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Nahverteidigungswaffe
NW
General Historical Information
Place of origin Germany
Type Heavy Machinegun
Ammunition HE
General Ingame Information
Used by Germany
Used in vehicles Jagdpanzer VI Jagdtiger
Jagdpanzer IV
Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger
Sturmhaubitze 42 "early"
Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger II
Panzerkampfwagen V Panther
Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus
Sturmgeschütz auf Leopard (L/70)
Sturmtiger
Panzerkampfwagen IV Ausf. J
Jagdpanzer V Jagdpanther
VK 4502 (P)
Sturmgeschütz III Ausf G Late
E-10
E-25
Nahverteidigungswaffe-1-


Nahverteidigungswaffe (literally "close-in defence weapon") is a German World War II close defense weapon system for tanks, which, being heavily armored, have very limited vision outside and, as such, are very vulnerable to infantry close range assaults. A common solution to this during WW2 was to make pistol slits to the sides of the vehicle, enabling the crew to fire at assaulting infantry. Of course, these slits made the crew more vulnerable to enemy fire, so this was not the optimal solution. Also, the slits didn't entirely solve the problem of dead zones, which are areas around the tank to which the crew cannot see or fire at.

Another problem with tanks and close combat with infantry was that the external smoke dischargers (Wurfbecher) mounted on the sides of turrets were very vulnerable to small arms fire. The smoke charges in them would often ignite in a firefight, incapacitating the tank crew with their smoke.

The Nahverteidigungswaffe (NahVW) killed two birds with one stone by solving both of these problems. It was a 92mm breechloader smoke discharger mounted inside the turret with no barrel visible, so it could be reloaded from inside the vehicle during combat and was protected by the turret armor. The launcher itself only fired smoke rounds, but if the breech was opened, high explosive grenades and other munitions could be fired through it using a normal flare gun (Leuchtpistole, or Kampfpistole, a rifled flare gun). The grenades had a timed fuse that exploded them slightly over ground, making them lethal to infantry even in dead zones of the tank.

The NahVW was first introduced in March 1944, mounted on Tigers. It was later mounted on at least the following vehicles and probably other late war tanks as well: Königstiger, Panther, Jagdpanther, Jagdtiger, Sturmtiger, StuG III and Pzkpfw IV.

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