The Nazis may have lost the war, but much of the technology that they developed or envisioned was certainly not lacking in creativity. Many of these technologies were implemented on small scales, some never made it off the blueprint, and some are just straight up urban legends.
The Goliath tracked mine was a remote-controlled car that was filled with 100-200 pounds of explosives and could be maneuvered next to enemy tanks and defensive positions. These were commonly used, and the Nazis built over 7,000 of these compact explosives.
Another piece of technology used by the Germans was a rocket-powered plane called the Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet. This plane moved up to 700 miles per hour, while the fastest allied plane moved at only 440 mph. While these planes were so fast that the allied pilots could not shoot them, they were also too fast for the Germans to shoot the allies, so the ended up not being very effective.
Nearing the end of the actually used war technologies is the Schwerer Gustav. This 43-meter long gun was developed in order to be able to bomb London from France, by launching immense rockets across the ocean. However, because of its giant size, it was an easy target for bombing raids and only used for a short amount of time before being abandoned.
Now we reach the end of their realistic weapons and start to go towards the more fantastical ideas of the Nazis. One of these ideas was to create immense tanks, called the p. 100 ratte, and the p 1500 monster tank, which would have weighed over 1,000 tons. However, the idea was never implemented, because of how unreasonable the idea was.
The Germans came up with some of the most creative ideas, and even more surprisingly, some of them actually worked. However, the majority did not, and while creative, the money and time spent on these technologies ultimately did not help the German war effort.
Alan, interesting post. It is cool to note how a couple of the weapons you mentioned are part of digital culture today. The "sun gun" sounds very similar to the Death Star in Star Wars. And the Goliath, while I am sure similar technology is actually used today, is also representative of the RC-XD in Call of Duty. Beyond that though, I think it is clear that the Nazis were, for lack of a better word, very curious and experimented a lot. Unfortunately, this experimentation did have a horrific side to it. Infamous human experimentation took place in concentration camps, where prisoners were subject to things ranging from mustard gas and freezing cold temperatures to contagious and deadly diseases.
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This is a very creative and informative post about the details of the Nazi effort in the war. As Ari said, the Nazies were particularly interesting with their ability to create creative methods to cause pain and fight their enemies. Another person that could've been included in this article is Josef Mengele. Mengele was a famous physician in Auschwitz, known for his inhumane experiments on the camp prisoners. He would experiment on twins, often children, and collected the eyes of his murdered victims to study heterochromia.
ReplyDeleteIt was very interesting to read how the germans were very 'creative' in their ideas during the war period. Many of these ideas seemed unfathomable or at the very least unnecessary. I especially thought the rc explosive was an interesting feat given it's considerably funny tactical use. However, while the germans were able to create interesting and specific weapons, the US was able to create a larger amount of more generic brand weapons which proved to over power any rc car the germans could manufacture.
ReplyDeletefirst of all I really liked your title. Your article explained german ingenuity very well. It helped me synthesize and come to the conclusion that the germans were very focused on having a technological advantage over their adversaries but over-complexities in their creations caused them to be ineffective as you detailed. One very effective weapon that the germans created was the U-boat, an advanced submarine that created the atlantic barrier for the americans, and cut off supplies for the british in north africa and the US.
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I stumbled onto your post and decided to read it because of your title, and was not disappointed. I think you described german's creativity during WW2 very well, and it supplements what we learned in class about Germany not being able to mass produce their weapons like American due to their intricate weaponry. I also learned that their weapons, despite being very intricate, were not always the most efficient. Another weapon that the germans created during WW2 was the Fitz X, an armor-piercing bomb that was able to sink an Italian battleship in 1943. You can read more here: https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/bomb-guided-fritz-x-x-1
ReplyDeleteGreat post, Alan. German technology in the war was far supreme to Americans and the British. Because of this many analysts believe that if not for America's capacity to make war the Germans would have won. The German's Panzer tanks easily out shot and out worked the American Sherman. German tank technology in fact was so good that later in the 1970s and 1980s the US would team up with the Germans to produce the famed M1A1 Abrams tank. Then, there was the Messerschmitt Me 262, which took after the Me 163. This was the first real successful jet-powered fighter jet. It was able to bring havoc to Allied Aerial fleets and made the P-51 mustang look it was the first world war. Also, German engineers were the first to think up of the stealth winged bomber design. A strategy that would be later implemented in the most advanced bomber ever built, the B-2 Spirt.
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