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The Legacy of Nazi Germany's "Wonder Weapons"
by Scott N. Romaniuk, Tobias J. Burgers, Shih-Yueh Yang
Trento, Italy (SPX) Feb 01, 2017


The world's first operational turbo-jet interceptor, Germany's illustrious Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe that dazzled Allied pilots with its speed, might have made a timely entry into the war, able to make a major impact against Allied bomber forces, but the shortage of metal required to build jet engines hampered Me 262's overall production.

Nazi Germany's "wonder weapons" (Wunderwaffen) or "vengeance weapons" (Vergeltungswaffen) are part of the remarkable technological advances either achieved or pursued during the course of the Second World War, particularly during the latter-half and in the final months of the war in Europe. Some of the Third Reich's "super weapons" entered into service and saw action on a number of fronts. Yet at the same time, many of Hitler's plans remained mere conceptualizations and were never quite realized by the Nazis

A considerable number of Nazi Germany's weapons and weapon systems were conceived of years before war broke-out in 1939. Some of their developments were pushed along by necessity, others by a profound sense of desperation to win the war. More than a handful of these laid the foundations for some of todays most sophisticated military weapons. Those weapons were supposed to turn the tide of war against the Allies, including the Soviet armies that were slowly steamrolling across Eastern Europe by the late summer of 1943.

Nazi Germany held a significant technological edge over other nation's militaries during the lead-up to the war in Europe, and although Nazi Germany's technological position was in flux, its technologies became manifest in Hitler's land, naval, and air wars. Many of the so-called "wonder weapons" are well known. Other astonishing weapons that were either near-completion or actually put into action failed to achieve the same degree of notoriety as others. In some cases, hundreds and even thousands of units were produced, and put into force with varying degrees of success. Some were years ahead of their time. From tanks to nerve agents, much of Nazi wartime advancements transcended the Second World War and served a different political order.

Despite the idea in the popular mind of the Nazi's being strategic thinkers, their innovative thinking and technological development was erratic, failing to correlate with the reality of the Nazi Germany's status and state during various stages of the war. Nazi High Command was not adept in focusing its efforts on the development of a few weapons able to benefit its war effort the most. Much of Hitler's late-war sketches and developments were detached from the resource availability. Take, for example, the steel needed to build machines like the Lowe (Lion or Panzerkampfwagen [PzKpfw] VII) and the Maus (Mouse or PzKpfw VIII) super-heavy tanks. In the case of the latter, only one was ever built while another was being pieced together.

The Maus weighed a staggering 188 tons with a fuel capacity of 2,700 litres. Hitler approved the original design put forward by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche, the VK100 01 or the Porsche Type 205 as early as June 1942 - the high-tide of the Nazi empire. By the time the second prototype had been completed and further testing commended, the Allies discovered the German war economy's "Achilles' heel" and fine-tuned their strategic bombing campaign most of Germany's natural oil sources were already in Soviet hands or under constant attack, and further development on a tank that required the resources to run that Germany could barely crisply exemplified Hitler and much of German High Command's folly.

The same can be said of the Sturmgewehr (StG) 44, which was not produced until 1944 and filed to reach Wehrmacht units in orders significant enough to make a dramatic impact. Those equipped with these guns represented rather an exception to the norm of units carrying around their Karabiner 98K weapons. The StG 44 was the very first assault rifle-the AK-47, FN FNC, HK-41, M16, among many others (thought to say that they are mere copies is a stretch), followed the StG 44 that facilitated massive strides beyond previous methods of warfare and warfighting. The StG 44 was a cheap, effective, and easily to produce weapon, but Hitler did not approve the production of this new weapon based on his "WWI" combat experience.

The world's first operational turbo-jet interceptor, Germany's illustrious Messerschmitt Me 262 Schwalbe that dazzled Allied pilots with its speed, might have made a timely entry into the war, able to make a major impact against Allied bomber forces, but the shortage of metal required to build jet engines hampered Me 262's overall production. The Arado Ar 234 "Blitz," featuring two engine nacelles, served as a source of inspiration for subsequent designs though demonstrated that the Nazis tended to either favor or over-develop just a single attribute at the expense of many or all others.

Referred to as the "Doodlebug" by the Allies, the Goliath tracked beetle came into service in 1942, at the height of Germany military expansion in Europe and North Africa. The Goliath was a remotely operated bomb designed and developed to destroy enemy tanks but could also be used against enemy infantry or installations. Its operators used a joystick box connected to the carrier by a cable over 2,000 feet in length. Borgward produced thousands of Goliaths during the war, serving as the inspiration for modern remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) of many types.

Dr. Alexander Lippisch's Me 163 Komet was the first rocket-powered fighter plane having entered into service and used by the Luftwaffe in 1944. The Komet was used against swarms of Allied long-range bombers like the Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortress." Kept in readiness at their airfields, the Komet partially, superficially rather, overcame the problem of predicting when and where Allied bombers would strike, and being able to reach the requisite altitude for engagement before the bomber formations released their payloads. The tiny Komet, almost an impossible target to hit, exceeded 30,000 feet in only 3 minutes but only had several minutes of fuel to complete their attacks. Achieving speeds of nearly 600 miles per hour, they outpaced their prey by such an extent that they usually had only several seconds to line-up with their targets and pepper the enemy bomber with its 30mm Rheinmetall Borsig MK 108 cannons. It was the only operational rocket-powered fighter aircraft.

An experimental rocket-propelled interceptor called the Bachem Ba 349 "Natter" was a vertical take-off fighter that used the same engine as the Komet. It carried a pilot who was essentially a passenger but the plane was operated just like an unmanned missile by its ground crew. At approximately 20,000 feet, the pilot would assume control as it closed in on the bomber streams, navigating the aircraft so as to jettison its unguided missiles from the nosecone as accurately as possible. With only 4 minutes of flight time, the pilot would use an old First World War-style target to direct the entire salvo toward the bomber formation. Afterward, the pilot would have to release part of the aircraft and parachute back to safety. The Ba 349 never entered into service and served as a scintillating depiction of Nazi Germany's sheer desperation.

Nazi scientist Dr. Eugen Sanger conceptualized a sub-orbital rocket-bomber named the Silverbird (Silbervogel), though it remained on the drawing table for the duration of the war. The bomber was conjured up with the intention of carrying a conventional bomb weighing approximately 9,000 pounds to the continental US. The aircraft was designed to use a long sled to rocket the device to the speed necessary for take-off. Following its launch, the aircraft's engine would use about 200,000 pounds of thrust to move the aircraft at an altitude of several hundred miles. It would "skip" off the Earth's atmosphere several times before closing in on its target, reaching velocities exceeding two-times the rocket's exhaust speed. After delivering its lethal cargo, the aircraft would have to land in friendly (possibly Japanese-held) territory.

In addition to the V1 flying bomb (known as the "Buzzbomb" or "Doodlebug") and V2 rocket (the V1's successor and original short-range ballistic missile [SRBM]), Nazi scientists developed the V3 cannon/pump gun (Vergeltungswaffe 3), a supergun built into the ground at Mimoyecques, France and contained multiple side chambers equipped with explosive or solid-fuel rocket boosters that fired as the main projectile made its way through the primary barrel. The supergun was capable of shooting 300 projectiles per hour a speed of some 1,500 meters per second and could effectively replace the use of aircraft in efforts to reduce London to ruins from installations in Belgium or Luxembourg, or elsewhere in Nazi-occupied Western Europe.

Germany's massive siege guns "Big Bertha" in WWI and the biggest gun ever built, the "Heavy Gustav," ("Dora") in WWII are not unlike Britain's WWI and WWII railway guns named "Gladiator," "Piece Maker," and "Scene Shifter," and the Type 90 240mm railway gun that Japan purchased from the French Schneider-Creusot company and was used by the Imperial Japanese Army. 19th century science fiction popularized such mammoth guns but after WWII, missile development and other technological innovation opened far more promising avenues for delivering projectiles at high speeds and over extensive distances. Hitler's super canon inspired research in the United States (US) under the Reagan administration. Saddam Hussein's 512-foot-long "Babylon" super canon resembled the destructive weapon in 1990.

These "Wonder Weapons" might have an impact on China today. China wants to overcome the US' military advantage by innovative thinking and alternative technology. China's research led to the "Taiwan Rocket Gun" boasting a range of some 200 miles. The Formosa straight is just 100 miles wide at its most narrow point, making every inch of the island susceptible to China's deadly weapon. Even without the use of aircraft or missiles, China would have the ability to reduce the island with supersonic-speed projectiles just as Hitler expected to reduce parts of southeast England, especially London.

In cooperation with the Sichuan Aerospace Industry Corporation (SCAIC and also referred to as Base 062), China developed a long-range artillery system that is essentially an artillery rocket called the WS-1B. The ultra long-range "rocket" gun allows for numerous short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs) to be launched at an impressive rate of fire and at costs much lower than China's existing rockets. Hussein's gun served as an important stepping-stone to the WS-1B, with Beijing having received support from its designer, Dr. Gerald Bull. Improvements were made through the Global Positioning System (GPS), which augmented the accuracy of the already devastating weapon. The gun need not be aimed solely at Taiwan. With increasingly advanced technology, China's missile artillery can be aimed at warships or entire fleets in the vicinity of China. Weaponry of this type can even be placed on artificial islands in the South China Sea (SCS) or elsewhere off the coast of China.

Guided weapons of this sort also have Nazi origins. Nazi Germany's anti-shipping missile, the Henschel Hs 293 A1 was developed from the Gustav Schwartz Propellerwerke gliding bomb and can be regarded as the first radio-controlled missile. Launched from high altitudes from a carrier aircraft, the missile could be guided using an automatic pilot at a maximum speed of 530 miles per hour until it made contact with its target. Carrying a 2,300-pound explosive warhead, the weapon was used against Allied destroyers and ancillary ships. The A1 was part of the dawn of the missile age. Its use coincided with other Nazi experiments that fielded tremendously lethal effect.

The Fritz X or the Ruhrstahl X1, a radio controlled bomb attached to a gliding mechanism, designed by Dr. Max Kramer at a development facility in Berlin-Adlershof, was deliverable by aircraft of Hitler's Luftwaffe. Upon its release, the precision-guided and armor-piercing bomb could be directed using a joystick radio-command system. These bombs assumed a major toll on Allied shipping in the Mediterranean in 1943, even sending Italy's battleship Roma to the bottom of the sea with over 1,200 of its crewmembers while en route to surrender to the Allies after Italy dropped out of the war.

The Fritz X and Hs 293 entered service at a time when the Allies were still dropping bombs on their targets from high altitudes or dive-bombing enemy targets. Had Nazi Germany been able to invest further in these technologies, the desired outcome of several principal Allied campaigns and even the entire war could be questioned. However, the sheer combination of American, British, and Soviet economic and military power meant that the Nazis had already lost on December 11, 1941, when it Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy both declared war on the US.

Those weapons, however, were potential game-changers for future wars. While they failed to reverse the tide of the war in Nazi Germany's favor, they laid the groundwork for decades of subsequent innovation and even military application. They are the progenitors of China's satellite-guided anti-warship missiles. As a land-based military power, China can conduct its anti-shipping activities safely from inland bases-bases that would ultimately be difficult to locate and strike once found even despite the US possessing long-range strike capabilities.

Despite the advantage the US holds over China in terms of military equipment and operating capabilities, control of the air can be sought from two completely disparate points. For the US, control of the skies around China is determined by in part by its naval power but one still needs to consider American air bases in Guam, Okinawa, the Japanese Mainland, and South Korea. All possess US Air Force-operated bases on their soil. We have well seen the reaction of the US toward the rise of the People's Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) (formerly called the 2nd Artillery Corps), which altered US defense strategy in the region. For China, control of the skies can be realized by overwhelming US naval forces from its mainland. China can attempt to achieve airpower indirectly through its land-based military capabilities, at least in principle. Air superiority could effectively follow.

Although the technologies that were introduced during the second global war of the 20th century are abundantly evident in many modern militaries, like those of the US and China, practices, responses, and defensive measures in the wake of their use has not followed in equal measure. While many of these weapons have not been fully tested in actual combat, defending against the force of such weapons would likely come at a much higher price.

China and certainly the US, the United Kingdom (UK), and Russia, among others, have much to owe to German theoreticians and Nazi scientists, who helped produce an impressive array of (if even half-baked or pencilled) Wunderwaffen. Unlike Nazi Germany, during its shining period of military campaigning and expansion, China has the financial and economic structures to continue investing in newer and more advanced technologies inspired (whether directly or indirectly) by the Nazis, build thousands more weapons than Hitler could have ever dreamed of, and can laud time as one of its closest and most reliable allies.

Scott N. Romaniuk is a Doctoral Researcher in the School of International Studies, University of Trento. He is the Editor of Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Modern War (2015) and The Palgrave Handbook of Global Counterterrorism Policy (2017). His research interests include international relations, security studies, terrorism, and political violence. Email: [email protected].

Tobias J. Burgers is a Doctoral Researcher at the Otto Suhr Institute, Free University Berlin, from which he holds a Master's in Political Science. His research interests include the impact of cyber and robotic technology on security dynamics, East-Asian security relations, maritime security and the future of conflict. Email: [email protected].

Dr. Shih-Yueh Yang received his PhD from National Chengchi University. He is an Associate Professor at the Department of International Affairs and Business, Nanhua University. His research interests include international relations theory, strategic studies, regional security, and Chinese foreign and defense policy. Email: [email protected].



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