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all 73 comments

[–]tediouscontrarian 81 points82 points ago

Of COURSE the picture features a guy in a black trench coat + matching fedora, and a guy in a doctor's overall

[–]Harashaw 7 points8 points ago

It's not a proper weapons test unless there's a villain standing next to it looking tiny by comparison.

[–]surrenderdorothy 84 points85 points ago

You had to hand it to the Nazi's they were so cool. Shame about the other stuff.

[–]MeleeCyrus 8 points9 points ago

Also knowing at home during the war it was if they had a peace time economy, still making shoes, clothes and food instead of all factories geared for war. Amazing!

[–]Slam999 12 points13 points ago

Thinking about history and WW2's implications. Germany has always been a technological and economic powerhouse.

Wonder where they would be today if there wasn't a war? I am sure they lost a lot of talent, in the millions of lives lost during that period.

Let alone the rest of the world, all that potential lost on the beach's or jungles of the pacific and in the fields and rubble of Europe or Russia?

You know there had to be another Einstein, Bohr, Tesla etc who died on the battlefield.

The sad part about our world is that military necessity really seems to be the predominate force in those sort of advancements, even today.

[–]Clovis69 14 points15 points ago

Before about 1850, Germany was a technological and economic backwater.

[–]illvetis 10 points11 points ago

You mean before the German Empire? Every bigger german town was still a state by then with its own tolls and taxes.

[–]MrCavallis 3 points4 points ago

At the time of WWI however, Germany had the second largest economy in the world after the US

[–]Clovis69 0 points1 point ago

In 1900 the USA was the world's largest economy followed by China, UK, Germany and India (British Empire). Collapse of the central authority of the Qing Dynasty and the resultant chaos triggered China's short but rapid decline on the world stage.

[–]ramirrezdoeverything 1 point2 points ago

It wasn't even a country until it was unified by the Prussians in the 1870's.

EDIT: fixed date

[–]MeleeCyrus -3 points-2 points ago

Yes, they had all that money in WW2 from pillaging.

[–]NowTheyllNeverKnow 8 points9 points ago

Unlike the rest of Europe, who got all their money legit.....

[–]MeleeCyrus 0 points1 point ago

Well during that time period no one did it ok that scale. But your right, Spanish sugar plantations, Portuguese and Dutch slave trade, England's exploitive history,

[–]MrCavallis 1 point2 points ago

Many smart people left Germany :(

[–]Clovis69 3 points4 points ago

Making shoes with slave labor, clothes with slave labor or recycled from the Jews they sent to the camps and food stolen from the Low Countries, France, Poland and the Ukraine.

Amazing!

[–]EsslingenAmNeckar 4 points5 points ago

Yup, nowadays clothes and shoes made by (child) slaves are unthinkable!

[–]Clovis69 -1 points0 points ago

Child labor in developing countries is a different world from labor camps and forced labor under the Nazis. I know textile work sucks, but its not starvation diet bad.

[–]amiger 23 points24 points ago

Here, give your ears a treat.

[–]PendingSente 9 points10 points ago

Thank you, that was awesome! History ear porn...

[–]BlueInq 0 points1 point ago

Awesome sound but almost scary to imagine those things were flying over where I live in anger some 72 years ago!

[–]apolotary 1 point2 points ago

and that's probably the last thing that most soldiers saw when they were attacked by Luftwaffe forces :(

[–]Sir_Smashing 0 points1 point ago

still one of my favorite youtube vids :)

[–]TheSaltySeaman 14 points15 points ago

Does anyone know what the writing on the eagle means?

[–]Pfeffersack 53 points54 points ago

That's a typical inscription of Nazi propaganda.

Das deutsche Volk wird sich
durch die Eroberung der Luft
seinem ihm gebührenden Platz
in der Welt erzwingen.

The German people will
conquer the air
and thereby enforce their
appropriate role of the world.

Better image quality: http://www.dlr.de/100Jahre/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-3303/5152_read-7463/gallery-1/gallery_read-Image.37.3207/


EDIT: Look for sbjf's comment for an even better translation.

[–]TaikoG 8 points9 points ago

thank you! i was trying to read it what the resolution was too low.

[–]sbjf 5 points6 points ago

I think this would be a better translation:

The German people will
by means of conquering the air
enforce their due and rightful place
in the world

[–]Pfeffersack 1 point2 points ago

Yes, it is.

[–]CptES 1 point2 points ago

From a certain perspective that wasn't inaccurate. The Luftwaffe often achieved air superiority in the early stages of the war extremely quickly and used it to relentlessly grind down the enemy.

[–]ZankerH 0 points1 point ago

Air supremacy, certainly, but never outright superiority.

[–]Human_Dilophosaur 15 points16 points ago

Looks like Indiana Jones is already on it.

[–]Sr_DingDong 6 points7 points ago

Love 109s (and the 190). Shame there's less of them about. I guess because they lost?

[–]hamtoucher 2 points3 points ago

Pretty much - most of the surviving 109s were built under licence in Spain, and survive because Spain didn't fight in WW2. Lots of them are now fitted with Rolls Royce Merlin engines (british spitfire/hurricane/Lancaster etc engine) as there aren't the parts to service the Junkers or BMW engines they were originally fitted with.

[–]Sir_Smashing 0 points1 point ago

small correction, the 109's had Daimler-Benz engines :P But your absolutely right, and those that weren't lost during the war were scrapped afterwards.

[–]fregu149 6 points7 points ago

Even of today's standard that windtunnel lab look high tech.

[–]potentiallyoffensive 11 points12 points ago

Wow. This level of technology 72 years ago!

[–]ZankerH 5 points6 points ago

And it's not even the most sophisticated technology of the time, by far. Nazi Germany was the first country to develop and deploy in combat:

  • Helicopters
  • Assault rifles
  • Jet fighters
  • Ballistic missiles

[–]dudeman209 2 points3 points ago

That list alone is astounding.

[–]amiger 2 points3 points ago

Might want to add the first stealth bomber

And the first military night vison device

[–]buttlorde 3 points4 points ago

It really is mind blowing when you consider that the ME-109 was introduced only 32 years after the Wright brother's first flight.

Even more impressive is that propeller aircraft have not significantly advanced since that time - It took a astoundingly short amount of time to perfect the technology.

[–]PendingSente 9 points10 points ago

THIS is why I'm glad I subbed this subreddit...

[–]shutupgalvao 0 points1 point ago

Couldn't agree more, sir

[–]niftyjack 11 points12 points ago

As horrible as its results became, that facility is beautiful.

[–]dharms 7 points8 points ago

Horrible? The 109 had its minor problems, but it was a good fighter after all.

[–]buttlorde 11 points12 points ago

A good weapon is a horrible thing.

[–]ZankerH 2 points3 points ago

That's a horrible way to look at it. It's still a beautiful triumph of science and engineering, regardless of what it's used for.

[–]buttlorde 3 points4 points ago

The ME-109 is certainly a extremely impressive feat of human ingenuity and engineering, and can certainly be admired as such.

It is, however, a tool designed exclusively to murder our fellow man, and as such it is as far removed from beautiful as possible. It is a grotesque, ugly thing, used by evil people for a evil cause, and the world would have been a better place had it never been made.

[–]ZankerH 1 point2 points ago

You fail to separate an actual object from your perception of it.

What about the Spitfire, or the M1 Garand? They were also tools designed exclusively to kill people, and yet, I'm guessing according to your political views the world would have been a horrible place if they'd never been made.

War is a fact of humanity. Equating it with base murder is just ridiculous. As far as I'm aware no one has ever been murdered by a Bf 109, all kills ever scored by one were in the context of legitimate wartime combat.

[–]buttlorde 0 points1 point ago

You fail to separate an actual object from your perception of it.

Not at all; I recognize and admire the engineering and technology of the plane; I despise it's purpose and function.

What about the Spitfire, or the M1 Garand? They were also tools designed exclusively to kill people, and yet, I'm guessing according to your political views the world would have been a horrible place if they'd never been made.

The fact that the 109 was used by the Nazis is largely irrelevant as far as I am concerned - a weapon is a terrible thing, no matter who wields it. Whether the person who uses it is morally justifiable in doing so does not change that.

War is a fact of humanity. Equating it with base murder is just ridiculous.

Killing another human being is murder, whether it is sanctioned by a state or not.

As far as I'm aware no one has ever been murdered by a Bf 109, all kills ever scored by one were in the context of legitimate wartime combat.

Um, wow. This is quite a statement. Let us for the sake of argument accept that killing another human being in a state sanctioned war is not murder.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/secret-nazi-tapes-shocking-germany-1336922

JANUARY 3, 1941 FOCKE-WULF FIGHTER PILOT BUDDE AND CORPORAL BARTELS ARE OVERHEARD LAUGHING AND JOKING ABOUT THEIR FAVOURITE WARTIME ESCAPADES BEFORE THE FORMER WAS SHOT DOWN IN THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN AND THE LATTER WAS CAPTURED AS BRITISH TROOPS FELL BACK TOWARDS DUNKIRK IN 1940.

BUDDE: “I flew two spoiling attacks. In other words, we shelled ­buildings.”

BARTELS: “But not destructive attacks with a specific target, like we did?”

BUDDE: “Naah, just spoiling attacks. We encountered some of the nicest targets, like mansions built on a mountainside. When you flew up at them from below and fired into them, you could see the windows rattling and then the roof going up in the air. There was the time we hit Ashford. There was an event in the market square, crowds of people, speeches given. We really sprayed them! That was fun!”

The pilot in question was not a ME-109 pilot, but this illustrates the viciousness of the Luftwaffe culture during WWII.

I can abso-fucking-lutely guarantee that a ME-109 was at one point or another used in the unlawful murder of a civilian by the Luftwaffe. Atrocities committed by the German armed forces during WWII were so commonplace in all branches that it's hopelessly naive to believe otherwise.

edit: Oh I forgot this one:

JANUARY 5, 1945 ­Luftwaffe Oberleutnant Hans Hartigs is from a fighter squadron shot down by a spitfire. He reveals his favourite targets...

HARTIGS: “I used to shoot at everything. We liked to go for women pushing prams, often with children at their sides. It was a kind of sport really.”

It's stated that Hartigs was a fighter pilot, so it's in fact quite likely that he flew ME-109s.

[–]Zenshai 0 points1 point ago

you're probably right about it being a murder tool and etc. but that still doesn't make it not beautiful, if beauty really is in the eye of the beholder like they say then all it takes is one person to consider something beautiful for it to be so.

[–]buttlorde 0 points1 point ago

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I just can't view something built and designed from the ground up to murder people as beautiful.

It's aesthetically pleasing, interesting, historically significant, etc. It's just not beautiful (to me).

[–]sgtdemeo 6 points7 points ago

its hard to tell from here, but I would not be surprised if the man in the fedora is Willy Messerschmitt.. he was well known as being VERY hands on with the development of his aircraft.

[–]sgtdemeo 2 points3 points ago

one of my favorite aircraft ever.. Just so graceful looking.

[–]dharms 0 points1 point ago

That's the E version (Emil). The G version (Gustav) was even better looking.

[–]hellonium 4 points5 points ago

How did they... A) Get it up there? B) Land it?

[–]DMitri221 14 points15 points ago

It's attached to a crane.

[–]hellonium 8 points9 points ago

and thanks for not being an asshole

[–]randy9876 10 points11 points ago

They just play ride of the valkyries, and it magically levitates.

[–]hellonium 2 points3 points ago

Haha that made my day man

[–]Schwarzwind 2 points3 points ago

The allies only evened out air control and secured bombing runs with the introduction of the P-51 late in the war, I have great respect for German engineering and the Luftwaffe for having such a iron grip on aerial dominance up until the turning of the war. This machine looks beautiful.

[–]thatguitarist 11 points12 points ago

Battle of Britain anyone?

[–]Schwarzwind 4 points5 points ago

Its true, no glory to be taken away from the awesome spitfire *, but the logistics that needed to be overcome by the Germans for air superiority in that battle were great, not the least of which being the need to fly the English channel and through the Brits wonderful RADAR systems. But of course, Goring said it would be no issue at all! The beginning of what would be come a loss in the confidence of his word.

EDIT: and the chaps over in RAF

[–]Clovis69 0 points1 point ago

P-51 entered RAF service in large numbers in late summer of 1940, in large numbers as a bomber escort in the spring and summer of 1943, a time when the war in Europe was still very much in question.

The Luftwaffe started losing aerial dominance in Western Europe in 1941, lost it but for various sectors by spring of 1944.

[–]MrBrawn -1 points0 points ago

That's a ballsy pilot.

[–]Noxtavious 1 point2 points ago

I believe this room inspired a scene in a Jackie Chan movie about Nazi gold hidden in a secret underground base in africa. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOy1ncO2t8c

In concept only, of course. I have no idea if it is a set or a legit testing facility but the set up in the movie is much more complex.

[–]dazwah 0 points1 point ago

How do they get that out of the wind tunnel without crashing it?

[–]Sir_Smashing 0 points1 point ago

Wow, what a beauty!

[–]amisamiamiam -1 points0 points ago

Extremely old WWII joke...3,2,1.... "I thought all those Messersch_itts were Fokkers!?"

[–]amisamiamiam 0 points1 point ago

heard it from a WWII vet