Rope bomb
The rope bomb was a German weapon developed in 1942 to attack the energy supply . A rope thrown at low altitude over overhead lines was supposed to paralyze the energy supply, especially of armaments factories , by electrically shorting the conductor ropes . It was developed in connection with the Action Russia plan from 1942 to 1944 to attack the highly centralized energy network of the Soviet Union in order to paralyze its armaments industry.
history
It was developed by Heinrich Steinmann, who also made an educational film about it. Samples showed their effectiveness. Crews have been trained in remote areas to ensure the secrecy of the weapon. In 1942 Soviet power lines were photographed by reconnaissance planes.
Since it was feared that the Western powers would be copied against the German energy network, the plans were postponed in order to develop countermeasures, and in the end the idea of deployment was given up entirely. The whole operation against the Soviet power grid ultimately did not take place at all, as the situation at the front forced the air forces of the "Corps Meister", which had been concentrated for this, to be deployed against the Soviet rail supplies from March 27, 1944.
literature
- MGFA (Hrsg.): The German Reich and the Second World War . Stuttgart 2001, Volume 7, pp. 352 ff.
Individual evidence
- ^ Hermann Plocher : The German Air Force versus Russia, 1942 . Eschenburg Press 2017, p. 195.