Charles, The New York flight hasn't been debunked, but the Germans never
gave any real evidence of the flight, which might be some peoples valid
definition of debunked. The two pilots who first mentioned the flight
during their interrogation had their stories backed up by none other than
Albert Spear. Why would the only top level Nazi to denounce Hitler,
apologize for his role in it all, then turn around and lie once the war was
over about a test flight? Doesn't seem realistic to me but this is far
enough from rockets for me.
On Mon, May 13, 2019 at 8:35 PM <willsrw@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Henry
Had the German built ME 262 instead of V2s, the Allied bombing campaign
over Europe would have been seriously hindered. I've read comments that a
much larger Me 262 force might have delayed VE Day by as much as a year.
Other problems were also catching up with the Third Reich, like a lack of
fuel. Goring had advocated for more Me 262s but Hitler wouldn't hear of
it. Some of my Air Force History types friends speculate more Me262s may
have also pushed the Allies into turbine technology much quicker. Needless
to say, Hitler bet on the wrong technology.
Rick Wills
-----Original Message-----
From: arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <arocket-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of Henry Spencer
Sent: Monday, 13 May, 2019 12:56 PM
To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [AR] Re: video of V-2 launch procedures
On Sun, 12 May 2019, Ken wrote:
No, that's what I meant, if Hitler used sensibility he would of pumped
more money and sooner into the V-2, even 6 months sooner and England
would of surrendered under a barrage of V-2 ballistic missile attacks.
Hardly. Dropping occasional 1t loads of high explosive at random on
London and its vicinity simply wasn't very useful. Even multiplying the
number of V-2s by a factor of ten -- straining the limits of what a more
aggressive program might have done -- would merely have elevated it from a
minor nuisance to a somewhat more serious nuisance. The average V-2 fired
at London killed two people in England; the entire V-2 campaign against
London and Antwerp delivered less high explosive than a single large RAF
bombing raid on Germany.
"... those of us who were seriously engaged in the war were very grateful
to Wernher von Braun. We knew that each V-2 cost as much to produce as a
high-performance fighter airplane. We knew that German forces on the
fighting fronts were in desperate need of airplanes, and that the V-2
rockets were doing us no military damage. From our point of view, the V-2
program was almost as good as if Hitler had adopted a policy of unilateral
disarmament." -- Freeman Dyson (who was living and working in London).
The first successful V-2 flight was back in 1943.
1942, actually (Oct 3rd). But there is a big difference between "first
successful flight" and "ready for operational service" -- in fact, even
when it did go into service, the V-2 wasn't really ready, as witness the
large number of failures. (About 1600 fired against Antwerp produced about
600 hits.)
Henry
