German Wonder Weapons: Could they have made a difference?

Half_Life_Expert#4276

Its time for the next What if/Could it? thread. I know I said I am trying to move away from WWII, and I am, but I actually just thought of this one today, and really wanted to post it. This is not the second WWII themed thread I mentioned a while ago, that is coming next.

The German Secret Weapons of WWII, often called Wonder Weapons, have been remembered today as starting points for many modern weapons.

It has often been wondered if had these projects been given more funding and/or started earlier, if they could have given Germany a Decisive edge in WWII, or even turned the war around in 1943 or 44.

The specific weapons I am referring to are:

The V-1 Buzz Bomb, the worlds first Cruise Missile

The V-2 Rocket, the World's first operational Ballistic Missile

The ME-262 Jet Fighter

The He 162 Volksjaeger jet fighter

The Arado Blitz Jet bomber

The Fritz X Guided Bomb

The Henchsel Hs 293 and 294 guided air to surface missiles.

The X-4 Air to Air Missile, or even its planned variant, the X-7 Anti-tank Missile

The Large Bombers, such as Me 264 and Ju 390, part of the Amerika Bomber project

The Me 163 Rocket powered interceptor

The Stg 44 Stumgeweher Assault Rifle

and the Panzer VIII Maus, in which there is reasonable suspicions that it may have seen limited action in the Berlin Campaign.

as well as any others I have forgotten, my only rule is that the weapons to be discussed MUST have had at least one operational prototype tested and/or seen some action. basically, it has to have some real world data to work off of, like how we have the specs of the Panzer Maus.

Planned modified versions are ok as well, such as a guided anti-ship V-2 rocket for example

NOTE: I would like to leave out the German Atomic Bomb program, as it's potential effect on Germany's chances are imo rather clear and obvious, imagine a Nuclear Barbarossa, the decisive edge is clear imo.

So, could any of these weapons, given more funding and development or having been started on earlier (preferably pre-war), could they have led Germany to victory, or maybe turned defeat into victory?

Tyer032392

The only ones that really could of worked to at least prolong the second World War, and if the allies did not adopt quick enough would of been the ME-262 jet fighter. It was over a hundred miles-per-hour faster than that of the P-51 Mustang and was more heavily armed than most allied fighters.

The STG-44, if I am not mistaken was plagued with severe problem that caused it to jam, and overall under-perform for what the Germans needed.

The V1 and V2 were not very effective and therefor was more along the lines of terror weapons than anything else. IMHO that Germany should of invested resources into their strategical bomber over these weapons.

The cancelling of the strategic bomber was one of the major blunders that the German High Command had done.

The Panzer VIII Maus would never of been that effective as neither the Tiger Tank or King Tiger was effective because of an underpowered engine, and their complicated building procedure.

Though, the most severe error committed by the German High Command was going to war before they were even ready to do so.

Half_Life_Expert#4276

I fully agree with the panzer maus, and cancelling the strategic bomber pre-war was a gigantic blunder.

I think that had work gone on with the V-1 and V-2, and they were given some form of a relatively effective guidance system, they could have been more capable than they really were. If they were operational say a year earlier than they were, they could have been effectively employed against the D-Day ports in England, or against the fleet itself (provided good guidance was developed enough).

The Stg 44 could have given the German troops the advantage of having a sort of Universal weapon, which only needed one type of ammo, and the only other infantry weapons that could have been needed were AT weapons, grenades, a squad/platoon level type of Machine gun, and sniper rifles for obvious reasons.

the ME-262 had a major problem that needed to be worked out, or solved with a successor aircraft, extreme vulnerability on take offs and landings.

Tyer032392

I honestly don't think the V1 or V2 would of been all that successful, as it even took the Allies and Soviets a decade after the end of World War 2 to get a decent guidance system developed for their own missiles. With the constraints that the Germans had, I highly doubt even a year earlier would of helped them much.

Edit: Even most missiles today have a hard time taking a lock on of a moving target, hence why the United States Navy developed guided torpedoes and missiles that would be guided by the mother ship until it was within range that the guidance system could lock on and track the target on its own.

How was the ME-262 different from any other aircraft on take off and landing? All aircraft are vulnerable until they are in the air and are at their cruising speed.

Nisemono

The Stg 42 does not qualify as a wonder weapon.

The Stg 42 was reasonably effective and gave the Germans a qualitative edge over Soviet submachine guns. Like all Wehrmacht weapons and equipment, there were never enough to go around.

With the possible exception of the ME 262 (its potential was wasted by Hitler), all of these projects would have made an impact by being cancelled. Fritz X did score some successes but those were unconsequential.



Nothing mattered if the Heer couldn't win on the Eastern Front.

Tyer032392 wrote: »

How was the ME-262 different from any other aircraft on take off and landing? All aircraft are vulnerable until they are in the air and are at their cruising speed.

Early jet engines were slow at throttling up and down (not to mention unreliable and short lifespan). Early jet aircraft had to spend more time preparing to land and take off, which increase the window of vulnerability.

Ace_Blazer

I once read a pretty extensive book on this subject. The conclusion was the Germans should have spent time on more concrete things like military production instead of wasting money on their literally mad scientist schemes. The image of some weird plane attacking New York City would never have happened because of the fact that that idiotic design was even looked at seriously.

Nisemono

Ace Blazer wrote: »

I once read a pretty extensive book on this subject. The conclusion was the Germans should have spent time on more concrete things like military production instead of wasting money on their literally mad scientist schemes. The image of some weird plane attacking New York City would never have happened because of the fact that that idiotic design was even looked at seriously.

Germany didn't go into Total War mode until it was too late, nor did they shed their artisan approach to design and manufacturing.

The Amerika bomber would have to use the Azores for refueling. It wasn't completely useless, except the Urals bomber would have been more useful.

daelin4#9896

Not enough resources.

There, one-shotted your lengthy thread, all your work for nothing! *devil smirk*