The war will be won with wonder weapons!
- Reich Minister of Armaments Albert Speer, 1943
The unrestrained onslaught of the Red Army presented the Germans with the prospect of complete defeat within the next few years. The "Millennium Reich" wavered and began to rapidly roll back, losing the newly conquered territories and piles of broken military equipment. It was at this moment that convulsive fantasies were born in the minds of the fascist eubermens that the key to saving the Reich was technical superiority over the enemy. Ideas materialized in the form of unique projects by German designers - often very amusing, but completely useless from a military point of view.
"Wunderwaffe" did not save Germany. On the contrary, it only brought the collapse of the fascists closer and turned the idea of creating an "absolute weapon" into a laughing stock for future generations. An attempt to stay ahead of its time, without the necessary level of technology development, was not crowned with success. Germany lost the war miserably.
Nowadays, many books are devoted to the fascist "wunderwaffe". Most researchers admire the genius of German engineers, at the same time they have to admit that the attempt to build a miracle weapon in that desperate situation looked like a frankly senseless undertaking. Worse, according to Murphy's laws, the highest priority was given to the most delusional and complex of Wunderwaffe projects, for which the combined potential of all countries in the world would not have been enough. Surviving occultists from the Reich leadership wasted precious resources. And at that time, the fronts were waiting for the supply of simple and reliable weapons suitable for an early launch into mass production …
Fighter-bomber Ho.229 (replica)
The situation with the "wunderwaffe" looks obvious. But another question is much more interesting - what was the degree of novelty in the designs of German crafts? Is it possible at all to speak of any technical superiority of the "Aryan race"?
In this review, I propose to look at the situation from an unusual angle. Even if the Germans managed to solve all the supply problems, increase the reliability of their "masterpieces" and launch new items into the series, nothing good would come of it. The reason is simple: the engineers of the Third Reich, which were ahead of their time, were outdated by the time of their appearance.
Aces of the Luftwaffe. The unknown about the known
1944 year. Night, Berlin street, lamp, pharmacy. A dim light flickers in the windows - these are German engineers, the Horten brothers, who are not sleeping. They are designing their Ho.229 stealth jet.
In the neighborhood, within the walls of the secret society Ahnenerbe, the possibility of creating flying saucers "Vril" and "Hanebu-2" was discussed.
While the Germans indulged in their unbridled fantasies, the engines of an invisible plane hummed high in the sky. The USSR - Great Britain courier express followed its usual route.
The high-speed De Havilland Mosquito bombers climbed 10,000 m and crossed all of Europe at a speed of over 600 km / h. It turned out to be almost impossible to shoot down the Mosquito: according to statistics, aircraft of this type had one loss per 130 sorties!
The unique solid wood construction made them virtually invisible to radars. And when the night hunters still managed to detect the Mosquito, the Monica radar warning station was activated. The bomber immediately changed course and disappeared into the darkness.
Needless to say, what inconvenience the reconnaissance and strike modifications of the indestructible Mosquito were causing the enemy!
The Germans lost air superiority by the middle of the war. The attempt to restore balance with the help of "ultra-fast" jets also failed completely.
Germany's last hope was the Messerschmitt-262 jet fighter. The Fritzes, choking with delight, planned to increase the production rate of the Me.262 to 1,000 vehicles per month and to completely re-equip their Air Force with the latest aircraft. The first combat sortie of the Me.262 took place on July 25, 1944. From now on, the sky belonged to the Aryan "blond beasts"!
Me.262 Schwalbe ("Swallow")
But the joy was short-lived. Two days later, on July 27, from the opposite side of the English Channel, cars appeared, exactly like the German "Swallow", but bearing the identification marks of the British Air Force.
Gloucester Meteor
Now it makes no sense to deny: the German "Swallow", like the British "Gloucester Meteor" of the 1944 model, were just demonstrators of the capabilities of jet aircraft. The combat use of both machines resembled a farce: the fascist Schwalbe, whose heavenly song was cut short after 25 hours (such was the life of the first jet engines) and the British jet miracle, which was forbidden to cross the front line (great results - 14 shot down V-1 missiles).
Catastrophic lack of traction. Any careless movement of the control stick resulted in an inevitable engine fire. Yes, with such "heroes" it was worth staying away from the front line.
Gloster meteor
The British hardly ever fought. German jet engines were used more actively, but also did not bring any noticeable benefit. Poor acceleration characteristics and low reliability due to the imperfection of their engines made the Me.262 easy prey for enemy piston aircraft. American Mustangs ambushed German airfields and shot down helpless Swallows en masse as they took off or landed. On February 19, 1945, one such jet "waffle" was shot down in an air battle by Ivan Kozhedub. The hero won an unusual victory on the most ordinary plane La-7. In addition, the battle took place at a high altitude, when the Schwalbe had already picked up its breathtaking speed.
The result of all experiments with jet aircraft was the following.
The German "wunderwaffe" was thrown into the dustbin of history along with the "millennial Reich". The British "Gloucester Meteor" was gradually brought to an operational state and remained in service with the air forces of seventeen countries of the world until the early 70s.
Stories about the "wunderwaffe" are firmly registered in the pages of the yellow press. The audience likes mysterious stories about German "flying saucers", aircraft-shells "V-1", ballistic missiles "V-2" and a missile range on about. Peenemünde.
If we discard the fantasies about "saucers", then the Germans really managed to achieve noticeable success in the field of rocketry. However, even there, everything is not so obvious: work on rocketry was carried out in other countries of the world (the Soviet group for the study of jet propulsion (GIRD) - the cradle of cosmonautics), but did not receive high priority due to the lack of accurate guidance systems at that time. Without this, the idea of a rocket weapon lost its meaning: the German crafts "V-2" were a pure weapon of terror against the enemy's civilian population. Their circular probable deviation (CEP) barely allowed them to get into major cities. Finally, the first liquid-propellant rocket engine was built by the American engineer R. Goddard in 1926.
It is much more surprising what glory the V-1, a primitive cruise missile with a pulse jet engine and an inertial guidance system, gained. Simply put, an uncontrollable pig that flew for a certain time in a given direction, and then fell on a stopwatch signal. The German projectile plane was outdated even before its birth. During the Second World War, much more "advanced" designs flew, which remained undeservedly forgotten and buried under the ashes of time.
German developments were cheap crafts against the backdrop of the American Interstate TDR-1 attack drone. Even before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the cowardly Yankees pondered how to break through the ever-increasing air defense system of ships without endangering the lives and health of their pilots. The decision was suggested by the Russian émigré Vladimir Zvorykin (the "father" of television), who managed to create a small-sized TV camera "Block-1" with a sufficiently high resolution and the ability to broadcast images over a distance. The entire system was placed in a pencil case with dimensions 66x20x20 cm. The weight together with the power source was 44 kg. Camera viewing angle - 35 °. Resolution - 350 lines. The video image transfer rate is 40 frames per second.
Fighting robot Interstate TDR-1. Behind - the control plane ("Avenger" TBM-1C)
A drone on the deck of the Sable training aircraft carrier
Unlike the German Hs.293 guided anti-ship missile, which required visual observation from the carrier bomber, the Zworykin system provided reliable remote control at a distance of up to 50 miles. The second important difference between Interstate and the German V-1 and Henschel-293 was its reusable use: in case of a successful exit from the attack, the drone returned to the aircraft carrier or to the ground based airfield.
By 1943, the leadership of the US Navy expected to form 18 squadrons of unmanned torpedo bombers (over 1000 attack drones and 162 control aircraft). Alas, by that time the Japanese fleet had already suffered heavy losses and had completely lost the initiative. The need for a marine drone has disappeared. In total, they managed to build 189 Interstate UAVs, which were used to destroy Japanese anti-aircraft batteries at the final stage of the war.
German designers lost the battle for heaven
Despite their limitless fantasies of flying saucers and suborbital bombers, the Nazis never managed to build a strategic bomber capable of striking US soil. Junkers, Messerschmitt and Kurt Tank worked unsuccessfully on the Amerika Bomber project. Alas, all the crafts created - Ju.390, Fw.300, Me.264, Ta.400 - did not even reach the level of the American Superfortress.
Luftwaffe pilots did not have G-suits like the Franks Mk. I and Mk. II (used by British Spitfires) or G-1 (used by the Americans on Mustangs).
The Germans could not have heavy fighter-bombers like the Thunderbolt or the Corsair. Despite the obsessive search for "miracle weapons", the Nazis did not manage to create an aircraft engine comparable in power to the Napier Saber (2200 hp, such engines were equipped with British Tempests) or with the double star "Pratt & Whitney" R2800 (power over 2500 hp).
The Third Reich completely "blew" the arms race to other developed countries. The fame of German engineering is largely undeserved. In other countries, no less formidable and perfect models of weapons and equipment were created. Alas, these designs have remained almost unknown to the general public. Unlike the unrealized German projects, the victorious countries were in no hurry to divulge details about their secret developments.
Everyone has heard of the work carried out in Germany to create anti-aircraft missile systems (Wasserfall, Schmetterling, Reintochter). But how many people know about the existence of the American SAM-N-2 Lark anti-aircraft complex?
The first contract for the production of a pre-production batch of 100 anti-aircraft missiles was signed in March 1945. The main characteristics of the Lark air defense system: effective firing range of 55 km. The cruising speed of the rocket is 0.85M. The warhead weighs 45 kg - more than enough to intercept piston aircraft. The Fairchild missiles used a combined guidance system (radio command control in the marching sector and semi-active control at the terminal stage). Competitors from Consolidated used a different “saddled beam” scheme and active homing in the final section using a small-sized AN / APN-23 radar.
After acquaintance with such facts, the tales of the German "miracle weapon" cause nothing but boredom.
The Red Army is the strongest
It cannot be denied the importance of technical research and the desire to improve the characteristics of military equipment. But the fun with the creation of "miracle weapons" had little to do with the real needs of the armed forces and successes at the front. The combat effectiveness of the army, aviation and navy was determined by their combat experience, coordination of actions and adaptability to the conditions in which they had to fight. Viewed from these positions, the Soviet rear and front accomplished a feat. The Soviet Union turned into a combat vehicle ideally adapted to the conditions of the Soviet-German front.
The horrors of the first months of the war, the indiscriminate retreat, the loss of important industrial centers, the disruption of industrial chains, the evacuation of industries with their "dispersion" over the vast expanses of the country. Lack of a highly skilled workforce. Low technical literacy among the personnel of the Red Army (as M. Kalashnikov said, “the soldier of the academies did not finish”). The general lag of Soviet industry behind the leading countries of the world, due to belated industrialization (for which special thanks to the tsarist regime). All this made the Soviet military-industrial complex unlike any of the military-industrial complex of foreign countries.
Mighty La-5FN. Fighters of this type were almost in no way inferior to the best foreign fighters with air-cooled engines (such as the Focke-Wolf-190, or the British "Hauker Tempest")
Nobody harbored illusions. The war against fascism will cost our country a terrible loss. Military equipment should be as cheap and simplified as possible - so much so that sometimes it was easier to throw a damaged tank than to transport it from the Vistula to the Urals. At the same time, in terms of the totality of its combat characteristics, Soviet military equipment had to correspond to foreign counterparts. Only such equipment could be produced by our military-industrial complex. And only such a technique could a Russian soldier fight.
… Specialists from the Flight Research Institute, the Air Force Research Institute and TsAGI carefully examined the brand new "Mosquito" V. IV (numbered DK296) and came to the conclusion: there are no secrets in the design of the British aircraft. High performance characteristics are provided due to excellent engines and extremely high quality workmanship of wooden parts of the fuselage and wing. The production of "Mosquito" in the USSR is impossible - for this there is neither the time, nor the energy, nor the workers of the proper qualifications.
Instead of gluing a three-layer "sandwich" of balsa and thoroughly polishing the surfaces, it was easier to "cut" a couple of "Pawns" (Pe-2) and immediately throw them into battle, towards the brutal hordes of fascists. The Pe-2 was not much inferior to the Mosquito in the specific conditions of the Soviet-German front.
Healthy asceticism, mass character and traditional Russian ingenuity - this was our miracle weapon that allowed the Red Army to reach Berlin.
