i was reading the other day and ran accross something that got me thinking. the bombing survey following WWII concluded that the V-1 and V-2 programs used enought resourses to build 24000 new fighters. i have no idea as to how many tanks, bunkers, or subs that would translate into but the numbers have to be fairly large. question 1 - was the V program a waste? IMHO yes. it produced weapons that were never anything more tham a distraction and really did little if nothing to help germany in the long run. question 2 - where should those resourses have been used more wisely? here's where i cannot make up my mind. more fighters- germany was sending pilots into combat that could just about pass the current private pilot tests so what would she do with 24000 more fighters? more subs- by the time the Vs were under way the battle for the shipping lanes was almost over. would more subs been of any real use or would manning problems limited them too. more bunkers- there was a concrete shortage and the V-2 did use a lot of it. tanks- maybe the best option but then theres the fuel problems. comments-
The problem with that is that it fails to take into account pilots. V weapons were fire and forget where each of these planes required a pilot. Inexeperienced pilots were sitting ducks and so to be effectivle you needed well trained and experienced men. Germany lacked such a resource. I assume that the cost incudes the development? A fail to understand how a v2 or v1 would cost considerably more to build than a fighter plane. Especailly the v1 which were fairly basic. FNG
pilots the survey didn't mention pilots but i already noted the problem in my post. if we assume the Vs were not an effective weapon in terms of seriously helping germany or damaging her foes [ which i believe to be the case] then the fact that they didn't need a pilot is meaningless. i'm wondering what could have been done with the wasted resourses that would have helped.
Well, a better question is what could Germany have achieved if they had chosen to research something instead of the V1 & V2. Maybe the Walter submarine could have been in service earlier. Maybe some of the more advanced prop planes could have been in service, rather than being 'Luftwaffe 1946' pipe dreams. Maybe the 'E' series of tanks would be in service before the end of the war. Maybe nothing much would be different...
I doubt it would have made that much difference. It may have delayed the end by 6 to 12 months tops. Regardless of the savings they could not produce enough to defend against the combined men and material of the US and Russia. FNG
the vengence weapon program forced the allies to divert some of their air power to neutralize it, especially in northern France.This probably saved some lives in Germany, but I don't know if it was significant strategically.
It also forced the allies to attack north rather than east to capture the launch sites, but again that barely effected the outcome. they did allow germany to strike the uk when it was impossable to do with air power in 45. Certainly they brought a lot of pressure on the uk government and commanders at the time. FNG
These are the real effects of the V weapons. None too impressive since the thrust northward was needed anyway in order to secure the flank of the push towards the Ruhr. However, what would or could Germany have done instead with the resources? As has been pointed out, there were too few trained crewmembers for additional planes, tanks or subs to be very useful. Concrete might be a good thing, but then again I haven't heard of a shortage in the material and the greatest problem with the German defence lines was a lack of suitable guns. It might be that the resources (human and material) used for the V weapons were simply wasted, but couldn't otherwise be used. Thus it only added some extra damage to economics and morale on both sides.
How realistic would it be to concentrate all German research resources on only one subject: why not a German Project Manhattan? I am almost certainly wrong again, but maybe there is someone who would care to tell, why it´´s a stupid idea. Another thing: Neuhausen factory and other facilities conneced with Wunderwaffe projects were very workforce-intensive. One could certainly save a lot effort, foodstuff, concrete and other raw materials. To which use? F.ex. better fortifications on Oder line (I know, very politically incorrect at the time, when such an effort would have a chance to be of any significance.
Wasn't the point of the vengence weapons program, at least the V2, to produce a delivery system for German nuclear weapons. The Germans put alot of resources into producing heavy water in Norway. I could be wrong here but isn't that the type of material used in thermonuclear weapons. I imagine the war would have ended quickly if the Germans had been able to field V2s with hydrogen bomb warheads.
Nah, AFAIK they weren't even thinking about nukes when V2 was started, would have probably had a problem getting a WWII-period war head in the nose anyway. Weight wasn't far off, but the shape would have been all wrong - too large a diameter, compare Fat Man's profile with that of the nose cone of V2. V2 was started too early for them to contemplate anything other than HE. Later rockets maybe, though. Oli
I heard there was a V6 missile in development that would have had a much greater range than the V2 and would have been able to carry a nuclear weapon, possibly across the Atlantic. This might just be Germanist propaganda though. In any case they wouldn't have had nukes to fill the rockets with.
afaik, they were too far away any viable project to contemplate delivery systems. Remeber the neverending problems in pr. Manhattan.... Germans were light years behind.
I've seen it written in a few places that the Nazi leadereship considered atomic physics 'Jewish physics' and not really worthy of consideration, not sure how true that is considering the power a bomb was considered to be able to give even them but......
nukes? AFAIK there is no link between the Vs and any sort of nuke except a DIRTY BOMB. i have seen some suggestions that that was discussed but there is no proof that anything was ever done there. it might have been different if there was some kind of warhead other that HE for the Vs but lacking it i stll think they were a waste of time and treasure that the germans did not have to waste. they were a distraction but the allies were a lot more able to waste the resourses to go after the Vs that the germans had to build them.
