Das Wasserfall

The Wasserfall(WaterFall) was a guided surface to air missle. It was the first of its kind. Could this weapon have turned the tide of the war if mass produced, instead of other failed german weapons of the third Reich?
 

Germaniac

Donor
Well for one, Strategic bombing of Germany would soon cost a huge amount in manpower and bombers. This will not save Germany. They could shoot down the entire Allied bomber fleet and still get trounced by the Soviets. All that these weapons can do is postpone the allied forces and lead to a more powerful communist block in the post war. Much of Germany's now intact industry will be taken apart and moved to the Soviet Union.
 

LittleSpeer

Monthly Donor
For the hell of it, say that the ASB gave them enough to shoot down 90% of all allied planes attacking Germany. That still does not deal with the advancing Russian horde in the east.
 
Not really. Assuming it worked properly (doubtful given that it was MCLOS with manual triggering of the detonation of all things), you'd see some initial shock as Allied bombers are lost to a new and heretofore unknown weapon, but German production rate wouldn't be enough to really interfere with the thousand bomber raids at the time. Once it was known what they were dealing with it, some of the fighter escort would be tasked as Iron Hands and start the air raids by attacking the Wasserfall sites on the ground. More ECM gear on the bombers themselves of course. The Wasserfall sites would end up becoming flak traps as well and you'd see all the little fun of Vietnam.

Overall? A few downed bombers, a few fighters lost to flak traps, and more post-war interest in SAMs and somewhat less in ballistic missiles perhaps. It won't do a thing to change the result of the ground war. The only way for it to achieve a meaningful impact on the war is to start being put in place back in 1940 or 1941, but that's a technology jump you can't plausibly give the Nazis.
 
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