I've seen one of these at the Air and space museum at Washington D.C. "Only 7 machines had been constructed at Laupheim before an air raid halted production in July 1944 and wiped out the factory. " " In 1944 the German Air Ministry issued a contract to BMW to produce 1,000 examples. However, the company's Munich plant was destroyed by Allied bombing raids after producing just 24 machines." Imagine WW2 being fought like Vietnam?
Imagine all those helicopters being shot down.They would make an even more target rich environment for Allied fighters. The airmobile tactics developed and used in Vietnam weren't even developed till after Korea. And the war in Europe was no where near what it was like in Vietnam. http://www.ww2f.com/what-if/23176-what-if-helicopter-development-accelerated-world-war-2-a.html
the wiki says that the 24 machines of the lower model were used as artillery observation platforms. Many were shot down by Soviet fighters in the east... Naturally, if there were nazi helicopters in numbers, the allies would respond..
There was a plan to carry a small helicopter in a pod on a U boat for spotting, in 1943. The U.S used some R4b before the war in the pacific ended.
Much of this subjct was discussed in this thread. Quite a bit of info there. What if helicopter development was accelerated in World War 2?
