2nd WW2 Cumulative History Quiz

[cidknee]

are you thinking about the homing radars or the counter measures.

 

[cidknee]

are you thinking about the homing radars or the counter measures.

or could it possibly be the tracer... the phospourus ones that were fired out of the messerschmidt cannons so they can walk the fire into the bombers.

i dunno im kinda guessin here.

 

[Akhhorus]

Okie:

What invention gave the Germans the edge over the Allies during night fighting (I want the name and a quick description) .

X-Geraet /Knickebein
it was a radio beam that the planes would follow at night so they didnt have to do any sort of navigation with Stars, hoping for a light or dead reckoning

The two transmitters were set up at separate locations, with both focused on the target. A bomber would fly up one beam staying on track by listening for dots or dashes emerging from the continuous tone, and drop bombs when the second beam was detected, which was apparently transmitted on a different frequency within the operating band. The system, which had been initially demonstrated in 1937, was actually known to the Germans officially as "X-Leitstrahlbake (Direction Beacon)", and had been given the nickname "Knickebein" due to the cockeyed appearance of the primary transmitting antenna.

 

[nonconformist]

Crap-sorry, I just realised my queston was a badly worded one-when I mean night fighting, I meant with tanks!
It seemed obvious at the time.....sorry for the inconvenience guys

 

[cidknee]

ohhhhh.. didnt they have a " starlight " scope? kinda a precuser to out night vision..

 

[cidknee]

tigers had on thier wheels, a rubber outer ring which prevented it from freezing up in the colder nights, which allowed them to NOT get as clogged with mud and freeze up, and also the german tanks all had radios the allied ones didnt

 

[FriendlyFire]

No The germans developed Infa red lights

Which made it hard to locate where the beam of light was comming from. It easily illuminated the Allied armour.

(Now If only the Allied had advanced Infa red lights and paired it with there CDL tanks it would have been a killer secret weapon.)

 

[cidknee]

really... neat

 

[nonconformist]

No The germans developed Infa red lights

Which made it hard to locate where the beam of light was comming from. It easily illuminated the Allied armour.

(Now If only the Allied had advanced Infa red lights and paired it with there CDL tanks it would have been a killer secret weapon.)

Correct-the Germans invented infra-red night vision b eams under the name oof UHU (owl)

 

[cidknee]

man u dont know how many books, and online pages i looked for that... STILL came up short.. Oh well moving on. I didnt know that they invented that. I thought the British did... well according to one book i have they did. Well better go clean up the pile of books strewn acroos my house.. lol

 

[FriendlyFire]

BACK GROUND:
During the final year of the war the Japanese realizing that against the massive airpower of the US there air forces were being lost in a deadly attrition in which they could not match. With the US bombing all but unchallenged over the skys of Japan the Allies began to wreck havoc with Japanese Aircraft productions with production being reduced to a mear trickle. The japanese high command decided that there aircraft should not engage in air combat over against the allied airforces. Thus Japanese aircraft were secretly hidden all over japan, where they were carefully hording the now irreplaced aircraft to be used in the final battle of Japan.

QUESTION:
How many Japanese aircraft did they manage to hord when the war ended ?

EDIT: Stationed on the japanese mainland.

 

[steviejay]

if memory serves me correctly, in the book I read on the proposed invasion of Japan (Operation Downfall) it was discovered that the Japanese were saving a huge number of kamakazie (spelling) units to help defend the homeland, this included one man submarines and obviously plans. I think the number was around the 2k mark, but unfortunately it was a while ago since I read it so I can't be more precise but I think it was around that number, give or take a few hundred probably

 

[Rik Meleet]

That's why i love this quiz; (nearly) every question increases my knowledge. I had no idea the Japanese were hiding planes ...

Wild guess: 16000

 

[cidknee]

the Japanese still had 5,651 army and 7,074 navy aircraft, for a total of 12,725 planes of all types.

 

[FriendlyFire]

the Japanese still had 5,651 army and 7,074 navy aircraft, for a total of 12,725 planes of all types.

How did you get those figures ?

My figures came not from US statics but from Japanese records.
US tend to overestimate the effective number of Aircraft the Japanese had avaliable.

Its lower then the figure posted.

 

[cidknee]

those were figures taken fron Japanese. The american estimates are 30% lower.
heres the link,
http://sandysq.gcinet.net/uss_salt_lake_city_ca25/jaekel03.htm

 

[Adler17]

13.000 planes ? I don´t think that is so unbelievable since the Japanese did not engage the attacking bombers with fighters. Nevertheless I think that would have been a bad surpirse for the allies to land on Japan. I think it would have been possible to invade- but propable? Also the typhoon season was a time in which the gods were for the Japanese, twice in history. If you count the typhoons of ww2 three times...
Nevertheless Japan it is not clear if the Japanese wouldn´t have surrendered without the bomb dropped in cities...
But that discussion we had a year ago (Truman a warcriminal?).

Adler

 

[FriendlyFire]

Allied intelligence had established that the Japanese had no more than 2500 aircraft of which they guessed 300 would be deployed in suicide attacks. In August 1945, however; unknown to Allied Intelligence, the Japanese still had 5,651 army and 7,074 navy aircraft, for a total of 12,725 planes of all types.

Every village had some kind of aircraft manufacturing activity hidden in mines, railway tunnels, under viaducts and in basements of department stores, working to construct new planes. In addition they were building newer and more effective models of the Okka, a rocket propelled bomb, like the German V-1, but flown by a suicide pilot.

I'll post my numbers tommorrow. Since mine are more accurate. I have number of both Army/ Navy / Kamikaze / Trainers
The second paragraph tends to discredit the source. (Japanese production figures I'll post some of these too)

 

[Rik Meleet]

time for a

 

[Dragonlord]

I think it's Cidknee's turn to ask....