T-34

The T-34 was by far the best tank design in World War 2. In addition to having an excellent combination of firepower, armor, mobility, and shape, its superb technical design, which emphasized simplicity and durability, made it possible to mass produce it in enormous numbers, and gave it very high field and combat reliability, two critical attributes which the advanced German tanks lacked. It was the main war winning weapon of Russia in World War 2.
The T-34 was a medium tank which evolved from a series of pre-war Russian light tanks, which were designed for very high speed (53mph with tracks, and over 60mph in good roads without tracks!!) and long travel range, features which made them a formidable weapon for fast advances very deep into enemy territory, but they severely lacked firepower and armor, so they were not suitable as main battle tanks. Some modern wheeled military vehicles armed with powerful anti tank missiles and machine guns can be regarded as more successful descendants of this type of fighting vehicle.
As a result of the need for an all-purpose main battle tank, the T-34 was developed as a medium tank descendant of those fast light tanks, gradually evolving from their superb technical design, but designed to be a capable main battle tank. The T-34 was lower in height (8ft) than German and American tanks, which was better in using the terrain for taking cover and make it a smaller target to hit. It had sloped armor in both the front and side hull and the turret, which made it harder to penetrate, and of course it had a powerful 76mm gun, which was then a large caliber, and sufficiently thick armor. During World War 2 the gun of the T-34 was upgraded to a more powerful long-barrel 76mm gun and later to 85mm gun, to keep up with the advances in German tank guns and armor.
Initial production and deployment of the T-34 was before the German invasion of Russia. Small numbers of T-34 tanks participated in a series of border battles between Russian and Japanese forces in the far East in early 1941, just three months before the German invasion to Russia.
Both the new T-34 tank and Zhukov, who was later Russia's top military commander in World War 2, made their impressive early debut there, in the far East. Both were noticed and reported by the Japanese, but the Germans ignored those reports and were therefore shocked when they met the first T-34 tanks in combat later that year when they invaded Russia. The Germans so appreciated the performance of the T-34 that when the German military discussed the development of their next tank, the Panther, one of the suggested designs was simply a German copy of the T-34.
There were still small numbers of the new T-34 when the invasion began, and the rapid German advancement so deep into Russia, as far as Moscow, forced the Russian industry, which already lost countless factories, to an unprecedented operation of literally moving its entire remaining military industry factories over 1000 miles further East, to Siberia, to avoid losing it to the advancing Germans.
In those newly built factories, Russia's military industry restored and far exceeded its pre-war mass production capacity. The furious motivation of the Russian production workers to stop the terribly cruel German invaders which were more brutal than Russia's own brutal Communist regime, and the desperate draconic measures of the Russian regime itself, in which being late to work in a factory during the war could result in 10 years imprisonment, gave the wartime Russian military industry the high efficiency that Communism never reached before or after World War 2. In wartime Russia, workers and soldiers alike were motivated by the desire to revenge and the fear of draconic punishments, and were paid in food, which soldiers and workers received while the rest of the population starved severely during the war.
The immense production rate of the T-34 was further boosted by the fact that massive American and British material support enabled the Russian war industry to focus all its effort on the production of a small number of main weapon systems, while other greatly needed equipment, such as trucks and jeeps, field rations and even some aircraft types, were supplied in large numbers by the western allies.
So after the initial tremendous defeats in 1941 which cost Russia millions of soldiers and a huge lost territory, since mid 1942 the Russian army was equipped with rapidly increasing numbers of T-34 tanks which matched the German tanks and increasingly outnumbered them.
Since late 1942, in the late stages of the great battle of Stalingrad, and then in the huge tank battle in Kursk in mid 1943, and until the end of the war, T-34 tanks in ever increasing large numbers, outnumbered and crushed the German tanks, and pushed the German invaders all the way back to Berlin, serving as one of the main war winning weapons of World War 2.
The T-34 was a medium tank, weighed 26 tons. It had a crew of four, it had a good speed of 55kmh (34mph) and a range of 115 miles. During the late stages of the war, the Russian army perfected its mobility so much that tanks were sometimes refueled while still driving forward, without stopping, and the Russian infantry used to keep pace with the advancing tanks simply by riding on them from one battle to the next.
Some T-34 tanks are apparently still being used by some military forces even today, and the generations of Russian tanks developed since World War 2, which were produced in vast numbers during the cold war and still used by many armies, are direct descendants of the T-34, the best tank in World War 2.

sumber:2worldwar2.com

C-47 Skytrain/Dakota

The DC-3 did not go unnoticed by one of Douglas's oldest customers -- the U.S. Army.

The military career of the Douglas DC series began in 1936 when the Army Air Corps ordered a pair of DC-2s under the designation C-32. A contract followed for 18 DC-2s in the C-33 freighter configuration and two more as C-34 staff transports. Then, in 1937, the Army ordered a plane built to its own specifications. It was a hybrid design that combined the fuselage of the DC-2 with a DC-3 tail. This was the sole C-38 prototype and it led to 35 production versions called the C-39. The C-39 represented the first serious effort by the Army to establish an airlift capability.
By 1941 the old Air Corps had been transformed into the Army Air Forces, and it selected a modified version of the DC-3 -- the C-47 Skytrain -- to become its standard transport aircraft. A reinforced fuselage floor and the addition of a large cargo door were the only major modifications. Other changes included the fitting of cargo hooks beneath the center wing section and the removal of the tail cone to mount a hook for towing gliders.
As a supply plane, the C-47 could carry up to 6,000 pounds of cargo. It could also hold a fully assembled jeep or a 37 mm cannon. As a troop transport, it carried 28 soldiers in full combat gear. As a medical airlift plane, it could accommodate 14 stretcher patients and three nurses. Seven basic versions were built, and the aircraft was given at least 22 designations, including the AC-47D gunship, the EC-47 electronic reconnaissance aircraft, the EC-47Q antiaircraft systems evaluation aircraft and the C-53 Skytrooper.
Every branch of the U.S military and all the major allied powers flew it. The U.S. Navy version was the R4D. The British and the Australians designated it the Dakota (a clever acronym composed of the letters DACoTA for Douglas Aircraft Company Transport Aircraft). The aircraft operated from every continent in the world and participated in every major battle. By the end of World War II, more than 10,000 had been built. For all of its official and unofficial names, it came to be known universally as the "Gooney Bird." General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe, termed it one of the most vital pieces of military equipment used in winning the war.
C-47s remained in active military service long after the end of World War II. They played a critical role in the 1948 Berlin Airlift and saw action in the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Specifications

First flight:	Dec. 23, 1941
Model Number:	C-47/R4D
Wingspan:	95 feet 6 inches
Length:	63 feet 9 inches
Height:	17 feet
Service ceiling:	24,000 feet
Normal range:	1,600 miles
Maximum range:	3,800 miles
Weight:	31,000 pounds
Cruise speed:	160 mph
Power plant:	Two 1,200 horsepower Pratt & Whitney R-1830 radial engines
Accommodation:	Three crew and 6,000 pounds of cargo, or 28 airborne troops, or 14 stretcher patients and three attendants

sumber: www.boeing.com

u-47

U-47: Build Details and Technical Specifications

The following information covers the basic technical specifications of the Type VIIB U-boat in general, and U-47 in particular.

A. Build Details

Type: VIIB
Works: Krupp Germaniawerft, Kiel
Series: U45 - U55
Build Commissioned: 21.11.1936
Build Number: 538
Completed: 25.02.1937
First Launch: 29.10.1938
Handed over for Service: 17.12.1938
Field Post Number: 18837

B. Technical Specifications

A side view of the Type VIIB U-Boat. The torpedo tubes are indicated in red.

Displacement:

Washington 517 metric tons
Surfaced (dry) 704 metric tons
Surfaced (fuel and water tanks full) 753 metric tons
Submerged 857 metric tons
Submerged (fully crewed and loaded) 1040 tons

Length:

Casing 66.5m (218.2')
Pressure hull 48.8m (160.1')

Beam:

Casing 6.2m (20.3')
Pressure hull 4.7m (15.4')

Draught:

4.7m (15.4')

Height:

9.5m (31.6')

Engines:

Two Germaniawerft 6-cylinder 4-stroke F46 diesels with superchargers totalling 2800 - 3200bhp

Motors:

Two AEG GU 460/8-276 electric motors totalling 750shp

Batteries:

Two rooms with 62 lead-acid AFA 27 MAK 800 battery cells producing 7500 amp hours

Fuel oil:

Maximum 108.3 metric tons
Normal load 99.7 metric tons (57.3 tons within pressure hull)

Speed:

Surfaced 17.2-17.9 knots
Submerged 8.0 knots

Range (surfaced):

3850nm at 17.2 knots
6500nm at 12 knots
8700nm at 10 knots
combined diesel/electric drive range 9400nm

Range (submerged):

90nm at 4 knots

Diving depth:

Operational - 100m (328')
Crush - 200m (656')
Maximum sustainable depth - c. 220m (733.3')

Diving time

30 seconds

Periscopes:

Sky - Standserohr C/2 with fixed eyepiece
Attack and night - Binokulare Nacht-Luftziel-Seerohr(NLSR)

Hydrophones:

Gruppenhorchgerat (GHG) (fixed hydrophone array) - 11 hydrophones per side, above forward dive planes

UWT:

Two underwater telephone membranes fitted on either side, above GHG (one for transmission and one for receipt of sound waves)

Armament:
» more info

88mm deck gun
20mm Flak gun

Torpedo tubes:

Bow - 4 x 21" (53.3cm) tubes
Stern - 1 x 21" (53.3cm) tube

Torpedo types:
» more info

G7a compressed air torpedo
G7e wakeless torpedo

Torpedo numbers:

Forward tubes - 4
Forward torpedo compartment - 6
Aft tube - 1
Aft torpedo compartment - 1
Between pressure hull and forward deck casing - 1
Between pressure hull and aft deck casing - 1
Total - 14. NB. Space was allocated in the deck casing for two additional torpedoes - one in the forward deck casing and one in the aft deck casing.

Mines
» more info

26 x TMA or 39 x TMB

Boats

1 dinghy, stored under forward casing forward of the torpedo loading hatch

Crew

December 1938 - 39
October 1939 - 40
February 1941 - 44

Mitsubishi A6M Reisen (Zero)

 

The notorious and fearsome A6M Reisen is better known in the annals of history, and in the minds of the pilots who faced it, as the Zero.
The A6M was a fighter conceived, “specs-first” by the Japanese Navy in 1937. The plane they wanted was to be a carrier- based, highly maneuverable, long range fighter that was capable of defeating heavier land-based fighters toe-to-toe.
Only Jiro Horoshiki of the Mitsubishi company was able to produce a plane that fit the specifications required, and in 1939 the first prototype was created. The A6M was a very clean and aerodynamic airframe even with its bulky radial engine. Its retractable landing gear was set widely for easier landings on carriers at sea. It was also well armed for its fighter role with two machine guns and two cannons. The prototype A6Ms were found to have exemplary turning and climbing ability and so the A6M was put into production in 1940. 1940 happened to be the Japanese year 5700 and so it was known as the Type 0 and thus the name Reisen or Zero.
A test-squadron of 30 Zeroes was sent to China in summer of 1940. The Zero bested all of its competition with ease. Next, the A6M was at the forefront on December 7th, 1941 during the attack on Pearl Harbour. Over the next 6 months the Zero confounded American pilots with its superior maneuverability and its highly trained pilots causing heavy losses to the Americans. After the Battle of Midway however, the Zero had lost its lustre of untouchability. American pilots refused to face the Zero head on and instead made high speed passes at them using their superior engines and armour and banking on the Zero’s tendency to catch fire.
New Zeroes were introduced with better armour and equipment but this added weight meant less of that famous aerobatic maneuverability. By 1945 many A6Ms were converted to kamikazes.
A total of 10,964 Zeroes were built.

Type	Fighter
Power Plant	1 x 1,130-horsepower Nakajima NK1F radial engine
Max speed:	565 km/h ( 351 mph)
Ceiling:	11,050 m (36,255 ft.)
Range:	1,920 km (1,193 mi.)
Weight (empty):	1,876 kg (4,136 lb.)
Weight (loaded):	2,952 kg (6,508 lb.)
Wingspan:	11 m ( 36 ft. 1 in.)
Length:	9.12 m ( 29 ft. 11 in.)
Height:	3.51 m ( 11ft. 6 in.)
Armament:	2 x 7.7mm machine guns; 2 x 20mm cannon
Service	1940-1945

Aichi D3A - Japanese carrier-based bomber of WW2

 

Although not a particularly modern-looking aircraft, the Aichi D3A sank more allied shipping than any other Axis aircraft both in its dive-bomber role and its later refit as a kamikaze plane. In 1936 a contract opened up to replace the obsolete Aichi D1A – a biplane dive-bomber – with a more modern craft. Aichi’s D3A won the design contest and went into production shortly after. The D3A was the first all-metal bomber used by the Japanese. It was a low-wing monoplane employing the Mitsubishi Kinsei radial engine. The D3A’s landing gear was not retractable and so a longer dorsal fin was added to increase stability.

The Aichi was typically used as a carrier-based bomber. D3As accompanied the first waves that flew over Pearl Harbour, inflicting heavy damage. In the Indian Ocean, D3A squadrons were known to have sunk the British carrier Hermes along with the cruisers Dorsetshire and Cornwall.
D3As were tremendously accurate in their bombing role with four out of every five bombs striking its target. The D3A remained an integral part of the Japanese navy’s offense up until the 1942 battles of Coral Sea and Midway where many were lost. A year later an aerodynamically improved version of the D3A, the D3A2, entered service but neither model could keep pace with new and numerous American fighters.
Those D3As that were not shot down were put into service as kamikaze planes, a move that sadly may have increased their already impressive accuracy record. A total of 1,495 of these dive-bombers were built.

Type	Dive-Bomber
Power Plant	1 x 1,080-horsepower
Max speed:	389 km/h ( 242mph)
Ceiling:	9,159 m (30,050 ft.)
Range:	1,561 km (970 mi.)
Weight (empty):	2,409 kg (5,310 lb.)
Weight (loaded):	2,618 kg (5,772 lb.)
Wingspan:	14.38 m ( 47 ft. 2 in.)
Length:	10.24 m ( 33 ft. 7 in.)
Height:	3.32 m (10ft. 11 in.)
Armament:	3 x 7.7mm machine guns; 816 pounds of bombs
Service	1938 -1945

sumber:world-war-2-planes.com

P-38 Lightning

 

 Rugged, fast and versatile, the Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a potent combat aircraft and a superb fighter bomber, also flying as a night fighter, reconnaissance aircraft and torpedo-bomber. Powered by two liquid-cooled engines, the P-38 had a top speed of 414 miles per hour and carried a 20-mm cannon and four machine guns in its nose.

 

Designed in 1937 as a high-altitude "pursuit aircraft" (interceptor), the XP-38 was heavier than a Bristol Blenheim Mk. I, which at that time was the standard British medium bomber. Equipped with under wing droppable fuel tanks, the Lockheed P-38 was used extensively as a long-range escort fighter aircraft and saw action in practically every major combat area of the world. The Pacific theatre of operations produced the two highest scoring aces in American history - Major Richard Bong and Major Thomas McGuire, Jr. Both men flew P-38 Lightnings in the Southwest Pacific and each received the Medal of Honor in recognition of his courage and accomplishments.

 

 Known for its exceptional range and the dependability of its two Allison engines, this legendary aircraft made up for any shortcomings with its exceptional set of guns and cannons in its nose, giving it more concentrated firepower than other US fighters, which usually had their guns mounted in their wings. Many different versions, including pathfinder and reconnaissance aircraft configurations, were produced. 

After WW2, a number of Lockheed P-38s were used for aerial photography in the private sector. Almost 10,000 P-38s were built. Today, only a few are remaining.

Type:	Long range fighter and fighter bomber
Powerplant:	Two Allison V-1710-27/29
Max speed:	414 mph (666 km/hr)
Ceiling:	44,000 ft (13 400 m)
Range:	475 miles (765 km) on internal fuel
Weight (empty):	12,600 lbs (5806 kg)
Max. T/O:	21,600 lbs (9798 kg)
Wingspan:	52' 0" (15.85m)
Length:	37' 10" (11.53 m)
Height:	9' 10" (3 m)
Armament:	One 20mm cannon, four .50 machine guns, 2,000 lb of bombs, rockets

sumber: world-war-2-planes.com

Sherman Tank

officially M4 GENERAL SHERMAN, main battle tank designed and built by the United States for the conduct of World War II. The M4 was the most widely used tank series in the war, being employed not only by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps but also by British, Canadian, and Free French forces. The M4 was employed in North Africa, Sicily, Italy, and western Europe and throughout the Pacific Theatre. A total of 49,324 tanks was produced in 11 plants between 1942 and 1946.

When World War II began in 1939, the United States lagged far behind the major European states in the development of tank technology and armoured warfare doctrine. The fall of France in May 1940 awoke and alarmed the United States. The German army had defeated France in a matter of weeks through the use of a new operational doctrine based on fast-moving, massed armoured formations supported by air power. America's leaders became convinced that the U.S. Army needed a new main battle tank at least equal to that employed by the Germans and that it had to adopt German operational doctrine. To that end, in July 1940 the War Department authorized the development of a new medium tank, and it also authorized the organization of the first armoured divisions. By the time the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, the United States had five armoured divisions organizing and training for war in Europe.

The first American main battle tank employed in combat in World War II was the M3 General Grant. The British fought with this tank in North Africa as early as 1941. The M3 was the result of a crisis atmosphere that was prevalent immediately following the fall of France. It is likely that no tank in history ever went from design to production faster than the General Grant. Its major defect was its gun mount: the 75-millimetre gun was carried in a sponson in the right front of the hull and could traverse only 15 degrees to each side--a major disadvantage in tank battles. However, the M3 was only an interim measure. Production ceased in late 1942, when the M4 went into full production.

The M4 prototype debuted in 1941 and was accepted for production that October. Its designers consciously emphasized speed and mobility, limiting the thickness of the armour and the size of the main gun, thereby compromising on firepower and survivability. The M4's main armament was a short-barreled, low-velocity 75-millimetre gun, and its armour thickness was a maximum of 75 millimetres and a minimum of 12 millimetres (3 inches and 0.5 inch, respectively). The tank had a maximum speed of 24 to 29 miles (38 to 46 kilometres) per hour and a range of 100 to 150 miles, depending on the series (M4 to M4A3E2). The M4 carried a crew of five--commander, gunner, loader, driver, and codriver/hull gunner. The vehicle weighed around 33 tons, depending on the series. A typical power plant was a 425-horsepower gasoline engine.

The M4 entered active service with the British in North Africa in October 1942. It was roughly in the same class as the German Panzerkampfwagen IV (Pz. IV), which at that time weighed 26 tons, had a road speed of 20 miles per hour, and mounted a 60-millimetre gun. Later model German tanks were much improved, so that, by the time of the Normandy Invasion in June 1944, the M4 was outclassed by superior tanks such as the Pz. V Panther and the Pz. VI Tiger. The American penchant for mass production tended to stymie innovations in technology, and American doctrinal thinking tended to remain stuck in the pre-war period, when the tank was seen as primarily an infantry support weapon. As a result, the M4 was not up-gunned until late in the war, and American, British, and Canadian tank crews consistently faced better German tanks. The M4 had a faster rate of fire and greater speed, but both the Panther and Tiger had significantly greater range and accuracy. The German tanks were also more survivable. Consequently, it took superior numbers for Anglo-American forces to defeat German armoured formations. The most notable effort to break the Germans' qualitative advantage was the "Firefly," a Sherman equipped with a 76.2-millimetre (or "17-pounder") long-barreled gun.

For the Normandy Invasion and subsequent campaigns on the European continent, the M4 was retrofitted with special-purpose devices by both the Americans and the British. The British added flails (a system of rotors and chains) to clear paths through minefields, and American servicemen added jury-rigged plows for breaking through hedgerows in the bocage country of Normandy. Perhaps the most famous variation was the "Duplex Drive," or DD, tank, a Sherman equipped with extendable and collapsible skirts that made it buoyant enough to be launched from a landing craft and make its way to shore under propeller power. The M4 also was transformed into the M32 Tank Recovery vehicle and the M4 Mobile Assault Bridge carrier. Numerous devices of all sorts were fitted onto the Sherman's versatile, reliable chassis, making it the workhorse of the Anglo-American armies of World War II.

 

sumber:ww2incolor.com

Me 262

The Me 262 was literally years ahead of fighters of other nations. That’s what the Allied engineers concluded after the war, when Me 264 units captured in Germany were brought back in their home countries. Studying the airframe and engines of this one-of-a-kind aircraft, the American, Russian and British experts developed more advanced jet engines and airframes, so that pilots could finally break the sound barrier over the ensuing years.
Hitler wanted this military aircraft to be a bomber, so it first went to combat as such. With limited load capacity, the Messerschmitt 262 had little impact on the advancing Allied divisions. Had it been used properly from the start (i.e. as a fighter), it might well have swept Allied bombers from the skies. The Me 262 really gave the German pilots and edge over the Allied since there was no equal airplane for them to fly.
From March 1944 to April 1945 (fall of the Third Reich), 1,433 Me 262 were produced.

Type:	Fighter and bomber
Engine:	2 Junkers Jumo 004B jet engines
Max speed:	870 Km/h (540 mph)
Rate of climb:	1 200 m/min (3940 ft./min.)
Ceiling:	11 450 m (37,500 ft.)
Range:	1 050 Km (650 mi.) at 9 000 m (30,000 ft.)
Weight (empty):	3 800 Kg (8,738 lb.)
Weight (loaded):	6 400 Kg (14,110 lb.)
Wingspan:	12,5 m (40 ft. 11 in.)
Length:	10,6 m (34 ft. 9 in.)
Height:	3,83 m (12 ft. 7in.)
Armament:	Four 30-mm Rheinmetall-Borsig MK 108 cannon mounted in nose; twelve R4M air-to-air rockets; two 226-kg (500-lb.) bombs or one 452-kg (1,000-lb) bomb

sumber:world-war-2-planes.com

Bf 109

As much as the Spitfire, the Bf 109 is one of the emblematic airplanes of World War 2 military aviation. This aircraft was the most common fighter of the Luftwaffe during the conflict. Light, fast and tough, this airplane will be remembered as one of the greatest prop interceptor ever built.

The Bf 109 prototype took off in September, 1935. It was the first airplane used in combat during the Civil War in Spain in 1937, with German pilots enrolled in the Condor legion. This allowed the German to test the aircraft possibilities, and so they were well prepared in 1939 at the outbreak of the Second World War.
In 1940, during the Battle of Britain, Bf 109s were used to escort German bombers. The German airplane was more agile than the British Hurricane but less than the Spitfire; this explains why in the end the British aviation prevailed.
Almost 35,000 units of the Bf 109 different versions were built, in Germany or other countries.

Type:	Fighter
Engine:	Daimler-Benz 604 A1 dev. 1 475 hp
Max speed:	553 Km/h (342 mph)
Ceiling:	10 500 m (34,450 ft.)
Range:	660 Km (410 mi.)
Weight (empty):	2 600 kg (5,900 lb.)
Weight (loaded):	3 400 Kg (7,500 lb.)
Wingspan:	9,86 m (32'4")
Length:	8,64 m (28'4")
Height:	2,50 m (8’3”)
Armament:	One engine mounted 20-mm cannon and four 7,7-mm machine guns.

sumber: world-war-2-planes.com

P-51 Mustang

The North American P-51 Mustang is a legendary plane, as much as the Spitfire or the Bf-109. No other combat aircraft of the war could go as far and fly as high as the Mustang. No wonder it was used to escort bombers over Germany and clear the skies of Luftwaffe airplanes.

Germany was far, too far for the Allied interceptors that had to go back too early, leaving the bombers to the Luftwaffe aircrafts. In 1944, the introduction
of the P-51 was a huge relief for the crews of Allied bombers. Very fast, with excellent handling and armament, the Mustang outclassed most German and Japanese airplanes, except the Focke-Wulf Fw-190D as a fighter interceptor (with its jet engines, the Messerschmidt 262 was a technical marvel ahead of its time, but still needed to be tested – many of them were shot down by P-51 Mustang pilots).

With the B-29 and the F4U Corsair, the P-51 is certainly one of the greatest United States' technical achievements of the Second World War and one of the best piston engine figther aircraft ever designed. It will be remembered as the airplane that allowed the Allied Forces to penetrate deep into Germany skies without being overwhelmed by enemy fighter aircrafts.

Type:	Fighter
Powerplant:	Rolls Royce (Packard) Merlin V-1650
Max speed:	437 mph (703 km/hr)
Ceiling:	41900 ft (12770 m)
Range:	1000 miles (1610 km)
Weight (empty):	7000 lbs (3175 kg)
Max. T/O:	12100 lbs (5487 kg)
Wingspan:	37' (11.30 m)
Length:	32' 3" (9.80 m)
Height:	13' 8" (4.17 m)
Armament:	Six .50-cal. machine guns

sumber:world-war-2-planes.com

Fw-190

Admittedly, the Fw 190 is the best World War 2 German fighter plane. It was intended to replace the Messerschmitt Bf 109. When it first entered battle, during the summer of 1941, it would outclass the British Spitfire Mk.V. The threat was countered with the introduction of the Spitfire Mk.IX and the Typhoon.

The early versions of the Fw 190 would use the BMW 801as a powerplant. This was the first German radial engine to be used in a fighter. The engine showed a tendency to overheating – the cockpit temperature would sometimes exceed 50 °C. But the plane was the fastest and could turn on a dime, making it the most dangerous fighter when it appeared.

The design of this military aircraft also made it a good fit for ground attack, and it was used as such on the East front and in North Africa. From 1942 on, it also was the most extensively used fighter plane to intercept allied bombers flying over Germany and occupied european countries.

In 1943, the radial engines were replaced with piston engines that were more powerful. This made the fuselage longer, hence the nickname "Long Nose" given to the new Fw 190s by the Allies. These new engines rendered the aircraft even more performing. This version’s cockpit was pressurized.

The latest versions of the Fw 190 could reach 755 Km/h (472 mph). 

Type:	Single-seat fighter / interceptor
Engine:	1,600hp BMW 801C-1, 14-cylinder air-cooled radial or 1,700hp Junkers Jumo 213A-1, V12 liquid-cooled
Max speed:	684 km/h (425 mph)
Ceiling:	10 300 m (33,800 ft.)
Range:	800 km (500 mi.)
Weight (empty):	3 470 kg (7,650 lb.)
Weight(loaded):	4 900 kg (10,800 lb.)
Wingspan:	8,96 m (29 ft. 5 in.)
Lenght:	9,12 m (29 ft. 11 in.)
Height:	3,96 m (13 ft.)
Armament:	Four 7.92mm machine guns or two 20 mm cannon + two 7.92 mm machine guns; up to 500 kg (1000 lb.) of bom

sumber: world-war-2-planes.com

THE BIG BROTHER

Boeing B-29 Superfortress

3,895 planes produced, entered service 1944.

B-29 specs: top speed 365 MPH, 12 machine guns, max. bomb load 20,000 lbs.

What was the most expensive military project of World War Two? ... It wasn't the atom bomb (the Manhattan Project). It was the Boeing B-29 Superfortress. Cost? $3 billion, the most expensive weapon of World War II. Only used in the Pacific, to rain both conventional and atomic destruction on Japan's cities, the B-29 surely justified the cost of its development.

Development

As early as 1934, Boeing began working on several prototypes (Model 322, 333A, 333B, 334A, and 341) with features that ultimately came together in the B-29, among them: a pressurized cabin, tricycle landing gear, long range under heavy bomb loads, etc.. As the war in Europe boiled, the Army issued a specification for the Very Long Range (VLR) "superbomber" in January 1940. It called for a speed of 400 MPH, a 5333 mile range, and a bomb load of 2000 pounds delivered at 2666 miles. With the work it had been doing, Boeing was at an advantage over the other competitors: Consolidated, Douglas, and Lockheed.
Even before the prototype was built, the Army ordered a second one, and then in the wake of Pearl Harbor, ordered a thousand more. Boeing dedicated its Renton factory to the B-29; the Glenn Martin Company started production in Omaha.

Model 345

To meet the specs of the VLR bomber noted above, Boeing designed the Model 345 - a four engine bomber with tricycle landing gear (folding into the huge engine nacelles), five gun turrets, and weighing almost 100,000 pounds. Submitted in May, 1940, the Model 345 won an Army to develop it into the XB-29 prototype. . By August, Douglas and Lockheed had dropped out, and the Army issued a contract to Consolidated for the XB-32, as a backup to Boeing's favored XB-29.
During 1941, the Army increased its order, from three prototypes, to fourteen, then 250, and then (after Pearl Harbor) 1500. All before the first prototype had flown! With the country on a wartime footing, three other factories were drawn into B-29 production (in addition to Boeing's own Wichita, Kansas plant): Bell Aircraft's factory in Marietta, Georgia; Glenn Martin in Omaha; Boeing-Renton, and GM's Fisher Body plant in Cleveland.

XB-29 Prototype

The XB-29 had wings that were as small as possible, with large radial engines outside them. While crew space fore and aft had to be pressurized, the bomb bays (with their huge doors) could not be. To deal with this problem, Boeing linked the front and rear pressurized sections with a sealed tunnel. The relatively small wings meant low drag but also very high wing-loading, double the desirable limit of 1940. Four Wright Cyclone 3350 engines with two turbosuperchargers each were able to handle the challenge. Problems like preventing guns and propeller mechanisms from freezing at high altitudes abounded.
A very strong ring section connected the two wings and separated the two bomb bays.
At altitudes of 30,000 feet, manned gun turrets were impractical and Sperry developed retractable, periscopically directed, electrically powered turrets for the B-29. The normal crew of twelve included a pilot, co-pilot, bombardier, navigator, flight engineer, radio operator, radar operator, and five gunners. The first seven guys occupied the forward pressurized cabin. Four gunners were in the rear cabin, and the poor tail gunner was trapped in his own little pressurized pocket in the tail for the duration of the flight.
Boeing test pilot Edmund T. "Eddie" Allen made the first XB-29 flight in September, 1942. In the next few months, the engines' tendency to catch fire severely limited test flight time. In 23 test flights, they went through 16 engines, in only 27 hours of flight time. Under the urgent demands of war, a second prototype rolled out in December, 1942, and the project moved forward, unslowed even by the death of Eddie Allen and 30 others in a February crash.

YB-29

By mid-1943, the Wichita plant started to deliver the fourteen YB-29 service test aircraft to the 58th Bomb Wing. In the YB-29's, Sperry's turrets were replaced by non-retractable GE types, operated with computerized gunsights. The GE turrets could be operated with on eless gunner, but their demands for electrical power increased the weight of the aircraft to 105,000 pounds.

B-29

Two-thirds of the Superfortresses built were B-29's, with no letter suffix, just B-29. 2,513 of this variant were built: 1620 by Boeing-Wichita, 536 by Martin-Omaha, and 357 by Bell-Marietta.
Powered by four 2200 hp Wright R-3350-23 radial engines driving 16-foot, 7-inch four-bladed propellers, the B-29 could cruise at 342 MPH at 30,000 feet. Over long distances, its economical cruising speed was 220 MPH at 25,000 feet. In September, 1943, the first B-29's rolled off the assembly line at Wichita, followed by deliveries from the other plants over the next several months. A few early B-29's were camouflage painted; the rest were left in natural metal finish. Thirty fuel tanks (in the wings and the bomb bay) carried over 9400 gallons of gasoline. Radar-assisted navigation and bombing sets helped the Superforts get to their targets and drop their bombs accurately.
Like most other bombers, the B-29's development was marked by an increase in defensive firepower, particularly from frontal attacks. In the B-29's case, the forward dorsal turret machine guns were increased from two to four. However, in the tail, the original 20mm cannon was removed, because its shells' trajectory was so different from the 50 caliber machine guns' that it made aiming difficult.

Bombing Japan

After the Casablanca Conference in early 1943, President Roosevelt committed the United States to a heavy bombing campaign against Japan, at the earliest possible date. The B-29 was the only bomber with the range and payload needed; thus Roosevelt constantly hammered General Hap Arnold to deliver the big bomber. As plans for Operation Matterhorn took shape, they envisaged basing the B-29's in eastern India, flying them over "the Hump," staging/refueling at Chengtu in central China, and then bombing Japanese cities.
But the bombers weren't ready, not in January, 1994 as Roosevelt had hoped. Training the crews in the complex new aircraft proved to be a major challenge. By the beginning of 1944, only 73 pilots had qualified for the B-29, and although 97 B-29s had been produced, only 16 were combat ready. Engine fires continued to be a problem and the radar equipment proved to be very touchy. While the USAAF had set up the XX Bomber Command to take over the B-29 program, by early, 1944 it was still a shambles, with most planes stuck at the modification centers. In March, Major General B.E. Meyer was appointed to head up the modification program, and thus commenced "the Battle of Kansas." Mobilizing the vast industrial resources of the United States, workers were brought in to work round the clock, outdoors in the freezing Kansas winter weather if necessary, to get some B-29's delivered. By mid April, they had turned over 150.
In April, 1944, B-29's began arriving at their bases in Bengal, India: Kharagpur, Chakulia, Piardoba, and Dudkhundi. At the same time, the 20th Air Force, an independent command, was established, largely to prevent local commanders like Stilwell and Chennault from diverting the B-29's away from their primary mission - bombing Japan. Engines continued to overheat and catch fire, a tendency exacerbated by the 115 degree heat of India. The engineers designed new baffles and cowl flaps to direct cooling air onto the overheated rear cylinders. In early April, the B-29's were blooded when six Ki-43 Hayabusa fighters jumped some that were flying fuel into Chengtu. By May, 130 Superfortresses had reached India and the staging bases near Chengtu, China were usable, if barely so. But forwarding the needed fuel and bombs to Chengtu over "the Hump" was hazardous and inefficient.

The Yawata Mission

On June 5, the Superforts made their first bombing attack, against the rail yards at Bangkok. Balky engines and bad weather conspired to cripple the mission. Only eighteen bombs hit the target. Not a good start.
Washington continued to pressure General Wolfe, CO of XX Bomber Command, to attack Japan itself by the middle of the month. On the night of June 14-15, ninety-two B-29's took off from staging bases in China, to strike at the Imperial Iron and Steel Works at Yawata on Kyushu - a vital target that turned out a quarter of Japan's rolled steel. The diminishing number of bombers at each stage of the mission illustrates the problems inherent in Operation Matterhorn:

• 92 bombers left India.
• 79 reached the staging bases in China.
• 75 took off from the bases.
• 68 left China, the others aborted after take-off.
• 47 reached the target at Yawata.
• 15 bombed visually; 32 bombed by radar due to the weather.
• One bomb hit the target!

Despite the failure of the raid in material damage, the press hailed it as a great victory; it was the first American bombing raid to hit Japan since the Doolittle Raid in April, 1942.
The Matterhorn raids continued. Eighteen bombers hit Japanes cities on July 7. Two days later, 72 Superforts were launched against a steel plant in Manchuria. More ineffective raids were staged in August.
General Curtis LeMay, only 38 years old, arrived on August 29, to head up XX Bomber Command. A cigar-chomping tough guy, LeMay shook things up. He increased training and mission frequency; he re-organized the flights into 12-plane boxes; he introduced the 'lead bomber' concept; and he re-organized the Bomb Groups. Raids continued through the fall, hampered by supply problems and more effective Japanese air defenses. By the end of 1944, 147 Superfortresses had been lost to enemy guns and to accidents. Operation Matterhorn wasn't working and it was phased out.

From the Marianas

U.S. military planners had realized quite early that the Marianas (Saipan, Tinian, and Guam), located about 1500 south of Tokyo would be useful bases from which to launch B-29 attacks against Japan. In the summer of 1944, the Marianas were secured and airfields were quickly built. XXI Bomber Command was organized for the Marianas B-29 operations. After the planes were brought in, the crews trained, and some preliminary raids, 111 Superforts bombed the Nakajima Aircraft Company's Musashi engine plant near Tokyo on November 20, 1944. Largely ineffective raids continued against the Musashi plant and the Mitsubishi engine plant at Nagoya through the end of the year.

Once again the Joint Chiefs called in Curtis LeMay to take over. He had analyzed the Japanese economy and focused on its dependence on small cottage industries spread throughout the large cities. Since the previous afforts at high-level precision, daylight bombing of specific targets had failed, LeMay instead proposed to burn out the Japanese cities entirely, destroying the critical industries (and the civilian population) in the process. (Not exactly the way we wage war now, where every errant bomb that hits an Afghan camel must be accounted for.)
LeMay developed a radically different approach. First, the bombers would carry incendiary, rather than high explosive, bombs. To save fuel and maximize the bomb load, the guns were stripped out, the Superforts would fly at 5,000 (instead of 30,000) feet, and each plane would fly directly to the target (no more circling and joining up in formation). These allowed each Superfort to carry about seven tons of M69 incendiary bombs. Lastly, they would go at night, since precision was no longer required and because Japanese night fighter forces were not very good.
The results were devastating. On the night of March 9-10, 279 B-29's bombed Tokyo. A huge firestorm resulted, sixteen square miles of Tokyo were reduced to ashes and 84,000 Japanese were killed. In the next week, similar, but less destructive, results were obtained in Nagoya, Osaka, and Kobe. Only twenty B-29s were lost. XXI Bomber Command exhausted its supply of incendiaries for a while, but when resupplied in April continued the terrible raids with awesome fury. The industrial areas of Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Kawasaki, Kobe, and Yokohama were reduced to ashes. The aircraft engine factories (or their general areas) were hit again with incendiary bombing. By mid-April, Japanese aircraft engine manufacturing capability had been wiped out. The incendiary raids continued through June, reducing Japans' six largest cities to ashes. Kobe was so thoroughly gutted that it was removed from the target list. B-29 Hunters of the JAAF (Osprey Aviation Elite 5) by Koji Takaki, Henry Sakaida
More B-29's arrived in the Marianas, including those from the former XX Bomber Command and some B-29B's, specifically lightened for nighttime pathfinding. The Superfortress missions expanded to include mining the Inland Sea and firebombing 58 smaller cities. The Japanese fighter forces had been routed. Almost unopposed, the B-29's began dropping leaflets three days in advance of their incendiary raids, advising inhabitants of their city's impending destruction.

The Atomic Bomb

Long before the incendiary raids began to devastate Japan, the United States had been developing the atomic bomb. The Manhattan Project, in highest secrecy during 1943 and 1944, built two such bombs, a plutonium bomb dubbed "Fat Man," and a uranium bomb, "Little Boy." The 509th Composite Group was charged with delivering the new bombs, in specially modified B-29's, each capable of carrying and releasing a 10,000 pound atomic bomb. Commanded by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, Jr., the men of the 509th knew nothing of their proposed mission. Nonetheless, they trained for their secret mission at Wendover, Utah before shipping out to Tinian, where they endured a lot of ribbing from guys in other units, "Oh, yeah, the 509th is gonna win the war."
After the first successful test of an atomic bomb on July 16, 1945 at Alamogordo, New Mexico, planning accelerated, and the Allies were informed, although Soviet spies had already kept Stalin fully apprised of developments. On July 26th, the Potsdam Declaration, an ultimatum which promised prompt and utter destruction, was issued to the Japanese. Well aware of the huge casualties that the Allies would incur in an invasion of Japan and determined to shorten the war, President Truman gave General Carl Spaatz the go-ahead to drop the atomic bomb. "Fat Man" and "Little Boy" were delivered to Tinian by USS Indianapolis and by C-54 transport planes. On August 6, 1945, the Enola Gay dropped "Little Boy" on Hiroshima. 75,000 people died and almost 50,000 buildings were destroyed. (Read more about Tibbets, the Enola Gay, and this mission.)
The Allies had expected, or perhaps hoped, that Japan would surrender after suffering the effects of an atomic bomb. But the Japanese government could not commit itself to surrender so quickly. In part they did not understand what had happened; in Tokyo all that was immediately certain was that all communications with Hiroshima had stopped. While the Japanes cabinet debated, conventional B-29 raids continued, in ever increasing force. Three days later, with no response from the Japanese, we dropped "Fat Man" on Nagasaki. (Personally, I try to avoid second guessing, and I am convinced that dropping the atomic bomb was the right decision, and that it ultimately saved both American and Japanese lives. But I do wonder if we should have let a few more days pass before dropping that second one. I guess by August of 1945, we were tired of war.)
But it worked. That day the Soviets declared war on Japan and invaded Manchuria. The Emperor ordered the government to surrender. He broadcast word of the surrender to the Japanese people on August 15, and it was signed on the decks of the USS Missouri on September 2, 1945.
The B-29's last missions of the war consisted of mercy food drops to POW camps.

Soviet Tu-4

In late 1944, three B-29's had to land in Vladivostok. At the time the Soviet Union was not at war with Japan. The crews were briefly interned, and then permitted to "escape." But the B-29's stayed behind.
In 1947, at a parade in Moscow, the Tu-4 flew over; it was an exact replica of the B-29. In the early years of the Cold War, the Tu-4 gave the American military planners fits, because it was the first Soviet airplane with the capability to drop nuclear bombs on the Unied States.

The Korean War

Within days of North Korea's invasion of the south on June 25, 1950, Superfortresses were attacking Communist troops, tanks, trucks, and other tactical targets. By August, with the war going badly, they were okayed for raids against strategic targets in the north: bridges, rail yards, and factories. After the Inchon landings in September, the B-29's turned again to tactical missions, because UN forces controlled most of North Korea.
The massive Chinese intervention across the Yalu in November changed the war again. As they pushed the UN armies back below the 38th parallel, the B-29's again went after troop concentrations. And Chinese intervention also brought the MiG-15 jet fighter into the conflict; now the B-29's were confronted by an extremely capable interceptor. In early 1951, B-29 losses to the MiGs increased, despite F-80 and F-84 escorts and high altitudes. Eventually, the Superfortresss were limited to night bombing missions, which kept their losses down.
B-29 gunners were credited with downing 27 MiGs, making the aircraft the second-highest scoring aircraft, after the F-86 Sabre. One B-29, Command Decision, shot down five MiGs, making the aircraft an ace of sorts.

Surviving B-29 Aircraft

Relatively few B-29's survive today, in part because (unlike the B-17) they were not declared war surplus after WWII.
Serial number - comment
42-6376 - to storage at Davis Monthan 6/27/49
42-65281, Miss America '62 - at Travis AFB Museum, CA
42-27297, Bock's Car - the Nagasaki bomber, now on display at WPAFB Museum, OH
44-27343 - at Tinker AFB Air Park, OK
44-61975 - at New England Air Museum
44-69729 - on display at Seattle Museum of Flight, WA
44-69972 - stored on range at Naval Air Warfare Center, China Lake, CA, moved to United States Air Museum, Inyokern, CA and is under restoration
44-70016 - at Pima Air Museum, Tucson, AZ
44-70064 - on display at Castle AFB Museum, plane is actually made up of three derelict targets from China Lake
44-84076 - on display at SAC Museum, Offutt AFB, NE
44-86292, Enola Gay - dropped atomic bomb on Hiroshima
44-86408 - used to collect radioactive samples during postwar atomic tests, now on display at Hill AFB Museum
44-87779 - at South Dakota Air and Space Museum, Ellsworth AFB
45-21763, Kee Bird - abandoned after landing frozen lake in Greenland, during to recover, caught fire and burned May 21, 1995. Check out PBS Nova episode about the efforts to recover Kee Bird.
45-21787, Fertile Myrtle - used as carrier aircraft for D-558-II, registered as NACA 137, now with Weeks Air Museum, Miami, FL
45-21800 - used as "mothership" for X-1 trials
45-21801 - used by NACA between 1945 and 1955