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AFAIK the engine wasn't even passing the 10 hour test until 1944, so it would have made no sense to put it into production that early, as it would have been a waste of resources until it was semi-reliable.Speer excelled in that category. He elected not to place Jumo 004A engine into mass production during 1943. Then while in prison he created a story about Hitler being to blame for delays in Me-262 production.
AFAIK the engine wasn't even passing the 10 hour test until 1944, so it would have made no sense to put it into production that early, as it would have been a waste of resources until it was semi-reliable.Speer excelled in that category. He elected not to place Jumo 004A engine into mass production during 1943. Then while in prison he created a story about Hitler being to blame for delays in Me-262 production.
Speer excelled in that category. He elected not to place Jumo 004A engine into mass production during 1943. Then while in prison he created a story about Hitler being to blame for delays in Me-262 production.
I think it is all very easy for us armchair generals to criticize their decisions. They took the decision based on the information they knew then. Until accurate bomb sights were available, dive bombing was the only way to accurately drop a bomb. The tactic proved extremely succesful and most countries developed or tried to develop dive bombers. For the same reason, long range bombers were a no go. With the existing technology, the Ural bomber would be too slow, vulnerable and unable to find its target and bomb it with any accuracy. That only became possible in the early fourties, when the He 177 went into production. The coupled engines were a good idea, but they had development issues. Jet technology seems an obvious step forward, but in the late thirties, early fourties it was still very exotic and unpredictable. They chose certain projects such as the V2 and neglected nuclear weapons. Ah well, bad guess. But understandable ...The early RLM leadership was still entrenched in the "battleship" school of thought, meaning they insisted on thier bombers being capable of dive-bombing which hampered otherwise good designs, they were suspicious of jet technology early on, they didn't feel a need for long range strategic bombers, they did not like designs with tricycle landing gear and so on...
He was right not to order it in production. Consumed too many rare alloys. And Hitler was the only one responsible for the delivery plans of all weapons. He decided what received priority. And no one else.Speer excelled in that category. He elected not to place Jumo 004A engine into mass production during 1943. Then while in prison he created a story about Hitler being to blame for delays in Me-262 production.
The discussion about war guilt knows no end. All were envolved in the atrocities, one way or another. But I believe we have to see it in its time frame and in the mind set of the time. The SS and some top nazis were the driving force behind the holocaust. But the real power behind was those who just went along with it, like sheep. Hannah Arendt described it as the "banality of evil". See no evil, hear no evil. Just do your job and don't question the guy above you.Speer excelled at creating the myth of Speer the good Nazi. "Keine ahnung" was his catch phrase when asked about the worst atrocities, until he was rumbled late in life. He must be the only high ranking Nazi whose deputy was executed whilst he got away with it.
That only became possible in the early fourties, when the He 177 went into production. The coupled engines were a good idea, but they had development issues. Jet technology seems an obvious step forward, but in the late thirties, early fourties it was still very exotic and unpredictable. They chose certain projects such as the V2 and neglected nuclear weapons. Ah well, bad guess. But understandable ...
Re: Speer.
I can only suggest that you read Gitta Sereny's "Albert Speer: His Battle with Truth".
Indeed, a very good read....and untimately Speer admits he deliberately lied and in fact that he knew all about what was really going on (the tale of the secret deposition to an Israeli holocaust trial is very interesting)