Tank and anti-aircraft gun found in German cellar

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Second World War tank and anti-aircraft gun found hidden in basement of villa in Germany
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/g...

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Defcon5 said:

Morningside said:

Oh, I thought it was THAT thread.

I'd forgotten all about that!

It's what made me post it!

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Use of the advanced technology was also not applied ton it's fullest degree by the NAZIs. Hitler decreed that the Me 262 should be used as a fighter bomber. Every 19 out of 20 was keyed for this job.


It has been postulated that had Hans Kammler started his underground cities a few years earlier, it would have practically won the war. Scary.

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julian64 said:

Not sure about that. Even toward the end of the war the german stuff was still more advanced. A single country developed the best aircraft, best engines including fuel injection and jet technology, by far the best tanks, and even ballistic weapons. The rest of the world was required by force of numbers to subdue them. But when you consider pretty much all that tech came out of a single country. I don't think you can say the adulation given to their kit was misplaced.

Indeed. Their modus operandi was to throw it all at the wall and see what sttuck, and then to keep on the specialist treatment instead of going for an all-rounder. THat's why so many lives and Soviet aggression was ignored when the Americans went into PIlsen to grab all the 'goodies.'

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TEKNOPUG said:

Best ballistic weapons, certainly. Although they amounted to zero impact on the war and actually robbed resources and skills from other areas. Best aircraft? All iterations of the Spitfire, P-47, P-51 (who's introduction was actually delayed by 18months), Mossie, Lanc, B-17, Liberator, B-29....I think that they were more than equal to anything equivalent that the German's produced. Sure, the Me262 was a more advanced airframe than the Meteor but only because the Meteor was still a rolling test-bed, with a very safe but limited design. Best engines? Merlin v DB601 - they traded power figures throughout the war. The RR Welland engines are widely accepted as being better than the Junkers Jumo fitted to the Me262. So I'd argue that their adulation is somewhat misplaced.

A lot of their ideas were not unique; what was unique was that they put them into practise. But as said earlier, often down to necessity and desperation of trying to find a war-winning weapon. Often also down to folly.

Their aversion to 'Jewish' science led them into unique areas.
I read a few books about the more esoteric stuff. The ideas that came to fruition years later in different countries lay with the crazy NAZIs, and I reckon there are still things to come.

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Negative Creep said:

Luckily for us the Germans split their resources amongst lots of competing designs instead of focussing on a few really good ones

Pretty much. They were desperate bybthstcstage.
The yanks decided prewar not to go for advanced stuff and use basic. With the one obvious exception of course.

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Negative Creep said:

Not to mention the Nazi high command spent as much time fighting eachother as they did us, and Hitler became increasingly obsessed with a wonder weapon that would win the war. In the last year or so of the war they were building/developing the Ar234, Ba 349, Do 335,He 162,He 219, Me 109, Me 163, Ta 152 and more. Imagine if they'd simply pooled their resources into just the ME262 and FW190D

Yeah, a lot of 'ifs' and 'buts', they were just crazy for infighting and specialisation.
One of the books I have read on the subject has hypothesised on how the compartmental system was simply lifted by the US secret services, making sure that no compartment knew what another compartment was really up to.
I think by the time that Hans Kammler got most of the ops under his command it was too late.

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I recall a programme dedicated to the main three plans that the Germans had for taking the USSR. The one that took them south through the oilfields and then swing north to Moscow was (in hindsight) the one that looked set to work. I cannot recall the reasons for not doing that one. And as said, the NAZIs had potential allies waiting in Belarus and Ukraine just itching to help smash the Russians....
The Russians also being able to bring in divisions and aeroplanes thanks to the Japanese non-aggression pact also helped.

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Underground city.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/biggest-se...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitlers-Suppressed-Still-S...
An interesting book, some of it is solid, some of it less so.