|
Selbstopfer
The ''Leonidas'' Squadron, formally known as ''5th Staffel of Kampfgeschwader 200'', was a unit which was originally formed to fly the ''Fieseler Fi 103R (Reichenberg)'', a manned version of the V-1 flying bomb, in attacks in which the pilot was likely to be killed, or at best to parachute down at the attack site. The Reichenberg was never used in combat because Werner Baumbach, the commander of KG 200, and his superiors considered it an unnecessary waste of life and resources, and preferred to use the Mistel composite aircraft aerial ordnance system instead. The ''Mistel'' composite design was piloted from a regular Luftwaffe single-seat fighter used as the "upper component" forming the guidance system, mounted as an integral parasite aircraft, as the only manned part, mounted atop the unmanned, shaped charge-nosed "expendable lower component" of the ''Mistel'' aircraft system, as in its target dive, the single-seat pilot released the lower, unmanned flying bomb component aircra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kampfgeschwader 200
''Kampfgeschwader'' 200 (KG 200) (" irCombat Squadron 200") was a German ''Luftwaffe'' special operations unit during World War II. The unit carried out especially difficult bombing and transport operations and long-distance reconnaissance flights, tested new aircraft designs and operated captured aircraft.Geoffrey Thomas: ''KG200: Luftwaffe's Most Secret Squadron'', Hikoki Publications, August 2004, Günther W. Gellermann: ''Moskau ruft Heeresgruppe Mitte … – Was nicht im Wehrmachtbericht stand – Die Einsätze des geheimen Kampfgeschwaders 200 im Zweiten Weltkrieg'', Bernard & Graefe, 1988, in German, P. W. Stahl/Manfred Jäger: ''Geheimgeschwader KG 200'', 1984, in German, History The unit's history began in 1934, when the Luftwaffe formed a reconnaissance squadron under Oberst Theodor Rowehl and attached it to the ''Abwehr'', Germany's military intelligence department. As the ''Abwehr'' started to lose Hitler's goodwill during the war, a new reconnaissance unit, the '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Messerschmitt Me 328
The Messerschmitt Me 328 was originally designed as a parasite aircraft to protect ''Luftwaffe'' bomber formations during World War II. During its protracted development, a wide variety of other roles were suggested for it. Late in the war, the design was resurrected for consideration as a ''Selbstopfer'' (suicide weapon) aircraft, but was judged unsuitable even for this purpose. The tiny fighter was to have been propelled by pulsejets, but the unsuitability of these engines doomed the Me 328 from the start. History Design The aircraft was designed as Messerschmitt project P.1073 in 1941, and was originally conceived as a cheap and simple escort fighter, to either be towed aloft by a Heinkel He 177 heavy bomber or Junkers Ju 388 using a semi-rigid bar (the ''Deichselschlepp'', which was also considered for towing winged auxiliary fuel tanks), or carried on a Me 264 in a ''Mistel'' type fashion. Three versions were proposed: an unpowered glider, a version powered by Argus pulsej ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Suicide Attack
A suicide attack is any violent Strike (attack), attack, usually entailing the attacker detonating an explosive, where the attacker has suicide, accepted their own death as a direct result of the attacking method used. Suicide attacks have occurred throughout history, often as part of a military campaign (as with the Japanese ''kamikaze'' pilots of 1944–1945 during World War II), and more recently as part of terrorism, terrorist campaigns (such as the September 11 attacks in 2001). While few, if any, successful suicide attacks took place anywhere in the world from 1945 until 1980, between 1981 and September 2015 a total of 4,814 suicide attacks occurred in over 40 countries, killing over 45,000 people. During this time the global rate of such attacks grew from an average of three a year in the 1980s to about one a month in the 1990s to almost one a week from 2001 to 2003 to approximately one a day from 2003 to 2015. Suicide attacks tend to be more deadly and destructive t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hanna Reitsch
Hanna Reitsch (29 March 1912 – 24 August 1979) was a German aviator and test pilot. Along with Melitta von Stauffenberg, she flight tested many of Germany's new aircraft during World War II and received many honors. Reitsch was among the very last people to meet Adolf Hitler alive in the in late April 1945. Reitsch set more than 40 flight altitude records and women's endurance records in gliding and unpowered flight, before and after World War II. In the 1960s, she was sponsored by the West German foreign office as a technical adviser in Ghana and elsewhere, and founded a gliding school in Ghana, where she worked for Kwame Nkrumah. Early life and education Reitsch was born in Hirschberg, Silesia, on 29 March 1912 to an upper-middle-class family. She was daughter of Dr. Wilhelm (Willy) Reitsch, who was an ophthalmology clinic manager, and his wife Emy Helff-Hibler von Alpenheim, who was a member of the Austrian nobility. Despite her mother being a devout Cathol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karl Koller (general)
Karl Koller (22 February 1898 – 22 December 1951) was a German ''General der Flieger'' and the Chief of the General Staff of Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe during World War II. Early life Koller was born in Glonn in Bavaria. He enlisted in the army in 1914 and, after infantry service, transferred to aviation. He passed pilot training in 1916, flew in observation and fighter squadrons and was captured by the British in May 1918. After his release in 1919, he served in various police capacities and shifted to the Luftwaffe in 1935. An exemplary officer, he in 1936 graduated valedictorian at the Air War Academy. World War II Koller was the Chief of Staff for Hugo Sperrle during the Blitz. For Operation Sealion, the planned invasion of the United Kingdom by the Wehrmacht, ''Oberstleutnant'' Koller was to serve as the Operations Officer of Luftflotte 3 in co-ordination with the German 9th Army. Koller became the ''Chef der Luftwaffenführungsstabes'' ("Chief of the Luftwaffe Operations S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hermann Göring
Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German politician, military leader and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which ruled Germany from 1933 to 1945. A veteran World War I fighter pilot ace, Göring was a recipient of the ("The Blue Max"). He was the last commander of ''Jagdgeschwader'' 1 (Jasta 1), the fighter wing once led by Manfred von Richthofen. An early member of the Nazi Party, Göring was among those wounded in Adolf Hitler's failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. While receiving treatment for his injuries, he developed an addiction to morphine which persisted until the last year of his life. After Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, Göring was named as minister without portfolio in the new government. One of his first acts as a cabinet minister was to oversee the creation of the Gestapo, which he ceded to Heinrich Himmler in 1934. Following the establishment of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the Chancellor of Germany, chancellor in 1933 and then taking the title of in 1934. During his dictatorship, he initiated European theatre of World War II, World War II in Europe by invasion of Poland, invading Poland on 1 September 1939. He was closely involved in military operations throughout the war and was central to the perpetration of the Holocaust: the genocide of Holocaust victims, about six million Jews and millions of other victims. Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary and was raised near Linz. He lived in Vienna later in the first decade of the 1900s and moved to Germany in 1913. He was decorated during his Military career of Adolf Hitler, service in the German Army in Worl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Günther Korten
Günther Korten (26 July 1898 – 22 July 1944) was a German Colonel General and Chief of the General Staff of the Luftwaffe in World War II. He died from injuries suffered in the assassination attempt on Adolf Hitler on 20 July 1944. Biography Early life Korten was born in Cologne as a son of the architect Hugo Korten (1855–1931) and his wife Marie Korten (1866–1942). At the beginning of World War I he was a cadet in the Prussian army. He served through the war in an engineering battalion. He continued his military career after the war in the Engineers, until he was selected in 1928 to participate in the secret pilot training programme in the Soviet Union. On returning to Weimar Germany he joined the "''Bildstelle Berlin''". World War II Korten, by then a captain, joined the Luftwaffe in 1934 as Nazi Germany started on its rearmament programme. He received training as a general staff officer and served for several years in the Air Ministry. He was a Colonel and Chief of th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Focke-Wulf Fw 190
The Focke-Wulf Fw 190, nicknamed ''Würger'' (" Shrike") is a German single-seat, single-engine fighter aircraft designed by Kurt Tank at Focke-Wulf in the late 1930s and widely used during World War II. Along with its well-known counterpart, the Messerschmitt Bf 109, the Fw 190 became the backbone of the (Fighter Force) of the . The twin-row BMW 801 radial engine that powered most operational versions enabled the Fw 190 to lift larger loads than the Bf 109, allowing its use as a day fighter, fighter-bomber, ground-attack aircraft and to a lesser degree, night fighter. The Fw 190A started flying operationally over France in August 1941 and quickly proved superior in all but turn radius to the Spitfire Mk. V, the main front-line fighter of the Royal Air Force (RAF), particularly at low and medium altitudes. The 190 maintained superiority over Allied fighters until the introduction of the improved Spitfire Mk. IX. In November/December 1942, the Fw 190 made its air combat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erhard Milch
Erhard Milch (30 March 1892 – 25 January 1972) was a German general field marshal (''Generalfeldmarschall'') of Jewish heritage who oversaw the development of the German air force (''Luftwaffe'') as part of the re-armament of Nazi Germany following World War I. He was State Secretary in the Reich Ministry of Aviation and Inspector General of the Air force. During most of World War II, he was in charge of all aircraft production and supply. He was convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Milch Trial, which was held before a U.S. military court in 1947, and sentenced to life imprisonment. However, Milch's sentence was commuted to 15 years in 1951. He was paroled in 1954, and died in 1972. Descendance and Jewish heritage Milch was born in Wilhelmshaven, the son of Anton Milch, a Jewish pharmacist who served in the Imperial German Navy, and Clara, née Vetter. The Gestapo would later investigate Milch due to his Jewish heritage. Under the Nuremberg Laws, Mil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Eisenhammer
Operation Eisenhammer (German; in English ''Operation Iron Hammer'') was a planned strategic bombing operation against power generators near Moscow and Gorky in the Soviet Union which was planned by Nazi Germany during World War II but eventually abandoned. The plan of the operation was created in 1943 by Professor Heinrich Steinmann (1899–1969), an official at the Reich Air Ministry. A bombing raid was to destroy twelve turbines in water and steam power-plants near Moscow, Gorky, Tula, Stalinogorsk and under the Rybinsk Reservoir, as well as to attack certain substations, transmission lines and factories. If the attack were to succeed in destroying just two thirds of the turbines it would have knocked out about 75 percent of the power used by the Soviet defence industry. Only two smaller energy centers behind the Urals and in the Soviet Far East would have been left intact. At this time, the Soviet Union had no turbine manufacturing capabilities and the only repair facility ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.jpg "Click for more on -> Focke-Wulf Fw 190")
