Engineering skills

[happy daze john in oz]

Here on our TV over the last few Sundays there has been a program about Hitler.
Whilst it included much of the war it also showed mush of his early life.
He has been declared by some as the worlds most hated person, though there may well be some who would say there have been others as bad.

But the last two episodes have been of interest.
They concentrated on German technology at the time of WW2.

The worlds first intercontinental ballistic missile, though primitive by todays standard, was developed. the V1 and V 2 rockets.
They developed the first 100 ton tank, the largest submarine though there was nothing shown of it ever at sea.
Had the war continued they would have had a jet fighter, tests had been conducted on such an aircraft.

It was Sir Frank Whittle who developed the British one than became the forerunner of the modern jet.

Today Germany is renowned for it's engineering skills which many consider to be the best there are.

Germany has just won a contract, ahead of BAE, to produce here in Oz armed personnel carriers, apparently their concept was far ahead of the BAE one.

Many of us have no time for the German gov and maybe to some extent the people, but one has to admire their engineering skills and designs.

If I have offended any by the name of the man then I apologize in advance.

[robpage]

you cannot fault German engineering quality and ability to deliver on time

[j.sabourn]

#1 can’t remember the actual figure John, but when I did the MN Defence course during the Cuban crisis in about 1962. It was stated that Germany never had more than some figure like 38 operational submarines at sea at the one time. If they had concentrated on building the Uboat rather than the capital ships maybe we wouldn’t be sitting here now. By the same token at that specific moment in 1962,Russia had over 600 submarines. That is now over 50 years ago. The first blunder that Hitler made, the next was on his invasion of Russia, and spending too much time in subdueing the Ukraine. Which Russia has always considered as part of the USSR. Regardless of recent reports to the contrary about the conflict in that country. Wasn’t Napoleon and Hitler both originally corporals in different armies, anyhow both made the same mistake of attempting to invade Russia. You could also say they were really foreigners also, Hitler being Austrian ( nearly said Australian there, ) and Napoleon being Corsican.sorry I missed that program. Cheers JWS.

[Ivan Cloherty]

you cannot fault German engineering quality and ability to deliver on time

I have found them to be perfect in factory conditions or following manuals, but working in field operations in Africa where improvisation is order of the day when spares are not available leaves them a little bit lacking in the 'get it going no matter what it takes' operations

[cappy]

##welcome back ivan hope you had a good break .....cappy

[Ivan Cloherty]

##welcome back ivan hope you had a good break .....cappy

Thanks Cappy, even the Canaries got battered by the Beast from the East together with Emma from the South, airports closed many times, lower roads around Mount Teide closed because of excessive snow, last two weeks were much improved, but all the time was enjoyed thanks

[vic mcclymont]

Except Rob, for exhaust gas emissions.
Vic

[robpage]

I have found them to be perfect in factory conditions or following manuals, but working in field operations in Africa where improvisation is order of the day when spares are not available leaves them a little bit lacking in the 'get it going no matter what it takes' operations

They aren't good at improvisation at all Ivan and if you change the slightest thing on them at totally throws them as long as you order something that is standard and have it delivered when they tell you they can deliver it there is never any problems but if you want an extra widget or you want the colour change to a different colour that's when you get the problems with them

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Except Rob, for exhaust gas emissions.
Vic

I have a 2 l diesel Audi and I have had the engine tweet by Volkswagen to be perfectly honest I think again a lot of this talk about Volkswagen juggling the figures seem to be the precursor to a class action in the USA