Table Of ContentSandini BIB.
Sandini BIB.
Sandini BIB.
Sandini BIB.
Roger Ford
Publishing
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Contents
INTRODUCTION 6
CHAPTER ONE
JET AIRCRAFT 8
C H A P T ER TWO
ROCKET-POWERED AIRCRAFT 34
CHAPTER THREE
HYBRID AIRCRAFT AND GLIDERS 44
CHAPTER FOUR
ROTARY-WING AIRCRAFT 52
C H A P T ER FIVE
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES 60
C H A P T ER SIX
AIR-TO-AIR WEAPONS 84
C H A P T ER S E V EN
AIR-TO-SURFACE MISSILES 90
C H A P T ER E I G HT
SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILES 100
C H A P T ER NINE
ARTILLERY 108
C H A P T ER TEN
TANKS AND ANTI-TANK WEAPONS 120
C H A P T ER E L E V EN
SUBMARINES AND THEIR WEAPONS 128
C H A P T ER TWELVE
NUCLEAR, BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS 138
INDEX 142
Sandini BIB.
Introduction
Before we begin to examine the large and diverse unilaterally, the projects were actually based outside
array of secret weapons produced in Germany Germany: in Holland, the Soviet Union, Sweden and
before and during World War II, we should perhaps in particular Switzerland.
define what is meant by the term 'secret'. Most In the strict sense, then, when we address the topic
weapons are developed in secret - or at least, under of German secret weapons of World War II, we are
conditions of stringent security - whether in times of faced with an enormous task. But the term 'secret
peace or war, if only because, as the old adage has it, weapons' has a more precise meaning in general use:
forewarned is forearmed. In Germany's case, there it implies something which goes beyond the develop-
was an added imperative: the Versailles Treaty which, ment of a piece of more or less mundane equipment
at the end of World War I, forbade her to develop (and in conditions of secrecy. It implies a genuinely new
even to possess) certain categories of weapons, such concept, something truly out of the ordinary, which
as aircraft and tanks. Development programmes for simply could not work without a new understanding
these weapons had to be carried out in absolute secre- of physical science or chemistry; a new mastery of
cy, since the ultimate risk (though probably a small technology; or some great leap of creative, imagina-
one by the time these development programmes were tive invention. In the place and at the time in question,
under way) was the occupation of Germany by the there was certainly no lack of those.
victorious Allies. In many cases, up until the moment
WUNDERWAFFEN
that Hitler signalled his intention to revoke the Treaty
Perhaps the alternative term frequently used in Ger-
many at the time - Wunderwaffen - comes closer to
defining the true nature of these secret devices, for
they were often truly things of wonder, being either
completely new and hitherto undreamed-of outside a
small select group, or achieving previously unthink-
able levels of performance thanks to breakthrough
innovations in science and technology. Some of them,
it is true, were 'ideas whose time had come', in that
the basic principle was understood, but had not yet
been successfully applied, and in these cases, teams
of scientists and engineers in America, Britain and
Germany (and sometimes elsewhere: there were sev-
eral significant advances made by Italy) were engaged
in a headlong race to get the first reliable working ver-
sion onto the battlefield. The development of the jet
aircraft and of radar, not to mention the development
of nuclear fission, stand out amongst those. But in
other areas, particularly in rocketry and the invention
and perfection of the all-important guidance systems,
Germany stood head and shoulders above the rest.
Left: The Junkers Ju 287, with its forward-swept wings,
was just one of a number of futuristic designs developed
by German scientists and engineers in World War II.
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Her scientists made an enormous and outstanding Above: A borderline secret weapon: the 'Goliath' was an
contribution, not just to the German war effort, but to explosives-filled wire-guided tank and a typically
modern civilisation. However, there were areas where innovative approach to dealing with bunkers and armour.
German science and technology were deficient, most
importantly - arguably - in the field of electronic the very outset, and the resources squandered upon
computing machines, which were not weapons them- producing them - and then keeping them in service -
selves but something without which the bounds of redirected into more appropriate channels such as the
technological development would soon be reached. more practical PzKpfw V Panther.
However, all too often these deficiencies arose as a In a very real sense, Hitler himself motivated and
result of demand chasing insufficient resource, and ran the German secret weapons programme. There
time simply ran out for the scientists of the Third seems to be a direct and very tangible link between
Reich before a satisfactory result could be produced. this programme and his psyche, and we are perhaps
left wondering whether the Wunderwaffen would have
TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE
existed without him. On balance, it seems certain that
Time and again in the course of this work we will they would have done, given the creative imagination
come upon development programmes which were of so many German scientists and the readiness of
either cancelled before they came to fruition or which many of her military men to accept innovation, but it
were still in progress at the war's end. Many of them, is equally certain that without Hitler's insistence,
of course, did not get under way until 1944, when the many weapons systems which made a very real
spectre of defeat was already looming large in Berlin impact upon the course of the war would either not
and many essential items were in increasingly short have been developed at all, or would, at best, have
supply. We can only speculate upon the possible out- been less prominent.
come of an earlier start on the course of the conflict. Nonetheless, without the genius of many German
Others were cancelled simply because they did not scientists and the brilliance of German technologists
appear to offer the likelihood of spectacular results, and engineers, the entire programme would have been
and in those cases we can, all too often, detect the stillborn. Many of the weapons produced for the first
hand of Adolf Hitler. In general, we can note what can time in Germany and employed in World War II went
only be described as a wrong-headed insistence on his on to become accepted and very important parts of the
part that big (and powerful) was always beautiful (and broader armoury, and several have made an enormous
irresistible). This major flaw led him to push for the impact on life as a whole outside the military arena.
development of weapons such as the fearsome - but The more spectacular failures have a certain grandeur,
only marginally effective and very expensive - despite their shortcomings, and even the outright
PzKpfw VI Tiger and King Tiger tanks, which would myths - and there were many, some remarkably per-
have been far better consigned to the wastebin from sistent - frequently had an underpinning of fact.
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C H A P T ER O NE
Jet Aircraft
Thrust-powered flight was an early alternative to the airscrew propeller - in 1928,
only a quarter century after the Wright brothers first took to the air, Fritz Stammer
flew in a rocket-powered glider. By the time a further decade had gone by, both
rocket- and jet-powered aircraft had become a reality, and a central plank in
Germany's attempts to win control in the air.
The German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, was held in were made in the field of aeronautics in the Third
high esteem in National Socialist Party (hence- Reich than in any other. That there was something
forth, Nazi) circles, and it perhaps enjoyed better approaching chaos in the way individual projects
access to the ultimate seat of power, namely Adolf were initiated, approved and evaluated is a constant
Hitler, than the Army or the Navy. This was not just source of wonder, because in a country which prided
because it had at its head one of the Fuhrer's closest itself on its logical, methodical approach to problem-
associates, Hermann Goring, but also because for solving, there was no logic or method in evidence! As
almost all of the war, it had sole charge of the front- one expert has commented, the relationship between
line defence of Germany against the combined the individual aircraft and engine manufacturers and
onslaughts of the British and American air forces, also between them and the Luftwaffe and the Reich-
bombing by night and by day. sluftfahrtministerium (RLM - the German Air Min-
Certainly, when it came to the allocation of funds istry) looked like tribal warfare.
for research and development, the Luftwaffe was at Those projects which came to fruition were
the head of the line; as a result, more developments amongst the better-known wartime developments,
and not just in Germany, but that only tells half, or far
Above: The stark shape of the Messerschmitt Me 262. less than half, the story. The vast majority fell by the
wayside, some due to lack of time; others, quite prop-
Left: The Heinkel He 162 made use of appropriate erly, because they were flawed; still others because
technology- in this case, plywood; its wing and tailplane they were simply too fanciful and apparently far-
assemblies were manufactured in furniture factories. fetched. Most of the more interesting new aircraft
