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Really you'd need to have Germany hold Fortress Europe in 1945 (failed Normandy and a victorious Kursk), while having some sort of effective counter to the strategic bombing campaign and the Allies out of Italy. Really you'd just have to have the US neutral and just providing Lend Lease to Britain and the USSR for Germany to survive into 1945 and '46.
Knowing comparatively little about the German side of things, I was wondering what anyone else thought about Generalleutnant Galland's plans for the continuation of the war if — for some magical reason — the Allies and Soviets were halted on the Rhine and Oder indefinitely.
(based on interrogation at Kaufbeuren, 16-18 September 1945)
- production shifting away from Me 109/Fw 190 and toward Ta 152
- development and production of Do 335 continued
- Me 262 development/production continued (increased range, drop tanks, better fuel, built-in rockets for better climb, better armour and armament)
- He 162 not capable of much further development, but improved until reaching promises made by Heinkel
- Me 163 replaced by Me 263
- 3-cm MK 108 replaced by 3-cm MK 103 and/or 3-cm MK 213
- 2-cm MG 151 replaced by 2-cm MG 213
- EZ 42 gunsight replacing standard Revi sights
- development of radar range measuring device
Some of the changes don't make sense on a technical level. The 3cm MK 108 was a 58kg gun. the 3cm MK 103 was a 141kg gun. You are lucky to replace two MK 108s with one MK 103. The MK 103 ammo was longer and heavier. The gun fired slower. It did have a much higher velocity and longer range but you weren't going to put two of them in either a He 162 or Me 263. Not without taking a substantial performance hit.
The Mauser 213 series guns were great prototypes but how close were they to production? It took the Allies (America, Britain and France) until the early 50s to put into service "copies" of the 213 series guns even with the help of some German engineers and under the threat of the cold war and nuclear bombers. Perhaps the allies had different standards of gun life or mean time/rounds between failures?
. In the immediate post-war era, Mauser engineers spread out from Germany and developed similar weapons around the world.
Due to the war could only ten prototypes are produced, which the Allies were at war's end in different places in the hands.
I think history has shown that the rocket powered interceptors were a dead end.
Yes but then you adding Mauser engineers to existing gun development teams. Time may have been lost in 1945-48 but it took until 1953 or so to get guns into service. 5 years after the Berlin airlift and almost 4 years after the first Russian atomic bomb is tested and only the US got a gun into service for combat testing during the Korean war. They might not have been pushing quite as hard as during WW II but these were priority programs at time of high international tension. ( I can remember doing air raid drills in grade school and middle school in the late 50s and early 60s).
It defies belief that the Germans were only months away from production in the Spring of 1945. ten prototype guns is almost laughable, the US went through a lot more than 10 guns just trying to get the Browning .50 cal from 800rpm to 1200rpm. It also took almost 4 years and 3 different design teams.
BTW the Wiki article on revolver cannon contains at least one error. The 5 barrel Hotchkiss gun was NOT a Gatling gun as a Gatling gun has a firing lock (breechblock and firing pin) for every barrel. The Hotchkiss gun had ONE breechblock and firing pin mechanism serving all 5 barrels. It is more like a 'revolver' gun with a really long cylinder cut away to form barrels.
Ta152 production would be important, but so was the Bf109 Fw190...which were both still very capable fighters. The Luftwaffe could have had a thousand Ta152s and it wouldn't have done any good. They simply didn't have enough skilled pilots left to fly them...Knowing comparatively little about the German side of things, I was wondering what anyone else thought about Generalleutnant Galland's plans for the continuation of the war if — for some magical reason — the Allies and Soviets were halted on the Rhine and Oder indefinitely.
(based on interrogation at Kaufbeuren, 16-18 September 1945)
- production shifting away from Me 109/Fw 190 and toward Ta 152
- development and production of Do 335 continued
- Me 262 development/production continued (increased range, drop tanks, better fuel, built-in rockets for better climb, better armour and armament)
- He 162 not capable of much further development, but improved until reaching promises made by Heinkel
- Me 163 replaced by Me 263
- 3-cm MK 108 replaced by 3-cm MK 103 and/or 3-cm MK 213
- 2-cm MG 151 replaced by 2-cm MG 213
- EZ 42 gunsight replacing standard Revi sights
- development of radar range measuring device
I'm not sure sure. I think the basic idea behind the Me 163 was sound - it just needed further development, perhaps what would be seen in the Me 263.
Where are today's rocket powered air force aircraft?
Where are today's rocket powered air force aircraft?