The "Heavyweight" of Luftwaffe

[pampa14]

I share with you a report showing a fantastic collection of photos of aircraft designed during the Second World War to bring war and destruction far beyond German borders. However, all of them did not pass the stage of prototypes and testing. What do you think if these planes had been built in quantity? They would have changed the course of the war? Visit the link, see the photos and give your opinion through the poll at the end of the article.


Aviação em Floripa: Os "Pesos-Pesados" alemães


Best Regards!

 

[drgondog]

No. The scarcity of fuel and fighter pilots negated any 'wunder weapons' for defense and the short range of any bomber program using jet engines negated strategic value and the allocation of resources to high performance conventional bombers with insufficient critical mass to do very much damage to strategic targets made that approach a dubious venture at best.

Gaining nuclear weapons in 1943 would have been useful to alter the course of the war in Europe combined with high performance delivery systems.

 

[Capt. Vick]

Greatpictures. Thanks for posting!

 

[pinehilljoe]

If the Third Reich had the industrial capacity to build 4 engine bombers in quantity, it would have also been able to build more armaments in general.

 

[parsifal]

The germans lacked for nothing in either their raw industrial power nor the advanced nature of their designs at the outbreak of war. What wrecked their ability to win was their mismanagement of the resources they commanded. Sticking to designs well past their prime for too long. inadequate forward planning in the lead up to war. overuse of the air force, and a multiplicity of fronts brought about by what was essentially an opportunist war strategy. A poor command structure and virtually no co-operation with allies. Later shortages of resources, fuel, transport (rail capacity), manpower shortages, fragmentation of production programmes all destroyed any chance the germans may have had for even a negotiated surrender.

 

[Shortround6]

I would add that at times they tried to go too far when going for the next generation of weapon/equipment. That is to say they tried to use a bit too much technological trickery without laying a good foundation. For example the entire bomber "B" program was a reach too far and the failure of any of the participants to reach service status meant the Luftwaffe was stuck "using designs well past their prime".

 

[drgondog]

If the Third Reich had the industrial capacity to build 4 engine bombers in quantity, it would have also been able to build more armaments in general.

Not that simple. The Phrase "I can do anything, but I can't do everything' comes to mind.

Planning, problem solving and prioritization must be balanced with respect to time and resources. There are Always Resource constraints in the real world.

If they had built more 4 engine bombers, some other facet of production suffered. Ditto US but with fewer constraints than Germany and Japan.