Most clever / inventive weapon of the war

I had mentioned this in an earlier reply. Maybe against a buttoned up tank where the vision was'nt good. It does seem expensive,though........just for 1 tank.
Then again, you had to get close with a Panzerfaust and it's tell-tail smoke giving you away.

 

The German 88 mm AA gun which also was a good AT gun.

 

Many

Teller mine (stackable), magnetic (anti-ship) mine, bouncing "Betty", WP airbursts, para-frags, skip bombing, Molotov cocktail, API, those British X-craft that attacked Tirpitz, Italian manned torpedos, Kaitans, Napalm, flash-less powder, V-1(2), Me 262, Jazz Muzic, night fighters, Asdic/Sonar, delayed fuzes-already said-Hollow charge, proximity.
A time of invention.

 

Yeah, but just HOW effective could a single 20mm on this little fella be?

 

I think that box art is just wishful thinking on the model designer. I have never heard of a FW-189 used as a night fighter.
All I ever saw it used for is tactical recon in the desert and over the eastern front.

Do you have any web sites that tell of it's use as a night fighter ?

I always thought the Japanese knee mortor was a good weapon.

 

The Fw189 was basically a reconnaissance aircraft and for sure never mounted Schrage Musik. Most carried two machine guns but the later Fw189A-4 carried two MG-FF cannon for use in the ground support role.

SM was used by the frontline Nachtjagd aircraft in the West such as the Bf110G-4, He219 and Ju88G.

 

Looking at a photo in a Squadron-Signal book that shows the airplane with FuG212C-1 Airborne Intercept Radar Antenna on the nose. Below "Nightfighters" the text states, "These aircraft were called Behelfsnachtjoger (auxiliary night fighters) and were used in combat mostly over the Eastern Front against slow and low flying Soviet night intruder aircraft." ?????

 

An interesting sidenote maybe - but did they use Schrage Musik ?

 

Says, "The Fw 189A-1 nightfighter was modified with an FuG212C-1 airborne intercept radar antenna on the nose, flame dampers on the exhausts and an upward firing MG 151 20mm cannon in place of the upper gun turret."

 

The Spitfire?

 

I found this thread on the FW-189 and Erich has a few comments about it.

http://www.feldgrau.net/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=22247&sid=5083c73330c12be3f3581572f034fee0

 

I was trying to find a better picture of the night fighter version but this version is interesting also. It looks like it has all the charms of a He-177.

http://www.airwar.ru/enc/aww2/fw189c.html

 

Still, I wonder why the information on these versions is so nebular and not as forthcoming as other versions. Of the sites that, with the exception of one or two, I've found on the Uhu version most are for plastic models.

 

How about the DUKW?
An inspired, straightforward & incredibly useful device that assisted enormously in many of the great amphibious assaults (some naval officers feeling that Sicily simply would not have worked without them). Wrecked harbours bypassed, vital supplies taken straight to troops, ability to handle remarkably rough seas & even some weapon carrying capability, with a military lifespan that ran into the 70's and 80's.

All from a design process of c.3 months with another 42 days to build the first prototype.


Cheers,
Adam.

 

I read somewhere, that it was made or used some parts of the deuce and 1/2. Is that true?

 

True indeed.
It pretty much is a Jimmy with a boat hull wrapped around it. Certainly a tough enough basis to build on. 21,147 built by wars end, not bad for what's essentially an extemporised design.

Top Truck.

Cheers,
Adam.

 

Hmmm. That picture........think I'd be hanging my head over the side with those waves. Poor fellas.'

 

Reminds me of my days on these little aluminum canoes. Tip: If you've never been offshore, don't eat a full plate of butter beans just before you go 100+ miles into the Gulf in 10+ foot seas for 18 hours.