Sensationalist history is a good term but I think that ignorance history is more accurate. People merely parrot what they read or worse, see on TV. There is no attempt at critical analysis, no examination of cause and effect and no attempt to place the technology into context.
An example argument goes something like this:
If Hitler had not delayed the ME-262 in 1943, Germany would have won the War!
This ignores a number of inconvenient factors for the Jet Fighter Fanboy Club:
- Switching to jets would have had a major impact on the production of single-seat fighters needed for the defence of the Reich just as the Allied strategic bombing offensive was getting into stride;
- The year's production delay allowed continual improvement of the engines. In 1943 the service life of the 262's engines was essentially one sortie. By 1944 this had improved to over 12-hours. It also allowed the design to mature somewhat, improving the aerodynamics and structural strength of the airframe.
- Engine production in 1943 could not match even the very modest production of airframes, a problem greatly exacerbated by the short service life and one that was never solved.
- Training of the pilots would have been a formidable drain on resources, by all accounts the ME-262 was difficult to fly and easy to damage through mis-handling. It generally took 3-6 months to properly train a pilot on a completely new type and the 262 experience was like no other aircraft on earth.
- Once the pilots were trained, new combat techniques needed to be created, tested, adapted and incorporated into Luftwaffe doctrine. These sorts of thing take time to do correctly and getting it wrong tends to nullify any technological advantage provided by your "super weapon".
All of the above without even any considerations the unique airfield and maintenance requirements of the 262 that needed to be in place before the aircraft could be operational.
None of these things matter to the parrot lobby, only that the ME-262 had better numbers than anything the Allies had, Hitler was in idiot for delaying production and doing so cost the Nazi's their victory. It has to be true, "they" said so on the History Channel.
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