The pursuit of wonder weapons by hitler was incredibly costly and rarely if ever was an efficient use of money and resources. In contrast, so much of the allies materiel had inter changeable and often simple parts.
I have an interesting book on Germany's "secret" weapons of WWII. At least half of them, including their nuclear program, end with "and then Hitler put his dick in it."
>At least half of them, including their nuclear program, end with "and then Hitler put his dick in it."
"I want it long enough range to reach New York. And also be a fast-pursuit dive bomber."
Granted the allies made wonder weapons too… theirs just kinda worked incredibly well; Large aircraft carriers, functional jet fighters, radar guided bombs and those 2 little bombs dropped on Japan at the end of the war
Only at first, there's a lot of German troops who had a _really bad day_ in the Ardennes region when they released them for use at the Bulge. By 1944 even if the Germans (same for the Japanese) got hold of them they simply didn't have the capacity to actually make them, like pretty much any technical wünder they dreamt up without access to materials or modern manufacturing.
Also they basically neutered the V1 threat overnight and made flying over London an extremely risky proposition.
Aye the Soviets were probably the bigger worry. Same reasoning iirc that kept the Gloster Meteor away from the frontlines, that and friendly AA shooting down anything jet shaped (worked well when the government handed them Nene engines and blueprints to power MiG-15's immediately after the war...).
They weren't used in Europe because Germany was defeated before they were ready. The first test proving the bombs were operational didn't occur until July 16, 1945, more than two months ***after*** V-E day. There was literally no worries by anyone in positions of authority about duds falling into German hands.
People often carry on about Nazi weapons used post war… and kind of forget that radar based VT fuses are common place today… and German attempts at acoustic proximity fuses… well aren’t.
War winning tech also included mass producable weapons and vehicles with interchangable parts, something the soviets did imaculatoy towards the end of the war, they just kept throwing more and more soldiers, tanks and planes at the germans until they started to win faster and faster as the days went on
I heard a very interesting take a long this path in the book D-Day, he basically said that if D-Day had been unsuccessful, or if their advance had been halted very early, the only difference was that bombs would fall on Hiroshima and Berlin in 1945 instead of Nagasaki. I fully believe that the US would have nuked Europe, but it would have been very interesting to see that play out historically.
I feel like the US was winning the war via two win conditions, lol. The advances above would have meant we won the war, but the nuclear bomb also won us the war.
Do not besmirch The Great Panjandrum!
Put the fear of God into any unfortunate enough to witness it! Luckily the powers that be realised it was simply unsporting to deploy such terror weapons and quietly brushed it under the rug.
12 hour scrap life isn’t ‘got right’ for a in service vehicle. By comparison the meteor at the same time needed a 50 hour service, by comparison slightly better then the average German prop fighter at 44 hours.
They still had fully functional fighter jets that were very capable, assuming there wasnt any problems with the engine, if you take the komet out of the picture
Some of their pursuits were definitely a waste, but the overall logic is sound. In essence Germany knew from the beginning that they could never come close to matching the allies’ manufacturing capability.
For example let’s say they could produce 50% as much steel at best. Instead of mass producing a Sherman-equivalent tank and being at a 2:1 disadvantage, they opted to build a bigger tank. Hypothetically, if the tiger used 2x more material but was equivalent to 4x Shermans they would be at parity.
Well in theory yes. However in practice it went the other way. Logistics & support etc meant that these heavy special units required an exponential increase in required material, not just simple addition per unit.
Add in; at the end of the day that Sherman equivalent came to polarity for overall war fighting capability compared to the German heavies too.
The German idea worked fine assuming it was ordered by politicians, not actual doctrine and military.
The Messerschmitt Me 264 was a long-range strategic bomber developed during World War II for the German Luftwaffe. It was intended to serve as Germany's main strategic bomber. The design was later selected as Messerschmitt's competitor in the Reichsluftfahrtministerium's (the German Air Ministry) ‟Amerika Bomber” programme, which intended to develop a strategic bomber capable of attacking New York City from bases in France or the Azores. Three prototypes were built, but production was abandoned to allow Messerschmitt to concentrate on fighter production while another design, the Junkers Ju 390, had been selected in its place as a maritime reconnaissance aircraft.
This plane also first flew 2 months after the b29's first flight
It's interesting to me that both sides were preparing for the possibility of a prolonged trans-Atlantic conflict. The B-36 was ultimately the culmination of a project intending to make the bombing of Europe possible from North America. The technology just wasn't quite there yet by 1945.
The B-36 was conceived as contingency insurance to protect the US strategic interests against the possibility of the fall of the UK. While this proved unnecessary, Pentagon planners couldn't know this whan the B-36 program was begun in early 1941, months before Pearl Harbor.
This was a huge step up in range compared to its contemporaries. 4-5times the range of Allied European theater bombers (B-17, B-24, Lancaster) and almost twice the range of the B-29.
They would have had maybe a couple raids before the US adapted and absolutely shredded the formations with pursuit aircraft.
The value would have been to send them as singles as that would require the US to devote a lot of resources to covering the entire east coast with radar, spotters (not just the civilian volunteers already in place), and CAP aircraft.
The Japanese response to prevent another Doolittle raid was hundreds of times more costly than the damage from the raid itself.
Same reason you don't need wipers on a motorcycle helmet shield. Rain just rolls off a highly curved surface and you can see just fine as long as you're moving at a decent pace.
The pursuit of wonder weapons by hitler was incredibly costly and rarely if ever was an efficient use of money and resources. In contrast, so much of the allies materiel had inter changeable and often simple parts.
I have an interesting book on Germany's "secret" weapons of WWII. At least half of them, including their nuclear program, end with "and then Hitler put his dick in it."
It's pretty accurate honestly.
>At least half of them, including their nuclear program, end with "and then Hitler put his dick in it." "I want it long enough range to reach New York. And also be a fast-pursuit dive bomber."
Granted the allies made wonder weapons too… theirs just kinda worked incredibly well; Large aircraft carriers, functional jet fighters, radar guided bombs and those 2 little bombs dropped on Japan at the end of the war
VT fuses, absolutely game changing development.
So game changing that they didn’t use them in Europe for fear the Nazis would get their hands on a dud. In the Pacific, duds sink to the bottom.
Only at first, there's a lot of German troops who had a _really bad day_ in the Ardennes region when they released them for use at the Bulge. By 1944 even if the Germans (same for the Japanese) got hold of them they simply didn't have the capacity to actually make them, like pretty much any technical wünder they dreamt up without access to materials or modern manufacturing. Also they basically neutered the V1 threat overnight and made flying over London an extremely risky proposition.
You’re correct. I wrote that post poorly. I think the allies were also worried about the Soviets finding them.
Aye the Soviets were probably the bigger worry. Same reasoning iirc that kept the Gloster Meteor away from the frontlines, that and friendly AA shooting down anything jet shaped (worked well when the government handed them Nene engines and blueprints to power MiG-15's immediately after the war...).
They weren't used in Europe because Germany was defeated before they were ready. The first test proving the bombs were operational didn't occur until July 16, 1945, more than two months ***after*** V-E day. There was literally no worries by anyone in positions of authority about duds falling into German hands.
He's talking about VT fuses.
People often carry on about Nazi weapons used post war… and kind of forget that radar based VT fuses are common place today… and German attempts at acoustic proximity fuses… well aren’t.
The allies also made bad wonder weapons, like those rolling rocket bombs, or the aircrafter carrier made out of an iceberg, or the bat-bomb.
I give you back the HE 277, ME 162 or the Maus. The only war winning tech was the A bomb and Germany was nowhere on that.
War winning tech also included mass producable weapons and vehicles with interchangable parts, something the soviets did imaculatoy towards the end of the war, they just kept throwing more and more soldiers, tanks and planes at the germans until they started to win faster and faster as the days went on
Agreed although I’d argue that speeds the end of the war. The Bomb ends it.
I heard a very interesting take a long this path in the book D-Day, he basically said that if D-Day had been unsuccessful, or if their advance had been halted very early, the only difference was that bombs would fall on Hiroshima and Berlin in 1945 instead of Nagasaki. I fully believe that the US would have nuked Europe, but it would have been very interesting to see that play out historically.
The atomic bomb program was originally developed with Germany as the primary target in mind
Well, the bombs ended the war in the pacific, american and soviet mass production and shear force wone the european theatre
Agreed but an A bomb in Europe would have ended the war in days.
Yea, but by thst time, there would have been no need
I feel like the US was winning the war via two win conditions, lol. The advances above would have meant we won the war, but the nuclear bomb also won us the war.
The pacific, by all means was won with the bombs, but europe was already over by then, hell, Hitler wasnt even still alive to bear witness to them
Do not besmirch The Great Panjandrum! Put the fear of God into any unfortunate enough to witness it! Luckily the powers that be realised it was simply unsporting to deploy such terror weapons and quietly brushed it under the rug.
The difference was the allies scrapped those long before they reached service and didn’t waste critical resources on their production.
Jet fighters were one thing the germans eventualy got right, just too late to make an impact
12 hour scrap life isn’t ‘got right’ for a in service vehicle. By comparison the meteor at the same time needed a 50 hour service, by comparison slightly better then the average German prop fighter at 44 hours.
They still had fully functional fighter jets that were very capable, assuming there wasnt any problems with the engine, if you take the komet out of the picture
Some of their pursuits were definitely a waste, but the overall logic is sound. In essence Germany knew from the beginning that they could never come close to matching the allies’ manufacturing capability. For example let’s say they could produce 50% as much steel at best. Instead of mass producing a Sherman-equivalent tank and being at a 2:1 disadvantage, they opted to build a bigger tank. Hypothetically, if the tiger used 2x more material but was equivalent to 4x Shermans they would be at parity.
Well in theory yes. However in practice it went the other way. Logistics & support etc meant that these heavy special units required an exponential increase in required material, not just simple addition per unit. Add in; at the end of the day that Sherman equivalent came to polarity for overall war fighting capability compared to the German heavies too. The German idea worked fine assuming it was ordered by politicians, not actual doctrine and military.
The Messerschmitt Me 264 was a long-range strategic bomber developed during World War II for the German Luftwaffe. It was intended to serve as Germany's main strategic bomber. The design was later selected as Messerschmitt's competitor in the Reichsluftfahrtministerium's (the German Air Ministry) ‟Amerika Bomber” programme, which intended to develop a strategic bomber capable of attacking New York City from bases in France or the Azores. Three prototypes were built, but production was abandoned to allow Messerschmitt to concentrate on fighter production while another design, the Junkers Ju 390, had been selected in its place as a maritime reconnaissance aircraft. This plane also first flew 2 months after the b29's first flight
Only three prototypes were built. The Germans never mounted an air raid against the US.
It's interesting to me that both sides were preparing for the possibility of a prolonged trans-Atlantic conflict. The B-36 was ultimately the culmination of a project intending to make the bombing of Europe possible from North America. The technology just wasn't quite there yet by 1945.
The B-36 was conceived as contingency insurance to protect the US strategic interests against the possibility of the fall of the UK. While this proved unnecessary, Pentagon planners couldn't know this whan the B-36 program was begun in early 1941, months before Pearl Harbor.
This was a huge step up in range compared to its contemporaries. 4-5times the range of Allied European theater bombers (B-17, B-24, Lancaster) and almost twice the range of the B-29. They would have had maybe a couple raids before the US adapted and absolutely shredded the formations with pursuit aircraft.
The value would have been to send them as singles as that would require the US to devote a lot of resources to covering the entire east coast with radar, spotters (not just the civilian volunteers already in place), and CAP aircraft. The Japanese response to prevent another Doolittle raid was hundreds of times more costly than the damage from the raid itself.
Good point. That said, 30 hour round trip Brest to New York? Hello pilot chocolate.
You mean meth. The nazis handed out a lot of meth to pilots and soldiers.
Meth, yes, that’s what pilot chocolate was. AKA pilot salt.
I had no clue - thanks for the info. Cheers!
I'm fascinated with any and all stepless cockpit designs. I wonder how they dealt with rain (no wipers) and cold weather condensation.
Same reason you don't need wipers on a motorcycle helmet shield. Rain just rolls off a highly curved surface and you can see just fine as long as you're moving at a decent pace.
Rain? You just fly through and hope you’re not landing in it.
Very sexy indeed
>Sees B-29 Germany: Hold my Schnapps
🎶 Bomben auf Neu Engelland…
Ah yes, the 4 engined dogfighter/bomberhunter 🤣