Germany
Hannover CL III
The German company Hannoversche Waggonfabbrik AG was a long-time producer of horse wagons and railway cars. At the outbreak of WWI, the German air ministry requested that they become a sub-contractor for the aviation industry. Several of the projects they worked on included the Aviatik C.I, the Rumpler C.Ia, and the Halberstadt D.II. When in early 1917, a new spec…
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The Luftwaffe Bombing of Stalingrad
The changing strategic focus of Axis forces in the summer of 1942 for the southern assault towards the Volga and the Caucasus (‘Operation Blue’) was signalled by the sudden increase in air attacks on railway communications across the southern zone as a prelude to the new campaign. In May and…
Junkers Ju-88 Series
The Ju 88 was the most numerous and versatile German bomber of World War II. It was grafted to every conceivable purpose, and even served as the lower half of a primitive guide missile! In 1935 the German Air Ministry announced specifications for a new, twin-engine Schnellbomber (fast bomber). One…
Panzerabwehrrakete X-7 Rotkäppchen
Another most advanced weapon conceived by the Germans in WW II was the Panzerabwehrrakete X-7 (“tank defense rocket”) anti-tank guided missile, nickname Rotkäppchen (“little red riding hood”), project number 8-347. Developments for a guided AT missile begun as early as 1941 when BMW (the car company) offered the weapon to…
German Doctrine 1918
While Erster Generalquartiermeister Erich Ludendorff had busied himself during the Brest-Litovsk negotiations sketching future borders on European maps with reckless abandon, his field commanders and staff had assessed Germany’s prospects for 1918. They were not cheery. More than one million draft-eligible men remained in war-related industries at home, and the…
Germanicus – Rome’s Revenge
BATTLE OF IDISTAVISUS Defeating Arminius “It was a great victory, and without bloodshed to us.” TACITUS, The Annals, II, 18 It was the summer of AD 16, and Germanicus Caesar had used a fleet of 1,000 newly built ships to return to the heart of Germany in search of Arminius…
The Dornier Do 26 and Northern Missions
The Dornier Do 26A (V-1, D-AGNT “Seeadler”) flying boat. Dornier Do 26V4 In the 20s and 30s of last century, the firm Dornier was the leading one in German flying boat construction. The chosen configuration, engines in tandem and wing stubs (“sponsons”) on the lower fuselage for water stability proved…