… those of us who were seriously engaged in the war were very grateful to Wernher von Braun. We knew that each V-2 cost as much to produce as a high-performance fighter airplane. We knew that German forces on the fighting fronts were in desperate need of airplanes, and that the V-2 rockets were doing us no military damage. From our point of view, the V-2 program was almost as good as if Hitler had adopted a policy of unilateral disarmament
This is true. Long range missiles like this are only practical with either nuclear warheads or modern precision guidance. If you can land them right on top of a tiny target, they’re useful. If your target is an area miles in diameter, they’re also useful. But back in WW2 they were just vanity projects.
Some clickbait recently called Lehrer “the Bo Burnham of his day,” and that’s annoyingly hard to argue with, given such cheerful tunes as “We Will All Go Together When We Go.”
Von Braun: am I a joke to you?
Germany had no pilots at that point, so might as well use unmanned weapons…
This is true. Long range missiles like this are only practical with either nuclear warheads or modern precision guidance. If you can land them right on top of a tiny target, they’re useful. If your target is an area miles in diameter, they’re also useful. But back in WW2 they were just vanity projects.
Yes.
Nice one, haven’t seen this before!
Some clickbait recently called Lehrer “the Bo Burnham of his day,” and that’s annoyingly hard to argue with, given such cheerful tunes as “We Will All Go Together When We Go.”