Heinkel He 177

[wuzak]

 

[Gnomey]

Good one!

 

[Escuadrilla Azul]

I think that atributing the whole failure of the Luftwaffe in the shoulders of just one aircraft is going way to far. Is true that the Luftwaffe had a whole bunch of resource sucking programs, but the failure runs deeper than one aircraft and more in the strategies.

 

[yosimitesam]

I think that atributing the whole failure of the Luftwaffe in the shoulders of just one aircraft is going way to far. Is true that the Luftwaffe had a whole bunch of resource sucking programs, but the failure runs deeper than one aircraft and more in the strategies.

Quite right. Calum Douglas discusses this at some length in his book, 'The Secret Horsepower Race'. It seems that each manufacturer in Germany would 'take on' any new project to maintain their 'political position' with the Nazi heirarchy, regardless of how likely its fruition. This resulted in a plethora of 'resource sucking programs' (good phrase.) Contrast this with the British, where they concentrated their effors on fewer basic projects that had potential and dropped all 'futuristic' projects, or at least moved them to back burner.

 

[Zipper730]

Honestly, we all owe the decades of freedom after WWII to the numerous stupid decisions and idiotic planning the Germans made.