Documentary: Nazi Mega Weapons: The SS

Heinrich Himmler

This is perhaps the most terrifying movie of this series.  Here we have the essence of the Nazi Party.  Heinrich Himmler and a few men started out as Hitler's body guards.  This was a true evil sect.  SS stands for Schultstaffel, or Protection Squadron.  They were given charge of establishing the concentration camps.  The first camp in Dachau would become a model for many to follow.  It was a training camp.  Here members of the SS were trained in torture and in control.  This camp mostly housed political prisoners.  This camp did not have a gas chamber, but a firing range where many were shot.

In the early days of Nazi power there was a larger rival group to the SS.  However Himmler was against this group, and eventually convinced Hitler eye were rivals to his power.  The leaders of this group were shot and executed.  The SS was entwined with the police.

With free reign the SS became more deadly and dangerous.  The had their own cathedral for planning and religious rites.  They had their own ideas in which the German people were to be worshipped instead of God.  Himmler took over a castle, Wewelsberg, where his concepts of racial purity could be taught.  This would include elimination of "sub humans."  They believed in sterilization and execution of those unfit, and polygamy to propagate the race.  One goal was to eliminate Christianity.  

The SS recruited elite soldiers. Requirements including no glasses and be five feet eleven.  SS units were some of they best.  They were also involved in spying, local affairs, concentration camps, removal and relocation of people, including Jews, homosexuals and other undesirables.

A strange aspect of SS was a construction project.  Project Reise or Giant was seven underground structures connected by tunnels.  Their exact purpose is not known, but likely underground factories.  They were not finished.  However they have many self defense features, such as a grenade chute and gun windows.

In the end Himmler was captured, and killed himself while being interrogated.  Many other SS members were tried and executed.

Documentary: Nazi Mega Weapons Season 2: The Wolf's Lair

This is the continuing PBS series which looks at some of the Nazi mega weapons.  This episode deals with Hitler's shelters.  It also looks at the attack on Hitler in his lair.  Hitler fancied himself a military leader, and wanted to be close to the action.  This served him well inFrance as he made a shelter close to the front, and was able to monitor and direct.  The success of the Germans convinced Hitler this was good strategy.  He even went so far as to make bomb shelters for his trains, covered man made tunnels, which were rarely used.  They were rounded so bombs would bounce off.  Mussolini and Hitler held a meeting in one such structure, it's only use.  This were a waste of manpower and resources.  Hitler's Lair was as far to the west in Germany (Prussia) as Hitler could get. From this location Hitler was to monitor the invasion of Russia.  However he was hampered by distance.  The Nazis were on the verge of taking Moscow.  However Hitler order the troops to take Leningrad first, which proved to be a costly mistake.  He also ordered attacks and other strategies, without having enough information.

Claus von Stauffenberg

Tremendous amounts of concrete were used to build the lair, where Hitler Had a large personal complex, but it was mostly cement and buffer.  The living space was very small.  These enclosed rooms were a hazard,and disgruntled Germans used them to attack Hitler.  In an enclosed space, a small bomb could do great damage as the force would be concentrated.  Colonel Claus von Straffenberg attempted such a move, however the meeting to which he was invited was not held in a bunker, but an outlying building, which was not made of concrete.  However the detonator had already been triggered.  The bomb did not kill Hitler as the force of the blast was not contained.   Several other officers were killed.  For his roll Stauffenberg was executed without trial.  

Hitler's Lair was abandoned when the Russians advanced taking over the area.

Hitler's last bunker was the one in Berlin.  Again this was a massive undertaking.  The bunker was built underground in the center of the city.  In the end the Russians did not have to attack it as Hitler suicided.

Nazi Mega Weapons Season 2: About V-1 Hitler's Vengeance Missle

The Nazi's developed the first cruise missile during WWII.  This is called the vengeance weapon as Hitler wanted to retaliate for heavy Allied bombing over Germany. This weapon gave him the opportunity to strike back.
  It is also known as the flying bomb.  They were next to impossible to stop after they had been launched.  However they also could not hit targets with any accuracy, but would hit general areas.  The Vengeance Rocket required a track for launching, and this provided a place for counterattack.  However, the tracks were eventually built in densely forested areas, and were kept as secret as possible.  Some of the concrete pillars which supported the tracks are still standing in France.  The track became progressively higher until the rocket took off.  These are the rockets that have a funny shape with the rocket above the bomb.  They were able to travel from France to England, and caused heavy damage in the battle of London.  In the end, when the Allies attack the German territory, and moved towards Berlin, they were able to overtake these sites, tor the sites were abandoned.  This weapon was before its time, with the cruise missile to follow in its wake.  However it was too little too late to effect the outcome of the war.

Documentary Review: Nazi Mega Weapons: Fortress Berlin

This talks about the fortress that Berlin was turned into in the final days of the war.  There were different rings of fortifications.  Outside the city, tank traps were developed.  these would allow the tank to go down into a trench, and then it would be too difficult for the tank to get up the other side.  When the tanks were immobile the Germans would try to knock them out with hand held rocket launchers.  This defensive structure was very effective, 2000 tanks were destroyed.  However the overwhelming number of Russian tanks and men, 1,000,000, would not be denied.  The next ring war the river and canal around Berlin.  The Russians were able to take a bridge, and then they could gain access.  There were three large antiaircraft installations, with huge interiors, where 15,000 people could be accommodated.  People fled, in great numbers to these edifices, which had very thick impenetrable concrete.  IN the end the Russians left these buildings and went past them.  The anti-air guns made effective weapons against tanks as well, but these were neutralized.  Chaos was the rule during this time.  The German government insisted everyone fight.  The SS would rome the streets enforcing this edict.  They executed many people as examples so as to use fear to get others to fight.  This included soldiers and civilians.  The inner defenses were Hitlers bunker.  However Hitler had other plans with his own suicide rather than face the Russians.

Documentary Review: Nazi Mega Weapons: Jet Fighter Me262

The Nazis developed the first jet airplanes during WWII.  They were hoping they would change the tide of the war, but they were used incorrectly, and they were too few too late.  Hitler wanted explosive bombs to be attached to them so they could bomb the oncoming onslaught by the Allies.  The air force saw them more as a way to equalize the air war, as they were faster than any other plane flying at the time.  Allied bombers and even their fighter planes were no match for these planes.  Fortunately Hitler's lack of focus, and the lateness in development left these planes subject to Allied occupation.  The lateness in development was partially due to Allied air attack to the runways and the facilities where the planes were being built.  The Nazis moved their development into caves.  With this change came great misery for many of those in concentration camps.  They would be used as forced labor, and beaten if they could not perform their task, even though they were never given proper nourishment and were unskilled laborers at best.  The bat caves where the planes were to be built were never completed.

Biographical Movie: Mark Twain by Ken Burns (2001)

Mark Twain, born Samuel Clemons, was a very interesting and complex character.  This PBS presentation tries to lay this man out for us.  He had worked in newspapers, but really had not done anything with his life until after age 30.  In fact at age 30 he was so despondent he contemplated suicide.  Twain was subject to fits of depression and anger through out his life.  However, he did have a good wife who stood by him, and he had an environment to write.  His literary jumping off point was the article about the frog jumping contest of Calaveras County, Angels Camp.  Twain drew his characters from people he had met along the river.  And his two most famous books come from that environment, "Tom Sawyer," who is based on characters from Hannibal, Missouri where he grew up, and Huckleberry Finn.  Huckleberry Finn is a remarkable book because it looks slavery and racism in the eye, and he is able to make his own comments about the subject.  The most important is when Huckleberry realizes Jim, his escaped slave traveling companion, is a human, with feelings and family just like every other human.  Admitting that Black people are human was a big thing for that day, because you can't treat another human like an animal and not offend God.
However interspersed with Twain's literary success, was also success on the lecture circuit.  Twain could always make people laugh, and he could fill an auditorium of people to listen to him.
The other side of this story is Twain's poor financial dealings.  He often invested in shady inventions or other business projects and would loss money.  At one point he had to declare bankruptcy, and went on an international lecture circuit to make money to pay back his creditors.  He made the money, but while he was gone, his youngest daughter passed away.  When Twain returned, they couldn't bear to live anymore in the family home.  He first lived in New York, but then in a different home in Hanford, Connecticut where he and his wife lived.  His wife, and another daughter preceded him in death.  They also had a son who died as an infant.  Mark Twain truly came in with haley's Comet, and went out with it as well.

Nazi Mega-Weapons: Super Tank

The Nazis blitzkrieg of Europe was so successful because of it fast tanks.  The Panzer I was incredibly successful as it was better than anything else out there.  Each successive generation became larger, Panzer II, Panzer III and then the Tiger.  The Porsche Company lost the bid to build this huge tank, with a mounted anti aircraft gun which could penetrate the armor of other tanks, particularly the Russian T-34.  This tank had stopped the German invasion or Russia, so the Nazis wanted something that could take care of this weapon.   The Tiger proved very effective, and could shoot much farther than other tanks.  It could destroy enemy tanks before they were even in range to fire back.  However their size created complexity in the motor, and many of them broke down, to be destroyed by the drivers so they would not fall into enemy hands.  The Russians overwhelmed them in the Battle of Kursk with the number of tanks they had built.  Although they were smaller, the were more maneuverable, and by shear numbers helped hold the line at Kursk, the last nazi push into Russia.  The Germans had initial success, but could not carry the day.
Hitler had an even brighter idea.  To build a super tank.  This tank would be the height of four men.  It would be able to act as a fortified wall if any of the Nazi wall were breached.  Again the Porsche company was called in to build this monstrosity.  A wood prototype was built.  However the war was turning too fast to allow production of this tank.  Again it was hampered by engineering difficulty, and lack of mobility due to its massive size.  The Super Tank never played a roll in the outcome of the war.