| Abraham |
01-20-07 03:04 AM |
The effect of eating coleslaw
Some more info about the W-C:
www.w-c.experiments.came/
Quote:
The W-C was a British invention but, as happened so often with innovations, it was Nazi Germany that grasped the military importance of the W-C. Shortly after the Nazi's took power Col. Erich Von Scheisshausen saw a growing need for W-C's, originally known as just: W. Not satisfied with the first version, the W-A, he started experiments in his aunts backyard garden which after three years resulted in the W-B. However, Göring took a serious interest in the W-C model and ordered Gen. Udet to set up the Reichs Erprobungsambt Für Untlüftungswaffen (REFU) led by - now - Gen. Von Scheisshausen, and therefor often jokingly referred to as "Das Scheisshaus". Secret W-C experiments were started by Prof. Unther von Braun at the Peenemünde Erprobungsstelle.
With the war taking an adverse course for Germany, the use of the W-C became the subject of a bitter debate. Göring, according to some supported by Adolf Galland, wanted the W-C to be develloped into an Anti Aircraft device, to counter the Allied bombing of the German Homeland. Hitler however had a more offensive role in mind for the W-C: it should spread terror amoungst the population of London and other British cities. The net result of the disagreement was that only theoretical design of the W-C continued.
There have been rumors that in the final phase of the war W-C's have been encountered by Allied pilots, but these reports have never been confirmed and no casualties have been reported. After the Allies overran the W-C Erprobungsstelle and studied the captured archives of the REFU it turmed out that devellopment of W-C's in Nazi Germany was far ahead of the Allies. Massproduction in the factories of Focke Wolf was already ordered by Albert Speer and further developments like the W-D and the W-E could have reached New York and other cities on the American East Coast.
With the proper political backing the W-C might have been massproduced in the final stages of the war. We can only guess if the W-C, like other experimental Nazi weapons, would have wrestled the initiative from the Allies, had the war in Europe lasted just a few months longer...
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When we see pictures like this one of the launch of a W-C, we may laugh about it, but we have to realise that in those days such a launch was considered a sensational event... |
