List of WWII Maybach engines

This is an incomplete list of gasoline engines designed by Maybach AG, manufactured by Maybach and other firms under licence, and fitted in various German tanks (German: Panzerkampfwagen, French: chars blindés) and half-tracks before and during World War II. Until the mid 1930s, German military vehicle manufacturers could source their power plants from a variety of engine makers; by October 1935 the design and manufacture of almost all tank and half-track engines was concentrated in one company, Maybach AG, located in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance.^[1]

The firm designed and made a wide range of 4, 6, and 12-cylinder engines from 2.5 to 23 litres; these powered the basic chassis designs for approximately ten tank types (including tank hunters and assault guns), six half-track artillery tractor designs, plus two series of derived armoured personnel carriers. Maybach also designed a number of gearboxes fitted to these vehicles, made under licence by other manufacturers. Friedrichshafen was also home to the Zahnradfabrik (ZF) factory which made gearboxes for Panzer III, IV, and Panther tanks. Both Maybach and ZF (and Dornier) were originally subsidiaries of Luftschiffbau Zeppelin GmbH, which also had a factory in the town.

Maybach used various combinations of factory letter codes (discussed below) which specified the particular ancillaries to be supplied with each engine variant: the same basic model could be fitted in a number of vehicles, according to the original manufacturer's design requirements. For example, the basic 3.8 and 4.2 litre straight-6 engines (the NL38 and HL42) fitted in various half-tracks could be supplied in at least 9 different configurations, although every component was to be found in a single unified parts list.^[2]

However, as the war progressed, a number of problems hampered the German armaments production effort. The factory's inability to manufacture enough complete engines as well as a huge range of spare parts, meant that there was often a lack of both. Conflicts between the civilian Reich Ministry of Armaments and Munitions and the German Army led to a failure to set up an adequate distribution system, and consequent severe shortages of serviceable combat vehicles. In April 1944 an Allied bombing raid put the Maybach factory out of action for several months, and destroyed the ZF gearbox factory.

By the end of the war Maybach produced over 140,000 engines and 30,000 semi-automatic transmissions for the German Wehrmacht.^[3]

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