Hitler's weapon. "Werwolf" - Hitler's secret weapon

Operational Gruppenführer and SS General Hans Kammler is called one of the most mysterious figures of the Third Reich. When a little more than a year remained before the end of World War II, he was appointed head of the construction of underground aircraft factories.

According to official information, they were built for the construction of the latest Luftwaffe aircraft. And yet - in the gloomy dungeons unfolded rocket program Hitler. But experts believe that this was just a cover. And the main task of Kammler is a top-secret project, which even the Minister of Armaments did not know about. Only Himmler and Hitler were in the know. The story of the disappearance of Hans Kammler himself at the end of the war is still a mystery.

Both the USSR and the USA knew about the technological advancement of the Germans. And already in November of the 44th, the Americans created the "Industrial and Technical Intelligence Committee" to search in Germany for technologies useful for the post-war American economy.

In May 1945, American troops captured the Czech city of Pilsen, 100 kilometers from Prague. The main trophy of US military intelligence there was the archives of one of the SS research centers. Having carefully studied the obtained documents, the Americans were shocked. It turned out that all the years while the Second World War was going on, the specialists of the Third Reich were developing weapons that were fantastic for those times. A real weapon of the future. For example, anti-aircraft lasers.

The development of the laser beam was started by Reich specialists as early as 1934. As planned, he was supposed to blind enemy pilots. Work on this device was completed a week before the end of the war.

The project of a solar gun with 200-meter reflecting mirrors is also an idea of ​​Nazi scientists. The construction was to take place in geostationary orbit - at an altitude of more than 20,000 km above the earth. It was already then planned to launch a superweapon into space with the help of rockets and a manned station. They even managed to develop special cables for mounting mirrors. And, in the end, the gun was supposed to be a giant lens that focuses the sun's rays. If such a weapon were created, they could burn entire cities in a matter of seconds.

Amazingly, this idea of ​​German scientists became a reality more than 40 years later. True, solar energy was supposed to be used in peaceful purposes. And Russian engineers did it.

The Russian model of the "solar sail" was launched on the Progress spacecraft and deployed in space. This seemingly fantastic project also had mundane tasks. After all, the "solar sail" is an ideal giant mirror. It can be used to redirect sunlight on those parts of the earth's surface where night reigns. This would be very useful, for example, to residents of those Russian regions where they have to live in darkness for most of the year.

Another practical application is during military, anti-terrorist or rescue operations. But, as often happens, there was no money for a promising idea. True, they still did not refuse it. In 2012, at the international congress in Italy, the projects of "space searchlights" were again discussed.

The Nazis, fortunately, did not have time to bring their space developments even to experimental samples. But the main ideologue and head of secret projects, Hans Kammler, seemed obsessed with the idea of ​​\u200b\u200borbital weapons. His main project was Die Glocke - "bell". With this technology, the Nazis were going to destroy Moscow, London and New York.

The Die Glocke documents describe it as a huge bell made of solid metal, about 3m wide and about 4.5m high. This device contained two counter-rotating lead cylinders filled with an unknown substance codenamed Xerum 525. When turned on Die Glocke illuminated the shaft with a pale violet light.

The second version - "bell" - is nothing more than a teleport to move in space. The third version - the most fantastic - this project was intended for cloning.

But the most amazing thing is that not only the weapons of the future were created in the laboratories of the Third Reich, but also the technologies that we are mastering only now!

Few people know that in February 1945, when Soviet troops reached the Oder, Hans Kammler's research bureau was developing a project for a "miniature portable communications device." Many historians claim that without the drawings from the center of Kammler, there would be no iPhone. And the creation of a conventional mobile phone would take at least 100 years.

Hedy Lamarr is a famous American actress. It was she who, having played in the world's first erotic film "Ecstasy", appeared on big screen naked. It was for the first time that she was called "the most beautiful woman in the world." She is also the ex-wife of the owner of military factories that produced weapons for the Third Reich. It is to her that we owe the appearance of a cellular communication system!

Her real name is Hedwig Eva Maria Kieslerr. Born in Vienna, she started acting early in films. And immediately - in erotic films. When the girl turned 19, her parents hurried to marry off their daughter to the arms magnate Fritz Mandl. He made cartridges, grenades and planes for Hitler. Mandl was so jealous of his windy wife that he demanded to accompany him on all trips. Headey attended her husband's meetings with Hitler and Mussolini. Because of her flashy appearance, Mandl's entourage considered her dim-witted and stupid. But these people were wrong. Hedwig's husband's military factories did not waste time in vain. She was able to learn the principles of operation of many types of weapons. Including - anti-ship and guidance systems. And it will be very useful to her later. In addition, Mandl himself imprudently shared his ideas with his wife.

Hedwig fled from her husband to London, and from there she moved to New York, where she continued her career as an actress. But the most surprising thing about her fate was that a successful Hollywood star took up invention. And it was here that her knowledge of the structure of weapons, obtained at military factories and in special laboratories of the Third Reich, came in handy. In the midst of World War II, Lamar patented "frequency scanning" technology that allowed her to control torpedoes from a distance.

Decades later, this patent became the basis for spread spectrum communications and is used from mobile phones to Wi-fi. The principle invented by Lamarr is used today in the world's largest GPS navigation system. She donated her patent to the US government for free. That is why November 9 - the birthday of Hedy Lamarr - is celebrated in America as the day of the inventor.

Slavin Stanislav Nikolaevich.

Secret weapon of the Third Reich

Foreword

- You are a German from head to toe, armored infantry, a manufacturer of vehicles, you have nerves, I think, of a different composition. Listen, Wolf, fall into the hands of people like you, Garin's apparatus, whatever you do...

“Germany will never accept humiliation!

Alexey Tolstoy, "Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin"

“... The SS man peered at the documents for a long time and meticulously. Then he held them back and threw them up right hand, smartly clicking his heels. Goering grimaced in displeasure - that was already the third “filter” of the guards - but Himmler, who was sitting in front, was unperturbed: order is order.

The Horch, shining with the nickel of its radiator, drove through the open gates and drove almost silently along the concrete pavement of the huge airfield, wet from the recent rain. The first stars were shining in the sky.

Behind the neat rows of Messerschmitt-262s, the lights of a strange structure gleamed in the distance, resembling a huge inclined overpass, steeply going up. The beam of the spotlight picked out the triangular bulk standing at its base, the tip of the nose directed into the darkening skies. The beam showed a swastika in a white circle on the black side of the engine.

The man in the back seat of the heavy Horch, glancing briefly at the frowning Goering, shivered shiveringly. No, not from the cold night freshness. It was just the hour that was decisive for him.

A kilometer away, at the launch site, a tanker tanker pulled away, and the technicians were carefully washing their rubber-gloved hands under tight jets of water from hoses.

A lean, wiry man in dark overalls, thumping with his soles on the steps of a steep ladder, disappeared into the cockpit of a short-winged apparatus, as if strapped on top of the fuselage of a triangular giant. There, in the lighted pilot's nest, he flipped the switches. The green control lights on the control panel light up. This meant that the black, sharp-sided bomb in the belly of the short-winged machine was in perfect order. It contained a heavy nickel-sheathed uranium ball and explosive lenses.

Nowotny's oberet shrugged his shoulders—the white rubberized spacesuit fit pretty well. "Remember, you must avenge the barbaric destruction of the ancient cities of the Fatherland!" - Himmler told him parting words. The assistants lowered a massive, Teutonic-like, barrel-shaped helmet with a transparent visor from above. The incoming oxygen hissed - life support had long been debugged like clockwork. Novotny knew the task by heart. The coordinates of the point of entry into the atmosphere ... Heading for the radio beacon ... Dropping the bomb - over New York and immediately - the afterburner of the engine to jump across the Pacific Ocean and Asia.

Agree, all this looks very intriguing. Yes, and the book "The Broken Sword of the Empire", where this quote is taken from, is made firmly. It is felt that the person who wrote it - for some reason he preferred to hide his name under the pseudonym Maxim Kalashnikov - professionally owns a pen. And he collected interesting facts. The question is, did he interpret them correctly?

Of course, everyone is entitled to their own point of view. And now, fortunately, everyone has the opportunity to express it publicly - the range of periodicals and publishers today is quite wide. And I'm not here to discuss the legitimacy of the concept of that book. My task is different - to tell you, if possible, the truth about the secret arsenals of the Third Reich, to show on facts, documents, eyewitness accounts, how true those assumptions are, the essence of which can be reduced to such a judgment: “A little more and the Third Reich would really create a“ miracle weapon" with which he could gain dominance over the entire planet.

Is it so?

Answer to question asked is not as simple and unambiguous as it might seem at first. And the point is not only that history does not have a subjunctive mood, but, therefore, it is useless to fantasize about “what would happen if”. Main difficulty on the other hand: over the past half century, many events of the Second World War have acquired so many legends, conjectures, and even outright hoaxes that it can be very difficult to distinguish truth from lies. Moreover, many witnesses of those events have already died, and the archives burned down in the flames of the world war or disappeared later under mysterious or simply obscure circumstances.

And yet, reality can be distinguished from fiction. Help in that ... the authors themselves of certain versions. Upon careful reading, it becomes obvious: many of them "pierce", are unable to make ends meet.

What inconsistencies can be seen in the above snippet? And at least those.

The author relates the events he describes to April 12, 1947 - there is a direct indication of this in the text. As follows from the context, Germany by that time had won the Second World War, having won dominance over the whole of Eurasia together with Japan. It remained to crush the last stronghold of the "free world" - America.

And for this, a historically proven recipe is offered - an atomic bomb should fall on the United States. And the country instantly capitulates - this is exactly what happened with Japan.

However... In the cockpit of a missile super-bomber (by the way, in dark overalls or a white spacesuit?) A man with the surname Novotny could not sit. And Hitler himself and his inner circle with surnames starting with "G" - Himmler, Goering, Goebbels, etc. - carefully monitored the observance of the law on the purity of the race, and here, judging by the surname, Slavic roots are clearly traced - the pilot, probably, originally from Czechoslovakia. (True, he could have been an Austrian. Then Hitler, himself a native of this country, might have allowed the pilot to participate in a risky expedition.)

And finally, the flight, as far as I understand, was to take place on an apparatus designed by E. Zenger, who actually developed his project in the 1940s together with the mathematician I. Bredt.

According to the plan, a hundred-ton hypersonic triangular jet aircraft, 28 meters long, was launched using a powerful booster. Gaining a speed of 6 kilometers per second (Gagarin entered orbit at a speed of 7.9 kilometers per second), the Zenger bomber jumped into space to a height of 160 kilometers and switched to non-motorized flight along a gentle trajectory. He "ricocheted" from the dense layers of the atmosphere, making giant leaps, like a stone "baking pancakes" on the surface of the water. Already on the fifth "jump" the device would be 12.3 thousand kilometers from the starting point, on the ninth - 15.8 thousand.

But where are these machines? Zenger lived until 1964, witnessed the well-known space flights, but there is no technical implementation to this day - the same "shuttles" are only a pale shadow of what the talented designer planned to do.

And yet the myths are very tenacious. They beckon with their mystery, understatement, the opportunity for everyone to continue them, offering more and more new versions of the development of certain events. And before starting a conversation about how and what really happened in Germany during the Third Reich, let me offer you a brief summary of the most interesting assumptions and hypotheses on this topic.

So, some researchers believe that Adolf Hitler was ... none other than the messenger of hell, who intended to enslave humanity, so to speak, stake out territory until the second coming of Jesus Christ. It was for this that he was given a hint on how to make a "wonder weapon" - an atomic bomb.

To achieve his goal, Hitler used all sorts of means, including the technological assistance of certain forces, thanks to which in the Third Reich they were able to create the most modern ships, submarines, tanks, guns, radars, computers, hyperboloids, rocket launchers and even ... "flying saucers", one of which was sent directly to Mars (obviously for emergency help).

Moreover, according to one of the myths, these "saucers", which, as you know, continue to fly to this day, were initially based in Antarctica, where the Nazis created a long-term base during the war. And when we and the Americans created the first spy satellites that scanned the entire surface of the Earth, then the UFO-Nauts had no choice but to relocate to the far side of the Moon, where they are to this day. Moreover, it is quite possible that the lunar base itself was built by no longer unfinished Nazis. They took advantage of a ready-made building, which is a branch, an outpost of a certain civilization that lives on Mars or somewhere else far away, on the outskirts of the solar system.

And now the alien invaders have not abandoned their nightmarish plans. It is they who stand at the origins of the revival of the Nazi movement in many countries, including ours. And they, the Blackshirts, on occasion can rely on the arsenals of weapons created by the servants of the Third Reich and placed in advance, securely hidden in different parts of the world - in the Norwegian fjords, on the ranches of Argentina, on the islands of Southeast Asia and the Caribbean, on the coast of the North The Arctic Ocean and Antarctica, and even at the bottom of the Baltic ...

The closer Nazi Germany came to the moment of its collapse, the more its leadership relied on the "wonder weapon" (German: Wunderwaffe). But the defeat of the Third Reich threw the "miracle weapon" into the dustbin of history, making the developments of German scientists the property of the victorious countries.

It is worth mentioning that it was not just about creating the latest weapons - Nazi engineers sought to achieve complete technological superiority over the enemy. And Germany has achieved a lot along the way.

Aviation
Perhaps the greatest success German designers have achieved in the field of aviation. Namely, in terms of jet aircraft. Of course, the first of them were not without flaws, but their pluses were on the face. First of all, this is a greater speed than propeller-driven aircraft and more powerful weapons.

None of the belligerents used as many jet engines in combat as Germany. Here we can recall the first production jet fighter Me.262, and the "people's fighter" He 162, and the world's first jet bomber Ar 234 Blitz. The Germans also had a Me.163 Komet missile fighter-interceptor, which had a liquid-propellant rocket engine and was capable of staying in the air for no more than eight minutes.

The Heinkel He 162 was nicknamed the "people's fighter" because it was supposed to be a mass-produced and accessible jet machine. It was armed with two 20 mm MG 151 cannons and could reach speeds of up to 800 km/h. Until the end of the war, only 116 He 162 fighters were built, they were almost never used in battles.

All these aircraft were mass-produced and participated in the war. For comparison, of all the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, only Great Britain during the war years was armed with a jet combat aircraft - the Gloster Meteor fighter. But the British only used it to intercept German V-1 cruise missiles and did not send it into battle against fighters.

Me.262 Fighter / Wikimedia Commons

If we talk about German jets, then some of them were used more often, others less often. Rocket Me.163s made only a few sorties, but Me.262s were widely used on the Western Front and were able to chalk up 150 enemy aircraft. A common problem with German jet fighters was their underdevelopment. This led to a huge number of accidents and disasters. It was in them that the lion's share of the new Luftwaffe vehicles was lost. Systematic raids by American and British aviation led to the fact that by the end of the war the Germans were not even able to overcome the “childhood diseases” of the Me.262 (and the Nazis had high hopes for this particular fighter).

The Messerschmitt Me.262 fighter carried a truly formidable armament - four 30 mm MK-108 cannons. One salvo was enough to send a B-17 heavy bomber to the next world. But it was problematic for the heavy twin-engine Me.262 to compete with maneuverable propeller-driven fighters (the low rate of fire of the MK-108 played a role). By the way, one 262nd chalked up the Soviet ace pilot Ivan Kozhedub.

The planes we mentioned were widely known, but a number of German aviation projects remained unnoticed. And here we can recall the experimental combat aircraft Horten Ho IX - the world's first jet aircraft built according to the "flying wing" aerodynamic design. It was created as part of the 1000 * 1000 * 1000 program - this means that the speed should have reached 1000 km / h, the range - 1000 km, and the bomb load - 1000 kg. Horten Ho IX made several test flights in 1944-1945, but did not take part in the battles.

Fighter Heinkel He 162 / Alamy

Even less fortunate was the brainchild of the famous German aircraft designer Kurt Tank (Kurt Tank) - the Focke-Wulf Ta 183 turbojet fighter. This fighter was not destined to take to the skies at all, but at the same time it had a tremendous impact on the development of aviation. The design of the aircraft was revolutionary: the Ta 183 had a swept wing and a characteristic air intake arrangement. Later, these technological solutions were used in the design of the Soviet MiG-15 fighter and the American F-86 Saber, iconic aircraft of the post-war era.

Throughout the Second World War, cannons and machine guns of various calibers remained the main weapon of air combat. But the Germans were among the leaders in the field of air-to-air missiles. One of them - Ruhrstahl X-4 - had a liquid jet engine and could reach speeds of up to 900 km / h. After launch, control was carried out through two thin copper wires. The missile could be a good weapon against the large and clumsy B-17 and B-24 bombers. However, there is no reliable data on the combat use of this X-4. It was difficult for the pilot to simultaneously control the rocket and the plane, so a co-pilot was required.


Fighter Ho IX / Alamy

The Nazis also created air-to-surface guided weapons. Here it is worth recalling the FX-1400 Fritz X radio-controlled planning bomb, which was used in the second half of the war against Allied ships. But the effectiveness of this weapon was ambiguous, and as the Allies gained air superiority, strikes against ground targets faded into the background for the Luftwaffe.

All of these developments were certainly ahead of their time, but they were no match for Silbervogel. "Silver Bird" became the most ambitious military project of the Third Reich in all the years of its existence. The project was a partially orbital bomber-spacecraft, designed to strike at the territory of the USSR and the United States. The concept itself was proposed by the Austrian scientist Eugen Sänger. The bomber could take on board up to 30 thousand kg of bomb load, but if it was about delivering strikes on US territory, the load was reduced to 6 thousand kg. The weight of the aircraft itself was 10 tons, and its length reached 28 m. A liquid-propellant rocket engine with a thrust of up to 100 tons was located in the tail section of the fuselage, and two auxiliary rocket engines were located on the sides.

Fighter Focke Wulf Ta-183 "Huckebein" / Getty Images

To launch the bomber, Zenger proposed creating a rail track about 3 km long. The aircraft was placed on special skids, and additional boosters could also be attached to them. Due to this, the device had to accelerate on the track up to 500 m / s, and then gain altitude with the help of its own engines. The "ceiling" that Silbervogel could reach was 260 km, which effectively made it a spacecraft.

There were several options for the combat use of Silbervogel, but all of them were associated with a number of risks (loss of a pilot and aircraft) and technical problems that could not be resolved at that time. This was the reason that in 1941 the project was abandoned. By that time he was at the stage of paper drawings. At the very end of the war, however, the German leadership became interested in the project again, but then no one believed in its implementation. After the war, scientists made calculations and found out that the apparatus designed by Zenger would have collapsed immediately after entering the atmosphere. At the same time, one cannot fail to note the audacity of German engineers, because the concept itself was ahead of its time by many decades.

Silbervogel / DeviantART Partial Orbital Bomber Spacecraft

tanks

The first association with the word Wehrmacht is the clang of steel tracks and the thunder of gun rumbles. It was the tanks that were assigned the main role in the implementation of the lightning war - blitzkrieg. Today we will not determine the best tank of World War II, leaving aside such outstanding creations as the Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger I or Panzerkampfwagen V Panther. It will be about those German tanks that were not destined to go into battle.

In the second half of the war, the Nazi leadership (and primarily Hitler himself) was subject to unjustified megalomania, and this was especially noticeable in the example of tanks. If the already mentioned "Tiger I" weighed 54-56 tons, then his brother - "Tiger II" had a mass of 68 tons. The Nazis did not stop there. At the end of the war, the gloomy genius of German tank building gave rise to formidable, frightening and completely absurd projects.

For example, the Maus super-heavy tank is the most famous of all the obscure tanks of World War II. The development was led by the famous designer Ferdinand Porsche, although the Fuhrer himself can be considered the father of super-heavy tanks. With a monstrous weight of 188 tons, Maus looked more like a mobile pillbox, and not a full-fledged combat vehicle. The tank had a 128 mm KwK-44 L / 55 weapon, and its frontal armor reached 240 mm. With an engine power of 1250 liters. With. the tank developed speed on the highway up to 20 km / h. The crew of the car included six people. At the end of the war, two Maus tanks were produced, but they did not have time to take part in the battles.

Super heavy tank E-100 / Flickr

Maus could have some kind of analogue. There was the so-called E-series - a series of the most unified and at the same time technologically advanced combat vehicles. There were several designs for the E-series tanks, and the most unusual of these was the super-heavy Panzerkampfwagen E-100. It was created as an alternative to Maus and had a weight of 140 tons. The designers created several variants of the turrets of this tank. Various weapons and options were also offered. power plant. With the huge weight of the tank, the speed of the E-100 was supposed to reach 40 km / h, but the Germans did not have time to check the technical characteristics, since the unfinished prototype fell into the hands of the Allied forces.

German super-heavy tanks, in particular the Maus tank, have been actively popularized in popular culture in recent years. First of all in online games. You should not, however, take the "game" characteristics of these machines seriously. In battles, such tanks were not used, which means that their behavior cannot be plausibly modeled. It should also be taken into account that there is very little documentary information about these tanks.

An even more impressive tank was developed by designer Edward Grote. The project was called the Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte, within which they wanted to create a tank weighing up to 1 thousand tons. The length of the land cruiser was 39, the width was 14 m. The main gun was to be two twin 283-mm SKC / 34 cannons. They also wanted to equip the tank with anti-aircraft artillery - up to eight anti-aircraft guns of 20 mm caliber.

It is noteworthy that even this giant is inferior in size to another, even more incredible project - the Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster. This "monster" was a super-heavy tank built on the basis of the giant Dora railway artillery system. The main difference between the P. 1500 was that it had to move not by rail. There is almost no reliable information about this grandiose machine: it is believed that the length of the hull could be 42 m, while the armor in some places would reach 350 mm. in 100 people. Strictly speaking, the tank was a mobile long-range artillery and could not be used on a par with other heavy or even super-heavy tanks. The Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster, like the Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte, was never produced, there were not even prototypes of these machines.

To call all these developments "miracle-weapon-we-eat" can only be in quotation marks. It is not clear in principle why super-heavy tanks were created, and what function they were supposed to perform. Machines weighing more than 100 tons were almost impossible to transport. Their weight could not bear the bridges, and the tanks themselves easily got stuck in the mud or swamp. Moreover, despite their armor, super-heavy tanks were surprisingly vulnerable. They would have been completely defenseless against Allied aircraft. The hit of one bomb turned even the most protected tank into a pile of scrap metal. This is despite the fact that the dimensions of these machines did not allow them to be sheltered from air raids.

rockets

Everyone must have heard of the German V-1 and V-2 rockets. The first of them was a projectile, and the second was the world's first ballistic missile. These missiles were used in the war, but from a military-strategic point of view, the result of their use was negligible. On the other hand, V-rockets were a source of great problems for the inhabitants of London, which often became their target.

V-2 / Wikimedia Commons

But there was also a more original project of a “weapon of retaliation” - the V-3. Despite the similar names, the latter had little in common with the V-1 and V-2. It was a huge multi-chamber gun, which was also called the "High Pressure Pump". The project was developed under the guidance of designer August Cönders. The length of the gun was 130 m, it consisted of 32 sections - each of them had charging chambers located on the side. The gun was supposed to use special arrow-shaped projectiles, 3.2 m long. The maximum firing distance was 165 km, but the weight of the explosive charge was no more than 25 kg. In this case, the gun could fire up to 300 rounds per hour.

They wanted to equip positions for such guns near the English Channel coast. They were located only 95 miles from the British capital, and the destruction of London could be serious. Despite the fact that the guns were in special protective adits, they were completely destroyed during an air raid on July 6, 1944. As a result, the original V-3 never took part in the war. But its smaller counterpart was more fortunate - the LRK 15F58 was twice used to bombard Luxembourg in the winter of 1944-1945. The maximum firing distance for this artillery system was 50 km, the weight of the projectile was 97 kg.

The Germans were the first to create guided anti-tank missiles. The first of these was the Ruhrstahl X-7, which existed in aviation and land modifications. The rocket was controlled by two insulated wires - the X-7 had to be controlled visually, using a special joystick. In combat operations, the rocket was used sporadically, and the end of the war prevented the start of mass production.

A much more ambitious Nazi development was the A-9/A-10 Amerika-Rakete. As the name implies, the US was the target of the missile, so the A-9 / A-10 could become the world's first intercontinental missile. There is practically no reliable information about her either. In addition, after the war, the rocket was surrounded by an area of ​​hoaxes. A number of sources claim that by the end of the war, the rocket was "almost ready." It could hardly be true. It is doubtful that such a missile could be used for military purposes at all; probably, the Amerika-Rakete project remained on paper by the end of the war.

The first stage of the rocket was to be the A-10 launch booster, which provided a vertical launch and was supposed to separate at an altitude of 24 km. Then the second stage came into play, which was an A-9 rocket equipped with wings. She accelerated Amerika-Rakete to 10 thousand km / h and raised it to a height of up to 350 km. In the case of the A-9, the main problem could be sustained aerodynamic supersonic flight, which was not possible in those years. Theoretically, the rocket could fly from German territory to the US coast in about 35 minutes. The explosive charge was 1000 kg, and the missile was to be guided by a radio beacon installed in the Empire State Building (the Nazis wanted to use their agents to install it). Allegedly, the pilot, who was in a pressurized cockpit, could also be used for guidance. After adjusting the flight of the A-9, he had to eject from a height of 45 km.

"V-2" was created by the outstanding German designer Wernher von Braun. The rocket's baptism of fire took place on September 8, 1944, in total 3225 combat launches were made. The flight range of the V-2 was 320 km. This was enough to defeat the cities of Great Britain. Mostly civilians became victims of missile attacks - V-2 hits cost the lives of 2.7 thousand people. "V-2" had a liquid-propellant rocket engine, which allowed it to reach speeds of up to 6120 km / h.

nuclear program

The Nazi nuclear program is a separate topic for research, and we will not delve into its essence. We only note that although Nazi scientists made some progress, by 1945 they were far from creating nuclear weapons. One of the reasons for this is that the Germans adopted the concept of using so-called "heavy water" (also called deuterium oxide; this term is usually used to refer to heavy hydrogen water, which has the same chemical formula, as ordinary water, but instead of two atoms of the usual light hydrogen isotope, it contains two atoms of the heavy hydrogen isotope - deuterium, and its oxygen corresponds to air oxygen in isotopic composition.

The most important property of heavy hydrogen water is that it practically does not absorb neutrons, therefore it is used in nuclear reactors to slow down neutrons and as a coolant - NS). This concept was not the best, if we talk about the speed of achieving nuclear chain reactions needed to create nuclear weapons. The heavy water plant itself was located in the Norwegian administrative center of Rjukan. In 1943, the Allies carried out Operation Gunnerside, as a result of which saboteurs destroyed the enterprise. The Nazis did not restore the plant, and the rest of the heavy water was sent to Germany.

It is believed that the Western allies after the war were very surprised to learn how far the Nazis were from the creation of nuclear weapons. Like it or not, we will probably never know. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that Germany spent about 200 times less on the creation of nuclear weapons than the United States needed to implement the Manhattan Project. Recall that the nuclear weapons development program cost the Americans $ 2 billion, by the standards of that time, a huge amount (if you translate it into modern course dollars, it will be about 26 billion).

Sometimes German submarines of type XXI and type XXIII are attributed to the number of samples of "wonder weapons". They became the world's first submarines capable of being permanently under water. Boats were built at the very end of the war and almost did not take part in hostilities. Strictly speaking, the war in the Atlantic was lost for Germany back in 1943, and the fleet gradually lost its former importance for the Nazi leadership.

Opinion

The main question can be formulated as follows: could the German "wonder weapon" have a significant impact on the course of the war and tilt the scales towards the Third Reich? We were answered by a well-known historian, author of many works on the topic of the First and Second World Wars, Yuri Bakhurin:

- "Wonder Weapon" could hardly change the course of World War II, and here's why. Already in view of the complexity of the design of most of these projects, in conditions of limited resources, Nazi Germany was not able to establish mass production of one or another "weapon of retaliation". In any case, its individual samples would have been powerless against the total power of the Red Army and the forces of the allies. Not to mention the fact that many wunderwaffe projects were technologically dead ends.

Among armored vehicles, the most expressive examples of this are the super-heavy "rodents" - the tanks "Mouse" (Maus) and "Rat" (Ratte). The first, after being embodied in metal, the Germans could not even evacuate when the Red Army troops approached. The second, with a projected mass of up to 1000 tons, turned out to be completely stillborn - it did not come to assembling a prototype. The search for the "wunderwaffe" was for Germany a kind of military-technical escapism. Accordingly, he would not have been able to bring the losing Reich out of the crisis at the front, in industry, etc.

Replica of the first V-2 rocket at the Peenemünde Museum.

Thousands of articles have been written about the German "miracle weapon", it is present in many computer games and feature films. The theme of "weapons of retaliation" is covered with numerous legends and myths. I will try to talk about some of the revolutionary inventions of designers from Germany, which opened a new page in history.

Weapon

Single machine gun MG-42.

German weapons designers have made a huge contribution to the development of this class of weapons. Germany has the honor of inventing a revolutionary type of small arms - single machine guns. In early 1931, the German army was armed with obsolete machine guns. MG-13"Dreyse" and MG-08(option "Maxima"). The production cost of these weapons was high due to the large number of milled parts. In addition, various designs of machine guns complicated the training of calculations.

In 1932, after a thorough analysis, the German Arms Administration (HWaA) announced a competition for the creation of a single machine gun. General requirements the terms of reference were as follows: weight no more than 15 kg, for possible use as a light machine gun, belt feed, air cooling of the barrel, high rate of fire. In addition, it was planned to install a machine gun on all types of combat vehicles - from an armored personnel carrier to a bomber.

In 1933, the arms company Reinmetall introduced a single 7.92 mm machine gun.

After a series of tests, it was adopted by the Wehrmacht under the index MG-34. This machine gun was used in all branches of the Wehrmacht and replaced the obsolete anti-aircraft, tank, aviation, easel, light machine guns. Construction concept MG-34 and MG-42(in a modernized form are still in service with Germany and six other countries) was used to create post-war machine guns.

It is also worth noting the legendary submachine gun MP-38/40 firm "Erma" (erroneously referred to as "Schmeiser"). The German designer Volmer abandoned the classic wooden buttstock - instead, the MP-38 was equipped with a folding metal shoulder rest, made by a cheap stamping method. The handle of the submachine gun was made of aluminum alloy. Thanks to these innovations, the dimensions, weight and cost of weapons have decreased. In addition, plastic (Bakelite) was used to make the forearm.

The revolutionary concept of using plastic, light alloys and a folding stock found its continuation in post-war small arms.

Automatic MP 43

The First World War showed that the power of rifle cartridges was excessive for small arms. Basically, rifles were used at distances up to five hundred meters, and the range of aimed fire reached a kilometer. It became obvious that a new ammunition with a smaller charge of gunpowder was needed. As early as 1916, German designers began to design a new "universal" ammunition, but the capitulation of the Kaiser's army interrupted these promising developments.

In the 1920-1930s, German gunsmiths experimented with an “intermediate cartridge”, and in 1937, a “shortened” 7.92 caliber ammunition with a 33 mm long sleeve was developed at the design bureau at the BKIW weapons company (for a German rifle cartridge - 57 mm).

A year later, under the High Command of the Wehrmacht, the Imperial Research Council (Reichsforschungsrat) was created, which entrusted the creation of a fundamentally new automatic weapon for infantry to the famous designer Hugo Schmeiser. This weapon was supposed to fill the niche between the rifle and the submachine gun, and later replace them. After all, both of these classes of weapons had their drawbacks:

The rifles were loaded with powerful cartridges with a high firing range (up to one and a half kilometers), which was not so relevant in a maneuver war. The use of rifles at medium distances means an extra consumption of metal and gunpowder, and the dimensions and weight of ammunition limit the infantryman in portable ammunition. In addition, the low rate of fire and strong recoil when fired do not allow organizing dense barrage fire.

Submachine guns had a high rate of fire, but the effective range of their fire was extremely small - 150-200 meters maximum. In addition, a weak pistol cartridge did not provide adequate penetration ( MP-40 at a distance of 230 meters did not break through winter uniforms).

In 1940, Schmeiser presented to the commission of the Wehrmacht an experienced automatic carbine for test firing. The tests showed the shortcomings of the automation, in addition, the Wehrmacht Arms Department (HWaA) insisted on simplifying the design of the machine, demanding to reduce the number of milled parts and replace them with stamped ones (to reduce the cost of weapons in mass production). Schmeiser's design bureau began to refine the automatic carbine.

In 1941, the Walter weapons company, on its own initiative, also began developing an assault rifle. Based on the experience of creating automatic rifles, Erich Walter in as soon as possible created a prototype and provided it for comparative testing with a competing Schmeiser design.

In January 1942, both design bureaus presented their prototypes for testing: MkU-42(W - plant Walter) and Mkb-42(H - plant haenel, KB Schmeiser).

MP-44 with optical sight.

Both automata were similar both externally and constructively: the general principle of automation, a large number of stamped parts, the widespread use of welding - this was the main requirement of the terms of reference of the Wehrmacht's Arms Department. After a series of lengthy and rigorous tests, the HWaA decided to adopt Hugo Schmeiser's design.

After changes were made in July 1943, the modernized machine under the index MP-43(Maschinenpistole-43 - submachine gun model 1943) entered pilot production. Assault rifle automation worked on the principle of removing powder gases through a transverse hole in the barrel wall. Its weight was 5 kg, magazine capacity - 30 rounds, effective range- 600 meters.

It is interesting: the index "Maschinenpistole" (submachine gun) for the machine gun was given by the Minister of Armaments of Germany A. Speer. Hitler was categorically against the new type of weapon under the "single cartridge". Millions of rifle cartridges were stored in German military warehouses, and the idea that they would become unnecessary after the adoption of the Schmeisser submachine gun caused the Fuhrer's stormy indignation. Speer's ploy worked, Hitler did not find out the truth until two months after the MP 43 was adopted.

In September 1943 MP-43 entered service with the SS Motorized Division viking”, which fought in Ukraine. These were full-fledged combat tests of a new type of small arms. Reports from the elite part of the Wehrmacht reported that the Schmeiser submachine gun effectively replaced submachine guns and rifles, and in some units, light machine guns. The mobility of the infantry has increased, and the firepower has increased.

Fire at a distance of more than five hundred meters was carried out by single shots and provided good performance combat accuracy. With fire contact up to three hundred meters, German machine gunners switched to firing in short bursts. Frontal tests have shown that MP-43- a promising weapon: ease of operation, reliability of automation, good accuracy, the ability to conduct single and automatic fire at medium distances.

The recoil force when firing from a Schmeiser assault rifle was two times less than that of a standard rifle Mauser-98. Thanks to the use of the "medium" 7.92 mm cartridge, by reducing the weight, it became possible to increase the ammunition load of each infantryman. German soldier's wearable ammunition for a rifle Mauser-98 was 150 rounds and weighed four kilograms, and six magazines (180 rounds) for MP-43 weighed 2.5 kilograms.

Positive feedback from the eastern front, excellent test results and the support of the Minister of Armaments of the Reich Speer overcame the stubbornness of the Fuhrer. After numerous requests from SS generals for the speedy rearmament of troops with machine guns in September 1943, Hitler ordered the deployment of mass production MP-43.

In December 1943, a modification was developed MP-43/1, on which it was possible to install optical and experimental infrared night vision sights. These samples were successfully used by German snipers. In 1944, the name of the assault rifle was changed to MP-44, and a little later on StG-44(Sturmgewehr-44 - assault rifle model 1944).

First of all, the machine entered service with the elite of the Wehrmacht - motorized field units of the SS. In total, from 1943 to 1945, more than four hundred thousand StG-44, MP43 and Mkb 42.

Hugo Schmeiser chose the best option for the operation of automation - the removal of powder gases from the bore. It is this principle that in the post-war years will be implemented in almost all designs of automatic weapons, and the concept of "intermediate" ammunition has been widely developed. Exactly MP-44 had a great influence on the development in 1946 of M.T. Kalashnikov of the first model of his famous machine gun AK-47, although with all the external similarity they are fundamentally different in structure.

The first automatic rifle was created by the Russian designer Fedorov in 1915, but it can be a stretch to call it an automatic rifle - Fedorov used rifle cartridges. Therefore, it is Hugo Schmeiser who has the priority in the field of creation and mass production of a new class of individual automatic firearms under the "intermediate" cartridge, and thanks to him the concept of "assault rifles" (automatic machines) was born.

It is interesting: at the end of 1944, the German designer Ludwig Vorgrimler designed an experimental machine Stg. 45M. But the defeat of Germany in World War II did not allow the design of the assault rifle to be completed. After the war, Forgrimler moved to Spain, where he got a job in the design bureau of the CETME weapons company. In the mid-1950s, based on its design Stg. 45 Ludwig creates the CETME Model A assault rifle. After several upgrades, the “Model B” appeared, and in 1957 the German leadership acquired a license to produce this rifle at the Heckler und Koch factory. In Germany, the rifle was given an index G-3, and she became the ancestor of the famous Heckler-Koch series, including the legendary MP5. G-3 was or is in service in the armies of more than fifty countries of the world.

FG-42

Automatic rifle FG-42. Pay attention to the angle of the handle.

Another interesting copy of the small arms of the Third Reich was FG-42.

In 1941, Goering, commander of the German Air Force - Luftwaffe, issued a requirement for an automatic rifle capable of replacing not only the standard Mauser K98k carbine, but also a light machine gun. This rifle was supposed to be the individual weapon of the German paratroopers who were part of the Luftwaffe. One year later Louis Stange(designer of famous light machine guns MG-34 and MG-42) introduced the rifle FG-42(Fallschirmlandunsgewehr-42).

Private Luftwaffe with FG-42.

FG-42 had an unusual layout and appearance. For the convenience of firing at ground targets when jumping with a parachute, the rifle handle was strongly tilted. The magazine for twenty rounds was located on the left, horizontally. Rifle automation worked on the principle of removing powder gases through a transverse hole in the barrel wall. The FG-42 had a fixed bipod, a short wooden handguard and an integrated four-sided needle bayonet. Designer Shtange applied an interesting innovation - he combined the point of emphasis of the butt against the shoulder with the line of the barrel. Thanks to this solution, the accuracy of shooting is increased, and the recoil from the shot is minimized. A mortar could be screwed onto the barrel of a rifle Ger. 42, which was fired with all types of rifle grenades that existed in Germany at that time.

American machine gun M60. What does he remind you of?

FG-42 was supposed to replace in German landing units submachine guns, light machine guns, rifle grenade launchers, and when installing an optical sight ZF41- and sniper rifles.

Hitler loved it FG-42, and in the fall of 1943 automatic rifle entered service with the Fuhrer's personal guard.

First combat use FG-42 took place in September 1943, during Operation Oak, carried out by Skorzeny. German paratroopers landed in Italy and freed the leader of the Italian fascists, Benito Mussolini. Officially, the paratroopers' rifle was never put into service due to its high cost. Nevertheless, it was widely used by the Germans in battles in Europe and on the Eastern Front.

In total, about 7,000 copies were produced. After the war, the fundamentals of the FG-42 design were used to create an American machine gun. M-60.

This is not a myth!

Nozzles for shooting from around the corner

During the conduct of defensive battles in 1942-1943. on the Eastern Front, the Wehrmacht was faced with the need to create weapons designed to defeat the enemy’s manpower, and the shooters themselves had to be outside the zone of flat fire: in the trenches, behind the walls of structures.

Rifle G-41 with a device for shooting from cover.

The very first primitive examples of such devices for shooting from behind shelters from self-loading rifles G-41 appeared on the Eastern Front already in 1943.

Bulky and uncomfortable, they consisted of a metal stamp-welded body, on which a butt with a trigger and a periscope were attached. The wooden butt was attached to the bottom of the body with two screws with wing nuts and could recline. A trigger was mounted in it, connected by means of a trigger rod and a chain to the trigger mechanism of the rifle.

Due to the heavy weight (10 kg) and the center of gravity strongly shifted forward, aimed shooting from these devices could only be carried out after they were rigidly fixed at the stop.

MP-44 with a nozzle for firing from bunkers.

Devices for firing from behind shelters entered service with special teams, whose task was to destroy enemy command personnel in settlements. In addition to infantrymen, German tankers also badly needed such weapons, who quickly enough felt the defenselessness of their vehicles in close combat. Armored vehicles had powerful weapons, but when the enemy was in close proximity to tanks or armored vehicles, all this wealth turned out to be useless. Without infantry support, the tank could be destroyed with Molotov cocktail bottles, anti-tank grenades or magnetic mines, and in these cases the tank crew was literally trapped.

The impossibility of fighting enemy soldiers outside the zone of flat fire (in the so-called dead zones) of small arms forced German gunsmiths to deal with this problem as well. The twisted barrel has become a very interesting solution to the problem that gunsmiths have faced since ancient times: how to shoot at the enemy from cover.

fixture VorsatzJ It was a small receiver nozzle with a bend at an angle of 32 degrees, equipped with a visor with several mirrored lenses. The nozzle was put on the muzzle of the machine guns StG-44. It was equipped with a front sight and a special periscope-mirror lens system: the aiming line, passing through the sector sight and the main front sight of the weapon, was refracted in the lenses and deviated downward, parallel to the bend of the nozzle. The sight provided a fairly high accuracy of firing: a series of single shots lay in a circle with a diameter of 35 cm at a distance of one hundred meters. This device was used at the end of the war specifically for street fighting. Since August 1944, about 11,000 nozzles have been produced. The main disadvantage of these original devices was low survivability: the nozzles withstood about 250 shots, after which they became unusable.

Hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers

From bottom to top: Panzerfaust 30M Klein, Panzerfaust 60M, Panzerfaust 100M.

Panzerfaust

The doctrine of the Wehrmacht provided for the use of anti-tank guns by infantry in defense and attack, but in 1942 the German command fully realized the weakness of mobile anti-tank weapons: light 37-mm guns and anti-tank rifles could no longer effectively hit medium and heavy Soviet tanks.

In 1942 the company Hasag submitted a sample to the German command Panzerfaust(in Soviet literature it is better known as " faustpatron» — Faustpatrone). The first model of a grenade launcher Heinrich Langweiler Panzerfaust 30 Klein(small) had a total length of about a meter and weighed three kilograms. The grenade launcher consisted of a barrel and a cumulative action grenade. The barrel was a smooth-walled pipe 70 cm long and 3 cm in diameter; weight - 3.5 kg. Outside the barrel was a percussion mechanism, and inside was a propellant charge, consisting of a powder mixture in a cardboard container.

The grenade launcher pulled the trigger, the drummer applied the primer, igniting the powder charge. Due to the resulting powder gases, the grenade flew out of the barrel. A second after the shot, the blades of the grenade opened up to stabilize the flight. The relative weakness of the embroidery charge made it necessary, when firing at a distance of 50-75 meters, to raise the barrel at a significant elevation angle. Maximum effect was achieved when firing at a distance of up to 30 meters: at an angle of 30 degrees, the grenade was able to penetrate a 130-mm armor sheet, which at that time guaranteed the destruction of any allied tank.

The ammunition used the cumulative Monroe principle: a high-explosive charge had a cone-shaped notch on the inside, covered with copper, with a wide part forward. When the projectile hit the armor, the charge detonated at some distance from it, and all the force of the explosion rushed forward. The charge burned through the copper cone at its top, which, in turn, created the effect of a thin directed jet of molten metal and hot gases that hit the armor at a speed of about 4000 m / s.

After a series of tests, the grenade launcher entered service with the Wehrmacht. In the autumn of 1943, Langweiler received a lot of complaints from the front, the essence of which was that the Klein grenade often gave ricochets from the inclined armor of the Soviet T-34 tank. The designer decided to take the path of increasing the diameter of the cumulative grenade, and in the winter of 1943 a model Panzerfaust 30M. Thanks to the increased cumulative funnel, armor penetration was 200 mm of armor, but the firing range dropped to 40 meters.

Shooting from a Panzerfaust.

For three months in 1943, the German industry produced 1,300,000 Panzerfausts. The Khasag company constantly improved its grenade launcher. Already in September 1944, mass production was launched Panzerfaust 60M, the firing range of which, due to the increase in the powder charge, increased to sixty meters.

In November of the same year, Panzerfaust 100M with a reinforced powder charge, which allowed firing at a distance of up to one hundred meters. The Faustpatron is a disposable RPG, but the lack of metal forced the Wehrmacht command to oblige the rear supply units to collect used Faust barrels for reloading at factories.

The scale of the use of the Panzerfaust is amazing - in the period from October 1944 to April 1945, 5,600,000 Faustpatrons of all modifications were produced. The presence of so many disposable hand-held anti-tank grenade launchers (RPGs) in the last months of World War II allowed the untrained boys from the Volkssturm to inflict significant damage on allied tanks in urban battles.

An eyewitness tells - Yu.N. Polyakov, commander of the SU-76:“May 5 moved to Brandenburg. Near the city of Burg, they ran into an ambush of Faustniks. We were four cars with troops. It was hot. And from the ditch there were seven Germans with Fausts. Distance twenty meters, no more. This is a long story, but it is done instantly - they got up, fired, and that's it. The first three cars exploded, our engine was smashed. Well, the starboard side, not the left side - the fuel tanks are in the left side. Half of the paratroopers died, the rest caught the Germans. They stuffed their faces well, twisted them with wire and threw them into burning self-propelled guns. They yelled well, musically so ... "

Interestingly, the allies did not disdain to use captured RPGs. Since the Soviet army did not have such weapons, Russian soldiers regularly used captured grenade launchers to fight tanks, as well as in urban battles, to suppress enemy fortified firing points.

From the speech of the commander of the 8th guards army Colonel General V.I. Chuikova: “I once again want to emphasize at this conference big role, which was played by the enemy’s weapon, are faustpatrons. 8th Guards the army, fighters and commanders, were in love with these faustpatrons, stole them from each other and successfully used them - effectively. If not a faustpatron, then let's call him Ivan-patron, if only we had him as soon as possible.

This is not a myth!

"Armor Tongs"

A smaller copy of the Panzerfaust was a grenade launcher Panzerknacke ("Armor Tongs"). They were equipped with saboteurs, and the Germans planned to eliminate the leaders of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition with this weapon.

On a moonless September night in 1944, a German transport plane landed on a field in the Smolensk region. A motorcycle was rolled out of it along a retractable ladder, on which two passengers - a man and a woman in the form of Soviet officers - left the landing site, driving towards Moscow. At dawn they were stopped to check their documents, which turned out to be in order. But the NKVD officer drew attention to the clean uniform of the officer - after all, there had been a heavy downpour the previous evening. The suspicious couple was detained and after checking they were handed over to SMERSH. These were saboteurs Politov (aka Tavrin) and Shilova, who were trained by Otto Skorzeny himself. In addition to a set of false documents, the "major" even had fake clippings from the newspapers "Pravda" and "Izvestia" with essays on exploits, decrees on awards and a portrait of Major Tavrin. But the most interesting thing was in Shilova's suitcase: a compact magnetic mine with a radio transmitter for remote detonation and a compact Panzerknakke rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

The length of the Armor Tongs was 20 cm, and the launch tube was 5 cm in diameter.

A rocket was put on the pipe, which had a range of thirty meters and pierced armor 30 mm thick. "Panzerknakke" was attached to the forearm of the shooter with leather straps. In order to discreetly carry a grenade launcher, Politov was given a leather coat with an extended right sleeve. The grenade was launched by pressing a button on the wrist of the left hand - the contacts closed, and the current from the battery hidden behind the belt initiated the fuse of the Panzerknakke. This "wonder weapon" was designed to kill Stalin while riding in an armored car.

Panzerschreck

An English soldier with a captured Panzerschreck.

In 1942, a sample of the American manual gun fell into the hands of German designers. anti-tank grenade launcher M1 Bazooka(caliber 58 mm, weight 6 kg, length 138 cm, effective range 200 meters). The Wehrmacht's weapons department offered arms firms a new specification for the design of the Raketen-Panzerbuchse hand grenade launcher (rocket tank rifle) based on the captured Bazooka. Three months later, a prototype was ready, and after testing in September 1943, the German RPG Panzerschreck- "Thunderstorm of tanks" - was adopted by the Wehrmacht. Such efficiency became possible due to the fact that German designers were already working on the design of a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

The Thunderstorm of Tanks was an open smooth-walled tube 170 cm long. Inside the tube there were three guides for a rocket projectile. For aiming and carrying, a shoulder rest and a handle for holding the RPG were used. Loading was carried out through the tail section of the tube. For firing, the grenade launcher pointed " Panzerschreck» on the target using a simplified sighting device, which consisted of two metal rings. After pressing the trigger, the thrust introduced a small magnetic rod into an induction coil (as in piezo lighters), as a result of which an electric current was generated, which, passing through the wiring to the back of the launch tube, initiated the ignition of the projectile's powder engine.

The design of the "Pantsershrek" (official name 8.8 cm Raketenpanzerbuechse-43- “88-mm rocket anti-tank gun of the 1943 model of the year”) turned out to be more successful and had several advantages compared to the American counterpart:

The Thunderstorm of Tanks had a caliber of 88 mm, and the American RPG had a caliber of 60 mm. Due to the increase in caliber, the weight of the ammunition has doubled, and, consequently, the armor-piercing has increased. The cumulative charge pierced homogeneous armor up to 150 mm thick, which guaranteed the destruction of any Soviet tank (the American improved version of the Bazooka M6A1 pierced armor up to 90 mm).

An induction current generator was used as a trigger mechanism. The Bazooka used a battery that was quite capricious in operation, and lost its charge at low temperatures.

Due to the simplicity of the design, the Panzerschreck provided a high rate of fire - up to ten rounds per minute (for the Bazooka - 3-4).

The "Panzershrek" projectile consisted of two parts: a combat one with a cumulative charge and a reactive part. For the use of RPGs in different climatic zones, German designers created an "arctic" and "tropical" modification of the grenade.

To stabilize the trajectory of the projectile, a second after the shot, a thin metal ring was thrown in the tail section. After the projectile left the launch tube, the gunpowder charge continued to burn for another two meters (for this, the German soldiers called it "Panzershrek" Ofcnrohr, chimney). To protect himself from burns when firing, the grenade launcher had to put on a gas mask without a filter and put on thick clothes. This drawback was eliminated on a later modification of the RPG, on which a protective screen with a window for aiming was installed, which, however, increased the weight to eleven kg.

The Panzerschreck is ready for action.

Due to the low cost (70 Reichsmarks - comparable to the price of a rifle Mauser 98), as well as simple device from 1943 to 1945, more than 300,000 copies of the Panzerschreck were produced. In general, despite the shortcomings, the Storm of Tanks became one of the most successful and effective weapons of the Second World War. Large dimensions and weight fettered the actions of the grenade launcher and did not allow you to quickly change the firing position, and this quality in battle is priceless. Also, when firing, it was necessary to make sure that there was not, for example, a wall behind the RPG gunner. This limited the use of "Pantsershrek" in urban areas.

An eyewitness tells - V.B. Vostrov, commander of the SU-85:“From February to April of forty-five, detachments of“ Faustniks ”, tank destroyers, made up of“ Vlasov ”and German“ penal ” were very active against us. Once, right in front of my eyes, they burned our IS-2, which was standing a few tens of meters from me. Our regiment was still very lucky that we entered Berlin from Potsdam and did not fall to our lot to participate in the battles in the center of Berlin. And there the "faustniks" were just raging ... "

It was the German RPGs that became the progenitors of the modern "tank killers". The first Soviet RPG-2 grenade launcher was put into service in 1949 and repeated the Panzerfaust scheme.

Missiles - "weapons of retaliation"

V-2 on the launch pad. Support vehicles are visible.

The capitulation of Germany in 1918 and the ensuing Treaty of Versailles became the starting point for the creation of a new type of weapon. According to the treaty, Germany was limited in the production and development of weapons, and the German army was forbidden to be armed with tanks, aircraft, submarines, and even airships. But there was not a word about the nascent rocket technology in the treaty.

In the 1920s, many German engineers were working on rocket engines. But only in 1931 the designers Riedel and Nebel managed to create a complete liquid fuel jet engine. In 1932, this engine was repeatedly tested on experimental rockets and showed encouraging results.

In the same year, a star began to rise Wernher von Braun, received a bachelor's degree from the Berlin Institute of Technology. A talented student attracted the attention of the engineer Nebel, and the 19-year-old baron, along with his studies, became an apprentice in a rocket design bureau.

In 1934, Brown defended his thesis entitled "Constructive, Theoretical and Experimental Contributions to the Problem of Liquid Rocket". Behind the vague wording of the doctoral dissertation, there were hidden the theoretical foundations for the advantages of liquid-propellant rockets over bomber aircraft and artillery. After receiving his Ph.D., von Braun attracted the attention of the military, and the diploma was highly classified.

In 1934, a testing laboratory was established near Berlin " West», which was located at the training ground in Kummersdorf. It was the "cradle" of German missiles - tests of jet engines were carried out there, dozens of prototypes of rockets were launched. Total secrecy reigned at the training ground - few knew what Brown's research group was doing. In 1939, in the north of Germany, not far from the city of Peenemünde, a rocket center was founded - factory workshops and the largest wind tunnel in Europe.

In 1941, under the leadership of Brown, a new 13-ton rocket was designed. A-4 with liquid fuel engine.

A few seconds before the start...

In July 1942, an experimental batch was made ballistic missiles A-4, which were immediately sent for testing.

On a note: V-2 (Vergeltungswaffe-2, Weapon of Retribution-2) is a single-stage ballistic missile. Length - 14 meters, weight 13 tons, of which 800 kg accounted for the warhead with explosives. The liquid jet engine ran on both liquid oxygen (about 5 tons) and 75% ethyl alcohol (about 3.5 tons). Fuel consumption was 125 liters of mixture per second. The maximum speed is about 6000 km / h, the height of the ballistic trajectory is one hundred kilometers, the radius of action is up to 320 kilometers. The rocket was launched vertically from the launch pad. After turning off the engine, the control system was turned on, the gyroscopes gave commands to the rudders, following the instructions of the software mechanism and the speed measuring device.

By October 1942, dozens of launches were carried out A-4, but only a third of them were able to achieve the goal. Constant accidents at launch and in the air convinced the Fuhrer of the inadvisability of continuing to finance the Peenemünde rocket research center. After all, the budget of Wernher von Braun's design bureau for the year was equal to the cost of producing armored vehicles in 1940.

The situation in Africa and on the Eastern Front was no longer in favor of the Wehrmacht, and Hitler could not afford to finance a long-term and expensive project. Air Force Commander Reichsmarschall Goering took advantage of this by offering Hitler a project for a projectile aircraft. Fi-103, which was developed by the designer Fieseler.

Cruise missile V-1.

On a note: V-1 (Vergeltungswaffe-1, Weapon of Retribution-1) is a guided cruise missile. The weight of the V-1 is 2200 kg, the length is 7.5 meters, the maximum speed is 600 km/h, the flight range is up to 370 km, the flight altitude is 150-200 meters. The warhead contained 700 kg of explosive. The launch was carried out using a 45-meter catapult (later, experiments were carried out to launch from an aircraft). After the launch, the rocket control system was turned on, which consisted of a gyroscope, a magnetic compass and an autopilot. When the rocket was over the target, the automation turned off the engine and the rocket planned to the ground. The V-1 engine - a pulsating air-jet engine - ran on regular gasoline.

On the night of August 18, 1943, about a thousand Allied "flying fortresses" took off from air bases in the UK. Their target was factories in Germany. 600 bombers raided the missile center at Peenemünde. The German air defense could not cope with the armada of Anglo-American aviation - tons of high-explosive and incendiary bombs fell on the V-2 production workshops. Deutsch Research Center was almost destroyed, and it took more than six months to restore.

The consequences of the use of V-2. Antwerp.

In the autumn of 1943, Hitler, worried about the alarming situation on the Eastern Front, as well as the possible landing of the Allies in Europe, again remembered the "wonder weapon".

Wernher von Braun was called to the command headquarters. He demonstrated film reel with launches A-4 and photographs of the destruction caused by a ballistic missile warhead. The "Rocket Baron" also presented to the Fuhrer a plan according to which, with proper funding, hundreds of V-2s could be produced within six months.

Von Braun convinced the Fuhrer. "Thank you! Why have I still not believed in the success of your work? I was just poorly informed, ”Hitler said after reading the report. The rebuilding of the Peenemünde center began at a double pace. The Fuhrer's attention to missile projects can be explained financially: the V-1 cruise missile cost 50,000 Reichsmarks in mass production, and the V-2 rocket up to 120,000 Reichsmarks (seven times cheaper than the Tiger-I tank, which cost about 800,000 Reichsmarks). Reichsmark).

On June 13, 1944, fifteen V-1 cruise missiles were launched - their target was London. Launches continued daily, and in two weeks the death toll from the "weapon of retaliation" reached 2,400 people.

Of the 30,000 projectiles manufactured, about 9,500 were launched into England, and only 2,500 of them flew to the capital of Great Britain. 3,800 were shot down by fighters and air defense artillery, and 2,700 V-1s fell into the English Channel. German cruise missiles destroyed about 20,000 houses, about 18,000 people were injured and 6,400 killed.

Start V-2.

On September 8, on the orders of Hitler, V-2 ballistic missiles were launched at London. The first of them fell into a residential area, forming a ten-meter-deep crater in the middle of the street. This explosion caused a stir among the inhabitants of the capital of England - during the flight, the V-1 made a characteristic sound of a working pulsating jet engine (the British called it a "buzzing bomb" - buzz bomb). But on this day there was no air raid signal, no characteristic "buzzing". It became clear that the Germans had used some new weapon.

Of the 12,000 V-2s produced by the Germans, more than a thousand were fired in England and about five hundred in Antwerp occupied by the Allied forces. General number about 3,000 people died as a result of the use of "von Braun's brainchild".

The Miracle Weapon, despite its revolutionary concept and design, suffered from shortcomings: the low accuracy of the hit forced the use of missiles against area targets, and the low reliability of engines and automation often led to accidents even at the start. The destruction of enemy infrastructure with the help of V-1 and V-2 was unrealistic, so it is safe to call these weapons "propaganda" - to intimidate the civilian population.

This is not a myth!

Operation Elster

On the night of November 29, 1944, the German submarine U-1230 surfaced in the Gulf of Maine near Boston, from which a small inflatable boat set sail, on board which were two saboteurs equipped with weapons, false documents, money and jewelry, as well as various radio equipment.

From that moment, Operation Elster (Magpie), planned by the German Minister of the Interior, Heinrich Himmler, entered the active phase. The purpose of the operation was to install a radio beacon on the tallest building in New York, the Empire State Building, which was planned to be used in the future to guide German ballistic missiles.

Wernher von Braun back in 1941 developed a project for an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of about 4500 km. However, only at the beginning of 1944, von Braun told the Fuhrer about this project. Hitler was delighted - he demanded to immediately start creating a prototype. After this order, German engineers at the Peenemünde Center carried out round-the-clock work on the design and assembly of an experimental rocket. The A-9/A-10 Amerika two-stage ballistic missile was ready at the end of December 1944. It was equipped with liquid-propellant engines, the weight reached 90 tons, and the length was thirty meters. The experimental launch of the rocket took place on January 8, 1945; after seven seconds of flight, the A-9 / A-10 exploded in the air. Despite the failure, the "rocket baron" continued to work on the "America" ​​project.

The Elster mission also ended in failure - the FBI detected a radio transmission from the submarine U-1230, and a raid began on the coast of the Gulf of Maine. The spies split up and made their way to New York separately, where they were arrested by the FBI in early December. German agents were tried by an American military tribunal and sentenced to death, but after the war, US President Truman overturned the sentence.

After the loss of Himmler's agents, the America plan was on the verge of failure, because it was still necessary to find a solution for the most accurate guidance of a hundred-ton rocket, which should hit the target after a flight of five thousand kilometers. Goering decided to go the simplest possible way - he instructed Otto Skorzeny to create a detachment of suicide pilots. The last launch of the experimental A-9 / A-10 took place in January 1945. There is an opinion that this was the first manned flight; there is no documentary evidence of this, but according to this version, Rudolf Schroeder took the place in the cockpit of the rocket. True, the attempt ended in failure - ten seconds after takeoff, the rocket caught fire, and the pilot died. According to the same version, data on the incident with a manned flight is still classified as "secret".

Further experiments of the "rocket baron" were interrupted by evacuation to the south of Germany.

In early April 1945, an order was given to evacuate Wernher von Braun's design bureau from Peenemünde to the south of Germany, to Bavaria - the Soviet troops were very close. Engineers stationed in Oberjoch, ski resort located in the mountains. The rocket elite of Germany expected the end of the war.

As Dr. Konrad Danenberg recalled: “We had several secret meetings with von Braun and his colleagues to discuss the question: what will we do after the end of the war. We considered whether we should surrender to the Russians. We had intelligence that the Russians were interested in rocket technology. But we have heard so many bad things about Russians. We all understood that the V-2 rocket is a huge contribution to high technology, and we hoped that this would help us stay alive ... "

During these meetings, it was decided to surrender to the Americans, since it was naive to count on a warm welcome from the British after the shelling of London by German rockets.

The "rocket baron" understood that the unique knowledge of his team of engineers could provide an honorable reception after the war, and on April 30, 1945, after the news of Hitler's death, von Braun surrendered to American intelligence officers.

It is interesting: American intelligence agencies closely followed the work of von Braun. In 1944 a plan was drawn up "Paperclip""paper clip" in translation from English). The name comes from the stainless steel paper clips that were used to fasten the paper files of German rocket engineers, which were kept in the file cabinet of American intelligence. The goal of Operation Paperclip was people and documentation related to German rocket development.

America is learning

In November 1945, the International Military Tribunal began in Nuremberg. The victorious countries tried war criminals and members of the SS. But neither Wernher von Braun nor his rocket team were in the dock, although they were members of the SS party.

The Americans secretly took the "rocket baron" to the United States.

And already in March 1946, at the test site in New Mexico, the Americans begin testing the V-2 missiles removed from the Mittelwerk. Wernher von Braun supervised the launches. Only half of the launched "Vengeance Missiles" managed to take off, but this did not stop the Americans - they signed a hundred contracts with former German rocket scientists. The calculation of the US administration was simple - relations with the USSR quickly deteriorated, and a carrier was required for nuclear bomb, and a ballistic missile perfect option.

In 1950, a group of "rocketmen from Peenemünde" moved to a missile range in Alabama, where work began on the Redstone rocket. The rocket almost completely copied the design of the A-4, but due to the changes made, the launch weight increased to 26 tons. During the tests, it was possible to achieve a flight range of 400 km.

In 1955, the SSM-A-5 "Redstone" liquid-propellant tactical missile equipped with a nuclear warhead was deployed at American bases in Western Europe.

In 1956, Wernher von Braun leads the US Jupiter ballistic missile program.

On February 1, 1958, a year after the Soviet Sputnik, the American Explorer 1 was launched. It was delivered into orbit by a Jupiter-S rocket designed by von Braun.

In 1960, the "rocket baron" became a member of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). A year later, under his leadership, Saturn rockets are being designed, as well as spacecraft of the Apollo series.

On July 16, 1969, the Saturn-5 rocket launched and, after 76 hours of flight in space, delivered spaceship Apollo 11 into lunar orbit.

anti-aircraft missiles

The world's first guided anti-aircraft missile Wasserfall.

By mid-1943, regular Allied bombing raids had severely undermined the German arms industry. Air defense guns could not fire above 11 kilometers, and Luftwaffe fighters could not fight the armada of American "air fortresses". And then the German command remembered the von Braun project - a guided anti-aircraft missile.

The Luftwaffe invited von Braun to continue developing a project called wasserfall(Waterfall). "Rocket Baron" acted simply - he created a small copy of the V-2.

The jet engine ran on fuel, which was displaced from the tanks with a nitrogen mixture. Rocket weight - 4 tons, target engagement height - 18 km, range - 25 km, flight speed - 900 km / h, warhead contained 90 kg of explosives.

The rocket was launched vertically upwards from a special launcher similar to the V-2. After launch, the Wasserfall target was guided by the operator using radio commands.

Experiments were also carried out with an infrared fuse, which detonated a warhead when approaching an enemy aircraft.

In early 1944, German engineers tested a revolutionary radio beam guidance system on the Wasserfall missile. The radar at the air defense control center "illuminated the target", after which an anti-aircraft missile was launched. In flight, its equipment controlled the rudders, and the rocket, as it were, flew along the radio beam to the target. Despite the prospects this method, German engineers failed to achieve reliable operation of automation.

As a result of the experiments, the Waserval designers opted for a two-locator guidance system. The first radar marked the enemy aircraft, the second anti-aircraft missile. The guidance operator saw two marks on the display, which he sought to combine using the control knobs. The commands were processed and transmitted over the radio to the rocket. The Wasserfall transmitter, having received a command, controlled the rudders through servos - and the rocket changed course.

In March 1945, rocket tests were carried out, on which the Wasserfall reached a speed of 780 km / h and an altitude of 16 km. Wasserfall successfully passed the tests and could take part in repelling allied air raids. But there were no factories where it was possible to deploy mass production, as well as rocket fuel. There was a month and a half left before the end of the war.

German project of a portable anti-aircraft complex.

After the surrender of Germany, the USSR and the USA took out several samples of anti-aircraft missiles, as well as valuable documentation.

In the Soviet Union, "Wasserfall" after some refinement received an index R-101. After a series of tests that revealed shortcomings in the manual guidance system, it was decided to stop upgrading the captured rocket. American designers came to the same conclusions; the A-1 Hermes rocket project (based on the Wasserfall) was canceled in 1947.

It is also worth noting that from 1943 to 1945, German designers developed and tested four more models of guided missiles: Hs-117 Schmetterling, Enzian, Feuerlilie, Rheintochter. Many technical and innovative technological solutions found by German designers were embodied in post-war developments in the USA, the USSR and other countries over the next twenty years.

It is interesting: along with the development of managed missile systems German designers have created guided air-to-air missiles, guided aviation bombs, guided anti-ship missiles, anti-tank guided missiles. In 1945, German drawings and prototypes came to the Allies. All types missile weapons, which entered service with the USSR, France, the USA and England in the post-war years, had German "roots".

jet planes

Difficult child of the Luftwaffe

History does not tolerate the subjunctive mood, but if it were not for the indecision and shortsightedness of the leadership of the Third Reich, the Luftwaffe would again, as in the early days of World War II, have received a complete and unconditional advantage in the air.

In June 1945, RAF pilot Captain Eric Brown took off in a captured Me-262 from the territory of occupied Germany and headed for England. From his memoirs: “I was very excited because it was such an unexpected turn. Previously, every German plane flying over the English Channel met a fiery shaft of anti-aircraft guns. And now I was flying the most valuable German plane home. This plane has a rather sinister look - it looks like a shark. And after takeoff, I realized how much trouble the German pilots could bring us in this magnificent machine. Later, I was part of the team of test pilots who tested the Messerschmitt jet at Fanborough. Back then I got 568 miles per hour (795 km/h) on it, while our best fighter was making 446 miles per hour, which is a huge difference. It was a real quantum leap. The Me-262 could have changed the course of the war, but the Nazis got it too late."

Me-262 entered world history aviation as the first serial combat fighter.

In 1938, the German Armaments Office instructed the design bureau Messerschmitt A.G. to develop a jet fighter, on which it was planned to install the latest BMW P 3302 turbojet engines. According to the HwaA plan, BMW engines were to go into mass production as early as 1940. By the end of 1941, the glider of the future fighter-interceptor was ready.

Everything was ready for testing, but constant problems with the BMW engine forced the Messerschmitt designers to look for a replacement. They became the Junkers Jumo-004 turbojet engine. After finalizing the design in the fall of 1942, the Me-262 took to the air.

Experienced flights showed excellent results - the maximum speed was approaching 700 km / h. But the Minister of Armaments of Germany A. Speer decided that it was too early to start mass production. A thorough revision of the aircraft and its engines was required.

A year passed, the "childhood diseases" of the aircraft were eliminated, and Messerschmitt decided to invite the German ace, the hero of the Spanish war, Major General Adolf Galland, to test. After a series of flights on the upgraded Me-262, he wrote a report to the Luftwaffe commander Goering. In his report, the German ace in enthusiastic tones proved the unconditional advantage of the latest jet interceptor over piston single-engine fighters.

Galland also proposed to begin the immediate deployment of mass production of the Me-262.

Me-262 during flight tests in the USA, 1946.

In early June 1943, at a meeting with the commander of the German Air Force Goering, it was decided to start mass production of the Me-262. In factories Messerschmitt A.G. preparations began for the collection of a new aircraft, but in September Goering received an order to “freeze” this project. Messerschmitt urgently arrived in Berlin at the headquarters of the commander of the Luftwaffe and there he got acquainted with Hitler's order. The Fuhrer expressed bewilderment: “Why do we need an unfinished Me-262 when the front needs hundreds of Me-109 fighters?”

Upon learning of Hitler's order to stop preparations for mass production, Adolf Galland wrote to the Fuhrer that the Luftwaffe needed a jet fighter like air. But Hitler had already decided everything - the German Air Force needed not an interceptor, but a jet attack bomber. The tactics of "Blitzkrieg" haunted the Fuhrer, and the idea of ​​​​a lightning offensive with the support of "blitz stormtroopers" was firmly planted in Hitler's head.

In December 1943, Speer signed an order to start developing a high-speed jet attack aircraft based on the Me-262 interceptor.

Messerschmitt's design bureau was given carte blanche, and the project's funding was restored in full. But the creators of the high-speed attack aircraft faced numerous problems. Due to the massive allied air raids on industrial centers in Germany, interruptions began in the supply of components. There was a lack of chromium and nickel, which were used to make the turbine blades of the Jumo-004B engine. As a result, the production of Junkers turbojet engines was sharply reduced. In April 1944, only 15 pre-production attack aircraft were assembled, which were transferred to a special test unit of the Luftwaffe, which worked out the tactics of using new jet technology.

Only in June 1944, after the production of the Jumo-004B engine was transferred to the Nordhausen underground plant, did it become possible to start mass production of the Me-262.

In May 1944, Messerschmitt took up the development of equipping the interceptor with bomb racks. A variant was developed with the installation of two 250-kg or one 500-kg bombs on the Me-262 fuselage. But in parallel with the attack-bomber project, the designers, secretly from the Luftwaffe command, continued to refine the fighter project.

During the inspection, which took place in July 1944, it was found that work on the jet interceptor project had not been curtailed. The Fuhrer was furious, and the result of this incident was Hitler's personal control over the Me-262 project. Any change in the design of the jet Messerschmitt from that moment on could only be approved by Hitler.

In July 1944, the Kommando Nowotny (Team Novotny) unit was created under the command of the German ace Walter Novotny (258 downed enemy aircraft). It was equipped with thirty Me-262s equipped with bomb racks.

The “Novotny team” was tasked with testing the attack aircraft in combat conditions. Novotny defied orders and used a jet as a fighter, in which he achieved considerable success. After a series of reports from the front about the successful use of the Me-262 as an interceptor, in November Goering decided to order the formation of a fighter unit with jet Messerschmitts. Also, the commander of the Luftwaffe managed to convince the Fuhrer to reconsider his opinion about the new aircraft. In December 1944, the Luftwaffe adopted about three hundred Me-262 fighters, and the attack aircraft production project was closed.

In the winter of 1944, the Messerschmitt A.G. felt an acute problem with obtaining the components necessary for the assembly of the Me-262. Allied bomber aircraft bombed German factories around the clock. In early January 1945, the HWaA decided to disperse production of the jet fighter. Units for the Me-262 began to be assembled in one-story wooden buildings hidden in the forests. The roofs of these mini-factories were covered with olive-colored paint, and it was difficult to detect the workshops from the air. One such plant produced the fuselage, another the wings, and the third made the final assembly. After that, the finished fighter took off into the air, using the impeccable German autobahns for takeoff.

The result of this innovation was 850 turbojet Me-262s, produced from January to April 1945.

In total, about 1900 copies of the Me-262 were built and eleven of its modifications were developed. Of particular interest is a two-seat night fighter-interceptor with a Neptune radar station in the forward fuselage. This concept of a two-seat fighter jet equipped with a powerful radar was repeated by the Americans in 1958, implementing in the model F-4 Phantom II.

In the autumn of 1944, the first air battles between the Me-262 and Soviet fighters showed that the Messerschmitt was a formidable opponent. Its speed and climb time were incomparably higher than those of Russian aircraft. After detailed analysis combat capabilities of the Me-262, the Soviet Air Force command ordered the pilots to open fire on the German jet fighter from the maximum distance and use the maneuver to evade the battle.

Further instructions could have been taken after the test of the Messerschmitt, but such an opportunity presented itself only at the end of April 1945, after the capture of the German airfield.

The design of the Me-262 consisted of an all-metal cantilever low-wing aircraft. Two Jumo-004 turbojet engines were installed under the wings, on the outer side of the landing gear. Armament consisted of four 30 mm MK-108 cannons mounted on the nose of the aircraft. Ammunition - 360 shells. Due to the dense layout of the cannon armament, excellent accuracy was ensured when firing at enemy targets. Experiments were also carried out to install larger caliber guns on the Me-262.

The jet "Messerschmitt" was very simple to manufacture. The maximum manufacturability of the units facilitated its assembly in "forest factories".

With all the advantages, the Me-262 had fatal flaws:

A small motor resource of engines - only 9-10 hours of operation. After that, it was required to carry out a complete disassembly of the engine and replace the turbine blades.

The large run of the Me-262 made it vulnerable during takeoff and landing. Fw-190 fighter units were allocated to cover the take-off.

Extremely high requirements for airfield coverage. Due to the low-lying engines, any object entering the Me-262's air intake caused a breakdown.

It is interesting: On August 18, 1946, at the air parade dedicated to the Day of the Air Fleet, a fighter flew over the Tushino airfield I-300 (MiG-9). It was equipped with an RD-20 turbojet engine, an exact copy of the German Jumo-004B. Also presented at the parade Yak-15, equipped with a captured BMW-003 (later RD-10). Exactly Yak-15 became the first Soviet jet aircraft officially adopted by the Air Force, as well as the first jet fighter on which military pilots mastered aerobatics. The first serial Soviet jet fighters were created on the basis of the Me-262 back in 1938 .

ahead of its time

Refueling Arado.

In 1940, the German company Arado, on its own initiative, began the development of an experimental high-speed reconnaissance aircraft, with the latest Junkers turbojet engines. The prototype was ready in the middle of 1942, but problems with the refinement of the Jumo-004 engine forced the testing of the aircraft to be postponed.

In May 1943, the long-awaited engines were delivered to the Arado factory, and after a little fine-tuning, the reconnaissance aircraft was ready for a test flight. Tests began in June, and the aircraft showed impressive results - its speed reached 630 km / h, while the piston Ju-88 had 500 km / h. The Luftwaffe command appreciated the promising aircraft, but at a meeting with Goering in July 1943, it was decided to remake the Ar. 234 Blitz (Lightning) into a light bomber.

The design bureau of the firm "Arado" began to finalize the aircraft. The main difficulty was the placement of bombs - there was no free space in the small fuselage of the Lightning, and the placement of a bomb suspension under the wings greatly worsened aerodynamics, which entailed a loss of speed.

In September 1943 Goering was presented with the Ar-234B light bomber. . The design was an all-metal high-wing with a single-keel plumage. The crew is one person. The aircraft carried one 500-kg bomb, two Jumo-004 gas turbine jet engines developed a maximum speed of up to 700 km / h. To reduce the takeoff distance, starting jet boosters were used, which worked for about a minute, and then were dropped. To reduce the landing run, a system was designed with a braking parachute, which opened after the aircraft landed. Defensive armament of two 20-mm cannons was installed in the tail of the aircraft.

"Arado" before departure.

Ar-234B successfully passed all cycles of army tests and in November 1943 was demonstrated to the Fuhrer. Hitler was pleased with the "Lightning" and ordered to immediately begin mass production. But in the winter of 1943, interruptions began in the supply of Junker Jumo-004 engines - American aircraft were actively bombing military industry Germany. In addition, Jumo-004 engines were installed on the Me-262 fighter-bomber.

Only in May 1944 did the first twenty-five Ar-234s enter service with the Luftwaffe. In July, "Lightning" made the first reconnaissance flight over the territory of Normandy. During this sortie, Arado-234 filmed almost the entire zone, which was occupied by the landing allied troops. The flight took place at an altitude of 11,000 meters and a speed of 750 km/h. English fighters, raised to intercept Arado-234, could not catch up with him. As a result of this flight, the Wehrmacht command for the first time was able to assess the scale of the landing of the Anglo-American troops. Goering, amazed by such brilliant results, ordered the creation of reconnaissance squadrons equipped with Lightnings.

From the autumn of 1944, Arado-234 conducted reconnaissance throughout Europe. Due to its high speed, only the newest Mustang P51D piston fighters (701 km / h) and Spitfire Mk.XVI (688 km / h) could intercept and shoot down the Lightning. Despite the dominating superiority of Allied air power in early 1945, Lightning losses were minimal.

Overall, the Arado was a well-designed aircraft. It tested an experimental ejection seat for the pilot, as well as a pressurized cabin for flying at high altitude.

The disadvantages of the aircraft include the complexity of control, which required highly qualified pilots. Also, the difficulties were caused by the small motor resource of the Jumo-004 engine.

In total, about two hundred Arado-234s were produced.

German infrared night vision devices "Infrarot-Scheinwerfer"

German armored personnel carrier equipped with an infrared searchlight.

An English officer examines a captured MP-44 equipped with a Vampire night sight.

Night vision devices have been developed in Germany since the early 1930s. Particularly successful in this area was the Allgemeine Electricitats-Gesellschaft, which in 1936 received an order for the manufacture of an active night vision device. In 1940, a prototype was presented to the Wehrmacht Ordnance Department, which was mounted on an anti-tank gun. After a series of tests, the infrared sight was sent for revision.

After making changes in September 1943, AEG developed night vision devices for tanks. PzKpfw V ausf. A"Panther".

Tank T-5 "Panther", equipped with a night vision device.

Night sight mounted on an MG 42 anti-aircraft machine gun.

The Infrarot-Scheinwerfer system worked as follows: on an escort armored personnel carrier SdKfz 251/20 Uhu(“Owl”) an infrared searchlight with a diameter of 150 cm was installed. It illuminated the target at a distance of up to one kilometer, and the Panther crew, looking into the image converter, attacked the enemy. Used to escort tanks on the march SdKfz 251/21, equipped with two 70 cm infrared spotlights that illuminated the road.

In total, about 60 "night" armored personnel carriers and more than 170 sets for the "Panthers" were produced.

"Night Panthers" were actively used in the Western and Eastern fronts, participating in battles in Pomerania, the Ardennes, near Balaton, in Berlin.

In 1944, an experimental batch of three hundred infrared sights was produced. Vampir-1229 Zeilgerat, which were installed on the MP-44/1 assault rifles. The weight of the sight, together with the battery, reached 35 kg, the range did not exceed one hundred meters, and the operating time was twenty minutes. Nevertheless, the Germans actively used these devices during night battles.

Hunt for the "brains" of Germany

Photo of Werner Heisenberg at the Alsos Operation Museum.

The inscription on the pass: "Purpose of the trip: search for targets, reconnaissance, seizure of documents, seizure of equipment or personnel." This document allowed everything - up to kidnapping.

The Nazi Party has always recognized the importance of technology and invested heavily in the development of rockets, aircraft and even racing cars. As a result, in the sports races of the 1930s, German cars had no equal. But Hitler's investments paid off with other discoveries.

Perhaps the greatest of them and the most dangerous were made in the area nuclear physics. Nuclear fission was discovered in Germany. Many of the best German physicists were Jews, and in the late 1930s the Germans forced them to leave the Third Reich. Many of them emigrated to the US, bringing with them disturbing news that Germany may be working on a atomic bomb. This news prompted the Pentagon to take action to develop its own nuclear program, which they called "Manhattan Project".

Castle in the city of Haigerloch.

The Americans developed a plan of operation, for the implementation of which it was necessary to send agents to quickly detect and destroy Hitler's atomic program. The main goal was one of the most prominent German physicists, head nuclear project Nazis - Werner Heisenberg. In addition, the Germans had accumulated thousands of tons of uranium needed to build a nuclear product, and agents had to find Nazi stocks.

American agents extract German uranium.

The operation was called "Alsos". To track down an outstanding scientist and find secret laboratories, a special unit was created in 1943. For complete freedom of action, they were issued passes with the highest category of clearance and powers.

It was the agents of the Alsos mission who in April 1945 discovered a secret laboratory in the city of Haigerloch, which was under lock and key, at a depth of twenty meters. In addition to the most important documents, the Americans discovered a real treasure - the German nuclear reactor. But the Nazi scientists did not have enough uranium - a few more tons, and the reactor would have started working. Two days later, captured uranium was in England. Twenty transport aircraft had to make several flights to transport the entire supply of this heavy element.

Treasures of the Reich

Entrance to the underground factory.

In February 1945, when it became finally clear that the defeat of the Nazis was not far off, the heads of the United States, Britain and the USSR met in Yalta and agreed to divide Germany into three occupation zones. This made the hunt for scientists even more urgent, because in the territories falling under the control of the Russians, there were many German scientific facilities.

A few days after the meeting at Yalta, American troops crossed the Rhine, and Alsos agents scattered throughout Germany, hoping to intercept the scientists before the Russians arrived. American intelligence knew that von Braun had moved his V-2 ballistic missile factory to the center of Germany, to the small town of Nordhausen.

An American officer near the V-2 engine. Underground plant "Mittelwerk", April 1945.

On the morning of April 11, 1945, a special detachment landed in this town. The scouts drew attention to a wooded hill, which towered four kilometers from Nordhausen, almost 150 meters above the surrounding area. The underground plant "Mittelwerk" was located there.

In the hill, along the diameter of the base, four through adits were cut through, each more than three kilometers long. All four adits were connected by 44 transverse drifts, and each was a separate assembly plant, stopped only a day before the arrival of the Americans. There were hundreds of rockets underground and in special railway platforms. The plant and access roads were completely intact. The two left adits were factories for BMW-003 and Jumo-004 aircraft turbojet engines.

Soviet experts take out the V-2.

One of the participants in that operation recalls: “We experienced feelings similar to the emotions of the Egyptologists who opened the tomb of Tutankhamen; we knew about the existence of this plant, but had a vague idea of ​​what was going on here. But when we went there, we ended up in Aladdin's cave. There were assembly lines, dozens of rockets ready for use ... ”The Americans in a hurry took out about three hundred freight cars loaded with equipment and parts of V-2 rockets from the Mittelwerk. The Red Army appeared there only two weeks later.

Experimental tank trawl.

In April 1945, the US secret services were given the task of finding German chemists and biologists who were conducting research in the field of creating weapons of mass destruction. The US was particularly interested in finding Nazi anthrax expert SS Major General Walter Schreiber. However, Soviet intelligence was ahead of the ally, and in 1945 Schreiber was taken to the USSR.

In general, the United States took out from defeated Germany about five hundred leading specialists in rocketry, headed by Wernher von Braun, as well as the head of the Nazi atomic project, Werner Heisenberg, along with his assistants. More than a million patented and non-patented German inventions in all branches of science and technology have become the prey of Alsos agents.

English soldiers are studying Goliaths. We can say that these wedges are the "grandfathers" of modern tracked robots.

The British did not lag behind the Americans. In 1942, a division was formed 30 Assault Units(also known as 30 Commandos,30AU and Ian Fleming's Red Indians). The idea of ​​​​creating this department belonged to Ian Fleming (the author of thirteen books about the English intelligence agent - “Agent 007” by James Bond), head of the British naval intelligence department.

"Ian Fleming's Redskins".

Ian Fleming's "Redskins" were engaged in the collection of technical information in the territory occupied by the Germans. In the autumn of 1944, even before the advance of the allied armies, secret agents of the 30AU combed all of France. From the memoirs of Captain Charles Viller: “We traveled around France, breaking away from our advanced units for tens of kilometers, and acted in the rear of the German communications. With us was the "black book" - a list of hundreds of British intelligence targets. We weren't after Himmler, we were looking for German scientists. At the head of the list was Helmut Walter, the creator of the German jet engine for aircraft ... ”In April 1945, the British commandos, together with the“ 30 division ”, kidnapped Walter from the port of Kiel occupied by the Germans.

Unfortunately, the format of the magazine does not allow to tell in detail about all the technical discoveries made by German engineers. These include a remote-controlled wedge "Goliath", and a super heavy tank "Maus", and a futuristic mine-clearing tank, and, of course, long-range artillery.

"Wonder Weapon" in games

"Weapon of Retribution", like other developments of Nazi designers, is often found in games. True, historical accuracy and reliability in games are extremely rare. Consider a couple of examples of developers' fantasy.

Behind enemy lines

Map "Behind enemy lines".

The wreckage of the mythical V-3.

Tactical game (Best Way, 1C, 2004)

The mission for the British begins in August 1944. Behind the Normandy landings, the Third Reich is about to fall. But German designers are inventing new weapons with which Hitler hopes to turn the tide of the war. This is a V-3 rocket capable of flying across the Atlantic and falling on New York. After the attack of German ballistic missiles, the Americans will panic and force their government to withdraw from the conflict. However, the V-3 controls are very primitive, and the accuracy of the hit is going to be improved with the help of a radio beacon on the roof of one of the skyscrapers. American intelligence learns of this sinister plan and asks the British allies for help. And now a group of British commandos cross the English Channel to take possession of the missile control unit ...

This fantastic introductory mission had a historical basis (see above about the project of Wernher von Braun A-9/A-10). This is where the similarity ends.

Blitzkrieg

"Mouse" - how did he get here?

Strategy (Nival Interactive, 1C, 2003)

Mission for the Germans, "Counterstrike near Kharkov". The player receives a self-propelled gun "Karl". In fact, the baptism of fire "Karlov" took place in 1941, when two guns of this type opened fire on the defenders of the Brest Fortress. Then similar installations fired at Lvov and, later, Sevastopol. They were not near Kharkov.

Also in the game there is a prototype of the German super-heavy tank "Maus", which did not take part in the battles. Unfortunately, this list can be continued for a very long time.

IL-2: Sturmovik

Me-262 - flies beautifully ...

Flight simulator (Maddox Games, 1C, 2001)

And here is an example of the preservation of historical accuracy. In the most famous flight simulator, we have a great opportunity to experience the full power of the Me-262 jet.

Call of Duty 2

Action (Infinity Ward, Activision, 2005)

The characteristics of the weapons here are close to the original ones. The MP-44, for example, has a low rate of fire, but the firing range is higher than that of submachine guns, and accuracy is not bad. The MP-44 is rare in the game, and finding ammo for it is a great joy.

Panzerschrek- the only thing anti-tank weapons in Game. The firing range is short, and you can carry only four charges for this RPG with you.

Today, in the Labyrinths of Truth series, we present a book that has been rejected by dozens of publishers around the world. The facts collected on its pages seem too incredible and do not fit into the usual schemes. Nevertheless, this book has sold millions of copies around the world. Today it has also appeared in Russia.

We think that Hans-Ulrich von Krantz does not need to be introduced to the domestic reader. Three books by this tireless researcher, one of the greatest experts on the Third Reich, have already been published in Russian. Books that tear the veil of mystery from deeply hidden secrets, forcing you to take a fresh look at seemingly long-known things. Perhaps that is why they have already managed to fall in love with the Russian reader.

And for those who have not yet held von Krantz's books in their hands, we will hasten to bring them up to date. The author is an ethnic German whose father, an SS officer, fled to Argentina after the war to avoid prosecution. Only after the death of his father, Hans-Ulrich found out that he was involved in the activities of the most mysterious organization in Nazi Germany - the Ahnenerbe Institute (Ancestral Heritage). And from that moment on, the respectable bourgeois turned into a tireless and talented researcher, a real stalker, a hunter for sensational secrets.

If you read Kranz's books and then look at his photograph, you get a very strange feeling. Flipping through the pages of “Heritage of the Ancestors” or “Swastikas in the Ice”, you imagine the author as a young, fit man with strong-willed features and a steely gaze – every line of these books is filled with such tough dynamics, such an exciting intrigue. From the photograph, an ordinary fifty-year-old man is looking at us, a tanned blond with deep bald patches, inclined to be overweight, with a calm, serene face. This “split personality” is far from accidental. Von Krantz for many years, until he decided to publish his first book (dedicated precisely to the "Heritage of the Ancestors"), had to lead a virtual double life. And few people could suspect that under the appearance of an exemplary bourgeois, a typical middle-class manager or a university professor, there is a person who is ready to destroy stereotypes and bring out into the light of God facts that were previously carefully hushed up or hidden.

Yes, yes, they were hushed up or hiding. "Why?" the reader will be surprised. After all, Hitler committed suicide long ago, and the Third Reich collapsed long ago, cursed by the entire civilized world! At least that's what they teach at school, that's what they say on TV screens. Well, each of us is free to make his own choice, whether to believe his "blue screen" or seek the truth. The reader of von Krantz's books has the opportunity, together with the author, to pull back the curtain of lies and half-truths and look into the eyes of the true history of the Nazi empire, a history that did not end with the surrender of Germany. Because next to Hitler and behind his back were very powerful forces that operate to this day, trying to hide the very fact of their existence.

Since their appearance, the books of Hans-Ulrich von Krantz have caused a storm of criticism, which, however, served only as another confirmation that the tireless researcher hit the mark. Moreover, an attempt was made on his life. Nevertheless, even the threat of life did not make Krantz turn off the intended path. One book after another, as the brave researcher managed to unravel more and more tangles of lies, discovering in them a thread of truth that was securely hidden. At the moment, about a dozen of Kranz's books have been published, and we hope that this is far from the limit.

The book that you are holding in your hands is devoted to the nuclear program of the Third Reich - a little-known topic, or rather, well-known, but far from the side from which von Krantz reveals it. Numerous books and articles have been written about the German nuclear program, all authors admitting that the Germans were in the lead in this area for a long time, but report the ultimate failure. This paradox is explained by a variety of, often rather stupid reasons. However, they could still be taken on faith, if not for one amazing circumstance ...

However, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Retelling the contents of von Krantz's books would be a thankless job. Therefore, we leave you alone with another brilliant work by Krantz, which, no doubt, will make you take a fresh look at many seemingly long-known facts.

Could Hitler have won the war? Historians have been arguing about this for decades. The volleys of that bloody war had not yet died down, but cruel fights had already begun on the pages of books.

The German generals shouted that they were within a hair's breadth of victory. Now, if the insidious Fuhrer had not interfered with them, who, with his stupid orders, did not allow the army to smear the Russians on the wall ... The British and Americans echo them: yes, the Russians did not know how to fight, they filled up the Germans with corpses. But the Germans are no better either - if only they had built jet fighters in time ... and launched their missiles a little earlier ...

All this noise is meant to mask the truth, the terrible and unpleasant truth. Germany really was on the verge of victory - at least over the Anglo-Americans. And not at all thanks to his generals, whom Hitler, by the way, quite rightly gave in the neck. And not because of jet fighters or V-missiles. All this is child's play compared to the weapons that the Third Reich possessed. A weapon that few initiates are still afraid to remember. And about which I will tell you on the pages of this book.

Of course, I'm taking a big risk. Once I was almost sent to the other world - I suspect that it was for my writings, because there seems to be nothing more. Why am I posting this story then? For money or fame? Well no. I already have enough money - not Gates, of course, but it's a sin to complain. I do not aspire to sparkle at the zenith of glory, to become everyone's favorite or, conversely, the object of everyone's fiery hatred. I just want to tell people the truth that I would rather not know myself. Sometimes I dream of a quiet, calm, secure old age in my own house on the seashore. But each person has his own destiny on this blue planet, and my destiny is completely different.

Who am I and why am I sticking my head in a noose? Well, the reader has the right to know this in advance in order to decide whether to trust me. I do not belong to the glorious cohort of professional historians, however, I know more than many of them.

I was born in Argentina in 1950. My father emigrated (or rather, fled) here from Germany after the defeat in World War II. The fact is that he was an SS officer. But not those who stood on the watchtowers of numerous concentration camps. And not to those who fought at the front as part of the elite units. When the Nazis came to power, my father was a young but promising scholar of the history and traditions of the ancient Germans. Quite quickly, all these studies were taken under the patronage of the almighty SS Heinrich Himmler. My father faced a very simple choice: either become an SS man or refuse to study his favorite topic. He chose the first. History has shown that this was the wrong choice, but can we blame him today?

My father spoke little and reluctantly about his past. With friends who fled to Argentina with him, he talked, as they say, behind closed doors. Sometimes (but not often) he had strange visitors with whom he locked himself in his office. We children knew absolutely nothing about this side of his life, especially since such things happened very rarely.

Perhaps it was my father's reluctance to talk about the Third Reich that spurred my interest in this part of German history. Ever since I was a student, I have avidly read books on Nazi Germany and World War II. However, I could not read in any of them what the documents found after the death of my father in a simple metal safe that had been kept from time immemorial in the attic of our house told me.