A curious German weapon

[pampa14]

I share with you photos of one of the most curious designs of the Luftwaffe during World War II. I'm talking about Junkers Ju-287 and its unusual design. If it had entered into service and built in quantity would have changed the course of the war? What do you think? Visit the link below, you will find it a lot of photos and a full report on this almost unknown aircraft. I hope you enjoy.

 

 

http://aviacaoemfloripa.blogspot.com.br/2011/01/blog-post.html

 

 

Best Regards!

[Emu]

I don't think it would have changed the course of the war because by 1944 Britain had the Gloster Meteor.

[javelina1]

What could have changed things was deploying the ME-262 on its original timeline, and, using it as a Fighter rather than the initial F/B role.

 

Any rate, the JU-287 was an interesting design. Thanks for the post.

[Ventus_Clu]

I do love these "changed the course of the war" debates, however ultimately I feel that unless it could have stopped the "Manhattan project" very little could have been done to truly change the course of the war.

 

Nuclear bombs aside, I think anything that could have kept the Nazi's going even a few more months would have allowed some of their other planned tech to come into service, giving an even greater delaying effect to the end of the war. But I think unless something dramatic could have been done early 1944 or before then nothing could have stopped the inevitable.

 

Going back to nuclear weapons, I know the Nazi's were creating them but does anyone know if they weren't disrupted by allied operations would they have created them and used them before the allies?

[LuSi_6]

Nope, germany did not work on nukes, they worked on a reactor. They had no plans for a bomb

[golani79]

Going back to nuclear weapons, I know the Nazi's were creating them but does anyone know if they weren't disrupted by allied operations would they have created them and used them before the allies?

 

As far as I know they were pretty far behind in the development of the atom bomb.

 

Also I think that if Germany would have been able put new weapons into service it would have only prolonged the inevitable and the atom bomb would probably have been dropped on Berlin instead on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

[probad]

i think the nuke is given too much credit for its role in the war. japan was already considering capitulation due to the conventional soviet manchurian offensive and the us had already crippled japanese logistical infrastructure through relentless bombing and submarine attacks. compared to the damage of the firebombing campaign, the nukes were more akin to the straw that broke the camels back, albeit a very visually disturbing straw. it was only natural of course to further capitalize on the qualities of the nuke in order to amplify its capacity as a psychological weapon, which then augments its efficacy as a strategic weapon, and hence we are left today with the impression that simply dropping a nuke ends a war.

 

what really wins wars is logistics. air power was significant in its ability to strike directly at logistical infrastructure. the ju-287 was ahead of its time, but not for the right reasons -- the fact that it had to outrun opposing fighters was because germany could not afford to escort their bombers. with such lack of air superiority no bomber concept would have been viable. neither would have been a german nuclear weapon; german in no way would have been able to have the resources to build nearly enough weapons to effectively neuter the us's production capacity, and trying to use the nuke to psyche the us into capitulation without having already established overwhelming strategic superiority would have only increased the fury of us retaliation.

while a more timely deployment of the 262 may have bought the germans more time, the qualitative advantage offered by the 262 would not have been enough to compensate for the massive strategic hole germany found itself in. deployment of both 262 and jet bombers would have taxed germany's oil production even more for no significant strategic gain, as the 262 would have only had range enough for defensive operations, and their fast bombers (ex. ar-234) would have neither had enough of a load nor built in enough numbers to create a significant impact before allied technologies achieved parity.

 

imo, germany and japan had both failed to create a favorable global climate for their wars at the beginning and at that point they set themselves up to lose. further strategic blunders were made with the blitz, barbarossa, and pilot training methods which simply could not be made up with by materiel.

Edited April 17, 2016 by probad

[Emu]

I do love these "changed the course of the war" debates, however ultimately I feel that unless it could have stopped the "Manhattan project" very little could have been done to truly change the course of the war.

 

Nuclear bombs aside, I think anything that could have kept the Nazi's going even a few more months would have allowed some of their other planned tech to come into service, giving an even greater delaying effect to the end of the war. But I think unless something dramatic could have been done early 1944 or before then nothing could have stopped the inevitable.

 

Going back to nuclear weapons, I know the Nazi's were creating them but does anyone know if they weren't disrupted by allied operations would they have created them and used them before the allies?

Someone did a miscalculation, some say deliberately, which suggested they'd need 13 tons of U-235 for a bomb. This made it seem impractical and undeliverable, so they stopped.

[Emu]

 

imo, germany and japan had both failed to create a favorable global climate for their wars at the beginning and at that point they set themselves up to lose. further strategic blunders were made with the blitz, barbarossa, and pilot training methods which simply could not be made up with by materiel.

The main blunder was that they took on everybody at once. It seems almost a joke now that someone thought they could take on the US and Russia at the same time, as well as the UK, which was also a superpower at the time. It was just lunacy.

Edited April 19, 2016 by Emu