Nazi Secrets: An Occult Breach in the Fabric of History (4 page)

Panzer VIII Maus with crew members

The
Junkers Ju 390
was one of the aircraft candidates, along with the Messerschmitt Me 264 and Focke-Wulf Ta 400, which was submitted for deployment in the Amerika Bomber project.

Six-engine Junkers Ju 390

The
Messerschmitt Me 323 Gigant
was in fact the biggest land-based transport aircraft of the war.

Messerschmitt Me 323 Gigant

The
V-1 flying bomb
(Vergeltungswaffe 1 in German, standing for the Retaliation Weapon 1) was the jet-powered predecessor of our modern-day cruise missiles.

V-1 missile on a launch rail at Imperial War Museum Duxford

The
V-2 rocket
(also called Aggregat-4 or A4), was a ballistic missile specifically targeted to hit London and Antwerp.

V2-Rocket in the Peenemünde Museum

The
Horten Ho 229
was a prototype fighter/bomber combination, designed by Reimar and Walter Horten, and it was the first wing-powered jet aircraft in the world.

Horten Ho 229

The
Flettner Fl 282 Kolibri
(“Hummingbird”) was a single-seat, open-cockpit intermeshing-rotor helicopter. It was the first series production helicopter in the world.

German helicopter Fl 282 Kolibri

The
Fieseler Fi 103R
was a manned version of the V-1 flying bomb, intended for attacks in which the pilot was likely to be killed.

Fieseler Fi 103R, code-named Reichenberg

The
Me 163 Komet
was a rocket-powered fighter aircraft, which was the only one ever to be deployed.

Messerschmitt Me 163

The
Me 262 Schwalbe
("Swallow") was the world's first operational jet-powered fighter aircraft, which was much faster than its counterpart Allied fighters.

Me 262A at the National Museum

of the US Air Force in Dayton

The
Dora
was the name of one German ultra-heavy railway gun which weighed 1,350 tons. It fired shells that weighed seven tons, with a 47-kilometer range.

Dora gun

The
StG 44
(Sturmgewehr 44) is considered by many historians to be the first modern assault rifle.

StG 44

The
Zielgerät 1229
(ZG 1229), aka Vampir, was an infrared device developed for the Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle, designed to offer the night-vision advantage.