V-2 and "gusts of emotion," again

[rich]

just happened to come across this:

http://theconversation.com/building-hitlers-supergun-the-plot-to-destroy-london-and-why-it-failed-51071

Joe Kennedy, Jr. died on a air mission to destroy the 'V3" gun, apparently

rich

On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 12:46 PM, Monte Davis <montedavis49 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Weisenburger and others make an unassailable case for P's familiarity with
> David Irving's *The Mare's Nest*, a 1964 account of the V-weapons, what
> UK intelligence knew about them, and UK/US military efforts to combat them.
> What Irving captured best is London's confusion as late as mid-1944 among
> "flying bombs," large rockets, and the ultra-long-range artillery in
> northern France that could have hit London (but was overrun after D-Day
> well before it was ready).
>
> Those around Churchill who doubted a large rocket began by arguing "it
> can't be done," and as evidence accumulated shifted to "maybe it could be
> done, but it doesn't make sense." I.e., it  would cost so much more (about
> fifty times as much as a V-1, as it proved) to deliver about the same
> weight of explosive, and demanded much more in specialized high
> technologies that were desperately needed in other areas of the war.
>
> In an August 1944 report summarized by Irving, scientific advisor R.V.
> Jones realized how he and his peers had been led astray by such practical
> considerations:
>
> "...he recalled how Intelligence had been forced to enter a fantasy world
> where
> romance had replaced economy. Why had the Germans expended years of
> intensive research, an elaborate radio control, and tons of costly fuel to
> throw at London a warhead not much larger than that already carried far
> more cheaply by the flying bomb? To him, the answer seemed obvious: no
> other weapon had produced a comparable “romantic appeal.” Here was a 13-ton
> missile which traced out a flaming ascent to heights hitherto beyond the
> reach of man, and hurled itself 200 miles at unparalleled speeds across the
> stratosphere, to descend upon its defenceless target.
>
> "What did it matter that the German Air Force [which ran the V-1 program]
> was doing the same damage much more cheaply? The Army’s rocket was a
> fantastic technical achievement which had captured the imagination of the
> Nazis. There was surely no deeper policy behind the rocket."
>
> You can't run a war on gusts of emotion, Adolf.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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