Why Did Germany Name Tanks After Cats?
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- čas přidán 16. 07. 2024
- In this different video, we look at the link between German World War 2/Post War Tanks and Military Vehicles and Cats. Yes this might seem a bit bizarre, however there is a correlation between the two. German tank development during the Second World War saw innovation at a huge scale, with the Tiger Tank and the Panther Tank having a remarkable reputation and legacy. However these are aptly named after feline animals? But there are more! Such as the Luchs/Lynx, the Puma and even following the conflict, German Tank design borrowed their names from this rule again with the Leopard 1 and Leopard 2 tank.
So join us today as we answer the question, 'Why did German name tanks after cats' and also look at some different examples such as the Elefant and the Nashorn. Interestingly, we also address the misconception that all German tanks were named after cats.
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Music by: I am a man who will fight for your honour by Chris Zabriskie
sees a German civilian vehicle
American troops: TIGER
Tiger SLS AMG v12 lol
Sherman commander spots a panzerkampfwagen IV driving by: TIGER!
German troop: PANTZERKAMPFWAGENS
Panzerkampfwagon sounds like something you’d take to the mountains for a weekend of camping
@@anyoneanywhere8212 well, panzerkampfwagen pretty much means tank, so they are not entirely wrong
"I see panthers, tigers, elephants. Mother thought i visited the moscow zoo." -Soviet CoH2 conscript
“Another squad of infantry has been lost in the defence of the Rodina.” - CoH2 Soviet narrator precisely 20 seconds after a Tiger enters the field.
Somewhere in the world theres a tank called
*snek*
Don’t forget the Ratte and Maus...
And....... FERDINAND
@@butter9025 In Soviet Russia, snek treads on you.
What sounds better:
"Ten Tigers are attacking !" or
"Ten buttercups are attacking!"
“Commander, I got 5 buttercups cresting the hill, 1500m!”
“Oh mother of god, not the buttercups”
we got 10 Panzerpusses attacking
Soldat : 10 britische Leuchtkäfer greifen uns an!
Offizier : Was?
Soldat :Was?
"Red 5, Red 5 this is Red 2, I see a buttercup on the crossroads in the small town on my flight path, strafing now, come after me!"
*Spitfire strafing run*
"Get some TEA you Jerry BUTTERCUP!"
Oh my lord it’s an mr flabby tabby mark 2 run for your lives!!!
bison (buffalo), nashorn (rhino), elefant (elephant) - large herbivores on self-propelled anti tank
wespe (wasp), hummel (bee), hornisse (hornet) - sting insects on self-propelled artillery
luchs (lynx), panther, tiger, lowe (lion), leopard - large carnivores on main battle tanks
other names that existed such as marder, hetzer (anti tank) and ostwind (anti aircraft)
I didnt realize the pattern until now.
'ery noice.
Marder translates to Marten in english. It's a species of small mammals related to Weasels. Also, you forgot about another sub category of SPATG which are the Sturer Emil (Stubborn Emil) and Dicker Max (Fat Max).
Edit: I forgot about the Heuschrecke (Grasshopper) and Grille (Circket) as well...
Very well done. But you forgot the Super Heavy tanks named after rodents. P100 Ratte (Rat) and Maus (Mouse)
But the bison isn’t an anti tank gun. It’s artillery. And the hornisse is the same tank as the nashorn just renamed
Everyone: All german tanks are named after cats
Maus: _im a mouse-_
Elefant: ...I do not exist as for I am a failure of a tank destroyer...
RATTE IM A RAT
Panzer 4: because why not
Ratte:yea im named after a rodent
Nashorn: Miau
The Elefant tank destroyer is defenitely named after a cat
Lmao
Very big feline
Maus as well
Panzerjager Tiger (P)
@@BladeRunner21577 jagttiger
Nashorn is pronounced Nass Horn. The "sh" is not pronounced. S & H are separated.
The Nashhorn!
Longer 'a' than I'd think 'nass' implies, as it comes from Nase ( /ˈnaːzə/) (English nose), while nass ( /nas/) means wet.
/ˈnaːsˌhɔʁn/ , or listen here: en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/Nashorn
Nass Horn is something different though. It's wett horn.
I WAS PRONOUNCING IT CORRECTLY!
Literally means "nose horn" in German. Ergo rhino.
It sounds better then someone shouting here comes a poodle or Chihuahua over the ridge
Lmao
Or Mouse.
@@CarrotConsumer well mouse was name of their heaviest tank. It was only prototype tho
@@jackdaniels6536 ONLY A PROTOTYPE???? THAT SHIT ROAMED THE FIELDS AND U CALL IT A PROTOTYPE
but there is more: the "büffel", "wiesel", "marder", "gepuard" and some more
the dutch veriant of the Gepard is called Cheetah so also a cat name there
Ferdinand and elephant
Also maus
@@Jesse_de_jong same cat,
yea my favourite german AA tank the „Gepuard“😂
Nobody:
War thunder M46 "Tiger": hey,Im a cat too
M18 'Black Cat': *dont think you are the only american cat!*
Is anyone forgetting about the hellcat
Grumman: Am I a joke to you?
@@shootymcshootfacekoff7972 the plane or the tank
@@butter9025 both
Meanwhile the Japanese are about to name a Tank “Neko-Chan”
Why did they call the Spitfire Spitfire and not „Snorer“?
czcams.com/video/aQZDbBGBJsM/video.html
One dog dissliked this video.
Five more dogs have joined the first. Now they form a pack.
The dog named Sherman.
@@irvhh143 M8 Greyhounds.
@@irvhh143 lol
In what way was the Pz 38T named after it's gun? 38 was for it's year of manufacture, T for the German spelling of Czechoslovakia.
Ya when i heard the video state this i also thought the same.
Germany captured a lot of czech tanks after invading Czechoslovakia (dispite the munich agreement)
The tank factories in Czechoslovakia and gof stock of LT vz 34 lt vz 35 and lt vz 38 (german designation pz 34t, 35t & 38t). Which where batter tanks than the pz1&2's the germans where using.
The hetzer would be developed on modified lt vz 38 chassis later in the war.
Cool vid mate, also thank you for sliding in some information on the leopard recon tank ;)
No worries man! I thought i'd include some after your comment a few weeks back!
The Panzer 7 Löwe, which only existed in blueprints, translated to lion. I think it was meant to be a heavy tank but I don’t remember
it's the king tiger brother
@@britishneko3906 No it is not, the Löwe was meant to replace both tigers
@@lauri9061 I mean.. that is true but in a way they are brother's....
@@britishneko3906 tiger 1: eldest
royal tiger: tiger 1's evolution
lowe: different tank, same effect
“Those were some mean lookin cats”
-my granddad who fought in ww2
Get ready for the newest tank in the German force:
Fluffy
Kitten
The Japanese helped so it’s call neko-panzer
Asking the questions that really matter, thank you!
Just one thing, the Ferdinand wasn't exactly "renamed", the Elefant was a modification applied to the surviving Ferdinands, adding a MG34, thicker frontal armor, wider tracks...
Then in 44 Hitler made the name official.
Interesting fact is the Ferdinand originated from the Porsche Tiger I (VK 4501) prototype, since they had already built about a hundred chassis.
The Königstiger doesn't actually mean 'King Tiger', it means Bengal Tiger in German. The 'King Tiger' was given because Allies translated it literally (könig = king)
royal tiger still sounds epic
Other German vehicles named after animals:
Lowe (lion)
Wespe (wasp)
Hummel (bumblebee)
Brummbar (bear)
Grille (cricket)
Wiesel (weasel)
And there's also the Sturmpanzer 1 Bison
but the name Brummbar wasn't used by Germans, was an Allied intelligence term for it (if you can believe the internets)
Keiler (boar) - anti mine tank
Büffel (buffalo) - rescue tank
Luchs (lynx) - reconnissance tank
Elefant (elephant) - heavy duty truck
@@glamenz and the Wolf, a jeep on steroids
I wonder what The maus means
Yes! The tank museum is quality! 💓
Also the panzer VII "Lion", which was made to be a successor to the Tiger, but it came far too late to be produced.
I thought it was because dog names didn't sound too cool, like the Poodle, the Chihuahua and the Pug tanks.
bulldog was already taken
the maus: Am i a cat to you?
No need to worry it is just a myth, so yea.
@@fabianmichaelgockner5988 The mouse was not a myth it were built 2 one with tower and tub and one only the tub ^^
@@Fear9420 I MEAN THE VIDEO TITLE!!!
Also the Schwerer Panzerkampfwagen Maus never fired a shot once. And only one was able to drive.
@@fabianmichaelgockner5988 oh my bad 😅
@@fabianmichaelgockner5988 i did infact of the defence of the factory which it was bulid on
Nicknames like these to military vehicles help inspire psychological fear into adversaries and vice versa, give a morale boost to the men using them. Never underestimate the impact of psychology in war. Having good tanks named after dangerous predators helps a lot. Also, short nicknames are more easy to use than the full technical name
I think it just started as a bit of a inside joke among german tank designers until they realized it actually sounds pretty badass
Lowe or[Lion] was a name chosen for a heavy tank that was canceled during design stage. Also waspe and cricket were nicknames given to some of their spgs
I don’t know who took that shot of that Puma IFV, but that is one awesome picture!
Why did the USA name tanks
after Generals ? 😇
In case you don't know, they didn't. Lee, Grant and Sherman were all nicknames given by the Brits (if you can believe the internets)
Sherman, Abrams, Patton what the hell is wrong with tank naming during ww2
Why did the Americans name everything, I mean everything, M3 or M4
The British started that. Originally the US didn't name tanks at all. But when they were being send to the British under Lend-Lease, they didn't like the names simply being "M3 Light Tank" and "M3 Medium Tank". The British decided they'd use the names of American Civil War generals so that completely different vehicles wouldn't have similar names.
Afterward, the US decided they liked this and started naming new tanks after generals. Ever since, *most* US tanks and other armored vehicles that got an official nickname have been named for a general. Though some still didn't get names. Mostly tanks that didn't enter production, but there were also some that did like the M103 heavy tank and M60 MBT (contrary to popular belief, it wasn't *officially* a Patton like the M46, M47, and M48).
@Mark Anderson
No sherman was a general in the American civil war and as a remembrance they made a tank (M4 Sherman) after him
You forgot the concept Panzerkampfwagen 9 'Löwe', and the Jagdpanther/Jagdtiger. Of course you also could've mentioned the Maus in the honorable mentions part. :(
Also need to correct you at 5:30 : Ferdinand was the nickname used for the Tiger concept by Porsche, and it only later changed to Elefant when they made them into SPG's.
Löwe is the Panzerkampfwagen 7 not 9.
There were two different Panzerjäger (SPG) Ferdinand/Elefant versions.
The Elefant (1944) had an hull mounted MG for defense against infantry, upgraded armour and wider tracks and the Ferdinand (1943) did not had these upgrades.
After the battle of Kursk, 48 out of 50 Panzerjäger *Ferdinand* came back in October 1943 to get refitting and modernization between October 1943 and begin of 1944. After the modernization these 48 Panzerjäger Ferdinand officially changed their designation to *“Elefant”.*
They allegedly started giving the Tiger and Panther-tanks their "big cat"-names because of the roaring sound of the 700 hp-engines. That became a tradition.
How about the Pzkpfw. VII Löwe? I mean it didn't undergo production but it does exist in paper.
Well it is a cat
Shaun Holmes answering me or the comment above?
@@thurbine2411 Both. I missed clicked wrong reply button. Will change it.
Sure it had a wooden mock up as a prototype and would have been built, till the E tanks came into play.
2:48 you said it was a fast machine but war thunder tells me another story. 😂
Panzer 7 was not officially built but it was the lowe which translates to lion
Good video!! -- way to debunk the myth!!
there is also the marder, a 35 T removed its turret and turend into an Tank destroyer
The biggest of all is the huge maus cat.
The "Ratte" was planned to be much bigger XD
@@benjaminkoch2380 Ratte never existed though.
@@lennykump8396 it did infact not on steel tho more as a little plusie
There is also the kpz VII Löwe, though it was only a project and not even a prototype was built
"germans love their cat."
What region of the UK is the narrator from ? His accent is different than others you typically hear.
we Japanese named our World War 2 aircraft after weather and meteorological names for fighters, mountains for attack aircraft, stars for bombers, sea or ocean names for patrol aircraft, clouds for reconnaissance, and others from the Navy and popular names from the Army in which in the Army's case was not part of the official name in contrast to the Navy.
whats the music used in the background?
Ah yes, the world of ferocious predator cats: Panther, Tiger, Panzerkampfwagen Drei Aufgang E....
4:59 Are we forgetting the T-34? And it's 84,000 examples built? Or indeed the 49,000 Sherman tanks that were built...
Most produced german tank. Probably just forgot to add that.
Wait, the panther tank is actually panzer v right?
A planned follow-on to the Tiger tank, but never built, was the Panzer VII (7). The Panzer Lowe. “Lion” in English.
It was formalized in detailed blueprints but I don’t think they ever built a prototype. The project was scrapped by Hitler in favor of a parallel project in progress, the Panzer VIII, Maus; a 188-Ton monster with 128mm main gun.
We also had insects, like the cricket or the bumblebee ;D
To be honest the allied will sound kinda stupid if in the middle of a fight someone yelled E L E P H A N T RUNNNNN or ur in Paris and you hear TIGER INCOMING
even tho this tank was never employed in the German army, just imagine allies screaming "OH SHIT INCOMMING MOUSE! RETREAT!!!
In addition to those examples mentioned, there were also two prototypes of another tank in development which downright upends this notion about feline-centric naming: The "Maus" - meaning "mouse" A super-heavy juggernaut dwarfing evne the Tiger II. After scuttling the prototypes towards the end of the war, the Soviets rebuilt one complete vehicle from the remains of the prototypes which now sits in a museum somewhere in Russia.
Ah yes, the Mammut (mamoth), later renamed Maus, to confuse allied spies. The namechange came as a idea of reverse psychology since they thought a big name implies something big, impressive and dangerous, while something named after something small, will be less interesting. Problem was allied spies knew already of the Mammut before it was renamed to Maus. And yes, they did paint the soviet sickle and hammer on its side to make allied spies think its a captured soviet vehicle.
This is about as much as i know about why the Maus is named as it is.
Not "did", they still do: Leopard I, Leopard II, and Puma.
They also designed a monster of a super heavy tank named Löwe/Lion that never left the drawing board. Others with animal names were Wespe/Wasp, Marder/Marten. And then there's the famous Maus and less known Ratte.
They had tanks without animal names too like Hetzer/Agitator, Grille/Grill, Brummbär/Grumpy.
They had a name for the British Sherman tank. They called it Der Tommy Kocher/The Tommy Cooker because they cought fire so easily. German scouts watching a convoy of Shermans could see a couple of them blow up in the air by them self.
We still use animal names, Leopard, etc.
Other postwar German armored vehicles were given names like Jaguar, Puma, Luchs (lynx), and Gepard (cheetah).
And for non-cat names, the Wiesel (weasel), Fuchs (fox), Marder (marten), Fennek (fennec), Dingo, and Enok (raccoon dog).
@@RedXlV Elefant (Elephant), Keiler (boar), Büffel (buffalo), Dachs (Badger)....
I didn't know Paul O'grady narrated this channel?
The serial code for tiger was VK45.01 H.
The Porsche company didn't win the contract for the tiger. The Porsche chassis was converted into the ferdand spg
Correct
There is also Flakpanzer Gepard from 1970s.
the elefant was mostly referred to as Ferdinand post war
Meanwhile Nashorn and elefant: but what about us?
What cat is named Pzpfkw III ?
lots of military vehicles are nicknamed after animal appart from their formal designation.
the fact that the designer chose the nickname doesn't change that everyone know them by these names more than there actual name.
you should have named your video "did the german named their tanks after cats"
from Whta I heard, Leopard 1 was *made* by germany, but not designed by the germans tho, from what I know the tank
was designed by a Turkish engineer and then sold the design to Porshe for money (this may not be 100% true)
What about the Tiddles Tank?
I like the fact the the Germans STILL tend to name their tanks after cats.
My dumbass for the longest time thought "Panzer" was just the German pronunciation of "Panther" XD
no one is wondering that there is a tank named grille and it translates to a cricket....
Ferdinand and Elefant are different in weight, armor and the fact a hull gun is added.
Don't forget the Hummel, Wespe, Maus and Wiesel.
Hummel and Wespe are spg so they're aren't really tanks and i don't remember having called of a tank called wiesel in ww2 either... but with the Maus you are correct.
Wiesel is not from the second world war. This video is not only focused on that since the Leopard is also mentioned.
A definition of tank would be:
a heavy armoured fighting vehicle carrying guns and moving on a continuous articulated metal track.
Defining what 'heavily armoured' would be is hard. Since well... Evolution of tanks as is.
So if you ask me, SPG's are just as well tanks as well... Tanks.
@@RedmilesShark spg may superficially resemble tanks, but they are generally lightly armoured, too lightly to survive in direct-fire combat. Meaning in short that they are armoured fighting vehicles.
The question is why would you not name your tanks after cats? .................. ;-)
Idk maybe some people prefer dogs
And we have the MAUS who looks super out of place.
Currently working on a video on a vehicle linked closely to the Maus project! Stay tuned!
königstiger doesn't translate into king tiger, but into 'bengal tiger'
Puma being well armored and Panther being the best tank in the german army,you heard it here folks.
That's why Panther broke down more than the Tiger and was even more complicated.
And of course the amazing puma armor that couldn't stop a machinegun round.
The Panthers problems were resolved with the Ausführung D model. It did break down much much less than both Tiger.
Dont forget that germany was missing the parts mostly meaning that there needed to use old/broken spare parts
Maus is definitely a feline name
maus was not in service
There exists also the FlakPz "Gepard"
"Hedge"
Maus be like: Im not a cat!
Tiger&Panther : scary powerful can't say the tiger is fast but panther is
puma : nimble
All of them like to ambush
is like "Losef stalin" yeah is stalin fist
Bruh i always feel like a cat with VK 16.02 leopard 🤦♂️😅😂
Must be one of those american myths europeans never heard about :D
What about the lion
There was a flamingo aka pz2 flamethrower
Wait wait.. So the maus (mouse) is a cat?
Why not?
It's not a English th in Panther there is like a little pause between the pant and the her
I didn't know the stug3 was the mos produced fighting vehicle of the war. I thought it was the t-34 or sherman or heck even the willy's jeep!
It wasn't. The Stug III was Germany's most produced AFV. Just over 10,000 were built. The Russian T-34 had the largest production run of the war. About 65,000 were produced by May 1945.
Grille, nashorn, wespe...
This ain't only cats
Maus: hold my Schokolade
i didnt know mouse and elephant is in a cat category
Was their a panzerpuss
Would be a muschy
Tiger H actually means Tiger Herschel (as in how Tiger P is for Tiger Porche)
Sure he forgot the Lowe (Lion) and that was a prototype and was also named like Panther. Also there Maus (Mouse) and the P100 Ratte (Rat). Think it was down to humour and to make them more scary to enemy when they come across there tanks.
Nope the maus was actually very scary infact not to start speaking from the Ratte.
The Maus be like: 👁💧👄💧👁
They should have named a tank after my large cat ... "LOLLIPOP"
I mean, where's the worm? Exactly.
visit the zoo they say
the animal at the zoo : elegant, tiger, panther, leopard, lynx, puma
Maus, goliath, Ratte (although not a real tank) wirbelwind, ostwind, some German made Russian design tanks (not sure about my sources but I do know the germans were fond of the Russian tanks) stug, and a few more modern lightly armored vehicles. If I missed anything, feel free to add. I like expanding my knowledge
I would have just assumed that all American tank crews that went up agains the panzerkampfwagen IV they just called them tigers instead 🤷🏻♂️
"At first they called it the elephant, because of a drawing on the side of its turret. But soon, they learned its real name. The Tiger."
The way how you pronounce world war
Ahhh ...easy one ....tanks are metallic boxes.... so well known is that cats and boxes go together
Panzer clearly leads English speakers to identify that word with panther.