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Its an impressive example of human knowledge and ingenuity, although the article does get a little overly dramatic with it. Perhaps that's a side effect of how

Its an impressive example of human knowledge and ingenuity, although the article does get a little overly dramatic with it. Perhaps that's a side effect of how crowded that period of history is with these kinds of things. It's hard to look at any date range between 1939-1945 and not find at least one or two accomplishments which seem almost impossible for the time and technology.

Waterluvian 8y ago
I'm watching WWII in color and when they got to late 1944 and the rockets, I was pretty floored. I thought, "holy crap that was close. Imagine what could have been if they had mature rocketry even just five years earlier..."
- paulie_a 8y ago
  That is a really great series that has a lot of depth.
- WalterBright 8y ago
  Not much. The V-2's guidance system was primitive, and so where it hit was fairly random. Force has to be concentrated on targets of military value to be effective. Consider the vastly more bombs dropped on Germany day and night, far more than V-2's ever could have dropped. Aside from destroying the oil infrastructure, it's hard to see the military value of destroying city after city, and that bombing was much more precise than the V-2s. For rockets to be effective, one needs either precision guidance or a nuclear warhead.
  - Waterluvian 8y ago
    I was thinking more about how rocketry leads to jet planes. But also, my understanding was that bombs were awfully inaccurate. Not that pre-gps long range missiles are any better. My understanding was that the ramjet rockets were pretty terrifying too and did hit cities often.
    - tntn 8y ago
      > Not that pre-gps long range missiles are any better. They were much, much better. EDIT: It appears the V2 in testing had a 4.5km CEP, while he minuteman III has a 200 m CEP.
    - WalterBright 8y ago
      > rocketry leads to jet planes They were developed independently of each other.
    - WalterBright 8y ago
      > did hit cities often Randomly hitting a city has a very small chance of hitting anything with military value. > terrifying Sure, but it turns out that terrifying citizens tends to harden their resolve to fight on, rather than surrendering. On both sides.
- WalterBright 8y ago
  The real "secret weapon" of the Allies was radar. Radar controlled anti-aircraft guns, and radar controlled artillery acted as a "force multiplier" by putting the munitions on the target. Radar also crippled the U-boot fleet, enabled the Allies to respond effectively to attacks, and enabled seeing through the weather.
ISL 8y ago
Necessity is the mother of invention.

Waterluvian 8y ago

I'm watching WWII in color and when they got to late 1944 and the rockets, I was pretty floored. I thought, "holy crap that was close. Imagine what could have been if they had mature rocketry even just five years earlier..."

paulie_a 8y ago
That is a really great series that has a lot of depth.
WalterBright 8y ago
Not much. The V-2's guidance system was primitive, and so where it hit was fairly random. Force has to be concentrated on targets of military value to be effective. Consider the vastly more bombs dropped on Germany day and night, far more than V-2's ever could have dropped. Aside from destroying the oil infrastructure, it's hard to see the military value of destroying city after city, and that bombing was much more precise than the V-2s. For rockets to be effective, one needs either precision guidance or a nuclear warhead.
- Waterluvian 8y ago
  I was thinking more about how rocketry leads to jet planes. But also, my understanding was that bombs were awfully inaccurate. Not that pre-gps long range missiles are any better. My understanding was that the ramjet rockets were pretty terrifying too and did hit cities often.
  - tntn 8y ago
    > Not that pre-gps long range missiles are any better. They were much, much better. EDIT: It appears the V2 in testing had a 4.5km CEP, while he minuteman III has a 200 m CEP.
  - WalterBright 8y ago
    > rocketry leads to jet planes They were developed independently of each other.
  - WalterBright 8y ago
    > did hit cities often Randomly hitting a city has a very small chance of hitting anything with military value. > terrifying Sure, but it turns out that terrifying citizens tends to harden their resolve to fight on, rather than surrendering. On both sides.
WalterBright 8y ago
The real "secret weapon" of the Allies was radar. Radar controlled anti-aircraft guns, and radar controlled artillery acted as a "force multiplier" by putting the munitions on the target. Radar also crippled the U-boot fleet, enabled the Allies to respond effectively to attacks, and enabled seeing through the weather.

ISL 8y ago

Necessity is the mother of invention.