G U R P SE r rata Coordinat o r Andy Ve t r o m i l eSales Manag e r Ross Je p s o n

Lead PlaytesterJohn L. Fr e i l e r

PlaytestersMichele Armellini,Thomas L Bont,Brandon Cope,Peter V. Dell’Orto,Shawn Fisher,Martin Heidemann,Erik Manders,Phil Masters,Kenneth Peters, a n dRobert Prior.

2 CONTENTS

CONTENTSINTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4About GURPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

1. GERMANY AT WAR . . . . . . 5

RINGED BY RIVALS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6THE FORGING FLAMES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7THE WEIMAR YEARS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

The Nazis Form Ranks . . . . . . . . . . . 8False Watershed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

BIRTH OF THE THIRD REICH . . . . . . . . . 10Hitler Ascendant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10A Brutal State . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

CASE WHITE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11THE WESTERN LULL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Plentiful Plots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11CASE YELLOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Costly Naval Gambit . . . . . . . . . . . 12Smashing Victory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12A More Forceful Hand . . . . . . . . . . 12

FATEFUL INTERLUDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13Sea Lion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

THE REICH AT ITS HEIGHT . . . . . . . . . . 14Barbarossa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14A New Chivalry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Falling Short . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

THE JEWISH QUESTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16A NEW ENERGY OF ATTACK . . . . . . . . . 17

The Soviet Sledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17The African Anvil . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17A German Lake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Home Front Harassed . . . . . . . . . . . 17

DECIDING MOMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Stalingrad Slaughter . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Desert Debacle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

WINTER OF DISCONTENT . . . . . . . . . . . 19Bitter Revival . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Too Much, Too Late . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

THE BEGINNING OF THE END . . . . . . . . 20Sicily Sliced Away . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20The Killing Stroke . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

HOLDING ACTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Dniepr Stand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21Booting the Italians . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

PLAYING OUT THE HAND . . . . . . . . . . . 22Broken Wings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Uprisings in the Reich . . . . . . . . . . 22Prelude to the Storm . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

THE HORROR UNVEILED . . . . . . . . . . . . 23THE WESTERN FRONT ERUPTS . . . . . . . 24

D-Day and After . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24The July Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Operation Bagration . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Wunderwaffen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

The Lost Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . 25THE REICH IN RUINS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

The Bulge and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . 26Retribution’s Hordes . . . . . . . . . . . 26Aftermath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

2. THE GERMANARMY . . . . . . . 27

THE HIGH COMMAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28The Generalstab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

ARMS OF THE WEHRMACHT . . . . . . . . . 30The Heer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

THE WAFFEN-SS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31The Luftwaffe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32The Kriegsmarine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

THE LANDSER LIFE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34From Cradle to Rifle . . . . . . . . . . . 34Among the Soldiery . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

WHAT THEY CARRIED . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36What Carried Them . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Varieties of Uniform . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

ARMOR ALLOCATION TABLE . . . . . . . . . 38PANZER ENCOUNTER TABLE . . . . . . . . . 39ACTION DIGEST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

3. CHARACTERS . . 41CREATING A CHARACTER . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Female Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42ADVANTAGES, DISADVANTAGES,

AND SKILLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Advantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Volkssturmmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46Hitler Youth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Eastern Front Experte . . . . . . . . . . . 48Submariner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Gestapo Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Hausfrau . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51MAJOR PERSONALITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

The Generals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

4. THE GERMANARMORY . . . . . 56

PERSONAL GEAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57SMALL ARMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

German Small Arms Table . . . . . . . 60Weapon Descriptions . . . . . . . . . . . 62

VEHICLE DESIGN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65NEW CHASSIS OPTIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Powertrains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65New Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Weapon Modules Table . . . . . . . . . 68Vehicular Weapons Table . . . . . . . . 68New Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Panzerautomaten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

THE MOTOR POOL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Vehicles Key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70Artillery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71SdKfz 2 kleines Ketten-Krad . . . . . 72Volkswagen Kübelwagen . . . . . . . . 72Krupp-Protze “Boxer” . . . . . . . . . . 73Opel-Blitz 4×2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73SdKfz 10 leichter Zugkraftwagen . . . 74SdKfz 7 mittlerer Zugkraftwagen . . 74SdKfz 251 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75SdKfz 222 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75SdKfz 231 (8-Rad) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76Panzerkampfwagen I . . . . . . . . . . . 77Panzerkampfwagen II . . . . . . . . . . . 78Panzerkampfwagen III . . . . . . . . . . 79Panzerkampfwagen IV Variants . . . 80Panzerkampfwagen V Panther . . . . 81Panzerkampfwagen VI Königstiger . . 82Hetzer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83Ar 196 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84Fw 190 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85Ju 52 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86Ju 88 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87Bf 110 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88Me 262 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89S-Boot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90U-Boot Typ VII . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91U-Boot Typ XXIII . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92KMS Bismarck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

5. INSIDE THE THIRD REICH . . 94

GERMANY ATA GLANCE . . . . . . . . . . . . 95The People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95The Land . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

NATIONAL SOCIALISM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Old Soldiers and March Violets . . . 96The Führer Myth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97The Winking Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97Kultur vs. Zivilisation . . . . . . . . . . . 97

THE POLICE AND COURTS . . . . . . . . . . . 98A Knock on the Door . . . . . . . . . . . 98The Verdict Assumed . . . . . . . . . . . 98A Savage Semblance . . . . . . . . . . . 98

LIFE INSIDE THE REICH . . . . . . . . . . . . 99Economic Squeeze . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99Salaries and Costs . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99Doing Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100Keeping the Old Faith . . . . . . . . . 100Kinder, Kirche, Küche . . . . . . . . . 101The Next Generation . . . . . . . . . . 101Keepers of the Keys . . . . . . . . . . . 102High Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102The Arts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102A Moral Exhaustion . . . . . . . . . . . 102

BERLIN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

THE GREATER REICH . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104THE POW CAMPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

By Germans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106For Germans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS . . . . . . . 107Eating Their Own . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Messy Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Mixed Efforts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107Worked to the Bone . . . . . . . . . . . 107Desperate Bids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

BATTLEFIELD GERMANY . . . . . . . . . . . 108The West . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108The East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108The Aftermath . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109The German Titanic . . . . . . . . . . . 109

6. CAMPAIGNS . . 110CAMPAIGN STYLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

The Stubborn Dead . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

A Measure Above . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113The Aryan Elite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114Faceless Foes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115The Luftwaffe Aloft . . . . . . . . . . . 116Wolfpacks and Woe . . . . . . . . . . . 117

AWEHRMACHT TRAVELOG . . . . . . . . . 118The City of Blacked-Out Light . . . 120

ALTERNATE CAMPAIGNS . . . . . . . . . . . 121Wonder Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121PAH Mk I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122The V-1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123The V-2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123The Other 988 Years . . . . . . . . . . . 124The Polish Question . . . . . . . . . . . 125

REFERENCES . . . 126

INDEX . . . . . . . . 127

CONTENTS 3

Heer troops carried an efficient minimum of equipmentfor daily usage. See pp. W87-99 for basic gear and weapons.

Papers and IDEvery German soldier carried a standard set of personal

identification. This began with his S o l d bu ch, or paybook, astrongly bound booklet somewhat larger than a modern pass-port and serving much the same purpose. It included a photo-graph and physical description of the soldier, his service andmedical records, a copy of his identity-disc’s lettering, and hishistory of drawing pay outside his own unit. Troopers rou-tinely carried other documents, such as civil driving licenses,folded within their paybook. Generally, when about to takepart in an assault, German soldiers left their paybooks withsomeone in the rear; they carried them at all times, otherwise.

Troops not on active service carried a We h rp a s s, much likethe paybook. Unit administrators kept these for those on duty.

The Wehrmacht issued an identity disc much like dog tags.It was a zinc oval about 3” across, perforated along the longaxis and with holes drilled in it for a leather cord. The trooperwore it around his neck. If he was killed, the lower half of thedisc could be snapped off and taken, leaving the upper half withthe body. Both halves initially gave service number, unit, andblood type. Later discs carried only the service number and acode for rear-area administrators to look up the rest.

German soldiers generally carried a minimal set of person-al effects: snapshots of mom (mu t t i), wife, and/or girlfriend(s);pornographic post or playing cards; and (for reasons not entire-ly clear) photos of atrocities or executions they had witnessed.

MedalsSee p. W49. About 16% of German soldiers had an Iron

Cross, Second Class, while about 3% wore the First Class ver-sion. The Wehrmacht and Nazi party issued hundreds of othermedals and awards. Few not discussed on p. W49 would merita reaction bonus, though the GMis free to judge diff e r e n t l ydepending on circumstances. For instance, most soldiers simplyw o u l d n ’t recognize something like the old-pattern RomanianOrder of the Crown, but the medal might bestow a +1 reactionfrom old-guard officers (a small group) if the soldier wore noth-ing more prominent. If worn with an Iron Cross, the Romanianmedal probably would not add to the reaction bonus.

Civilian awards were not common, though the Cross ofHonor of the German Mother (in bronze for 5-6 children, sil-ver for 7-8, or gold for more) gave a +1 to reactions amongmost Germans, even those not particularly devoted to Nazism.

Infantry KitAn off-duty rifleman wore underclothes, uniform with first-

aid kit, service cap, and boots, weighing 11.5 lbs. with jackboots.Entering combat, he placed two full rifle ammo pouches

on his belt, one to each side of the buckle. He added his exte-rior suspenders (which normally attached to the ammo pouch-es) to form his load-carrying gear. He attached a bread bag tohis belt at the right hip, within which he carried a half-day’s

rations, toiletries, personal effects, and usually his service cap.He attached his entrenching tool (see p. W88) to his belt at theleft hip with his bayonet (see p. W193) just before it. Heattached a canteen to the bread bag such that it rode near hisright buttock. He slung a gas-mask container over his rightshoulder and fixed it to his belt so that it rode securely over hisleft kidney or buttock. He then put on his helmet and picked uphis Karabiner 98k rifle (see p. W92), often slinging it to thefront when marching in the field rather than on parade.

This basic combat load weighed 43 lbs. When possible,riflemen carried into action only this gear and a grenade or two.

Early rifleman also carried a gas cape (see p. W87) on thefront side of their gas-mask strap, bringing combat encum-brance to 45 lbs. total. They began to discard these as fightingprogressed without threat of chemical warfare. Panzer-grenadiers also often carried goggles for use while in their car-riers. They wore these slung around their necks in combat.

On the march or when transport was not available to carryfield gear, the rifleman could attach an assault pack or the t o r-n i s t e r full pack (treat as a backpack or mountain backpackrespectively; see p. W 8 7 ) to a yoke hung from his braces highon his shoulders. With this, the trooper’s greatcoat (treat as atrenchcoat, p. W87), blanket, and shelter half were rolledtogether and strapped horseshoe-style over the top of the pack.This assembly added 17.5 (for the assault pack) or 22.5 lbs. toencumbrance before anything was added to the backpackother than stakes and rope for using the shelter half as a tent.

See pp. 57-59 for more details on much of this equipment.

WHAT CARRIED THEMWhenever possible, troops moved by train. Standard

troop trains carried a tank platoon, a motorized company andsupport elements, or 350 infantrymen with baggage and hors-es. An infantry division required 35-40 of these trains, a panz-er division twice that. Trains averaged 150-200 miles daily inG e r m a n y, 60 near the front. They carried 1-3 A Ag u n s .

Once on the road, German infantry divisions averaged 3mph at all hours, motorized divisions 16 mph in daytime or 10mph at night, and armored divisions 12 mph during daylightor 7 mph after dark. Infantry could cover short distances at 4mph but rarely averaged more than 20 miles per day, half thatin rough terrain or bad weather. Motorized divisions averaged90-150 miles, armored divisions 60-90 on good roads. As withall armies, a German division formed an incredibly long col-umn on the march. An infantry division stretched 25 mileswith no space between subunits, a panzer division 59.

Less commonly, troops moved by ship. In game terms, thegeneral staff set aside 40 VSPs (see p. W 118) of cargo space pers o l d i e r, 160 per horse, 200 per light vehicle, 400 per truck orheavy artillery piece, or 500 for a medium tank. (The G U R P SW W I I design system requires mu ch less space. These are his-torical figures, whereas the game rules assume very high eff i-c i e n c y.) This averaged to 110 VSPs per man with gear in aninfantry division, with careful loading. Simply rushing every-one on and off ferries multiplied space needs by as much as 7!

36 THE GERMAN ARMY

WHAT THEY CARRIED

Patron see pp. W63, W181Nazi Germany essentially worked on the patronage sys-

tem. Hitler served as a patron to many generals and party off i-cials, these generals and officials themselves served as patronsfor field officers and mid-level functionaries, and so on.

Many of these relationships would not qualify as Patronsin game terms, however. For a superior to qualify as a G U R P Spatron, he would have to be willing to stick by the characterin thin times as well as thick. This wasn’t typical Nazi behav-i o r. Hitler would gladly reward an officer who had pleasedhim, but for the most part he would just as quickly get rid ofthe fellow once he fouled up. He had his exceptions – A l b e r tSpeer (p. 54) certainly qualified as one – but not many.

Those who do have Hitler as a Patron must treat him as a30-point national government, no matter his personal pointcost. In this case, his assertion that he wa s the state holds true.

Rank see pp. 96, W62, W179All members of the German armed forces, including the

police, have Military Rank as described in the corebook.Nazi officials (p. 96) have Administrative Rank rather than

Military Rank. It works exactly the same way, except it appliesto the party apparatus rather than armed forces. The two func-tions often overlapped in one man, and in turn overlapped withcivil posts that had their own Administrative Rank. Only thehighest of these Ranks should be paid for in these cases. AN a z igauleiter would gain little reach, just breadth, of power bybecoming an SS-Obersturmbannführer or civil mayor.

Administrative Rank within Nazi Germany improvesStatus just like Military Rank (p. W66) does, but characterswith a mix of both sorts of Rank only get the Status bonus forthe h i g h e s t o n e .

Note that the Germans had m a ny more enlisted gradesthan was common for the period. In fact, the table still trun-cates them. For instance, technically a gefreiter was a corporal– but a German gefreiter only held duties comparable to an act-ing corporal in most armies, not taking a true leader role untilbecoming an oberg e f r e i t e r, a sort of senior corporal. The tran-sition from corporal to sergeant was one rank in the U.S. A r m y.In the Wehrmacht, the obergefreiter advanced to stabsgefreiter,then unteroff i z i e r, then unterfeldwebel, taking on serg e a n t -comparable duties somewhere within the last two ranks.

Special branches usually had special grades. For instance,a radioman was a funker rather than schütze, and an ordnances t a ff sergeant was a feuerwerker rather than feldwebel.

Furthermore, some enlisted grades changed names whenthe holder reached a certain service-time threshold.

After November 1942, Hitler changed the private gradefrom schütze to grenadier for most riflemen. Mountain andJäger units retained the old grade. Riflemen also were calledfusilier in regiments with the same name, or musketier withinsome infantry units of the panzer corps Gross Deutschland.

This state of affairs should illustrate that the GM s h o u l dfeel free to create fictional special grades in his campaign.

Army officer ranks in combat arms had only one alternatename. A hauptmann in the cavalry was called a rittmeister.Non-combat arms had many special off i c e r-equivalent ranks.

CHARACTERS 43

GURPS Nazi Germany RanksM R A rmy (Air Fo rc e ) Wa ffe n - S S, G e s t ap o N av y Po l i c e Nazi Pa rt y8 G e n e r a l f e l d m a r s c h a l l † R e i c h s f ü h r e r- S S G r o s s a d m i r a l – R e i c h s l e i t e r8 G e n e r a l o b e r s t S S - O b e r s t g r u p p e n f ü h r e r G e n e r a l a d m i r a l G e n e r a l o b e r s t –8 G e n e r a l S S - O b e rg r u p p e n f ü h r e r A d m i r a l G e n e r a l G a u l e i t e r7 G e n e r a l l e u t n a n t S S - G r u p p e n f ü h r e r Vi z e a d m i r a l G e n e r a l l e u t n a n t –7 G e n e r a l m a j o r S S - B r i g a d e f ü h r e r K o n t e r a d m i r a l G e n e r a l m a j o r Deputy Gauleiter6 O b e r s t SS-Oberf., -Standartenführer Kapitän*, Kommodore O b e r s t –5 O b e r s t l e u t n a n t S S - O b e r s t u r m b a n n f ü h r e r F r e g a t t e n k a p i t ä n O b e r s t l e u t n a n t K r e i s l e i t e r4 M a j o r S S - S t u r m b a n n f ü h r e r K o r v e t t e n k a p i t ä n M a j o r –4 H a u p t m a n n S S - H a u p t s t u r m f ü h r e r K a p i t ä n l e u t n a n t H a u p t m a n n O r t s g r u p p e n l e i t e r3 O b e r l e u t n a n t S S - O b e r s t u r m f ü h r e r O b e r l e u t n a n t * O b e r l e u t n a n t Z e l l e n l e i t e r3 L e u t n a n t S S - U n t e r s t u r m f ü h r e r L e u t n a n t * L e u t n a n t B l o c k l e i t e r

2 S t a b s f e l d w e b e l S S - S t u r m s c h a r f ü h r e r S t a b s o b e r b o o t s m a n n M e i s t e r H a u p t b e r e i t s c h a f t s l .2 H a u p t f e l d w e b e l S S - S t a b s s c h a r f ü h r e r O b e r b o o t s m a n n H a u p t w a c h t m e i s t e r –2 O b e r f e l d w e b e l S S - H a u p t s c h a r f ü h r e r S t a b s b o o t s m a n n K o m p a n i e h a u p t w a c h t m . O b e r b e r e i t s c h a f t s l e i t e r1 F e l d w e b e l S S - O b e r s c h a r f ü h r e r B o o t s m a n n R e v i e r o b e r w a c h t m e i s t e r B e r e i t s c h a f t s l e i t e r1 U n t e r f e l d w e b e l S S - S c h a r f ü h r e r S t a b s s t e u r m a n n O b e r w a c h t m e i s t e r –1 O b e rg e f r e i t e r S S - U n t e r s c h a r f ü h r e r M a t r o s e n - O b e rg e f r. Wa c h t m e i s t e r H a u p t a r b e i t s l e i t e r0 G e f r e i t e r S S - R o t t e n f ü h r e r M a t r o s e n - G e f r e i t e r R o t t w a c h t m e i s t e r O b e r a r b e i t s l e i t e r0 O b e r s c h ü t z e S S - S t u r m m a n n – U n t e r w a c h t m e i s t e r A r b e i t s l e i t e r0 Schütze (Flieger) S S - M a n n M a t r o s e n A n w ä r t e r H e l f e r

A“–” means no equivalent rank.Most Heer (army) officer ranks are followed by the branch of service; e.g., Hauptmann der Infantrie.† Luftwaffe (air force) o fficer ranks are followed by “der Flieger.” Göring alone held the top Rank 8 title, Reichsmarschall. * Kriegsmarine (navy) officer ranks marked with an asterisk are followed by “zur See.”Police officer ranks are followed by “der Gendarmerie” or “der Polizei.”

KMS BISMARCKThe KMS B i s m a rck met a spectacular end at British hands

in May 1941 (p. W20). Her sister ship, Ti rp i t z, worried theBritish until they finally destroyed her in November 1944. Nei-ther had any significant impact on the war, but the B i s m a rckhas come to represent what the Kriegsmarine could have done. . . and what the Royal Navy prevented it from accomplishing.

The B i s m a rck normally carries a crew of 2,192 officers andmen. Overall, 286 crew stations are scattered around the ship torepresent bridge spaces and gunner’s stations, but the vastmajority of the crew does not need crew stations. They load theweapons, tend the engines, or repair battle damage, instead.

Seaman of all nations coveted posting to a battleship, notonly for the prestige, but because the ships were far and awaythe most spacious and comfortable warships in any navy. T h eB i s m a rck is no different. A full 55 VSPs per crewmen ofaccess space has been added to this design, which transformsthe environment from the elbow-in-stomach coziness of asubmarine to something equivalent to a modern office build-ing – not truly private, but far from oppressive. This accessspace is assumed to include full access (p. 69) for any ship’scomponents that might need it, which amounts to a small per-centage of the extra crew-space investment.

This still leaves 5,000 VSPs in the body and superstruc-ture to carry cargo – and all battleships carried a lot of carg o– but it was exclusively working materials. Lockers contain-ing fire hoses, life jackets, plumbing supplies, first-aid kits,etc. will be scattered throughout the ship.

B i s m a rck carried six Ar 196s (p. 84) – three in hangars, twoas cargo, and one ready to launch – and four ship’s launches.

The main turrets hydraulically traverse at 1º per second, or12 crew members manually rotate one at 0.2º per second. T h e150mm-gun turrets traverse at 3º per second, or 12 crew mem-bers manually rotate one at 1.5º per second. The 105mm-gunturrets traverse at 5º per second, or eight crew members manu-ally rotate one at 1.7º per second. Two crew members manual-ly rotate each 37mm open mount at 13º per second. The gunnermanually rotates each 20mm open mount at 18º per second.

The B i s m a rck burns 6,200 gallons of diesel (fuel oil) perhour at routine usage. Fuel, ammo, and food cost $2.7 million.

KMS BismarckS u b a s s e m bl i e s : Medium Battleship chassis +11; water-

proofed Small Capital superstructure [Body:T] +8; fourwaterproofed limited-rotation Small Naval turrets withmild slope [Body:T] +5; six waterproofed limited-rotationL a rge Secondary turrets with mild slope [Body:T] +4;eight waterproofed limited-rotation Medium Secondaryturrets [Sup:T] +4; eight limited-rotation Medium We a p o nopen mounts [Sup:T] +1; six limited-rotation SmallWeapon open mounts [Sup:T] +0.

Powe r t ra i n : Three 34,300-kW steam turbines with three3 4 , 3 0 0 - k W screws and 2.73 million-gallon standard fueltanks. Eight 500-kW and 10 690-kW diesel engines usedas electrical plants to power turret traversing gear, lights,etc. Also carries 9,000 gallons of gas for seaplanes.

O c c : See above. C a rg o : See above.

Armor F RL B T UB o dy : 4 / 1 , 0 3 0 4 / 1 , 0 3 0 4 / 1 , 0 3 0 4 / 2 7 5 4 / 5 0 0S u p e r : 4 / 4 8 5 4 / 4 8 5 4 / 4 8 5 4 / 1 6 5 –

B ri d ge * : 0 / + 6 4 5 0 / + 6 4 5 0 / + 6 4 5 0 / + 5 4 5 0 / + 2 0 0S N Tu rs : 5 / 1 , 7 3 0 4 / 6 0 0 4 / 1 , 0 3 0 4 / 5 0 0 –L S Tu rs : 5 / 2 8 0 4 / 2 0 0 4 / 2 0 0 4 / 1 5 0 –M S Tu rs : 4 / 2 0 0 4 / 1 5 0 4 / 1 5 0 4 / 1 2 0 –M W, SW OMs: 4 / 4 0 0 / 0 0 / 0 0 / 0 –* Armored station for 15 crew members.

Weaponry8×15” Naval Guns/SK-C/34 [SN Turs:F] (100).*1 2×150mm Med. DP Guns/SK-C/28 [LS Turs:F] (200).*1 6×105mm Med. DP Guns/SK-C/33 [MS Turs:F] (500).*1 6×37mm Med. Gr. ACs/SK-C/33 [MW OMs:F] (1,875).*1 2×20mm Long Gr. ACs/SK-C/30 [SW OMs:F] (4,875).** Linked in pairs at one pair per turret or open mount; in all

cases ammo allotment in parentheses is per gun.

EquipmentB o dy : 89,000 bilge; 200 bilge pumps; brigs and restraints for

10 crew bunks; 2,000 bunks; 200 cabins; two 10-toncranes; 88 environmental control; four 15-ton externalcradles for ship’s launches; 30 fire extinguishers; 20 halls;132,000 man-days of provisions; three surgeries; two 60-ton winches; 10 workshops; four 2 2 5 - k W t r a v e r s i n ggears for Small Naval turrets; four 9 5 - k W t r a v e r s i n ggears for Large Secondary turrets. S u p e r : Autopilot; 25cabins; five luxury cabins; 15 fire extinguishers; three firedirection centers; three 100-VSPhangar bays; two launchcatapults; three sets of navigation instruments; 17-milet a rgeting radar; large radio direction finder; very larg eradio receiver; large radio transmitter; very large radiotransmitter; six searchlights; sound detector; mainframet a rgeting computer dedicated to main guns; eight 9 5 - k Wtraversing gears for Medium Secondary turrets.

StatisticsS i ze : 8 2 4 ’×11 8 ’×1 8 0 ’ Pay l o a d : 10K tons L w t : 49K tonsVo l u m e : 5 7 4 K M H : 6 2 C o s t : $ 1 6 . 7 M

H T: 7. HPs: 720K Body, 12,000 Superstructure, 1,900 eachSN Turret, 900 each LS Turret, 750 each MS Turret, 75each MW OM, 45 each SW O M .

w S p e e d : 3 3 w A c c e l : 0 . 3 w D e c e l : 0.1 (0.25) w M R : 0 . 0 2 w S R : 6Draft 31’. Flotation Rating 51,600 tons.

Design NotesThe design’s wSpeed was 29 mph; this has been

increased to the historical figure. The design’s draft was 40’–this has been reduced substantially to the historical figure.

B i s m a rck carries a huge amount of fuel – even by battle-ship standards – as a sleight of hand to circumvent treaty limi-tations. Much of the tankage was counted as bilges (p. 69) in theoriginal plans, reducing loaded weight considerably on paper.

THE GERMAN ARMORY 93

FACELESS FOESPutting aside the Golden Rule, mocking Nazis is a lot of

fun. (In this case, the term “Nazi” is willfully applied to a ny-o n e in Hitler’s military employ.) Many GMs will gleefullyignore much of this book in painting their Germans as by-the-numbers bad guys. That works perfectly well in many popu-lar genres. In particular, the H e l l b oy roleplaying game, whichuses the same rules as the G U R P S W W I I series, takes this artform to untold heights.

For the uninitiated, a few pointers include:

Ve Have Vays of Making You Ta l kAnd we, in turn, have ways of making Nazis talk. T h e y

pronounces “w” as “v.” (“Vaitress, ve vill vant vaffles viff ourbreakfast.”) They phrase most everything as a threat. (“Ve v i l lhave vaffles, vaitress!”) They are always bombastic and oftenimpatient. (“More coffee, schnell!”) Except when they’re gloat-ing. (“Is gooooooot. Now you vill get me non-dairy creamer. ” )

Certain catchphrases dominate amidst the fiery stuff :“Sieg Heil!,”“Heil Hitler!,” “Amerikaner Schweine!,” a n d“Glory of the Reich.” E ve ry t h i n g – even breakfast waffles – isfor the glory of the Reich. In the gloating stages, Nazis mightpurringly concede that they and their adversaries – the PCs –might have been good comrades, if of course the Nazi wasn’tan Aryan superman and the PCs subhuman worms.

We also have ways of making them walk, the goose step,from which Nazis always come to a heel-clicking stop. (Inreal life, the Heer specifically forbade most instructors fromteaching the goose step during the war. The Wehrmacht onlyused it on parade, though earlier German armies goose-stepped on the march.)

Ve Have Vays of Making You DieMaking a stereotypical Nazi act like a nincompoop is a

lot easier than getting him to die like one. The GM must fine-ly balance that these are supposed to be most worthy adver-saries, even though he intends for the PCs to fill the Q u e e nM a ry with their corpses.

The most simple device bridging this gap is the A i mmaneuver (p. W198). In this sort of campaign, Nazis alwaysstep out into the open, level their submachine gun, and take asecond to Aim. This will give their opponents a leisurely sec-ond to obliterate the Nazi with an unaimed shot, all the whileholding out the threat that if they miss, they’ll be in a world ofhurt. Some subtle phrasing can keep this from becoming tooobvious of a ploy: “Out of the corner of your eye you see aNazi leveling his MP40 at you,” suggests that the Nazi thinkshe has time to aim. “Given the range, the Nazi puts his eye tohis gun sights,” suggests that he thinks his best bet is to aimfor a difficult shot. Conversely, when Nazis really are too faraway to hit anything, have them spray unaimed bullets aroundlike madmen.

To further increase the body count, Nazis should alwaysenter combat in single file. (To keep these stormtroopers fromappearing to be complete idiots, it’s wise to stage combat inold castles or other environments with lots of long, narrowcorridors . . .) This prevents more than one of them from

shooting back at a time. It allows powerful weapons to blowthrough the first target and injure one or more behind him. (Ifusing the WWII Lite rules, simply assume that any damagebeyond each targ e t ’s HT passes through him. It attacks thenext Nazi on a 9 or less, or whatever it would have taken tohit him on purpose, whichever is worse. He probably won’t beable to dodge, because the previous victim will block his lineof sight to the attacker.) In this sort of cinematic campaign, theG M might as well allow automatic-weapon users to attack theentire line, en masse, by applying the rules for indirectM a chine-Gun Fi re (see p. W202) to direct-fire bursts.

Nothing Vill Stop Us Now!Of course, real Nazis don’t actually fight the war; they

spend their time looking for shortcuts to bring Germany aguaranteed victory. The shortcut usually represents the adven-t u r e ’s goal, with the PCs pursuing it for their own use, or sim-ply trying to keep it out of dirty Nazi hands.

These McGuffins may take the form of wonder weapons(pp. 121-122), ancient mystical artifacts of great power, evenattempts to assassinate prominent Allied leaders. No matterhow badly the PCs may fail in their race against the Nazis, theG M should really, really avoid allowing the stormtroopers tosecure their prize and use it without actually obtaining worlddomination. As silly as it sometimes is, the conventions of thisgenre assume that when a Nazi proclaims, “With We n d e l lWillkie dead, the Third Reich will rule the world!” then thethreat will carry out as he promises. (For the record, Wi l l k i edied in 1944, but the Nazis probably would have wanted tostop him before his 1940 “Miracle at Philadelphia” fatallydivided Republican opposition to Roosevelt, or even beforehis 1942 goodwill tour of the Allied fronts.)

The GM can booby-trap the McGuffin, so that it doesn’tperform as the Nazis expected (see R a i d e rs of the Lost A rk f o ra prime example of the PCs failing miserably but coming outon top), but this effect should be immediate and heavy-handed.

H i s t o r i c a l l y, German propagandists constantly dreamedup these sorts of lurid threats, in the process displaying almostno clue as to their enemy’s priorities. The loudspeaker procla-mation that “The Statue of Liberty is kaput!” as an attempt togut American morale in S aving Private Rya n is an excellentexample. The above convention, in which fictional heroeshave to take almost comical Nazi boasts seriously, may haveevolved as a satirical response to this real behavior.

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TH E OT H E R 988 YE A R SMany alternate-history settings hinge upon Germany win-

ning WWII. Just about everyone has a pet pivotal moment inwhich the Third Reich could have turned the tide. (For bothreaders who don’t have one, common examples include: c o n-quering the United Kingdom in Operation Sea Lion, maintain-ing the uneasy alliance with the U.S.S.R. instead of attackingit, capturing Malta and thereby securing the Mediterranean,making allies of all the disgruntled ex-Soviets in conqueredlands instead of persecuting them, or getting the best Germantechnology into battle more quickly and in greater numbers.)This section won’t dwell on the h ow of Germany winning thew a r, but rather deal with the question, “What now?”

The Reich-5 setting in G U R P S A l t e rn ate Eart h s p r o-vides one detailed example of what might have been, but itsfuture history doesn’t stress what the Nazis themselvesplanned. This section describes their very real agenda for theAryan peace after W W I I .

The New OrderThe Nazis planned a massive integration of a Greater

Reich stretching from the French border to the Urals. Newautobahns (highways) would have knitted together this far-ranging empire. Berlin (renamed Germania), Hamburg ,N u r e m b e rg, Munich, and Vienna would have becomeF ü h re rs t ä d t e, or administrative centers, with Trondheim inNorway transformed into the world’s premier naval base. Ger-many proper would have retained all heavy industry with therest of the Reich supplying raw materials and labor.

The former Soviet lands would have been developed in aspoke-and-hub system. Each town, laid out on a square grid,would have had eight equally spaced roads leading straighttoward farming villages. The Russians themselves, those thatremained after the SS exterminated everyone on its list, wouldhave been shipped to Siberia, with a garrison line keepingthem there. The Nazis often promised their soldiers plots ofland in this “Russian colony” once the war ended.

Leveling the Playing FieldThe Nazis greatly distrusted the German aristocracy, but

in practice noble followers provided them a much neededveneer of legitimacy. Many party leaders, including Hitlerhimself, struggled to completely rid themselves of the genu-flecting reflex.

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