This was on the German drawing boards.

[Ken The Kanuck]

I wonder how history will view Hitler? I have seen movies of Ghengis Khan showing him from childhood ( I mean who can't like a kid )? He was also described as the greatest conquer the world has ever seen, note when one uses the word great attitudes change.

I believe that back in Ghengis's day he was looked upon by his foes much the same as we look upon Hitler and Nazi Germany today.

I guess I'll have to check back in a couple of thousand years.

KTK

[gunner]

RayP. i think the same way.

Gunner

[PrivatePaula]

Yeah thats a russian plane. I saw something in tv about it.
There are many military historian that think that Nazi-germany could have won the war if they: 1. wouldnt have changed their strategy over and over again
2. if they avoided the two-front war
3. if they would have used all their capacities for the war instead of deporting the jews.
But I'm glad Hitler was nothing but an insane fool.

[John Sukey (Deceased)]

One thing that was on the german drawing boards for 1945 was 100,000 ton battleships. Wonder where he planned to use them??????

[gunner]

Hi John,
i never heard about such a giant battleship. The only thing i heard was an aircraft carrier that was planned in a dimension that is near 2 times as large as your carriers. They called it the " Zeppelin ". So, they planned a huge target for your submarines.

Regards

Gunner

[PrivatePaula]

I wonder that there were still plans for new ships after Hitler sentenced the german Navy to never leave their harbours after the bismarck sank.
Otherwise there were many other desperate and crazy ideas that where made in the last few months of the war.
Eg. the 'E-100' a 140 Tons Battletank with a 174mm canon on it or the
'P-1000- Landschlachtschiff' (Land-dreadnought) which was a driving Vault (weight: over 1000 (!!!) tons) carrying a gun turret with two 280 mm canons that where also used for the 'Scharnhorst'.
Regards !

[Sid]

Germany could not have won the war under any circumstances, no matter what they did. Eventually America would have dropped atom bombs on them and that would have finished them.

[jon_norstog]

Hi John,
i never heard about such a giant battleship. The only thing i heard was an aircraft carrier that was planned in a dimension that is near 2 times as large as your carriers. They called it the " Zeppelin ". So, they planned a huge target for your submarines.

Regards

Gunner

Gunner, list;

The german navy had plans for two new classes of battleship. The fisrt "H" clas was a 52,000 ton ship with 8x16" guns. two ships were laid down in 1939 but LATER canceled. They really didn't have any advantage over the USN Wisconsin class ships or the equivalent British ships. There were plans for a 110,000 tonne super-H class, with 8x20" main battery. Nothing came of that either.

The "Amerikabomber" was a project - actually a list of strategic targets looking for a delivery platform. The most reasonable plan was ME261 aircraft launched from the Azores. The US occupied the Azores early on. The rest of the projects were dreams. Germany didn't have anything like our DARPA or research labs. Individual inventors would try to get at Hitler and if their project tickled his fancy, they might get some support. But not enough. And then Hitler would forget about the old toy and fasten onto a new one.

All these dreams! The real superweapon of WWII was an endless supply of infantrymen armed with battle rifles. The country that threw the most of them at the enemy was the USSR. I don't know if that country ever recovered completely from the loss of all those millions of men and women.

jn

[Kirk]

The Germans planned but did minimal development of several derivitives of the V2. One was a two-stage version with wings. It was designed two be sub-orbital and would "skip" off the atmosphere like a stone on water on the way to NYC. Guidance? It had a pilot who would bail out on the way down to be picked up by a waiting U boat. Another was more practical. A submersible pod was designed to carry a basic V2. A U boat would tow three such pods to a point off the east coast. Each pod had a ballast tank that when filled would stand the pod upright on the surface. A hatch was removed, exposing the V2. The V2 was fueled as normal and then launched from the pod. BTW, the Germans were the first to successfully launch solid fuel missiles from a submerged submarine - in 1942. They were also the first to develop wire-guided tactical rockets - in 1917!

[gunner]

Hi jn ,

Here are some pics of the "Zeppelin". Two of them are from our Bundesarchiv and real. the other ones shows a model of the ship. You got right the America Bomber and other toys were only dreams. And to the soviets i think it will take some time till they have there old strenght an economic power.

Regards,

Gunner