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If our soldiers are not overburdened with money, it is not because they have a distaste for riches; if their lives are not unduly long, it is not because they are disinclined to longevity. -- Sun Tzu |
Selbstopfer (selbst+opfer, German for self-sacrifice) was a late-World War II German project to develop a "smart weapon" for attacking high-value targets such as bridges and command centers. First proposed by Otto Skorzeny, leader of the German commandos, and Hanna Reitsch, the famous test pilot, they suggested using converted V1 Flying Bombs with a tiny cockpit on top, with a pilot.
About 100 pilots, drawn from KG 200 were trained, and about 175 of the modified V-1 (named Fieseler Fi 103 R Reichenberg) were built. Unlike the somewhat similar Japanese Kamikaze Ohka, pilots of the new Fi 103 R were intended to bail out just prior to impact, although in reality this would be difficult because of the cramped cockpit, the sharp angle of the final dive, and the fact that the cockpit was located just below the pulsejet intake. Testing was carried out by KG 200 on several occasions, dropped from Heinkel He 111 bombers, with Reitsch herself piloting an unpowered version equipped with a wooden landing skid. Several stories claim operational use, but it appears highly unlikely that the weapon was ever used in combat. |
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This Day in History
1865:
Confederate General Joseph Johnston officially surrenders his army to General William T. Sherman at Durham Station, North Carolina.
1865: John Wilkes Booth is killed when Union soldiers track him down to a Virginia farm 12 days after he assassinated President Abraham Lincoln. 1865: Joseph E. Johnston surrenders the Army of Tennessee to Sherman. 1937: The ancient Basque town of Guernica in northern Spain is bombed by German planes. 1952: Armistice negotiations are resumed. 1971: The U.S. command in Saigon announces that the U.S. force level in Vietnam is 281,400 men, the lowest since July 1966. 1972: President Nixon, despite the ongoing communist offensive, announces that another 20,000 U.S. troops will be withdrawn from Vietnam in May and June, reducing authorized troop strength to 49,000. |