Talk-Polywell.org

Anti-ship bomb.....it fits almost like you were in the Navy or something.

It is funny that people have this Hollywood version of WWII technology with Steel hardware and Iron men.
The was, in reality, a whole lot of tech employed in WWII which is largely ignored in the contemporary narratives which seek to extol the virtuous heroism of the combatant humans. It is not nearly as cool to have a pasty white skinny dude in the back of a bomber running a jamming rig to suppress german Anti-air, as it is to have a gritty pilot / co-pilot dodging black flak puffs with grease and smoke smeared on their faces while peering out dirty and shrapnel cracked windshields... or a little skinny clean dude running a DF set and feeding coordinates to an arty battery for counter-C2 missions verses the heroic one or two man muddy and bloodied infantry charge into a bunker...

Meh.Real War is mostly boring, except for intermittent disconnected exciting bits. Hollywood would have you believe it is mostly exciting bits, with rare disconnected moments of boredom. "Hurry up and wait"...

The entire spectrum of esthetics has become like sugar addiction. Compare documentary footage of clearly normal and very un-omniscient people hesitating and fumbling and being very "boring" vs. 99.9999% perfect timing and charisma etc that basically every single part of every single scene in modern war and action movies has optimized for.

Unsurprising that superhero franchises are thriving. Homer would not feel so alien in this far future.

ladajo wrote:Germans had them first.

I think this is a little different. It was remote guided with a television camera. It's more like a modern drone in that respect.


I will also point out that Joe P Kennedy was killed by the premature explosion of a remote piloted television camera guided bomber loaded with explosives.


What makes it even worse is that the target they intended to destroy had already been destroyed in a previous bombing mission.

The Germans had an HS 293 TV variant. I also think they had another weapon which used TV guidance, however I will have to dig.

ladajo wrote:The Germans had an HS 293 TV variant. I also think they had another weapon which used TV guidance, however I will have to dig.

It appears the Hs 293D had TV guidance, though the wiki page said it (and the wire-guided variant) did not reach operational status before the end of the war.

I think I remember something like that either on Luft46 or on the old LEMB. Don't have the HDD I kept all of these things on anymore, unfortunately. Lots of cool stuff from private interviews. Kinda sucks to be a luftwaffle but genetically disqualified from actually researching things in person.

Most of the people who could've shared a lot of valuable info are probably dead by now, anyway.

ladajo wrote:
War is mostly boring, except for intermittent disconnected exciting bits. Hollywood would have you believe it is mostly exciting bits, with rare disconnected moments of boredom. "Hurry up and wait"...

I spent two years hitching rides on navy ships during my time in and it and it was best described by weeks of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror; as a mater of fact all my time in the service could be said to be that way. Followed by two guys looking at each other and saying "Did you see that sh1t ?/?

Best military quote there is;

"Did you see that sh1t ?/?"

Many times preceded by; "Hey! Watch this!", or anteceded by; "Wow! I didn't see that shit coming!"
Then you spend many days and even years rehashing it as a sea story... while waiting bored for the next one...

Betruger wrote:I think I remember something like that either on Luft46 or on the old LEMB. Don't have the HDD I kept all of these things on anymore, unfortunately. Lots of cool stuff from private interviews. Kinda sucks to be a luftwaffle but genetically disqualified from actually researching things in person.

Most of the people who could've shared a lot of valuable info are probably dead by now, anyway.

I am pretty sure there was another German TV guided system. I will be in DC for the next weekish, and will have limited ability to dig. I'll give it a go as best I can.

Quick check turned up the Hs 117. However, I am thinking there was yet another. I guess it doesn't really matter that much.
As noted above, we have incomplete information, and may never know. For example, while the Germans produced a number of the TV variant Hs 117s, and did extensive testing, it is unclear if it was used in combat. Some say yes, others say no.

Nobody on this forum should have to be reminded that Philo Farnsworth demonstrated the first working TV camera and display on September 7, 1927. Very low res, but it could kinda transmit a blurry image.

Buck Rogers was introduced as a comic strip in 1928. In 1929, we see him operating an RPV sphere, using television. 1929-1930 you will find the strip awash with remote controlled robotic weapons.

So really, all this TV-guided remote controlled flying bomb stuff is just making SF into real life. What would have been remarkable would be for a nation full of amateur electronics tinkerers to not come up with this, given the incentive of a major war.

It is worth a mention that the US military entered WWII with some sectors of its tech in really backwards condition, and they were able to transition to high technology rapidly due to being able to recruit radio amateurs, who followed this sort of tech, plus Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, avidly. I don't know how much Germany's youth were into electronics, but they clearly prided themselves on technological skill. Their rocketry and glider amateurs produced some legends.

The US Navy was in many ways quite advanced before WWII. Their ships had inertial platforms (gyro-stabilized platforms on which a gyro-compass capable of determining north by sensing Earth's rotation operated ... the one on the North Carolina is open for inspection), and their torpedoes had gyroscope guidance that served as an excellent starting point for RPVs and missiles. Their guns and subs had analog computers for targeting.

.I love touring the old battleship North Carolina. One of the best parts is a pretty much let you climb most places you want the ship. I still find the reduction gear mind boggling and also the fact if you had to you could pretty much run any piece of the gear on the ship with elbow grease sweat and determination. But if you go down and see the old girl try not to do it in the middle of summer because air-conditioning is limited and they can get hot. Maybe now it is cold out I will plan on going on there take a look around. They were rebuilding the ward room and several other upper spaces and I'd like to see what they have now

We used to own a condo in Myrtle Beach. We rented it out in summer, so the only time I ever got to visit the NC was in cooler weather. This should also mean less crowds, highly conducive to exploring on your own.

We've toured the Alabama, the Missouri, and the Wisconsin, plus an aircraft carrier or two. None of them let you see the really cool stuff as freely as the North Carolina.

" It is worth a mention that the US military entered WWII with some sectors of its tech in really backwards condition "

And some was superlative. The "any gun within range" artillery directing system was a terrible shock to the Germans, as was later the radar fuzed air-burst ammunition.