NOTES ON THE WAR
SECRET WEAPONS
THE ROCKET RUMOURS
While for various reasons, particularly bad weather and stiff German resistance, the progress of the Allies in theirs assault on the inner "fortress Europe" has slowed down, there are again more rumours o£ secret weapons that Hitler's scientists and technicians may have in store to restore the balance of the war turning so strongly against Germany. Flying bombs are still dropping in Southern England, launched not from the ground so much now as from carrier aeroplanes. The actual flying bomb areas have been very much reduced by the AngloCanadian conquest of most of the Channel coast. Only a strip round Dunkirk remains, but from the coast of Holland long-range flying bombs could still reach East Anglia. The main rumours now are of giant i rockets and of an installation on a mountain in southern Norway to launch missiles—presumably at Scotland, 400 miles away.
On certain aspects of these rumours a student of science contributes this comment: —
It is not in line with German practice to give their enemies warning of their new weapons. Such secrets are valuable. Gas, in the last war; the magnetic mine; the flying bomb—these were sprung upon us. without any preliminary German advertising. So the prolonged- talk about V 2, the great rocket, is a little unconvincing, and even the report published on Saturday that American troops have obtained information about a radio-directed rocket 60 feet long, 5£ feet in- diameter, and weighing 14 tons, still leaves room for scepticism. The emphasis is on the war-rocket at present, for this weapon, evolved from the popular fireworks rocket, via some unsatisfactory military experiments in the past, has proved its efficiency. These rockets are all small; that is, they can be carried in simple mountings under the wing of aircraft, or fired from light-weight structures on shore or ship. Without authoritative information on the point, one would say that the biggest of them may equal, in destructive power, a six-inch high explosive shell (which is no trifle). Such a shell, fired from a gun, weighs 100 pounds. To step from that to a rocket weighing 14 tons, 50 or 60 feet long, looks like a fairy tale. Add to that that the rocket is to be fired vertically (to some unstated great elevation) and then directed by radio, and it more than looks like a fairy tale. Rocket Propulsion.
The principles of rocket propulsion have been very fully worked out on theoretical grounds, assisted by a large amount of experimental work, over more than 20 years, in the course of which several investigators have been killed;, though working only with small examples. Most of the research* appears to have been done in Germany, and nowhere has publicity been given to th x c actual construction of what might be called a big rocket. With small ones, extraordinary speeds have been reached. • > ' The toughest practical problem' 'in making a big rocket is to desigtaf/a "jet" for the escaping gases, capable, of standing the wear of a blast of 'gas; at extremely high temperatures and' very great velocity for a considerable time. Even a minute is a long time in such conditions. Rockets on a truly grand scale were first designed with [the innocent object of sending them | into "interplanetary space," not with the idea of imperialistic conquest, but for the fun of it. A rocket with a velocity of seven miles a second will do. But such .a rocket starts out as a huge thing, the size of an office building, and ends up about as big as a suitcase —facts which presumably add to the fun caused by first paying millions for the rocket. That was an American idea. The German is much more practical in object—to set up a four-mile circle of devastation on the earth. Even that, however, adds to one's doubts. The R.A.F. has been dropping plenty of six-ton bombs. No 14-ton rocket can carry six tons of bomb4oad. ■
i As to radio control, it should be noted that an unmanned aircraft, and therefore presumably a rocket, can be guided to a radio* station, but not from it. The Germans did not bother with radio control in their flying bombs — the gyroscope was much better. "Heavy Water" for Explosive. It is apparently an open season for secret weapon stories. In conjunction with a rocket station in Norway, it is stated that the Germans have been experimenting with a new explosive made from "heavy water." It has been found that hydrogen (which,) combined with oxygen, forms water) exists, in very small guantitjes, in a "double" form. Combined with oxygen, it makes "heavy water," and this, by careful manipulation, can be separated out. When heavy hydrogen] was discovered a few years ago, it was promptly publicised as a step towards a chemical revolution, because its compounds are more energetic than, those of normal hydrogen; but the; revolution lags. What, in the mean time, has become of the atomic energy bomb? ' ~ •>- '; More of the Flying- Boitfb. On the other hand, the account given of the mechanism controlling the range, of the flying-bomb—determining at what distance- from the point of launching it shall plunge to explode— has the full stamp of authority • and authenticity. The "small windmill in the nose," as the message describes it, would correspond to the patent log towed behind an ocean-going steamer and recording the distance travelled. It has to be admitted that the flying bomb, not only in this respect, but in others, notably the simplicity and
cheapness of construction, shows conspicuous inventive and technical skill. Fortunately, it came too late to affect
the course of the war seriously. Could it have been launched in full force a few months earlier, it might well have had the desired result—at least partially—in imposing a halt in the Allied preparations for D Day. The Germans were not so far out in their calculations. ' Award to British Inventor. The Allies, of course, have had no special incentive to develop a flying bomb, for they had no suitable target such' as the Germans had in the vast metropolitan area of London. Beyond that they had a practically unchallenged command of the air and ample air power to drop far heavier bombs in far greater number, with far higher precision, on a multitude of smaller targets. It is interesting to learn at this, juncture that the Royal Aeronautical Society has awarded its gold medal, its highest honour, to Captain Frank Whittle, inventor of the jetpropelled aeroplane. Though details of this invention have not, yet been published, and may not be, for security reasons, till after the war, there is ground for believing that it represents a real advance in the propulsion of aircraft, and perhaps in . the economy of internal combustion prime movers, an even more important step in the advancement of applied science.
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Bibliographic details
Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 81, 3 October 1944, Page 4
Word Count
1,144NOTES ON THE WAR Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 81, 3 October 1944, Page 4
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