V-2 and "gusts of emotion," again

Mark Kohut mark.kohut at gmail.com
Tue May 24 12:51:06 CDT 2016


Monte has brought to my attention offlist--by taking the post
seriously---how I MISLED
with my studily-phrased post....

The line about NO ONE believing him is meant to follow the link, and means
NO ONE
BELIEVES THE OLD PENSIONER HISTORIAN cited in the article.....

On Tue, May 24, 2016 at 12:56 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> Just about NO ONE believes him though, which is why I did not send around
> earlier.
> Now, just to add to the "gusts'.
>
>
> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/18/german-pensioner-claims-he-has-found-nazi-nuclear-bombs/
>
> 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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