Dark skies [the Messerschmitt 262 and slave labor-long]

Jerusalem Post ^ | 2-11-07 | ANSHEL PFEFFER

[devolve]

Messerschmitt Me262

Lockheed SR71

Potlatch Pelosi 1

[antiRepublicrat]

The government rarely allows anyone down into the 50,000-square-meter cavity

Wow, that's big. For comparison, a good-sized house is 200 square meters. This is over half a million square feet, all dug out in a matter of months.

[Calvin Locke]

I doubt that they had the industrial resources to make one. I think the Oak Ridge facility consumed about 10% of the electrical production in the US. That's not to mention the amount of uranium ore that the US had access to.

Heck, the US even had a unit that searched for the German stores.

[COEXERJ145]

There is a book entitled "Alsos" which is a really good account of the U.S. intelligence effort to see how far along Germany was in building an atomic bomb.

[potlatch]

Lol, you love the Pelosi Jet!!

Something has changed as the white around it didn't show up in this post;

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1782434/posts?page=22#22

[Gunny P]

Once read that the Germans experimented with a type of rubber coating on some U-Boats. A "stealth: type effort to deflect radar.
Didn't work....

[Covenantor]

For a video of the restored one go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5vhfflmM0o
see related videos for wartime footage.
Enjoy.

[Paleo Conservative]

Good question, the XB-35 and B-36 were orignally designed for the mission of being able to bomb Germany from bases in the US in case Britain were lost as a base. I think it's highly likely we would have taken over Iceland and used it as a base.

[DuncanWaring]

I think the theory was that more submarines in 1940 and 1941 would have sunk enough to the shipping going to Britain and Russia that those two countries would not have been able to hold off the Huns.

[devolve]

LOL!

OK

Refresh the graphic

I had made a reduced byte version but it look OK on my big screen

[fso301]

And, slave labor for that type of work wasn't exactly reliable, if not overtly sabotaging. V-2 production was thankfully slowed due to the fatally heroic efforts of some of them.

Very true, I've read many survivors accounts from the labor camps describing how they would sabotage what they were making. A few grains of sand sprinked into a shell fuze, bearing grease container, etc.

From the article:"Most of the planes delivered were sent back because vital parts were missing. The Luftwaffe accepted only 900 planes."

[potlatch]

Yes, it's clear again now devolve!

[fso301]

Don't think they had time to paint the Star of David on them,

Yep, I've heard older Israelis speak of using German weapons and equipment still bearing the swastikas.

[investigateworld]

I think with could have taken North African on our own with a lot more blood. Then moved towards Germany through the south of France.

Fortunately there were real men who kept Britain in the fight.

[Paleo Conservative]

But bomber bases in Iceland would have been quite useful. While B-17's would have had severe restrictions on bomb loads, B-29's would have easily been able to fly round trips to Germany from Iceland with heavy bomb loads.

[fso301]

I've heard an assertion that if the Reich had 50 more submarines at the start of the war they would have won the Battle of the Atlantic, and thus the war.

Only one of many if's.

Had Hitler not allowed the British army to escape Dunkirk.
Had Hitler not abandoned attacks on British military targets and switched to civilian targets.
Had Hitler not needed to divert divisions for the rescue Mussolini in Africa and the Balkans.
Had Hitler known in advance of the Russian T-34.
Had Hitler focused on taking Moscow in 1941.
Had Hitler allowed the Wehrmacht to prepare winter positions in 1941/42.
Had Hitler not stopped night vision R&D in 1941.
Had Hitler allowed the 6th Army to attempt a breakout.
Had Hitler allowed a "flexible defense" rather than his constant orders of "not one millimeter retreat".
Had Hitler in planning Operation Citadel recognized the uselessness of the Ferdinand as an offensive weapon without defensive machineguns.
By the Autumn of 1943 the war was militarily lost.

[wolficatZ]

Avia S-199 during 1948 (Source: Wings of Fame 11)

[ExcursionGuy84]

Actually, WE the USA were officially & militarily vested conrol & protection of Iceland during the Battle of the Atlantic.

Matter of Fact, our soldiers arrived on the island before Pearl Harbor, while our Destroyers were performing convoy duty & getting torpedoed before we officially declared war on Nazism.

[ExcursionGuy84]

What was the "Ferdinand"?

[fso301]

What was the "Ferdinand"?

Essentially a heavily armored self propelled howitzer. Something like 200mm of frontal armor. Ignoring mechanical problems, it's real undoing at Kursk was it's lack of defensive machineguns. In leading the armored assaults, the Ferdinands proved to be invulnerable to Russian anti-tank fire and were the only panzers able to break through Russian lines. However, rather than rampaging through the Russian rear, their slow speed, limited ammo storage and especially their lack of defensive machineguns made them east prey for soviet anti-tank infantry. The preferred method being attaching a magnetic mine or climbing abord and inserting a flamethrower nozzle into an air vent.