Butcher.

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Butcher bird!! Best?

From the Internet web site the National Interest and thanks to same:

"Forget the P-51 Mustang or Zero: This Was the Best Fighter Plane During World War II"

"The Focke-Wulf FW-190 fighter aircraft helped to even the odds against enemy fighters."

READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE!

Comments:

* The famous German combat aviator of the Second World War [WW2] Johannes Steinhoff rating the American P-51 Mustang as the BEST fighter place of that era. Johannes also having a high opinion of the Soviet La-5 and La-7.

* As was not known to me, the FW-190 also an excellent ground-attack warplane and used as so extensively on the Eastern Front of WW2. I had thought the FW only functioning as an interceptor in the role of defense of the Reich against attack by the four-engine bomber threat of the allied air forces.

* Positive aeronautic features and elements of the FW 190 incorporated into the design of the British Hawker Fury. The Fury as seeing action during the Korean War and comporting itself well as a combat aircraft EVEN DURING AIR-AIR DUELS WITH SOVIET MiG-15 jet!!

BEST a very subjective term. Personally I prefer the opinion of Steinhoff.

coolbert.

BV 238.

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Further more extracts with commentary from the Internet web site "Great Power War". Topics in all cases aviation . . . oddities and curiosities for want of a better term and description.

"The Coolest Experimental Planes of World War II"

"German BV 238 Floatplane"

Before there was the H-3 Hercules there was the BV 238? Before there was Howard Hughes there was Blohm and Voss

"German Aerospace company Blohm and Voss designed the bulk of the Luftwaffe’s flying boats during the war, and as it progressed, the firm’s engineers designed more complex — and larger — flying boats. This eventually led to the BV 238, a massive aircraft that became the largest designed by the Axis Powers during the conflict."

Think also the Howard Huges H-4 Hercules flying plane from the era of WW2. The H-4 possessing eight engines rather than six. H-4 made only one flight and is now a museum piece. I have often wondered why flying boats and not used more for military and commercial purposes both. Especially those flying boats able to use wing-in-ground technology for additional lift. Prodigious loads carried across the oceans with phenomenal speed.

coolbert.

282.

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Further yet with blog entries, extracts with commentary from the Internet web site "Great Power War". Topics in all cases aviation . . . oddities and curiosities for want of a better term and description.

"The Coolest Experimental Planes of World War II"

"Flettner FI 282"

HELICOPTER WW2!

"Most people don’t associate the development of helicopters with World War II, but in fact, prior to the beginning of the war the German Luftwaffe experimented extensively with choppers, and the first accepted design was the open cockpit Flettner FI 282."

"One of the oddest features of the aircraft was its intermeshing rotors, which meant that the two main rotors angled away from each other though the arc of the blades crisscrossed. But they were very carefully synchronized so as not to collide with each other"

"The German air service envisioned using the new aircraft for observation and reconnaissance, anti-submarine warfare, and other roles."

This particular image of the Flettner FI 282 shows the unique dual synchronized and angled-rotors, counter-rotating, no tail rotor required. One engine with two rotor shafts. Click on image to see an enlarged view.

A German 282 flown post-war [WW2] by an American pilot.Thanks to You Tube.

Flettner in the aftermath of the war continuing to design helicopters for USA concerns. Yet one more instance of Operation Paperclip?

coolbert.

Twenty-two.

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Twenty-two minutes that is.

Firestorm Pforzheim. Thanks to the story from DW.

Hamburg I have heard of. Dresden I have heard of. Tokyo I have heard of.  Pforzheim I had never heard of!

"Pforzheim: the Dresden nobody knows about"

Saturation bombing of Pforzheim with high-explosive and incendiary creating a fire-storm a city of tens of thousand obliterated from the face of the earth. All occurring in twenty-two minutes!

"According to official statistics, 17,600 people died, and tens of thousands of others were injured. The market square and old town area were destroyed and completely depopulated. In the entire city, over 80 percent of the architecture that existed in 1945 was defaced, making Pforzheim, proportionally speaking, the worst instance of destruction at the end of WWII in Europe."

Dresden and Pforzheim instance of allied atrocity during the Second World War? Gratuitous and excessive violence disproportionate in nature?

NOBODY knows of Pforzheim? Until NOW!

coolbert.

Taktik.

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Contrary to what I have ordinarily understood, German storm trooper tactics and storm trooper units as employed by the German during the Great War [WW1] an evolutionary process culminating of course in the German Spring Offensive of 1918.

Riga and Caporetto be fully aware NOT the first instances of institutionalized storm trooper units as used on the battlefield by the German.

A Storm Troop [battalion sized unit] consisting of German soldiers of the highest quality physically and mentally, possessing proven and demonstrable coolness and ability in combat. Entire battalions of such soldiers organized for hazardous missions.

Missions hazardous in the extreme. As originally envisioned to capture a section of enemy trench but not much more than that. Given the over-the-top mass wave attack disasters of the various combatants during the earliest stages of the Great War, merely capturing an enemy trench was considered a considerable success.

See this You Tube video the evolutionary aspects of the German Storm Troop during the Great War. Taktik during the German Spring Offensives of 1918 the mission of the Storm Troops not confined to capturing a mere stretch of trench. To the greatest extent possible continuing the offensive, the target those rear-echelon forces of the adversary. Destroy any ability for allied combatants to reconstitute as fighting units.

coolbert.

Paris.

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Further extracts with my commentary from original articles as seen at the isegoria.net Internet web site topic the Great War.

The Paris Gun. A fascinating topic. German very long-range artillery of the Great War. Often referred to as railway artillery.

ALSO A WEAPON OF DUBIOUS UTILITY?

To what extent the rounds as fired by the Paris Gun were in violation of the various Hague Convention protocols I cannot say.

"Secrets of the Mystery Gun that Shelled Paris"

"The June, 1930 issue of Modern Mechanix has a well-illustrated piece revealing the secrets of the mystery gun that shelled Paris during the Great War a dozen years earlier"

"Map of central districts of Paris, showing where shells fired [red dot where the round landed] by the Paris Gun landed, June-August 1918, and a line [blue] indicating the direction of the German gun. Note other shells landed outside this area. Based on Miller (1921)"

The Paris gun an ineffective weapon! NO way for the German to do effective spotting and determine accuracy. ONLY about two-thirds of rounds hitting within the city limits? ONLY about one person killed per round fired [half of those killed by a single hit!]. Maybe the German did not even take accuracy into account, just desiring to HIT the city of Paris "somewhere" and nothing more.

Aerial reconnaissance and espionage reports from agents on the ground also would not have helped the aiming process? I think not.

TERROR FOR THE SAKE OF TERROR BUT NOT EVEN THAT TERRIBLY TERRIFYING?

THAT AMOUNT OF TIME, ENERGY, MONEY, MANPOWER BETTER SPENT CONSTITUTING CONVENTIONAL BATTERIES AND BATTALIONS OF BATTLEFIELD ARTILLERY? SO I MIGHT SURMISE.

I would ask the question as to what was the fatality rate for automobile accidents in Paris during the same two month period of time the Paris Gun was active. The answer might surprise many.

coolbert.

Persecution.

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Keine Deutschen erlaubt!!

Yet further more extracts with my commentary from original articles as seen at the isegoria.net Internet web site topic the Great War.

"McCarthy, the Wilsonite"

"Ralph Raico’s ironically titled Great Wars and Great Leaders compares Woodrow Wilson to Joseph McCarthy — unfavorably"

"We have all been made very familiar with the episode known as 'McCarthyism,' which, however, affected relatively few persons, many of whom were, in fact, Stalinists. Still, this alleged time of terror is endlessly rehashed in schools and media. In contrast, few even among educated Americans have ever heard of the shredding of civil liberties under Wilson’s regime, which was far more intense and affected tens of thousands."

Anti-German sentiment in the United States during the Great War most pronounced. All things German bad. Lots of stupid propaganda and downright foolish actions done in the name of patriotism and national solidarity. Lots of dumbness with hindsight! YES!

From the time of the Great War onward distinct German ethnic communities in the USA on the way out never to return. The German language as either spoken or read in a newspaper now verboten. Ethnic German communities with a beer garden on every block too a thing of the past never to return.

Deutsche sind nicht willkommen!!

Wait however several decades and you find the names of Eisenhower, Nimitz, Krueger, Eichelberger, Spaatz among the highest command echelons of the USA military during WW2. Time heals all?

coolbert.

SS Minden.

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How many times have we heard this before?

The lost treasure of the Sierra Madre?

In this instance the lost Nazi gold of the SS Minden.

German merchant vessel SS Minden reputed to carrying $130 million USD In gold [current value] from South America to German during the earliest stages of World War Two scuttled and sunk. Gold lost. At least until now.

SS Minden has been found??

From the British tabloids from over a year ago now but still an item worthy of consideration.

1. "British treasure hunters caught hunting for the wreck of a 'Nazi gold ship' sail into a diplomatic row with Iceland"

"A group of British treasure hunters are claimed to have prompted a diplomatic row with Iceland after they were caught searching for a ‘Nazi gold ship’."

2. "Nazi gold hunters held Brit crew caught looking for German WW2 ‘gold ship’ wreck in Atlantic ocean sparks diplomatic row"

"A NAZI 'gold ship' has sparked a diplomatic row after Brit treasure hunters were caught hunting for its wreck in the Atlantic ocean."

See previous blog entries the topic the hunt for missing gold treasure of enormous value as associated with events of the Second World War:

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2013/02/gold.html 

https://militaryanalysis.blogspot.com/2016/12/incredible.html 

coolbert.

Cyclone.

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As recounted by the Roman historian Cassius Dio the Battle in the Teutoburg Forest:

"Chapters 18-24 of Book 56 of Dio's Roman History"

[56.20.3] "Meanwhile a violent rain and wind came up that separated them [Romans] still further, while the ground, that had become slippery around the roots and logs, made walking very treacherous for them, and the tops of the trees kept breaking off and falling down, causing much confusion."

. . . .

[56.21.3] "They [Romans] were still advancing when the fourth day dawned, and again a heavy downpour and violent wind assailed them, preventing them from going forward and even from standing securely, and moreover depriving them of the use of their weapons. For they [Romans] could not handle their bows or their javelins with any success, nor, for that matter, their shields, which were thoroughly soaked."

First the "violent rain and wind". Then the wagons and baggage train to include the catapulta become mired. Impedimenta abandoned by the legions. Then the bow strings cannot be strung and the shields cannot be lifted, so heavy and sodden with rain. Repeated attacks by the barbarians and ultimate Roman defeat inevitable and absolute.

I recommend highly without qualification or reservation this You Tube video: "Perfect Storms: THE LOST LEGIONS | Full Documentary". The destruction of the three Roman Legions, 9 A.D.. The Battle of the Teutoburger Wald. Germanic tribesmen si, Romans no!

We can reasonably infer the storm as beset the Roman legions was AN EXTRATROPICAL CYCLONE! A temperate zone hurricane as moving across the Atlantic from west to east. Wind and rain of prodigious proportions, biblical in scale and nature!

These cyclones do occur on a periodic basis the amount of catastrophic damage immense. Romans caught in such a storm only exacerbating their already tenuous situation. It might even be the German barbarian by observing the cloud formations were able to anticipate the arrival of the storm and took advantage of such extreme inclement weather??

The Romans too entering into the pre-positioned Germani "kill zone" had a bog to their backs. Potentially flooded way beyond normal by torrential downpour. The Roman having entrenched barbarians to the front and an impassable bog to their rear, no line of retreat possible. Curtains as they say!

coolbert.

Spook.

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Forget Erich Hartmann. Forget Baron von Richthofen. Even forget Han-Ulrich Rudel? Rather think Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer?

That greatest combat aviator "ace" of all time?

"The Night Fighter Ace Who Shot Down 7 Lancaster Bombers In 19 Minutes"

"Once you know the story of Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, it’s pretty hard to forget. Schnaufer was an incredibly skilled pilot. He was arguably the best fighter pilot in the war. Simply put, this German fighter pilot was the deadliest ace in history – with 121 confirmed kills. He also survived the whole war and only met his death when he crashed his car while on his way to purchase wine in Bordeaux."

"What more, Schnaufer accomplished this feat in only 164 operational sorties over a three year period."

SCHNAUFER THE GREATEST COMBAT ACE WHEN TAKING INTO CONSIDERATION THE MOST ENEMY PLANES SHOT DOWN FOR THE FEWEST MISSIONS!!

Freeman Dyson stating that the German night-fighter force the ONLY German military service to have emerged from the Second World War with their honor intact, unsullied! German night-fighter pilots and aircrews highly respected and feared by their adversaries [almost exclusively the British].

coolbert.