Wunderwaffe
Wunderwaffe (English: Wonder Weapon) is a term used to describe super weapons of National Socialist Germany planned or manufactured before and during World War II, which were superior to the weapons used by any other country, years before their time. Most of the wonder weapons were unable to have any influence upon the outcome of war, due to several reasons, which are described below.
History
The V-2 rocket, developed by the genius of the century, Wernher von Braun, was the first flying object to reach space. But that was only the beginning: Von Braun's former mentor, the visionary and physicist Hermann Oberth, was already working on plans for a space station – and on a deadly laser weapon in space.
The basis for the Reich flying discs (Reichsflugscheiben) was created by the research of the still unrecognized energy genius Viktor Schauberger: implosion instead of explosion was his motto – and he saw antigravity as the key to creating a completely new form of locomotion. With his Repulsine, he had evidently developed a device that met this requirement. Schauberger is often dismissed as a charlatan and a crank - but hardly anyone knows that none other than today's King Charles III of England is probably his most famous follower. In his book "Harmony" he erected a monument to the Austrian and described his findings as groundbreaking. Schauberger developed these, among other things, as a researcher for the SS in the Third Reich.
After the war, Americans in particular – but also Soviets, British and French – made use of the plans, prototypes and finished examples of German weapons development – and of German scientists and technicians: the US Air Force's stealth bomber, NASA's Saturn moon rocket, the Russian nuclear submarines, the British vertical take-off jets, the French "Concorde" supersonic aircraft – without the documents and equipment captured from the Germans, this would never have been possible.
List (excerpt)
- Type XXI U-boat (German Electric boat): The first submarine that was capable of being underwater of a longer period of time. 118 were built, but came too late to have influence in the war. After the war they were used by serveral other countries (France, USSR, UK and USA).
- Graf Zeppelin and Flugzeugträger B: Aircraft carriers. Never completed.
- German aircraft carrier I (1942): Planned conversion of the transport ship SS Europe to an aircraft carrier. Would be 30 meters longer than the Graf Zeppelin. Never completed.
- Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte: Super Panzer. 35 meters long, 11 meters high, with a weight of 1000 tons, armed with two 280mm cannons. Planned, one 280mm cannon was reserved.
- Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster: Super Panzer. 42 meters long, 7 meters high, with a weight of 1500 tons, armed with a 800mm cannon. Planned, the gun – however – was used on the Schwerer Gustav.
- Messerschmitt Me 264: Bomber (Kampfflieger). Range of 9.500 mi (15000 km). 3 prototypes built.
- Heinkel He 176: Jet aircraft. World's first aircraft to be propelled solely by a liquid-fueled rocket.
- Horten Ho 229: Jet aircraft. First jet aircraft with the flying wing-concept and first stealth bomber. 3 built. USA based the B-2 Spirit on this plane.
- Aggregate 4 (V-2 rocket): Ballistic missile. First ballistic missile. Over 5.200 built.
- Schwerer Gustav: Super-heavy artillery. Railway siege guns, 47,3 meters in length, 1350 tons in weight, equipped with a 800mm gun. 2 built.
- Sturmgewehr 44: Assault rifle. First assault rifle. 425.977 built. After the war model for the AK-47.
- Sturmgewehr 45: Assault rifle. Successor of the Sturmgewehr 44. 30 prototypes built.
- Flakpanzer "Kugelblitz" (Ball Lightning): Self-propelled German anti-aircraft gun.
Quotes
- You will be amazed at the breathtaking and forward-looking ideas that German inventiveness developed in the 1930s and 1940s in the field of weapons technology: tanks as big as battleships – huge railway guns – flying wing aircraft that were invisible to enemy radar – submarines that were almost silent and indestructible – snake-shaped vehicles that drilled through the earth – solar lasers and sound cannons – the first cruise missiles – guns that could shoot around corners – and forms of propulsion and energy generation that have not yet been implemented. The V2 was just the beginning: there were already finished prototypes that envisaged a crew for the rocket to take people into space. This is exactly what mastermind Wernher von Braun later implemented at NASA. And with the A9/A10, a two-stage intercontinental missile was developed that was supposed to fly as far as New York – but not equipped with conventional payloads, but with nuclear warheads![1]
See also
- Inventions of the European race
- German inventors and discoverers
- Third Reich UFOs
- Foo fighter
- Operation Paperclip
External links
References
- ↑ Hitlers Geheimwaffen: Die ganze Wahrheit!, "Compact", 23 October 2024
