Such a formidable man, his rice bubbles don't say "Snap, Crackle and Pop", they say "shhh, he's coming..."
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get ready for it…….Chuck Norris, of course..
I believe you are right about Goring. He came of age when air power was an extension of knights fighting one on one. A gentleman's war, fought by dashing young men, quite often of good breeding where you fought fair, acknowledged each other's greatness, and returned to base in time for dinner followed by brandy and cigars. As he grew older, fatter, and more powerful he never outgrew his need for flamboyance which was shown by his custom uniforms, clear polished nails, and make-up. Tempered with morphine and speed, his ideas as to what the Luftwaffe was and needed quite often collided with reality and his obsolete ideas of Aryan knights in the sky allowed him to overestimate it's capabilities. This might sound funny but in many ways he reminds of Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, who cannot stand to get out of the way of everyday operations of his team and let the pros do their thing. Goring was so scared of losing his exalted position of luxury that he did not dare put one of the brilliant young minds of the Luftwaffe in a position that may show him up.The multiplying effect of smart munitions is strategic. Far less raw material needed.
Germany had all of the pieces for smart munition lying on the table in 1940 in labs like Agfa, etc. But I believe the thinking of the time was that of air battle as a form of jousting. Bigger guns, faster planes.
I believe Goring was of that sort, that air war was just an extension of WW1 battle. Once the war outcome begins to depend on large quantities of nitrates, fuel, metals, Germany could not have prevailed with mere incremental improvements of weapons. And once in it, sacrificing present production to develop a game changer a year or two in the future would be a very difficult decision.
Another crucial element was the magnetron. Although the magnetron was well known in Germany, its use was limited and the much weaker klystron prevailed as a radar transmitter. This hobbled Germany defensively. Instead of megawatts, they got kilowatts, much less effective radar than otherwise.
Smart munitions in the 1940's is not unreasonable. I had a USAF tech order for the operational Sidewinder in front of me in the 1950's. And Germany of the 1930's era was more advanced in areas important to the developement of these munitions. Optics, color film, rocketry, etc.
Ron
Odd...then why wasn't it able to catch the V-2 at it's azimuth?
Well, I complained about my friend already, who is very stubborn.
The problem with calculations like that is that don't take the return trip into account.The main supply route to Britain has to pass the North Channel. My friend made a calculation that, taking two 600 l additional auxiliary fuel tanks, going airborne from Southwest Norway..............................
Plus a "reserve" for contingencies.Fw 190 as-is was probably the shortest range fighter in the Axis camp. BMW 801 was a fuel hog, the internal fuel carried was half what the P-47Cs and early Ds carried.
table (mind the non-drop-tank range figure, this has bearing on how much fuel it has to RTB, from that fuel we 'cut' what is used in combat 1st)
But - and here, I think, my friend is wrong: He says, there never would be any more Allied fighters than about 200 ones in the North
Is there a problem for your friend to register here and make his points in person?
The clever Germans fly with a tail wind both waysWhere does Germany invent all the extra petrol from?
Had the RLM tried adding balkenkreuz to the FW-190 to improve performance?IMO, the Fw 190 needs to 1st switch to a V12 engine ASAP (DB 601E or 605A by 1942) for much better mileage; greater internal fuel tankage is a must (talk at least another 250-300L). Then the 600L in drop tanks (or 900 if three were carried, or perhaps 2 x 400-450L) can be used to boost the range/radius into useful figures.
Pretty sure the Luftwaffe went with that idea and it seemed to work pretty good.Had the RLM tried adding balkenkreuz to FW-190 to improve performance?
The next thesis he utters is this (always remember there is no Eastern Frontier, so peace or armistice bertween Germany + USSR, after Hitler was toppled in early autumn 1942):
"German air power (including in reality "nearly ready" types like He 100 and Fw 187) will prevent Allied air power to fully establish in 1943 on British ground."
I say no to this once more. Sources say, in 1943 GB built 4.270 Spitfires and some Typhoons.
My friend says, there were not much more than 1000 fighters in active service on British ground.
To a degree, but it depends on the nature and composition of the threat. The likelihood of such a thing would be He 111s, Ju 88s and Do 217s (you can immediately discount the He 177 as there were simply not enough available aircraft in 1943, and with the serviceability and engine issues, the type wasn't ready for intensive operations) with Bf 109s and Fw 190s as escort against Spitfire IXs and Typhoons, with P-47s, P-38s and the first P-51s, depending on when this attack takes place, contributing from the US 8th AF - and I'm pretty certain the Americans wouldn't sit on their hands if Britain was attacked BoB style in 1943 because of potential danger to its interests...A renewed threat to the UK is going to see the RAF's deployment priorities significantly altered.