Wunderwafele: the "wonder weapon" of the Third Reich

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The Third Reich has long become history, unpleasant and bloody for all mankind. And yet, he left behind a lot of mysteries, many of which have not yet been solved. And the "miracle weapon", far ahead of the technical development of that time. In German, the miracle weapon is the Wunderwaffe.

Wunderwaffe (the term wunderwaffle is common on the Russian Internet) is not some specific weapon, but a whole set, conceived by the Nazis as a complex of indestructible weapons. When it became clear that the Blitzkrieg plan had failed, and the war could not be completed quickly and victoriously, the German command focused on developing weapons that could turn the course of events in favor of the Reich. Some developments turned out to be ridiculous, some failed, for some German scientists simply did not have enough time. And some of the engineering ideas from the Wunderwaffe program were later used by the victorious countries. So, here are 5 developments of the Third Reich, about which there are more legends than information.

Assault Rifle and Vampire Code Sturmgewehr 44

In many ways, the rifle is similar to the AK-47 and M-16 that appeared much later. Most likely, the Sturmgewehr 44 was taken as a model during their development. However, its special uniqueness is due to the sniper addition - a night vision device, nicknamed the "Sight (or Code) of the vampire." In recent months, the Second World German Army actively used this weapon. How its creators came to such an innovative idea, no one can even imagine. She was ahead of her time by at least a couple of decades.

Heavyweight "Mouse"

Since ancient times, the Germans gravitated towards powerful weapons. This inclination resulted in the creation of a super-heavy tank, which received the long name Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus (in common people "Mouse"). It weighed over 180 tons, and the Bear version even more. So the tank could not pass over an ordinary bridge: most of such structures of that time would simply have collapsed under it. And the roads just crumbled under the tracks. But this monster had the following weapons: Caliber and brand of gun 128 mm KwK.44 L / 55, 75 mm KwK40 L / 36 Type of gun rifled Barrel length, calibers 55 for 128 mm, 36, 6 for 75 mm Cannon ammunition 61 × 128 mm, 200 × 75 mm Angles VN, deg. -7… + 23 Periscopic sights TWZF Machine guns 1 × 7, 92-mm, MG-42 Could cover a decent distance under water. To get it moving, it was required to equip it with 4 diesels, which were installed on submarines. This heavyweight did not go into mass production: its speed and maneuverability were too low, a large and specially trained crew was required for service, the cost of the tank turned out to be too high for the German industry undermined by the war. But, despite the visible flaws, the giant apparently hid some special secrets: both prototypes were carefully destroyed during the last Allied offensive.

Wehrmacht cruise missile

The first to explore space, in principle, also began the Nazis. They have designed a rocket capable of flying out of sight. It "worked" on extremely powerful (for that time) fuel, rose vertically into the atmosphere by 9 km, developed a speed of 4000 km / h, had the ability to adjust the course and meter fuel consumption. There were no methods of intercepting the V-1 (and later the V-2) at that time. The first such cruise missile flew to London shortly after the landing of the allied forces, which took place on June 13, 1944. According to experts, if the Nazis finalized cruise missiles, supplied them with nuclear, biological or chemical warheads (and such developments were carried out), then the outcome of the Second World War would be completely different. By the way, after the war, the main ideological leader of the project, Dr. von Braun, moved to the States and developed American space programs. So his V-2 rockets, one might say, paved the way for mankind beyond the Earth.

Flying wing

The plane could take on board up to a ton of weight and reach a speed of 1000 km / h. Details about the "Flying Wing" are not so many known. There is evidence that testing was extremely successful. According to the documents, in 1944 an order was given for 20 units of this equipment. There is scattered evidence that production has started. However, after the fall of Germany, the Allies managed to find only an unfinished model and a prototype created from it. And, by the way, no other developments in history were noted: Walter Horten rose to the rank of general in post-war Germany (died in 1998), and Reimar Horten emigrated to Argentina, where he worked in the profile until his death (1994), but nothing I could no longer offer the extraordinary to world science.

For whom did the "Bell" ring?

Die Glocke is another fascist project from the Wunderwaffe series, about which it is only known that it existed. Coupled with the calculated impact of the weapon. It was supposed to look like a huge bell made of an alloy, the composition of which is unknown, and consist of cylinders that come into rotation when started. The cylinders were supposed to contain a liquid, about which only its name is known: Zerum-525. In the operating mode "Bells" created an impact zone of approximately 200 m radius. All living things that fell into it perished. Plants simply wither, in higher animals the blood coagulated, and the tissues crystallized. There is information that during the test run several German scientists died - the spectrum of exposure, apparently, has been little studied. Even more obscure is the data indicating that this weapon was equipped with a kind of autonomous lifting device, which provided the Bell with the ability to rise into the air for about a kilometer with the simultaneous release of deadly rays.

It is worth noting that all these legends and rumors, apparently, were deliberately launched into the information field by special services in order to hide truly outstanding technologies, information about which will never be the property of the majority.