the ramp on a Higgins boat - The Higgins boat, formally the Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel (LCVP), was an amphibious assault landing craft used extensively by Allied forces in World War II. Its bow door is hinged at the bottom and turns into a disembarkation ramp once the boat is driven up onto shore, allowing either 36 infantrymen, or 12 men and a jeep, to go straight from the boat to the beach. Higgins boats feature prominently in pretty much any archival footage or pop-culture re-envisioning of the Normandy landings on D-Day.

Yes. Wonderful things. - Yukari is quoting 20th-century Egyptologist Howard Carter, responding to the question "Can you see anything?" while shining a light into the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamun, which he had just breached.

the detailed manifest on Page 3 -

1) Maybach HL66P six-cylinder internal combustion engine, complete, spare.

4) portable fuel containers ("Jerry cans"), empty.

25) sections track, spare, plus assorted mounting pins and hardware.

5) road wheels, spare.

20') reinforced tow cable, with eyelets.

2) forged steel serpentine tow hooks.

1) Funkgerät 12 wireless telegraph set, spare.

1) Funksprechgerät f two-way voice radio set, spare.

1) crate assorted bulbs, tubes, and other electronics spare parts.

1) crate assorted spare parts for Rheinmetall-Borsig 2 cm Kampfwagenkanone 38 L/55 cannon.

1) box assorted mechanic's and armorer's tools.

1) battlefield first-aid kit (period German style, International Armorsport Federation spec contents).

1) fire extinguisher (ditto).

2) barrels for Rheinmetall-Borsig KwK 38 L/55 cannon, spare.

1) Rheinmetall-Borsig Maschinengewehr 34 general purpose machine gun, spare.

1) ammunition belt loading tool for MG 34, hand-cranked.

1) Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg Panzerkampfwagen II Ausführung L "Luchs" (Panzerspähwagen II) scout tank, SdKfz 123, complete.

Funnily enough, given that there are spare radio sets and parts for same in there, the "FRAGILE" label on the box wasn't entirely in jest.

Panzerkampfwagen II Ausführung L "Luchs" -

Expanding just a little on Kaname's précis:

1) Luchs is German for Lynx, continuing the trend of naming tanks after big cats the Wehrmacht had already started with the Panzer V Panther and Panzer VI Tiger (and which the postwar Bundeswehr continued with the Leopard 1 and Leopard 2).

1a) There was also a planned second version of the Luchs which would have been called the Leopard—it would have had the Luchs hull with a new turret capable of fitting a 5-cm KwK 38—but they were never built. I believe this vehicle is in World of Tanks as the VK 16.02 Leopard light tank (not to be confused with the Leopard Prototyp A, which is the forerunner to the Cold War Leopard 1 MBT).

2) In real life, only two original Panzer II Ls still exist, one at The Tank Museum in Bovington, England (pictured above), and the other at the Musée des Blindés (Museum of Armored Vehicles) in Saumur, France.

3) As such, Miho's is almost certainly a replica.

4) The Mighty Jingles considers the Luchs the cutest tank in World of Tanks.

Note that Miho's is not decorated like the one above; it's painted a simple flat grey, with no markings beyond a few esoteric parts numbers and mandatory safety warnings (such as that the exhaust system is hot and you shouldn't touch it).

Also: Kaname's summary is slightly incorrect in one respect. The Luchs was not strictly the only Panzer II variant fitted with overlapping road wheels (Schachtellaufwerk). The Panzer II Ausf. J, a heavily armored variant conceived as an infantry support tank (and so not needing to be able to go much faster than a man could run), was also so equipped.

However, where the Luchs saw only brief series production before being canceled, the PzII J never entered full-blown production. Only about 20 of them were made, of which a mere handful are known to have seen actual service on the Eastern Front. By the time it was thought of, the infantry tank was pretty much a dead letter as a military concept. There was some thought of using them as recon tanks (the job for which the Luchs was subsequently devised), but they were far too slow for that task.

(I've seen some sources claim that this happened the other way around—that the J was originally devised in the recon tank role and then repurposed for infantry support because it was so slow—but I'm not sure I believe that. The Germans did, or at least thought about doing, some daft things with their armored vehicle designs during the war—I mean, look at the Flak Bus—but I have a hard time envisioning even them thinking, "Yes, surely what the Panzer II needs to make it an effective reconnaissance platform is armor similar to that found on Soviet heavy tanks and a top speed of 19 miles per hour." And not only because everything I just said is in English.)

Coda: The PzII J has since enjoyed a sort of second life as a very rare and quite notorious Tier III premium tank in World of Tanks, where its absurdly heavy armor makes it almost indestructible by any tank at its level, incuding itself, since it has a very weak gun.

--G.
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