Question: What is Germany's greatest weapon?

Wunderwaffe


Wunderwaffe (German pronunciation:[ˈvʊndɐˌvafə]) is German for "Miracle Weapon" and was a term assigned during World War II by the Nazi Germany propaganda ministry to some revolutionary "superweapons". Most of these weapons however remained prototypes, which either never reached the combat theater, or if they did, were too late or in too insignificant numbers to have a military effect.[1]
The V-weapons, which were developed earlier and saw considerable deployment, especially against London and Antwerp, trace back to the same pool of highly inventive armament concepts. Therefore, they are also included here.
As the war situation worsened for Germany from 1942, claims about the development of revolutionary new weapons which could turn the tide became an increasingly prominent part of the propaganda directed at Germans by their government.[2] In reality, the advanced weapons under development generally required lengthy periods of design work and testing, and there was no realistic prospect of the German military being able to field them before the end of the war. When some advanced designs, such as the Panther tank and Type XXI submarine, were rushed into production their performance proved disappointing to the German military and leadership due to inadequate pre-production testing or poorly planned construction processes.[3] However, a few of these weapons proved to be successful and have had a large influence in post war designs, such as the StG 44 assault rifle and the V-2 rocket.
In the German language the term Wunderwaffe generally refers to a universal solution which solves all problems related to a particular issue, mostly used ironically for its illusionary nature.
Naval vessels
Aircraft carriers
Graf Zeppelin – a 33,550 ton aircraft carrier laid down in 1936; never completed.
Flugzeugträger B – planned sister ship to the Graf Zeppelin; scrapped before launching.
I(1942) – a planned 56,500 ton aircraft carrier, converted from a transport; cancelled before work started.
Battleships
H-class battleship – a series of proposals for battleships surpassing both the U. S. Navy's Montana-class battleships and the Imperial Japanese Navy's Yamato-class battleships in armament, culminating in the H-44, a 140,000 ton battleship with eight 20 inch guns. Two H39-class hulls  only laid down; scrapped on slipways
U-boats
Oceangoing U-boats
Rocket U-boat – a planned ballistic missile submarine; project abandoned
Type XVIII U-boat – a U-boat designed to use air-independent propulsion; several were under construction when the war ended
Type XXI U-boat "Elektroboot" (Electric boat) – the first U-boat designed to operate completely submerged, 118 were built but only 4 were completed
Type XXIV U-boat – a planned U-boat designed to use air-independent propulsion
Type XXVI U-boat – a U-boat designed to use air-independent propulsion; several were under construction when the war ended
Littoral U-boats
Type XXII U-boat – a U-boat designed to use air-independent propulsion; two were under construction
Type XXIII U-boat ("Elektroboot") – a U-boat designed for littoral missions; 67 were built
Type XXV U-boat – a planned all-electric U-boat designed for littoral missions
U-Cruisers
Type XI – a U-boat designed to carry the Arado Ar 231 collapsible floatplane and have 128mm turrets; four were laid down but canceled at the outbreak of World War II
Armoured vehicles
Anti-aircraft weapons
Flakpanzer IV "Kugelblitz" (Ball Lightning) – a Panzer IV-based self-propelled anti-aircraft gun
Anti-tank weapons
Sturer Emil ("Stubborn Emil") – an experimental Panzerjäger style, open-topped tank destroyer armed with a Rheinmetall 12.8cm K L/61 gun, 2 prototypes built for tests.
Heavy Tanks
Tiger I
Tiger II
Super-heavy tanks
Landkreuzer P. 100 "Ratte" (Rat) – a planned super-heavy tank, weighing 1000 tonnes and armed with two 280mm cannons, one 128mm anti-tank gun, 8 20mm flak guns and 2 15mm heavy machine guns; cancelled in early 1943
Panzer VII "Löwe" (Lion) – a planned super-heavy tank, weighing 90 tonnes and armed with a 105mm cannon; cancelled in March 1942 in favor of the Panzer VIII Maus
Panzer VIII "Maus" (Mouse) – a super-heavy tank, weighing 180 tonnes and armed with two cannons of 128mm and 75mm calibre; five were ordered but only two operable prototypes completed
Panzerkampfwagen E-100 – a planned super-heavy tank, weighing 140 tonnes and armed with either 128 or 150mm cannon, one prototype hull nearly completed, the hull was later captured and evaluated by the British before being scrapped in the 1950s
Reconnaissance tanks
Kugelpanzer (ball tank), a prototype spherical reconnaissance/cable-laying tank with a mysterious history. Sent to Japan and captured by the Soviets in 1945. Currently on display at the Kubinka Tank Museum.
Gliders
Junkers Ju 322 "Mammut" (Mammoth) – a flying wing heavy transport glider, the losing competitor to the winning Messerschmitt Me 321 giant cargo/personnel glider.
Piston engine aircraft
Dornier Do-335 – a heavy fighter with the push-pull configuration
Focke-Achgelis Fa 269 – a planned tilt-rotor VTOL fighter
Focke-Wulf Ta 152 – a high-altitude interceptor
Focke-Wulf Ta 400 – a planned Amerika Bomber candidate with six radial engines and two jet engines with a range of 13,000km in bomber configuration
Heinkel He 111Z – a five engined Zwilling (twin fuselage) aircraft created by combining two He 111s and designed to tow large gliders
Heinkel He 274 – a high altitude heavy bomber with four in-line engines with a range of 3,440km, two completed by France after the war
Heinkel He 277 – a planned, advanced long-range bomber design, designated by RLM by February 1943, inheriting many He 219 prototype design features during its evolution but never built as a complete aircraft, evolved to be an Amerika Bomber candidate, to be powered with four BMW 801 radial engines and up to 11,000km range
Junkers Ju 390 – an Amerika Bomber candidate with six radial engines with a range of 9,700km, two airworthy prototypes built and flown
Junkers Ju 488 – a heavy bomber with four radial engines with a range of 3,395km
Messerschmitt Me 264 – an Amerika Bomber candidate with four inline or radial engines and a range of 15,000km, three airworthy prototypes built and flown
Messerschmitt Me 323 "Gigant" (Giant) – a heavy transport with six engines
Jets and rocket-propelled aircraft
Arado Ar 234 – the first operational turbojet bomber and reconnaissance aircraft
Arado E.555 – a planned jet-powered Amerika bomber
Arado E.560 – a series of tactical bomber projects
Bachem Ba 349 "Natter" (Adder) – a rocket-powered vertical takeoff interceptor
Blohm & Voss P 178 – a turbojet dive bomber
DFS 194 – a rocket-powered experimental aircraft
DFS 228 – a rocket-powered high altitude reconnaissance aircraft
DFS 346 – a rocket-powered research aircraft
Fieseler Fi 103R "Reichenberg" – a manned version of the V-1 flying bomb
Focke-Wulf "Triebflügel" (Powered Wings) – a planned tip jet rotorcraft, tailsitter interceptor
Focke-Wulf Ta 183 "Huckebein" – a planned swept wing turbojet fighter
Focke-Wulf Ta 283 – a planned swept wing ramjet and rocket-powered fighter
Heinkel He 162 Spatz – Winner of the Volksjäger (People's Fighter) design competition for a single engined turbojet fighter
Heinkel He 176 – the world's first liquid-fueled rocket-powered experimental aircraft
Heinkel He 178 – the world's first experimental turbojet aircraft to fly
Heinkel He 280 – the first turbojet fighter design, prototypes only
Heinkel He 343 – a planned four engined jet bomber based on and marginally enlarged from the Arado Ar 234's general design
Henschel Hs 132 – a planned turbojet dive bomber and interceptor
Horten Ho 229 – a turbojet flying wing jet fighter/bomber
Horten H.XVIII – a planned flying wing jet bomber based on the Horten Ho 229
Junkers EF 128 – a planned turbojet fighter
Junkers EF 132 – a planned turbojet bomber
Junkers Ju 287 – a forward-swept wing turbojet bomber
Lippisch P.13a – a planned supersonic ramjet delta wing interceptor
Lippisch P.13b – a planned ramjet delta wing interceptor developed from the Lippisch P.13a
Messerschmitt Bf 109TL – a turbojet fighter designed as an alternate/back-up for the Me 262
Messerschmitt Me 163 "Komet" (Comet) – the first and only operational rocket-powered fighter
Messerschmitt Me 262 "Schwalbe" (Swallow) – the first operational turbojet fighter/bomber
Messerschmitt Me 263 – a rocket-powered fighter developed from the Me 163
Messerschmitt P.1101 – a variable-sweep wing turbojet fighter
Messerschmitt P.1106 – a jet fighter based on the Messerschmitt Me P.1101
Skoda-Kauba Sk P.14 – a ramjet-powered emergency fighter
Sombold So 344 – a rocket-powered plane with a detachable explosive nose
Silbervogel (Silverbird) – planned sub-orbital antipodal bomber
Zeppelin Fliegende Panzerfaust – a rocket-powered very-short-range interceptor
Zeppelin Rammer – a rocket-powered ramming interceptor
Helicopters
Flettner Fl 184 – a night reconnaissance and anti-submarine autogyro
Flettner Fl 185 – an experimental helicopter
Flettner Fl 265 – an experimental helicopter, the world's earliest known airworthy synchropter
Flettner Fl 282 "Kolibri" (Hummingbird) – a reconnaissance "synchropter" helicopter
Focke-Achgelis Fa 223 "Drache" (Dragon) – an anti-submarine, search and rescue, reconnaissance, and freight helicopter, based on the prewar Fw 61
Bombs and explosives
German nuclear weapon project
Fritz X, a guided anti-ship glide bomb, the world's first precision guided weapon ever deployed in combat
Artillery
Karl-Gerät, the largest calibre (up to 60cm), self-propelled mortar ever deployed – seven examples built, six seeing combat 1941–45.
Schwerer Gustav (Heavy Gustav) – an 800mm railway gun, the largest artillery piece ever used in warfare
V-3 cannon "Hochdruckpumpe" – "High Pressure Pump", a supergun
Landkreuzer P. 1500 "Monster" – a proposed super-heavy self-propelled gun, weighing 1500 metric tons and armed with the 800mm Schwerer Gustav/Dora gun
Missiles
Aggregate series
A1 – the first German liquid-propellant experimental rocket
A2 – an experimental rocket, gyroscopically stabilized
A3 – an experimental rocket with an inertial guidance system
A4/V-2 – the first ballistic missile and the first human-made object to achieve sub-orbital spaceflight
A4-SLBM – a planned submarine-launched ballistic missile
A4b
A5 – an experimental reusable rocket
A6 – an improved A4b
A7 – an improved A4
A8 – a planned submarine-launched ballistic missile
A9 Amerikarakete – a planned intermediate-range ballistic missile to be used to strike the eastern United States
A10 – a planned lower stage for the A9 to upgrade it to an intercontinental ballistic missile
A11 – a planned satellite launcher
A12 – a planned rocket, capable of putting 10 metric tons into low Earth orbit
Fieseler Fi 103R Reichenberg – a manned "suicide attack" cruise missile
Enzian – a planned surface-to-air missile with infrared guidance
Feuerlilie F-25 "Fire Lilly" – a surface-to-air missile
Feuerlilie F-55 "Fire Lilly" – a two-stage, supersonic surface-to-air missile
V-1 flying bomb/Fieseler Fi 103/Vergeltungswaffe 1 – the first cruise missile
Fliegerfaust "Pilot Fist" or "Plane Fist" / Luftfaust "Air Fist" – the first man-portable air-defense system (MANPADS) anti-aircraft weapons system
Fritz X – an unpowered air-launched, MCLOS-guided anti-ship missile using the FuG 203/230 Kehl-Straßurg control system, the pioneering wartime example of a gravity-type PGM, used from September 1943 through 1944.
Henschel Hs 117 Schmetterling "Butterfly" – a manually guided surface-to-air missile
Henschel Hs 117H – a manually guided air-to-air missile
Henschel Hs 293 – a pioneering MCLOS-guided air-to-ship missile using the Kehl-Straßurg radio link as with the Fritz X, used in combat from 1943–44.
Henschel Hs 294 – an MCLOS-guided air-to-ship missile/torpedo
Henschel Hs 298 – an air-to-air missile
R4M Orkan "Hurricane" – an unguided air-to-air rocket
Rheinbote "Rhine Messenger"- the first short-range ballistic missile
Rheintochter "Rhinedaughter" – a manually guided surface-to-air missile
Ruhrstahl X-4 – a wire-guided. liquid-fueled air-to-air missile intended to be usable with the Ta 183
Taifun "Typhoon" – a planned unguided surface-to-air missile
Wasserfall Ferngelenkte Flakrakete "Waterfall Remote-Controlled A-A Rocket" – a supersonic surface-to-air missile
Werfer-Granate 21 – a heavy-calibre (21cm/8 inch) unguided air-to-air rocket, in use by the summer of 1943
G7es/Zaunkönig T-5 – acoustic homing torpedo used by U-boats
Orbital
Sun gun – a parabolic mirror in orbit designed to focus sunlight onto specific locations on the Earth's surface
Rifles
Jagdfaust – an automatically firing airborne anti-bomber recoilless rifle for use on the Me 163
Mauser MG 213 – a 20 mm aircraft mounted revolver cannon
Mauser MG 213C – a 30 mm aircraft mounted revolver cannon
Fallschirmjägergewehr 42 – an automatic battle rifle developed specifically for the Fallschirmjäger
Sturmgewehr 44 – the first assault rifle
"Krummlauf" – a curved barrel for the StG44
Sturmgewehr 45 – prototype
Mission equipment
Zielgerät 1229 "Vampir" – active infrared night vision gunsight system for the Sturmgewehr 44
FG 1250 Tank Mounted night-vision equipment
Purported
Die Glocke
Directed-energy weapon
Feraliminal Lycanthropizer
Nazi UFOs ("Haunebu" saucers)
See also
Nazi propaganda
German military technology during World War II
Emergency Fighter Program
Panzer VIII Maus
Notes
Citations

Works consulted