Posted on 07/01/2009 4:36:17 AM PDT by SonOfDarkSkies
Meet the "wonder weapon" that could have won the war for Hitler.
Called the Horten 229, the radical "flying wing" fighter-bomber looked and acted a lot like the U.S. Air Force's current B-2 — right down to the "stealth" radar-evading characteristics.
Fortunately for the world, the Ho 229 wasn't put into mass production before Nazi Germany surrendered in May 1945.
But American researchers boxed up and shipped home the prototypes and partially-built planes that existed — and now the same company that builds the B-2 has rebuilt one.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
No it couldn't have. Made it costlier for the Allies, maybe. Prolong the war a little bit, maybe. But it alone wasn't going to stop the several million troops converging on Berlin from both sides.
PHOTOS: "Hitler's Stealth Fighter"
I would like to see a compilation in one place of all the innovations that Nazi Germany came up with - the list must be staggering. Jets, Stealth, rocketry, this B2 like plane and many, many others.
Germany should thank God they didn’t this jet into operation, assuming it is stable. Germany would have been the second country to suffer a nuclear weapon detonation had they not already been destroyed.
Only if Hitler had gotten nuclear weapons could he have “won”.
There was a book that came out about ten years back titled: “How Hitler could have won”. It details a number of fatal Nazi mistakes & missed opportunities. In short:
— No declaration of war on America
— No invasion of Russia
— Expand operations in the Middle East. Seize the Arab oil fields.
I find this argument very compelling. If Hitler could have maintained his pact with the Soviet Union while gaining control of the Saudi oil fields, he might have won. Also, its not clear if America would have entered the war against Nazi Germany had Hitler not declared war on the US first. Short of these major strategic revisions, I really doubt there was any conventional weapon or technology that would have won the war for Hitler.
I recall seeing a much smaller version of a German flying wing at the Smithsonian’s “Silver Hill” facility. I’m not sure if that ever saw service, but it looked like a mean little machine.
Not likely. They would have had the same problems we had with the flying wing till computer technology caught up.
Hitler was insane, no if, ands or buts. His own people knew it.
Like most of the German late war fighters, great planes but not enough pilots or fuel. Our production over whelmed the Germans and we had an endless supply of pilot trainees, new jet prototypes, and lots of fuel. The only thing that might have saved them was their own A Bomb. By late 1944 the quality of their troops was dismal. The Army was spent and could not effectively sustain a counter attack. Whether a stealth airplane or the Trans Atlantic Bomber could do any damage by the time we hit the beaches of Normandy is doubtful. A former WW II German Officer once told me, “When the Americans landed in France, we knew the war was over.” (That from a former Capt. in the Waffen SS.)
This National Socialist stealth bomber would not have won the war for Hitler. In fact, it likely would have had no influence whatsoever. The problem is that it was not capable of carrying enough bombs to seriously damage the Allied war effort.
Unlike the Americans and British, National Socialist Germany never developed a heavy bomber like the B-17. The Luftwaffe was very good at tactical air support, but not strategic bombing, which required a large number of planes capable of carrying many bombs to rain on targets below. The Americans and British used long range bombers to wipe out Germany’s ability to wage war long before ground troops got anywhere near the Rhine. The results paid huge dividends for the Russians pn the Eastern front.
Edwards Air Force base is named after Glen Edwards who died while test flying a flying wing.
The only way Germany could have avoided defeat would have been to get rid of Hitler and Himmler, etc. The ME262 was an example of an advanced weapon that was squandered by the idiot Hitler in pointless uses. Same thing would have occurred with this plane.
Since the strategic bombing offensive had little to do with Germany’s defeat in the first place a stealthy interceptor would have encouraged the Allies to stop wasting lives and resources in minimally effective bombing raids.
I saw this jet on one of those wonder weapons of WWII that the History Channel did. It had the range to fly round trip to the US East Coast carrying a nuclear device.
Don’t forget we had the Nordon bomb sight.
Big talk about a plane that never flew (and still hasn't).
Hitler made the same mistake (pinning his hopes on wonder weapons that weren't ready, wouldn't work or were too complicated to produce and operate).
Agreed. Typical sensationalist headline and article.
Germany had young kids flying their planes at the end because their good pilots were dead. Also, Hitler’s constant interference (like Obama’s) caused total inefficiencies in production of other jet aircraft THAT COULD HAVE SLOWED THE EFFORT BY ALLIES.
The Germans were doomed (thank god) by Hitler’s insanity on the eastern front. Once Russia got motivated and turned back Germany from Moscow, the game was over in the long run.
IIRC, that book postulated that the truly fatal error was the German invasion of Crete. This operation accomplished little strategically but shattered the German airborne capacity. If the Germans had instead focused on Malta they could have won the war in the Med and North Africa and forced Britain to make peace. I found this an interesting thesis.
Seem Germany would of had a commanding role in the developement of stealth technology since they invented radar.
and if Spartacus had a Piper Cub, he would’ve defeated the Romans.
“Hitler made the same mistake (pinning his hopes on wonder weapons that weren’t ready, wouldn’t work or were too complicated to produce and operate).”
Sounds like the Obama energy plan, only more fiscally responsible.
If we had nukes in WWI, there wouldn’t have been a WWII. It really would have been the war to end all wars.
We had a thread on this last week. Some good conversation on an interesting subject.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2280959/posts
The Horten [and they were working on a bomber version], the jet fighter, the jet bomber, the cruise missle [V-1], the ballistic missile [V-2], the first wire-guided missile, the assault rifle [sturmgewehr 44], the rapid fire light machinegun w/ quick change barrel [MG 42], the first double action semi-automatic service pistol [Walther P 38], the first rifle w/ infra red sight [Vampyr], advanced radio/intercom in tanks, the ‘four finger’ formation for aircraft still used today [Kondor Legion, Spain], the forerunner to the RPG [panzerfaust], offensive infantry tactics based around the machine gun, the tank/ armored warfare doctrine still used today, the balanced [all arms] armored division, the shaped charge, modern airborne tactics.
I think you saw the Me-163 rocket plane used at the end of the war or the much smaller Northrop version in bright yellow, which actually dates back to the Thirties.
Looks a little like the crafts in the Kenneth Arnold sightings.
I didn’t see it, but did the show mention that Jack Northrup had prop flying wings in the air and turbo jet versions on the drawing board awaiting Nene engines from Britain?
You’re thinking of the larger version, which was nicknamed an ‘America bomber.’ The Ho 2-29 depicted in this thread was planned to be a fighter-bomber.
I think we would have nuked them 1st. Liberating Europe was the priority.
Thank Goodness, Indeed.
Thanks for the correction. Germany had quite a few advanced aircraft on the drawing boards or in testing. Hard to keep up with all of them.
The problem with those scenarios is that in the 1939-45 time range the world had no idea of the amount of oil available in Saudi Arabia and there were no Arab oil fields to seize. The largest and most available known oil reserves to Germany were in Romania and the Soviet Union; the first commercial oil field in Saudi Arabia wasn’t developed by SoCal until 1938 or 39. I don’t see Hitler going after that area on a could be/might be chance that the oil he wanted was there. He would have gone after the sure thing.
Baloney!
The Manhattan project guaranteed US victory.
The Germans were FAR behind in nuclear weaponry.
A Germany with all its major cities utterly destroyed would have been the eventual result. It matters little what sort of planes Germany might have developed.
I believe that was the Messerschmidt ME 163 Komet rocket fighter. It was a short flight duration, bomber interceptor that was deployed during the latter stages of the war. The fuel on board made it a death trap and several pilots were virtually melted by fuel spills in crashes. It did shoot down some Allied bombers, though.
Bingo. Nukes trump Jets.
Sounds like the Sanger Silver Bird suborbital bomber design.
Yeah, its been a while since I read (skimmed really) the book. As I recall, the author did talk about the Germans seizing the Caucuses from below. That might have been more defensible, but still would have triggered war with the USSR. Even if Hitler only had the Romanian oil, his biggest mistake was attacking Russia. If he had kept from doing that, he would have been very hard to beat.
Darn good thing also that Superman didn't work for the Nazis.
"Uberman Takes Stalingrad in 5 Minutes"; "Uberman Rounds Up 2 Million Jews"; "Uberman Kills Every Person in England, U.S. Next"
Hitler’s biggest mistake was stabbing Stalin in the back. If he hadn’t attacked the USSR and subsequently had to spend so many resources on the eastern front he likely would have retained control of Europe.
I figure that just issuing a condemnation of the attack on Pearl Harbor could have put them a position to force a peace on the UK. The USA was really NOT interested in getting involved in WWII. Denying Roosevelt any excuse to declare war on Germany might have kept the US out of the European War. It wouldn’t have cost Hitler anything - the Japanese never did anything for him...
After 1942, if they had taken out Hitler, the war would have been over almost immediately. Also, the Allied policy of Unconditional Surrender. Hitler would have been overthrown long before 1945 if that had not been there. Many Germans fought to the death rather than to be humiliated again in a Versailles type treaty.
Very good list. What about things that are strictly speaking, outside of the military sphere. What about coal gasification? Did that originate in Germany? How about autobahns? etc. etc.?
Hitler could not have been Hitler and not taken on the Soviet Union. His whole master race and living space theories and his hatred of Communism depended on it. And since there was no way he was never going to take on Stalin then I suppose one can say that he never had any real chance of winning his wars.
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