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This is just another what if thread so I don't think anyone can say with any certainty what exactly would of happened had the Germans of had access to proximity fuses, but for me one things for sure and that is it would of helped the Germans more than it helped the Allies. Under the circumstances that the Germans were in during late 1944-45 it sounds to me as though proximity fused ground defences would have been a safer bet than Me262's and the other wonder weapons. I think though that the Me262's and jet fighters are in general a far more interesting topic for discussion than boring old artillery fuses and this is why we don't hear so much about them. Nobody looks at a picture of a fuse and says wow.
.I don't think this thread requires anyone to be convinced that proxy fuses would have wiped out bombers in such numbers that bombing would have to be abandoned, expecting anyone to be convinced is a little much to ask because it was never put to the test
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I need convincing, and so does Professor Westermann who wrote the defeinitive English language version on the German flak arm. There were numerous other problems facing the German flak arm, VT fuses would have helped, but I dont know that they would be a total game changer for the germans.
I do think they would have helped, but I remain unconvinced they would completely turn the battle around. Westermann sort of agrees with that
Nobody convinced me that the proximity fuses would transform Luftwaffe flak into a weapon system capable of devastating allied formations. The Luftwaffe originally thought they needed to get the shell (88mm) within 30m of a bomber to destroy it. This was revised down to 3m. That's the problem. Your projectile needs to pass within 3m of the target to be "devastating" and nothing here has convinced me that this was possible often enough to have a huge effect on allied losses.
Cheers
Steve