Rockets in SC2

[Edwin P.]

Rockets were one of the most underutilized units in Sc1 in addition to bombers.

Against human players I would never use them.

Any comments on their use and combat stats in SC2?

[JerseyJohn]

My opinion, without the ability to carry an extremely large explosive (much larger than what the V-2s had) they were a pretty poor weapon.

Yes, in 1944 they gave a good scare to London and killed a lot of people, giving them a certain effectiveness for terror purposes, but as an actual weapon they were next to useless.

Flip side:

1) Germany was pioneering smart bomb technology in 1943, this might have made a difference if V1s (buzz bombs) had been fitted with a transmitting camera and made capable of hitting specific targets, such as ships in harbor. But this didn't happen.

Two attempts were made, an Italian BB was hit, becoming the first ship in history to be hit by a smart bomb (I don't think it was sunk) and an American ship subsequently attacked near Naples. The Americans began jamming the radio frequencies almost immediately and the remote sight weapon was never again used. In both cases I believe the rocket was launched from an aircraft.

2) The rockes actually fired were often faulty, sabotaged by slave laborers. Many of those that got through were improperly reported to Germany by agents who'd been caught and turned. So, the next rocket went out with incorrect coordinates and would come down in an empty field or wooded area. Perhaps with accurate spotting the results would have been more effective (as it was, they did do quite a bit of damage and killing, but it was totally random).

3) The Big If. What if Germany had been able to fire waves of V-2s at the UK much earlier in the war, perhaps even before the U. S. entry, would have been the deciding influence on UK's accepting a peace treaty? It's one thing to be bombed and know the enemy is losing aircraft in the act of attacking you, but another to just have a high altitude rocket come literally crashing down on you without warning. And knowing that you're only a target, this was very nerve wracking for the Britons and at one point there was even discussion of evacuating London, something that had never even been considered during the worst days of the Blitz.

4) After 1943, Hitler tied rocket research in with his dreams of possessing a nuclear weapon.

-- Buzz Bombs, V-1, are practically a different category. I think they also had some usefullness, but were wasted when the Germans sent them in the same path across the English Channel, to be targetted by concentrated AA batteries and fighter planes. As in the case with V-2s, the destruction was always random and not very effective in terms of a non-terror weapon.

[ December 11, 2005, 09:22 AM: Message edited by: JerseyJohn ]

[Retributar]

EXACTACALLY JerseyJohn

[JerseyJohn]

Thanks, Retributar, glad we agree.

[John DiFool the 2nd]

The Germans did sink the Italian BB Roma with one of

those glide bombs, after she defected to the Allies.

[JerseyJohn]

Thanks for the inof, John. That was her newest BB, I believe, 40,000 ton class with 8 or 9x15" main guns, so that first smart rocket was obvious a serious weapon when it actually hit a target.

[Mr.Dozer]

i read somewere, please correct me if wrong. scientists asked hitler about nukes that they would have completed research by 1945. but hitler refused the idea because he said that by that time they would have won or lost the war.

:confused:

[JerseyJohn]

Hitler said that about a lot of weapons. There's a lot of fuzziness about Germany's A-Bomb program. We've had several very good threads on it in the original SC Forum and one or two on Werner Heisenberg as well.

From what I've read, the German physicists didn't think Germany had the resources to develop an A-bomb and didn't push the program very seriously. Heisenberg implied that he deliberately undermined his own program and pretty much talked Hitler out of making it a top priority.

I won't go any further because I'm sure there are dozens of members who understand all of this much better than I do. Hopefully one or more of them will add their thoughts on the subject.

[Mr.Dozer]

thanks for the response. it amazes me how in school you learn this basic stuff like everyone else and they use that to base everything on, then you do some reading and are like wow i never imagined them doing that or this for either side.