Role of
Airplanes in World War II
Chapter 1: War itself
Flying started when the first people on
earth saw a bird flying in the sky, we were amazed of seeing how freely
they could move and to know that you could reach any place on earth with
this ability, since then our dream had been follow them. People then tried
to make this dream possible, the result in all cases was serious pain and
failure after failure. A lot of time passed since the first time we dreamed
of being able to fly, but we finally achived this goal. Two brothers were
able to do the first flight on history, this brothers were the Wrights
brothers who achived the goal of all the humankind, even know when someone
thinks of airplanes they think on the Wrights brothers, because thanks
to them in 1903 the world had his first flying machine. But the plane’s
status changed because of time.
The porpuse of this flying machines was
to achive our goal, to fly and see the world, to imitate wonderful animals
such as birds, but people had never thought that they could use airplanes
as a war machine. After it was invented we were so eager to seek destruction
that we saw the potential of using it to kill ourselves. It all started
when we saw that people on the ground were indefencseless with this new
war toy. They found a lot of new uses for it for example: they used them
to spy on their enemys, to know where they were heading, to make maps and
startegies on what will be the most useful way of attacking them, and this
was its use during the first World War. This war was fought on land not
on the air as the second war. People didn?t knew that their dream
could be their mourder.
After the war ended countries started
to look how to improve their new war toys, they put factories to try to
make airplanes reach a higher velocity, altitutde, range etc… There was
a war between wars to see who was better, Americans made their airplanes,
English tried to make their Royal Air Force the best one, Japanese wanted
to make their airplanes lighter and faster, but the real winner in this
war were the Germans, their airplanes could travel long range, they were
easy to maniubrate and ofcourse they were able to use them for massive
destruction against other countries. Thanks to airplanes the Germans were
the powerful nation they were during the war.
But why did Germans built better airplanes,
well there were some reasons like :
Germans live in a country with many mountains,
people liked to fly model airplanes and make contests to see which were
the best ones, from this models a lot of airplanes were constructed. Another
reason was that their scientists were very ingenious, people wanted revenge
from all the other countries. Their curiosity and their intelligence lead
them to make the best war toys in hisotory of war.
After World War I Germans were humiliated,
they burned their own money for fuel. They had nothing left, they just
seeked for revenge, war has always been part of German’s culture. But another
thing German’s have is that they are really smart, they dream of making
things but they have a difference over all other nations, they dreams do
become true, but they become true because of their intelligence and because
they never give up. The versailled treatment was just like a tentation
to make they come to life again, they realized to late that this treatment
was not peace, it was just an intermission for the worst war ever in history,
the first in where land, air and sea were involved.
Logic happened the Germans broke the Versailles
trateament and started to build a strong army, they used all their money
for warfare, between this machines was the airplane. Airplanes were considered
the most valuable arm the Germans had, with this machines they could bomb
entire cities in just questions of days and then send their soldiers to
finish the work making war very fast and easy to win, this concept was
know as the Blitz Krieg. Some of this airplanes were the U2 bomber and
his brother, they were a two engine plane that could carry a larg number
of bombs and soldiers for attack.. Countries as Poland and Austria saw
how easily their armys were defeated because of this new war machines that
Germans were using. They didn’t realized that for fighting this mounster
they had to know what they were fighting, they were fighting against not
only man but against technology the new best friend of blood and war.
Between the most famous nazi fighters
we can find airplanes such as the Bf 109, who was an airplane designed
for bombing large territories and who had a great speed for his size and
a very good flight mode. Another airplane was the Fw 190, who was a combat
attack planes, this were sended to protect airplanes as the Bf 109 when
this was going to bomb a city. And then at there were the best airplanes
that the nazis had during the war there was just a problem they camed to
late to help the German cause, this were the jet propulsed airplanes and
some of the names were the Blohm und Voss BV 141 V9 and the
Heinkel He162 that was an airplane designed to be flown by Hitler
but that was later converted to an airplane used by all of the Luftwaffe
. One of the other improvments in this war was the use of bombs designed
similar to airplanes that will attack cites from far away without being
detected the name of this bomb is V1 vliegende bomb.
It is said that if Nazis had had the Blohm
V9 and the He162 one year before they will had been able to save their
country, this airplanes camed too late to help them. The allies then saw
that this was a new kind of airplane, it was like reinventing it, its power
was unlimited, it could fly hounders of kilometers faster than any ally
plane. Another reason for why this help was too late to help in any possible
way is that during war blood is something but intelligence is the most
important part of a war. The allies destroyed all fuel makers that provided
this material to Nazi planes and they also destroyed all factories that
involved anything to do with the manufacture of this kind of planes.
The other countries didn?t wanted
to go behind in this war, the English construected airplanes suck as the
spitfire which is one of the greatest planes built by them, this was able
to combat some of the very fast and easy to get ride of German planes.
Another of the airplanes they used was the Thunderbolt a very fast airplane
who turned down a lot of the German plane?s. This two airplanes were
the most important airplanes of the Royal Air Force, now they are considered
a collector’s item because only a small number of them survived war.
Japan had his own airplane, it was feared by all countries because they
were very fast but most of all they were able to loose any airplane following
them and attack by surprise al the others. The americans entered war almost
at the end of it but they had their own famous planes, their most famous
combat plane was ofcourse the Mustang who was made to try to stop the mosquitos
which they were able to, but the had a very famous bomber, its name is
the flying fortress, it was used to attack the German cities durign the
war.
One of this flying fortresses was the
responsible of throwing the first atomic bomb on history, as you can see
this war was one fought not only be beare hands but it was one fought mainly
in the hands of technology. The flying fortress that was responsible to
throw the first bomb will always be in our minds, it was called by their
pilots Enola Gay, this because gay in those times was being happy, being
happy of finally killing the japaness.
But what advances this airplanes had in
this times, well it was as they had invented a new airplane over the others,
before war the airplanes were not even half as fast as they were when the
war ended, they saw that airplanes too could carry people rather than only
war, they saw that airplanes were something for all the world, that they
were very good if used the right way as everything in the world but if
they used it in a wrong way the consequences could be a disaster.
Chapter 2: What it leted us, what it took
Almost at the end of the war the first
turbo engine was used they started to use this engines instead of the old
ones because they were faster. And the first ones to use this were the
Germans, maybe that?s why they were in control of almost all of the
war, they had the technology that other countries didn?t had.
Their airplanes could travel almost at 800 km/hr, almost the double of
the other airplanes, but their use was almost at the end of the war so
they coudn?t do a lot in this war. The allies were impressed when
the first saw this airplanes, they were amazed of their speed, and everything
they could offer. That?s why people started to use many of this advances
in their common use for traveling that?s why trips were so much faster.
The kind of gear used for flying changed
a lot in this times, the tires were made more resistable, the planes were
made to support higher pressures and to carry large amounts of weight,
the controls of the planes were now easier to fly etc… many advances were
made. Because the technology changes everything that exists on this world
the airplane didn?t went outside of this change, they had changed
thanks to things as the advances of technology. It?s how the
world is fixed, just as technology is made better, things are made smaller
and more efficient.
Maybe that?s why technology is a
factor that affects living things in this world day by day. This is what
happened in world war II, there was a new way of how things were done,
the used tanks for rapid land attacks and during this war the airplane
was considered really a war instrument. Because of the advances in technology
made in the airplane there was a new kind of war going around.
But maybe too much advance on this machines
was not the best thing that could happen because this caused the death
of million of people, and this can?t be justified not even now saying
that thanks to them planes are faster and a more common thing because I
am shure I’ll give up all this advances for a world in which every year
we didn’t had to remember things that happened as this horrible war.
Conclusion
Because of this technological advances
war was something that people could never had imagine. This was a very
destructive machine and made war to be relied on machines rather than on
soldiers. But it also made this war very destructive and cruel. Technology
brings advances to society but if they are misused then problems can occur,
millions of people could die and countries could be destroyed. Things are
what people want to make them to be, if things are not used correctly then
problems happen, this is just part of my report later on I will explain
more about each kind of plane and about how technology made airplanes a
very destructive and effective machine.
