Winston
Lorenzo von Matterhorn
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2009
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Thanks to Adolf and friends even beyond the point of being practical. That's why I called it, "dumb." Other examples: their Tiger II which, while a very impressive tank, was too heavy to go across many small European bridges; the Messerschmitt Me 323 Gigant for obvious reasons.Things had to be more massive, and in Nazi Germany, it had to be bigger than everyone else's.
Railroad? We don't need no stinking railroad!!
Ours was only 280mm but didn't need a railroad
Dumb but cool: The A4 - V2! about the dumbest weapon system, very ineffective for the price. ME 163 a total failure as a weapon. Natter, Horten, same as ME 163. But they do make good model rockets!
Railroad? We don't need no stinking railroad!!
Ours was only 280mm but didn't need a railroad
If anybody has details on this particular machinegun I’d like to have it.
So I looked up that MG 42 and I was stunned.
I knew it had an insane rate of fire but I didn’t realize it did that using such a big round 7.92mm x 57mm!!
Yikes; I figured with a 1,200-1,500 RPM it would have been using something smaller like a 5mm round.
No wonder that thing was so devastating and it’s amazing that its barrel didn’t melt what with it being an air-cooled weapon.
Designed to stop Soviet human waive attacks over open ground so it had a very high rate of fire. I believe most of the carnage on Omaha Beach was caused by something like 14 MG 42 emplacements! You had change the barrel often and quick firing like that, get out the asbestos gloves.
Our M 60 machine gun sure looks a lot like it. It is so good even the Imperial Storm Troopers in Star Wars carry them.
MG42 had one of the highest average cyclic rate of any single-barreled man-portable machine gun: between 1,200 and 1,500 rpm, which results in a distinctive muzzle report. The US made a propaganda film for GI's telling them it was inaccurate!
There's a reason the M-60 looks like the MG42. It was based partly on the MG42. Meanwhile, the Germans, knowing they were onto a good thing, rechambered it for the NATO 7.62x51mm cartridge, renamed it the MG-3, and continued using it with the West German army.Our M 60 machine gun sure looks a lot like it. It is so good even the Imperial Storm Troopers in Star Wars carry them.
The MG42 worked pretty well. The 88mm gun also worked well.
Agreed about the other weapons ultimately being failures. They were interesting ideas, and expansions in methodology. Far too many projects with limited resources.
MG42 had one of the highest average cyclic rate of any single-barreled man-portable machine gun: between 1,200 and 1,500 rpm, which results in a distinctive muzzle report. The US made a propaganda film for GI's telling them it was inaccurate!
Hedgehoghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedgehog_(weapon), a forward-throwing anti-submarine weapon (and the US rocket-propelled version Mousetrap).How about some Allied Wonder Weapons? Besides the atom bomb, how about Ultra and the Enigma Bombes? Cavity magnetron and cm radar? HFDF?
I believe the sound was described as "ripping cloth." Probably absolutely terrifying.
As far as other Nazi wonder weapons, the ME 262 was a very good aircraft. Biggest problem was getting fuel for aircraft by the end. V2 was an engineering marvel, but I believe more slave laborers died producing them than enemies were killed by its use as a weapon. Type XXI u-boat was way ahead of its time but too little, too late.
How about some Allied Wonder Weapons? Besides the atom bomb, how about Ultra and the Enigma Bombes? Cavity magnetron and cm radar? HFDF?
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