Hitler’s deadly secret weapons come to light

The more that is learnt of German preparations and progress with new weapons, the more apparent it is that the Allies ended the war with Germany only just in time.
The dangers faced, above all by Britain, were many and terrible.

Radio and optical equipment. A fabulous ray was to deal with tanks. This proved to be only infra-red searchlights to blind tanks and was used in conjunction with the 88mm gun. It was more humdrum than the fable. But it was deadly against tanks moving at night, as ours did.

Guns. There were unpleasant novelties, such as the rocket-assisted shells. At a certain point in the shell’s progress, the rocket took over and provided further propulsion. There was at least a scheme in the pre-development stage to provide the V2 rocket with wings, which had great possibilities.
Chemical warfare. The Germans had a new gas in great quantity with certain qualities more deadly than any yet used. It could have been mastered, but would have given trouble and caused much loss, especially as anti-gas discipline in England was naturally not as good as at the outset of the war. It is known that Hitler was the man who prevented its use, not through altruism but because he did not believe it would pay.

The Germans were experimenting with a piloted VI flying-bomb with a retarded take-off and an obvious increase of accuracy. They had also made considerable progress with controlled projectiles directed either from an aircraft to a ground target or to aircraft.

Naval construction. There was a torpedo with a range of 80 miles and an acoustic head which “listened” to its target. There were controlled torpedoes that would follow a zigzag course with deadly possibilities.

There was a jet-propelled submarine going into production with an underwater speed of 25 knots. These were made possible by a new fuel.

The inventions mentioned were in all stages, from pre-development to full production. When it is realised that full preparation was made by the Germans to carry out all essential production in underground factories impervious to bombing, the full extent of the peril becomes apparent.

It is not too much to say that the Germans were in the act of switching from one kind of war to another and that many developments of the kind I have enumerated would have been as deadly as those already disclosed in, for example, the VI and V2.

Allied bombing had delayed the switchover and would have hampered development, especially by attacks on communications, but could not have stopped it.

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006