Sure, they kept Werner & co. out of the Volksturm Battalions, but was the German Rocket-bomb program just so much "Sturm und Drang"
Consider:
On the order of 10,000 V-1s launched...
2,500 or so hit ANYTHING, let alone something worthwhile.
V-2: Better, but basically a collosal investment to deliver a "thousand-pounder"
Would Germany have been better off using these resources elsewhere altogether?
Would defensive efforts like the "Wasserfall" anti-aircraft rocket have been a better focus?
Comments.....

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If they had a "Wasserfall" program i still think the $$ and material would have been better off in the jet program. I don't think they could have effected the war on a great scale. While the jets had the possibility of slowing the war more than antiaircraft missles.

True!
Especially given the consideration that Heinkel had a jet ready to go in '42...
Presume the Me262 to have been a better aircraft, but Willy Messerschmitt had better political connections, and Heinkel never DID get their big bomber off the ground thanks to Milch's crazy requirement that all bombers be capable of dive bombing!

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Forgive my late reply

The Vergeltungswaffen programs started long before the war even before the nazi;s came into power, it was regarded a way to bypass the Versaille treaty by using not registered weapons.

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Forgive my late reply

The Vergeltungswaffen programs started long before the war even before the nazi;s came into power, it was regarded a way to bypass the Versaille treaty by using not registered weapons.

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Welcome aboard popski, and a nice first comment too.

As popski said, and many people forget, the germans started rocket research in the 20's, back when von Braun was a 17 year old aspiring rocket scientist.

Most people also don't know that the pioneer of modern rocketry was a american named Robert Goddard. Early on, German scientists used many of his patents to further their nascent rocket program.

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Point taken, my good popski, and thanx for that data, which I was unaware of!

And Herr Otto, (did you have plastic surgery to look like Erwin Rommel or is it merely an amazing coincidence? )
I do realize both that the German rocket program was begun before the nazi epoch, and that R.Goddard's research, while largely ignored in America, was pored over by the German "rocket men"...

Nonetheless kammeraden, I stand by my earlier comments.
Without a nuclear warhead, the V-rockets were impressive white elephants at best. They just didn't DO enough to justify the resources they consumed. Even way-out stuff like the Me-163 Komet was a better use of rocket tech, although the thought of climbing into what was basically two tanks of explosive liquid with wings and guns bolted on and a hole at the back must have made a few pilots queasy!

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Glad to see you hier Popski.

Also, just in case it might be of interest to you, I happen to know a man who worked with Werhner von Braun, he is also an ex-Heer Artillerie Offizier.

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G'day mates

The use by the germans of the Me 163 is indeed a sort of kamikaze fighter. Because of priorities in the weapondevelopment in other area's and the limited resources in material and personal the defensive weapons were developed late during the war. The Me 163 would not have been used if the germans weren't so despirate. If you weren't shot down in air or on the ground you had the chance of being dissolved alive.

Popski[/list]

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V2s - lest we forget

I'd just like to chip in here. I shan't argue whether resources could have been better used ( I think Me262 personally )
But my mother lived in East London throughout the war and has always told me that her family didn't fear the Blitz ( they could cope with the thought of aircraft ), the V1s were hated ( big blast )- but 'you could hear them coming'. The V2 was something different - no warning at all from a clear blue sky.
The ordinary public were really scared by these things and my Mum has always thought that if Germany had had a lot of them, or earlier, who knows ? Another 'What If?'.
But - they were not ineffctual.

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Another what if was the initial development of a new electric huge submarine, capable of launching V2s vertically. Specially to bomb the USA's Eastern cities... It was just on paper, but I think the allies kept that idea and how are sub Boomer nowadays?

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