Posted on Dec 4, 2016
The Strange Tale of Nazi Germany's Super Submarines (That Never Fired a Shot)
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Cool design, but ineffective. Interesting parallels to the F35 and DD1000.
The Strange Tale of Nazi Germany's Super Submarines (That Never Fired a Shot)
Posted from nationalinterest.org
WWII World War Two
Submarines
Germany
Technology
Posted 8 y ago
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What a great example of hindsight this article is! The technology in this boat was far in advance of any other submarine of the day but like all prototypes, it suffered from being first of the class. The problem with any first is that it is really still underdevelopment, even after launch and while at sea. It takes time, which the Third Reich did not have to fully develop any prototype and then the follow-up units are much better, see any ship in the US Navy.
One set of sentences in the article really sticks out, "As the war turned against Berlin, the Nazi commanders accelerated development of new weapons, which distracted from other areas. Then the war worsened, accelerating new weapon development further in a perverted, vicious cycle." If you have studied the history of Nazi Germany, then you know that Hitler himself was the driving force behind the "Wonder Weapons" that he thought would win the war at the last minute. His commanders were Yes Men, afraid to say no to the megalomaniac in charge of the war machine.
1LT Sandy Annala LCDR Rabbah Rona Matlow PO1 William "Chip" Nagel MCPO (Join to see) MCPO Roger Collins CPT Jack Durish SFC (Join to see) CMDCM Clarence "Frenchie" Frye
One set of sentences in the article really sticks out, "As the war turned against Berlin, the Nazi commanders accelerated development of new weapons, which distracted from other areas. Then the war worsened, accelerating new weapon development further in a perverted, vicious cycle." If you have studied the history of Nazi Germany, then you know that Hitler himself was the driving force behind the "Wonder Weapons" that he thought would win the war at the last minute. His commanders were Yes Men, afraid to say no to the megalomaniac in charge of the war machine.
1LT Sandy Annala LCDR Rabbah Rona Matlow PO1 William "Chip" Nagel MCPO (Join to see) MCPO Roger Collins CPT Jack Durish SFC (Join to see) CMDCM Clarence "Frenchie" Frye
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MCPO Roger Collins
Agree, but advance technology and manufacturing are key to winning wars, regional and global. Radar and Somar would be good examples. Had Germany been able to ramp up production of the ME-262 or Atom bomb, we could have had a much different result. But, when it takes over two decades to spec out a new weapons system and place it in the field, we have a problem.
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CMDCM Gene Treants
yes, fully agree. Our R&D is way out of touch with reality now. I worked in OPTEVFOR and it was a nightmare getting projects through the acquisition process, even when badly needed. Many off-the-shelf systems could have done the job, but GAO would not allow us to do that. The reason for $200 hammers is the R&D, not the hammer.
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Suspended Profile
CMDCM Gene Treants - I was also at OPTEVFOR, and saw far too many systems that were crap being crammed down the fleet's throat because some Admiral wanted a Fitrep bullet.
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