as far as bombing the Allies, what options did the Germans have other than the V weapons?? the Allies ruled the skies....
I don't think they had many options; for a start, most Allied industrial capacity was in the United States or deep in Russia, out of range of any conceivable weapon of the period. Also the vast disparity in resources worked against them; the V-1 and V-2 programs in toto, a major investment of German resources, delivered about as much as the RAF could drop in one night. Their best bet to even the odds was to degrade Allied bombing. Suppose the same effort that went into the V- programs had gone into defensive weapons instead? They had a number of surface-to-air missile projects that used much of the same technology, but the lion's share went to the V weapons. Suppose the scientific and engineering effort, as well as the rare metals, expended on the V-2 had been used to remedy the shortcomings of their jet engines? Obviously the odds were against Germany whatever they did, but that's all the more reason to apply critical thinking to setting priorities rather than just trying to retaliate blindly.
Not an alternative to the V weapons as such., However the Germans never exercised the option to fir a chemical warhead to the V2, which was a very expensive way to deliver a modest HE Payload. The Germans were ahead of the western allies and had nerve agents such as Sarin. The Germans could have had a jet bomber in service had the Luftwaffe given priority to the AR234,. He the Me 262 appeared in greater numbers earlier, they might have stopped the 8th air force's daylight attacks., The Germans did not need to hit the US. All they needed to do was take the British out of the war, defeat the red army and sink any american fleet which came their way. They had soem good submaires late war. Hard to detect, no need to surface and some faster than the escorts.
Given the tech at the time it would likely have done even less damage if outfited with a chemical warhead. Ahead? That is certainly debateable. They did have an edge in having nerve gasses but effectively weaponizing them was non trivial and the allies had the capacity to manufacture (and indeed did manufacture) huge quantities of the older gases, far more than the Germans could and they had the ability to deliver them. Then there was the British biological capabilities.... Getting both into service earlier would have been problematic. Given that they used the same engine and that German engineers did not consider that engine ready for service even when ordered into production trying to do so sounds like a support disaster of unmitigated porportion. The Me-262 could never have been, during the course of the war, supported in the numbers required to have stopped the 8th AF. I.e. two impossible things before breakfast and then things get difficult. The late war subs had potential but their flaws are often ignored as were some of the ASW developements. For instance they would occasionally self destruct due to battery issues. MAD was an ASW tech that was coming into play at the end of the war and the late war radars could spot snorkles. "Smart" ASW torpedoes were also coming on line late in the war. In the mean time the Germans are still having issues with assembling those late war subs and there's also the material shortages.
all good points and thank you all for interesting reading for me...your last point [ setting priorities ]has been discussed probably, but I would like to do a topic on that
