Nazi Technological Advances
- Thread starter flkndz_central
- Start date
In this scenario with some sort of armistice line fixed on 1942 boundaries followed by some kind of Cold War then Germans would have had to cut back on their defence spending in order to keep the German people happy. Even in 1942 there had been a lot of war damage and heavy casualties for the Third Reich.
Hitler and his regime would be under pressure to demobilize, cut taxes and repair damage to infrastructure. They would probably use slave labour and looted treasure to get it done but it would still divert resources from the military.
I'm sure a lot of spending on military R&D would be hampered by the cost of maintaining a large standing army to guard the eastern border and the west wall and to control the conquered populations (they also needed resources for their mass killing programs).
I think the rocket program would have shrivelled because the main purpose of the rocket program was to get revenge against Allied bombing.
The U boats would get better of course but the allied navies would have been able to counter every new development (as they did in the OTL).
Jets would be introduced from 1944 onwards but the UK would be doing the same.
Also remember that the UK would be free to develop it's industry free from blockade and bombing too. Because of the disaster at Dunkirk the British were forced to maintain production of obsolete weapons rather than risk re tooling and producing new weapons that they already had on the drawing board.
As soon as the armistice is declared in 1942 the Britsh military would immediately demand that their forces get re equipped with decent weapons asap incase the war resumes in the near future. They would get Comet tanks followed by Centurions as quickly as the Nazis get their own super tanks. The RAF would be getting Meteors and Vampires as soon as the Nazi jets are operational and the Royal Navy would resume work on the Lion class Battleships if they thought the Kriegsmarine was going to get new battleships.
I haven't even mentioned that the Americans would ditch the sherman and the B17's and move on to the next generation a year earlier than OTL.
Hitler and his regime would be under pressure to demobilize, cut taxes and repair damage to infrastructure. They would probably use slave labour and looted treasure to get it done but it would still divert resources from the military.
I'm sure a lot of spending on military R&D would be hampered by the cost of maintaining a large standing army to guard the eastern border and the west wall and to control the conquered populations (they also needed resources for their mass killing programs).
I think the rocket program would have shrivelled because the main purpose of the rocket program was to get revenge against Allied bombing.
The U boats would get better of course but the allied navies would have been able to counter every new development (as they did in the OTL).
Jets would be introduced from 1944 onwards but the UK would be doing the same.
Also remember that the UK would be free to develop it's industry free from blockade and bombing too. Because of the disaster at Dunkirk the British were forced to maintain production of obsolete weapons rather than risk re tooling and producing new weapons that they already had on the drawing board.
As soon as the armistice is declared in 1942 the Britsh military would immediately demand that their forces get re equipped with decent weapons asap incase the war resumes in the near future. They would get Comet tanks followed by Centurions as quickly as the Nazis get their own super tanks. The RAF would be getting Meteors and Vampires as soon as the Nazi jets are operational and the Royal Navy would resume work on the Lion class Battleships if they thought the Kriegsmarine was going to get new battleships.
I haven't even mentioned that the Americans would ditch the sherman and the B17's and move on to the next generation a year earlier than OTL.
ICBM
Surely in this scenario the Germans would be the first to the ICBM? I think that you are correct that rocket spending would decrease but if Von Braun managed to convince anybody above him...? ICBMs were really the only practical way for Germany to attack the USA directly and surely this would become increasingly important as this "cold war" continued.
Not saying that they would use them, just that the necessity of them would become increasingly obvious.
Surely in this scenario the Germans would be the first to the ICBM? I think that you are correct that rocket spending would decrease but if Von Braun managed to convince anybody above him...? ICBMs were really the only practical way for Germany to attack the USA directly and surely this would become increasingly important as this "cold war" continued.
Not saying that they would use them, just that the necessity of them would become increasingly obvious.
Von Braun work on the A9/A10 transatlantic missile.
the SS gave the project top priority in 1944
Its the world’s first practical design of a ICBM
a two stage rocket with range of 5000 km
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/a9a10.htm
NOTE:
the orginal concept was reengineered in USA after ww2
A9 with a ramjet to extend the range to the 10000 km.
that let to development of Navaho missile
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/navaho.htm
i think that something similar is bulid in this Thrid Reich TL
the SS gave the project top priority in 1944
Its the world’s first practical design of a ICBM
a two stage rocket with range of 5000 km
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/a9a10.htm
NOTE:
the orginal concept was reengineered in USA after ww2
A9 with a ramjet to extend the range to the 10000 km.
that let to development of Navaho missile
http://www.astronautix.com/lvs/navaho.htm
i think that something similar is bulid in this Thrid Reich TL
Germanys science research would be dictated by the circumstances. A lot depends on the POD (would the peace come in January or December - big differences), but some are known.
1) Germany occupies huge areas populated by non-friendly natives. A lot of energy, manpower, money etc will be spent on hunting partisans, resistance cells, showing the flag, guarding Gauleiters and german officials.
2) The german educational system was in shambles. The Nazi distrust of education and above all, professors/intellectuals, combined with the military need had placed far more importance of weapon maintaince than reading books. This resulted in both a flight of intellectuals from Germany and a drastic lowering of basic science.
3) Hitler and the nazis were irrational and prefered big, showy things instead of "good enough".
Therefore I guess that german scientific advances would be fairly slow and conservative, aimed at quick improvements rather than new inventions. A lot of scientific work would be military applied (better batteries for submarines, jet engines, HEAT warheads) and political scientists would (as they did IOTL) try to kill other scientists projects by claiming them to be "jewish", "internationalist", "not supporting the Reich" or "not able to produce results within a year". Some scientists would be able to get a personal go-ahead from Hitler to produce land cruisers, death rays, detectors of Jewishness etc.
Just like the Soviet Union Nazi Germany may have the lead in some areas (rocketry), but altogether stand behind the US, UK etc - and fall behind all the time.
1) Germany occupies huge areas populated by non-friendly natives. A lot of energy, manpower, money etc will be spent on hunting partisans, resistance cells, showing the flag, guarding Gauleiters and german officials.
2) The german educational system was in shambles. The Nazi distrust of education and above all, professors/intellectuals, combined with the military need had placed far more importance of weapon maintaince than reading books. This resulted in both a flight of intellectuals from Germany and a drastic lowering of basic science.
3) Hitler and the nazis were irrational and prefered big, showy things instead of "good enough".
Therefore I guess that german scientific advances would be fairly slow and conservative, aimed at quick improvements rather than new inventions. A lot of scientific work would be military applied (better batteries for submarines, jet engines, HEAT warheads) and political scientists would (as they did IOTL) try to kill other scientists projects by claiming them to be "jewish", "internationalist", "not supporting the Reich" or "not able to produce results within a year". Some scientists would be able to get a personal go-ahead from Hitler to produce land cruisers, death rays, detectors of Jewishness etc.
Just like the Soviet Union Nazi Germany may have the lead in some areas (rocketry), but altogether stand behind the US, UK etc - and fall behind all the time.