----- Original Message -----
From: "islander" <islander@midmaine.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Friday, May 04, 2001 4:35 PM
Subject: Re: [MV] M4 Tanks
>
>
> >Recently some liberal newsman was bashing German WWII technology. He
> >was interviewing a high ranking German veteran, and was bad mouthing the
> >Jumo jet engine, pointing out that it only had a life of 25 hours. The
> >general replied, "Well, yes, but at that point in the war, the life
> >expectancy of the average fighter aircraft was two hours."
>
> Very true. Besides the practical life expectancy (this General was, of
> course, overstating the facts to make a point), the big reason for poorer
> quality was that fancy alloys and manufacturing processes were hard to
> come by by the time the technologies got to the practical stage of
> production. Meaning, the guys in the lab new how to make an engine like
> this last a lot longer, but the guys in production said "sorry, we don't
> have that material/process, figure out a substitue". This resulted in
> much of the technology itself being superior to what was actually
> produced (thankfully for the Allies). And that is why we were so busy
> snapping up German scientists as the war ended. We had plenty of stuff
> for them to play with back in the States ;-)
>
Largely true, however the operational life of the Junkers Jumo was actually
10 hrs but only because it was made from ordinary steel. The necessary
metallurgy and processes were well known to the Germans, but all the sources
of necessary raw material to make high temp steel alloys were under Allied
control.
Richard
Southampton - England
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