World War II Database

1.  Bill says:
20 Jul 2010 05:50:46 PM

This could be second production FW 200 but,
I'm only guessing here. Registered as D-AETA
Westfalen.

2.  Bill says:
31 Aug 2010 09:34:31 AM

On August 11,1938 a Condor named Brandenburg
flew nonstop 4,075 miles from Berlin to New York City.
The Condor was airborne for 24 hrs. later the same day, it returned and flew back to
Germany, the return trip taking 20 hrs.
with a tailwind.

3.  Bill says:
4 Feb 2011 06:38:19 PM

I have a photograph of a Lufthansa Fw 200
Condor Airliner taken at Budaors, Hungray in 1938, the aircraft was the Westfalen.

4.  Bill says:
5 Feb 2011 08:50:42 PM

BLUEPRINTS FOR MARS, THE OSLO REPORT:

In November 1939 a mysterious package was discovered at the Office of the British Naval
Attache in Oslo, Norway.
Secret information on the latest types of weapons and research being developed within Germany.

DEEMED AUTHENTIC:

Passed on to British Secret Service Office
MI-6, after close study the doucments were
deemed authentic.
The documents mentioned Peenamunde, where the V2 was under development, details about the Fritz X smart bomb, cruise missiles,
anti-aircraft misiles, jet engines, rocket
engines and other advanced technology systems

WHO SENT THE DOCUMENTS:

To this day, the identity of the person who sent this information has never been discovered.
Peenamunde was bombed in 1943 by the RAF in
its first raid 560 planes dropped 1800 tons
of bombs, and killed over 180 Scientists,
Engineere and Technicians along with over
500 foreign workers.
The RAF lost 40 aircraft, but the programs were sent back months the Germans moved its research facilities underground to the Harz mountains, this took precious time by the time the Allies landed in Normandy in June 1944, full production was attained and seven days later, the first V1 cruise missile was launched against London.

To learn more about German Secret Weapons
click on the other two photographs of the
Fw200 Condor.

5. Bill says:
5 Feb 2011 11:17:14 PM

TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, THE OSLO REPORT:

At first the Oslo Report was met with indifference and disbelief, some believed it
could even be a Abwehr deception the documents were studied, and as the war progressed one development after another appeared, it became obvious the report was largely correct.

WHO COULD HAVE SENT THE REPORT:

Could it have been German Physicist Hans Mayer?, during a business trip to Norway he could have sent the report. Along with the report was a vacuum tube from a prototype proximity fuze.
In 1943 Mayer was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to a concentration camp he survived the war.
If Mayer had written the Oslo Report, it was agreeded by the British of no knowledge of his name, or in fact, if he had sent the report.
The Germans never knew about the Report, it
was revealed in 1947, and would go down in History as the Oslo Report.
The original report in held in the Imperial War Museum London, England. Mayer died in 1980 taking any other secrets with him.

Abwehr: German Military Intelligence

Oslo: founded around 1048 by King Harald it is the Capitol of Norway.

6.  Bill says:
23 Apr 2014 08:22:21 PM

EXOTIC TECHNOLOGY:

The Germans developed rocket and jet powered aircraft, many of these designs never left the drawing board, and some were straight out of science-fiction. If the Germans had a few more years to develop such weapons, who knows what direction the Second World War would have taken and led to the ultimate weapon, the Atomic Bomb for Nazi Germany.

PARASIT FIGHTER & POINT DEFENSE FIGHTER:

Those interested in WWII aviation have heard of the Messerschmitt Me-163 Komet, but did you know the Germans were developing a parasite fighter that was to be carried by a bomber, to intercept Allied bomber formations.
The Sombold So.344 was designed as a parasite fighter, but the design was altered in January 1944 to be a "Bomber Box Buster" the ideas was to attack bomber formations the So.344 carried
explosives in the nose section that could be ejected filled with 500kg/1,100lbs of explosives sort of an aerial mine to be released and explode among the bombers.

Powered by 1 x Walther 509 rocket engine it was to be armed with cannons or heavy machine guns for self defense, unlike the Me-163 Komet the So.344 had enough fuel onboard, to escape enemy fighters and return to base. As the Allies closed in on the Third Reich search teams discovered a
1/5 scale model of the So.344 that was used for aerodynamic wind tunnel tests in 1945. To read more about such weapons, click on the other two photographs of the Focke-Wulf Condor listed here
at ww2bd.

7.  Bill says:
1 Jan 2015 06:08:29 PM

THE DEVILS BREATH:

Did you know even before WWII the Germans were
working on different chemical agents. Tabum was
developed in 1936,Sarin in 1938 and Soman in 1944
These agents caused muscle paralysis and death.

STANDOFF: IN THE DARK

The Germans didn't know the Allies didn't have such chemical agents, and the Allies didn't know about the German agents. Each side assumed each other had these agents, the Germans held back and wouldn't be the first to introduce chemical agents on the battlefield, in fear the Allies would respond with their weapons.
If such weapons would have been used during WWII
against military forces and civilians it would have been a nightmare, for both sides. In such a situation who would have emerged a winner? During the Cold War both the United States and the USSR had vast stockpiles of chemical agents...its crazy to think that science has fooled around with chemical weapons as well as nuclear weapons that could end all life if used on a vast scale.

BIZARRE AS IT GETS: THE MINENRAUMER (MINESWEEPER)

German thinking went far a head in different types of weapons, during World WarII Some were successful, while others didn't see operational service. The VsKfz.617 was a development between Krupp and Mercedes-Benz for a large battlefield minesweeper.

RIGHT OUT OF H.G. WELLS THINGS TO COME:

The Minenraumer was a large armored vehicle able to clear minefields for advancing armor and infantry. This monster was 50 tons 100,000lbs one machine was built it was 20ft.long, and 10ft.high its armor was between 10-40mm up to 1.6inches tests proved it was too slow, to heavy, it had light armament, high silhouette for enemy artillery. The VsKfz.617 was armed with 2x7.92mm MG34s that were mounted in a Panzer 1 turret.

BIG FOOT:

So what did this thing look like. The machine had
two huge steel wheels with large steel cleats.
the superstructure mounted one turret the engine
mounted behind. To steer the thing, a third wheel was mounted aft for directional control.
The superstructure and wheels were armored to withstand mine explosions, it was another wonder weapon that didn't make it to the battlefield.

April 1945 the Russians captured the vehicle and later shipped it back to the USSR. However, after prolonged storage, lack of spare parts the tests were limited in operation, the vehicle was side lined. Today the sole VsKfz.617 is on display at the Kubinka Tank Museum, Russia...

BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE: A FEW GOOD MINESWEEPERS

Enter the Krupp Raumer S this vehicle was built in 1944 and weighted in at 130 tons! it had 2.7 meter diameter wheels and like the VsKfz.617 was it designed to clear mines? only one was built and later captured by US Forces in 1945.

8.  Bill says:
2 Jan 2015 07:47:18 PM

ANOTHER BATTLEFIELD ODDITY: FROM KRUPP

Strange but true the Kugelpanzer or "Ball Tank"
one prototype was built by Krupp developed as a one man reconnaissance tank, it was powered by a two-stroke gas engine mounted in the rear of the tank, how much noise did the thing make? it must have had some type of soundproofing and the engine exhaust would leave a blue smoke trail.

WILD RIDE: TO NOWHERE

The tank was hemispherical in design with a view port for the driver and was armed with one machine gun located below the view port. On each side were disk like tracks a directional steering
wheel was located at the back for stability.
The Wehrmacht never accepted this strange vehicle and it was later transferred to the Japanese as part of their technology exchange program did you know, it was the Japanese that received most of the technology from Germany.
No surviving documents have surfaced about how the Japanese operated this vehicle or how long it was in operation. It was later captured by Soviet forces in far off Manchuria and shipped back to the USSR for evaluation.

Imagine driving such a machine how did it perform
over ground and what would happen if it would to tipped over and roll around, and where were the escape hatches. I'm sure in a situation like that Claustrophobia would kick in real fast or getting stuck in mud or become up side down.

CLAUSTROPHOBIA: Latin Claustrum "a shut in place" Greek phobos "fear"

WHAT PAPER TRAIL: I KNOW NOTHING, NOTHING AT ALL

Before the collapse of the Third Reich thousands
upon thousands maybe tons of technical papers,
blueprints, data and other related documents were
destroyed, moved or even buried to prevent capture
and later to be used as a bargaining chip by German scientists, engineers and even officials for the Allies to study and later use in their own R & D (Research & Development) programs.

COPIES REDUX:

Thanks to German efficiency and its bureaucracy
sometimes resulted in some unknown clerks making
copies in triplicate! the Allies were able to secure as much as they did. Have you ever wondered
what other far fetched ideas or prototypes were designed and built along with its related data still stored in secret Government archives, what other German weapons systems were improved on tested and deployed during the Cold War and afterward the Second World War still has its secrets

I thank the editor/ww2db for allowing me to leave these comments.

9.  Bill says:
7 Jan 2015 12:53:45 PM

GET TO DA CHOPPA!

Did you know the Germans developed helicopters before and during WWII, the Luftwaffe's only helo squadron Tranportstaffel 40 (TS 40) used the new machines in operations. The Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 was powered by 1 x Bramo air-cooled radial engine of 1,010hp driving two outrigger twin-mounted-rotary wings.

The Fa223 could carry 12 troops, along with its 4 man crew, 2,200lbs of cargo externally and was armed w/1 x MG34 or MG42 Machine gun. The Fa223 was even sent on rescue missions and transported
cargo and one daring mission it even flew over Russian lines.
In helicopter engineering and development, the Germans were technically ahead their American counterparts. At wars end, Fa223s were destroyed by their crews to prevent other was lost due to Allied bombings. V-E Day the Allies captured three Fa223s one was flown to Britain, but was later destroyed in a crash the others were taken over by US Forces.

POST WAR: ROTARY NOSTALGIA

Czechoslovakia salvaged components of Fa223s left
behind by the Germans. In 1947 two new machines were built and tested, in Czech service they were known as VR-1 and were flown with the Czech Air Police until 1949, while some sources list they were operated as late as 1955

The Russians found nearly completed Fa223s on the production line at Berlin-Tempelhof and shipped them off to the USSR for evaluation and testing little is known of the machines fate in Soviet hands.

The French also operated German Fa223 salvaged assemblies were built and named SE3000 aircraft were based on the German design Fa223, three were built and tested.

10.  Bill says:
27 Mar 2015 04:04:52 PM

RED STAR WULF:

During World War II the Soviets captured a number of Focke-Wulf FW200 Condors aircraft were repaired
tested and evaluated with little spare parts available parts were rebuilt, the BMW engines were replaced later with Shvetsov ASh-62 IR air-cooled radial power plants. A number of FW200s, were write-offs due to accidents or lack of spare parts FW200 survivors were scrapped in the early 1950s

Did you know that the FW200 Condor was operated
by the USSR flying passengers and cargo during its Arctic Expedition in the late 1940s working along side the Petlyakov Pe 8 four-engine bomber
that was also converted for support missions.