Yevgeniy wrote:
I will not proceed with this discussion and it will be my final post in this thread as it is shipmodeling forum - there are many other places where these things can be discussed. But some final points can be interesting for consideration.
I agree that this is better moved to History and Technology, but let me nevertheless allow some remarks.
As history shows economy while useful is not a guarantee - during Russo-Japanese war 1905 Japanese economy and GRP was...10-20 times (numbers can be a little different but scope is correct) less then that of Russian Empire but you know who won.
I agree that economy is not a guarantee for success; rather, the intention - and ability! - to concentrate it on the single purpose of defeating your enemy is. It is interesting - and to a certain extent mind-boggling - to see that the US economy never made the transition to a true war economy, all the while not only supporting the US war effort, but also that of most of the Allies. I wouldn't go so far as to say that the US economy did actually "defeat" the Third Reich, but it certainly provided many Allies - including the Red Army - with the means to do so.
As to WWII Hitler had it own nuclear bomb development program (with 100 or so less investment then in USA) but was able to develop it despite resistance from scientists etc, and just needed time to finilize it
Ehm, no.
I know that there is a lot of fantasizing about the "Nazi bomb", but this is all based on wartime propaganda and post-war wishful thinking. A lot of what has been published is actually "grey" literature, displaying little regard for proper physics or historical methodology. The simple fact is that Germany lacked what it needed to build the bomb.
Hitler also had missile program (which US did not have and based own missile program after the war fully on German developments) and was considering launching them to New York from submarine as early as in 1944 (or 1945 ?) for demonstration (no-no it is not science fantasy or diesel punk - references are easily googled).
Indeed - the fabled Pr�fstand XII. While that was indeed close to completion, all it could do was transporting one ton of explosives to the target, at an enormous risk and expense. Compare that to one B-29 capable of carrying around 9 tons of explosives. The V2-program, while technologically totally fascinating, was militarily an utter folly tying much needed resources to a project wasting valuable materials for little gain.
However historic facts are a tough thing although some try to highlight one and hide/ignore the other to achieve certain opinion.
Indeed - I couldn't agree more.
Jorit