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September 10, 1945 Life
 [Table of Contents]
Wax nostalgic about and learn from the history of early
technology. See articles from Life magazine,
published 1883-1972. All copyrights hereby acknowledged.
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Without a doubt, Germany has in
the past far overestimated its ability to conquer the world by leveraging its
undeniable history of innovation and determination. A success in the
Franco-Prussian War gave it a sense of superiority and invincibility. WWI and
WWII were lost primarily due to the
blitzkrieg strategy later
failing to overwhelm and subdue the enemy in short order, causing protracted
wars and diminishing resources from within its domain. If Germany had instead
exploited its technical prowess in world markets, it might have been an economic
superpower today. The native population was/is brilliant. Today, Germany's
leaders are, in acts of self-flagellation and penance (and lunacy) for its past
sins, flooding the land with unskilled, hostile foreigners that are diluting the
indigenous folks, riddling the land with crime, and lowering the quality of
living. The scenario is not limited to just Germany, though; it's happening all
across Europe and until recently, in the U.S. as well. Tragically, if I lived in
the EU and posted this assessment, I would likely be jailed for hate speech.
Speaking of Pictures... ...These Are the Fantastic Secret
Weapons of Germany"
The V-2 launching platform was mounted on heavy-duty chassis
and rubber-tired wheels. It could be rolled up into firing position and then raised
hydraulically like a drawbridge.
V-2 on the platform is checked by a U. S. ordnance specialist.
This was one weapon that was highly successful, killed more than 2,000 people across
the Channel in England.
Section of the "Channel gun" is inspected by ordnance officer.
At right are the "boosters" which were spaced along the 400-fot-long barrel to increase
shell's velocity and distance.
Channel gun was set deep in Channel cliffs, aimed at London.
Note boosters on barrel. Gun was never used, was said to be manufactured because
it was invented by a friend of Hitler.
The V-1 with cockpit was a type of German "Kamikaze." This one
is shown with the wings detached. The Germans rarely used this because they could
not get the suicide pilots for it.
"Stingers," here loaded on trucks, were little tanks, filled
with high explosives and so constructed that the driver could get out and run before
the tank hit its target and exploded.
540-mm, self-propelled mortar, mounted on a tremendous tracked
carriage, weighed 120 tons. It had a range of 14,000 yards. Note its appalling size
in contrast with the man.
Infrared searchlight was an extremely useful weapon. It projected
infrared beam on object which view-finding device with an ingenious filter made
visible at great distance.
The weird and wonderful weapons displayed on these pages represent the lunatic
fringe of Germany's "secret weapon" program of World War II. Some of these devices
turned out to be rather useful weapons. Most of them were fantastic inventions concocted
in a last-minute desperation. But very few of them got into mass production, and
those that did suffered from shoddy workmanship. Ordnance experts of the Enemy Equipment
Intelligence Division of the U. S. Army, who captured these weapons, found that
the famous precision tooling of German manufacturers had long since deteriorated
into hurried sloppiness.
But while the Germans were roughly six months late in producing them in mass,
they did indeed perpetrate some fascinating gadgets of war. They developed a high-speed
submarine that would stay underwater indefinitely, a "spider" torpedo that trailed
a wire through which it could be controlled after it was fired. German wind tunnels
were far ahead of ours. For all the highly touted German technology, however, Allied
war equipment was generally far superior.
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