Tag: Messerschmitt Me 262

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The Red Tails

African American men and women who served in the American armed forces during World War II fought on two war fronts. The war against the Axis powers is obvious. However, their second war was fought on the home front against Jim Crow.

Our blog today highlights the extraordinary efforts of the Tuskegee Airmen, the first African American military aviators in the history of the United States Army Air Force (USAAF). We’ll also introduce you to two all-Black military divisions that fought during the first and second world wars.

MEDIEVAL PARIS – Volume One & Volume Two

Let us take you on a visit to the Paris of the Middle Ages. Come walk in the footsteps of the men, women, and children who lived, worked, and played in medieval Paris. Stop and see the only three residences still existing from medieval Paris. Learn about the scandalous Nesle Affair. Many of the stops are sites that most tourists don’t know even exist.

Did You Know?

Did you know that archeologists in England have excavated an experimental catapult system designed to launch British bomber planes? The catapult, located in Oxfordshire, England was called the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) Mark III Catapult, or Harwell RAE Mark III Catapult (the site was the former RAF Harwell base and is now the site of the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus). A prototype was built between 1938 and 1940 but never was used due to design issues. It was buried and a conventional runway was built over it.

Aerial view of excavated Harwell catapult. Photo by anonymous (c. October 2023). ©️ MOLA. Courtesy of Museum of London Archaeology.
Aerial view of excavated Harwell catapult. Photo by anonymous (c. October 2023). ©️ MOLA. Courtesy of Museum of London Archaeology.

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Heavy Water

Toward the end of World War II, Hitler and his generals were anxiously waiting for the “miracle weapons” to turn the tide of war in their favor. There were two new weapons that the Nazis had developed which ultimately proved ineffective: a jet fighter and the electro-U-boat. How close did they come to using them against the enemy? More than one thousand jet planes, the Messerschmitt Me 262, were produced and put into action by mid-1944. The Allied fighter planes were no match for the Me 262 in the air. However, very few of the jets ever left the ground. German oil refineries were destroyed thereby limiting the availability of jet fuel. Second, runways had to be extended to accommodate the jets. When they saw the altered runways, Allied bomber and attack plane pilots knew the jets were parked nearby and went out of their way to target them. So, most of the Me 262s were destroyed on the ground and the jets never had any significant impact on the course of the war. Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz (1891−1980) promised Hitler that 126 new electro-U-boats would be put out to sea to once again wreak havoc on British/American shipping lanes. Only two were ever launched and like the jet, never lived up to expectations.

Hydroelectric plant where heavy water was manufactured and stored underground. The building was demolished in 1971. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Gausta Telemark Norway. www.gausta.com.
Site of the former hydroelectric plant where heavy water was manufactured underground. The building which stood in front of the plant facility, was demolished in 1971. Photo by anonymous (date unknown). Gausta Telemark Norway. www.gausta.com.

The third “miracle weapon” and the one that worried Roosevelt and Churchill the most was the development of the German atomic bomb. After Frédéric and Irène Joliot-Curie wrote that atomic fission was possible and could be used to develop a powerful weapon, Hitler decided to begin his atomic weapons program in 1939. It needed two very important components to be successful: uranium and heavy water. The problem for the Nazis turned out to be heavy water was very scarce and hard to produce. That problem was soon solved after Germany invaded Norway on 9 April 1940. The Vemork Norsk Hydro plant near Rjukan, Norway was capable of producing heavy water. Read More Heavy Water