Amazing photos of Nazi Germany by Hugo Jaeger using a Leica LTM??

[Sparrow]

Yes, the Meteor was used to shoot down V1s - they were rarely used in the European field, because the allies didn't want the Germans to capture one and use the technology. Likewise other technology like proximity fuses, only used in London, never over Europe. It was slower than the Me262 - but its engines were far superior. Throughout the way the Germans were limited by their engine technology, which was just one of the reasons they never had a successful heavy bomber. Likewise, although they knew early on in the war that there would be a shortage of titanium, aluminium and other metals, they would never bite the bullet, like the Russians and Brits, and design a good wooden aeroplane - like the Mosquito which, if you shot one down, counted as two.

THere's a brilliant book called The Most Dangerous Enemy which goes into a lot of logistical detail about the Battle of Britain. It shows how, on many levels, the Germans were a shambles; many individual geniuses and superb ideas, but the system was flawed, because those people at the top were deluded.

Then of course there's the supreme irony that the Yanks, Brits and Russians hired 'em all after the war.

I haven't read Goering's diaries, as I don't want to go there, but part of me wants to; it would go well with those photos.


But do we all really want to know what they were thinking? It might be educational, but do we really want insight into the minds of those people?

Yep that's my understanding, the system wouldn't support the pace of the engagements, they were a shambles when they got to the channel and must have been disappointed the UK decided to fight on

 

[mfunnell]

I don't think they were in meaningful numbers.

That's not what I heard while growing up. But that depends on a whole bunch of technical and logistical factors about how the higher speed but lower loiter time of the Meteors simplified the intercept task when combined with the other aircraft types and the radar technology of the day. Way too much to go into (especially as it relies on half-remembered childhood conversations and technical knowledge I acquired only decades later). Suffice it to say that guys flying at the time thought that small numbers of Meteors made a disproportionate difference, while understanding that everybody not flying one really, really, wanted to fly one themselves. They saw the future and it wasn't (yet) theirs.

...Mike

 

[jarski]

visited museum in Peenemunde (German rocket test site before and during war) some years ago, and iirc more jew slave labour died building every V2 rocket, than there were casualties once it hit London and elsewhere in UK.
after war, Albert Speer's (Minister for Armaments and Ammunition) cold remark about V2 project that it was "bad investment".

 

[mfunnell]

Albert Speer's (Minister for Armaments and Ammunition) cold remark about V2 project that it was "bad investment".

The thing which should be scary, but perhaps isn't, is that his remark sounds so contemporary.

...Mike

 

[jarski]

Throughout the way the Germans were limited by their engine technology, which was just one of the reasons they never had a successful heavy bomber.

Germans also lacked oil and minerals to produce high octane kerosine, required in aeroplanes. they were producing synthetic products from coal (?), which didn't have same qualities. and amounts available for them were far behind of what Allied had anyway.

 

[peterm1]

I think you mean the Meteor was used against V1s. I doubt the Meteor could have caught up to a V2 in flight at all. 😉

Yes of course, I mistyped

 

[sevo]

Germans also lacked oil and minerals to produce high octane kerosine, required in aeroplanes.

Well, kerosine/jet fuel is very low octane, they had no shortage of that - it sits in the gap between gasoline and diesel, and had no application other than lighting and heating until jets were invented. Indeed, the Germans building jets even when they weren't sufficiently reliable yet was at least partially driven by the fact that these did not compete for the increasingly rare high octane aircraft piston engine fuel.

 

[jarski]

Well, kerosine/jet fuel is very low octane, they had no shortage of that - it sits in the gap between gasoline and diesel, and had no application other than lighting and heating until jets were invented.

ok thanks for correcting. dont know fuel types, but I remember reading Germans had difficulties producing adequate fuel for their planes.