Hey, did anyone watch the History Channel's program, "Hitler's Managers" the other night. It was about Ferdinand Porsche. It was kinda disturbing.
Of course, those of us that lived in the south during the 50's and 60's knew about the evils of segregation, and few raised one word against what they saw.

One interesting quote was, when Hitler sent his personal pilot to carry Dr. Porsche somewhere, was asked why he deserved such treatment, said, "I have lot's of generals but only one Porsche". That would have made a great advertisement if someone other than Hitler had said it.

Bill Seifert

1987 944S Race Car

 

Wasnt Porsche also convicted of war crimes in France after the war?

 

That Tiger tank was a monster of its time! Too bad for the Germans they could only make ~1300 vs. Russias 24,000+ T-whatevers...

 

Yep.. I remember one interview where a Tiger commander said he and another Tiger came up on a group of 60 T-34's and they knocked out about 40 of them before the T-34's retreated...

 

J Silverman

No, he was imprisoned by the French for 2 years, but was not charged, nor convicted. After seeing the program on the History Channel, I am surprised he was not. But, until a couple of years ago, most auto magazine's reports on his imprisonment made it seem that we was in jail for political reasons. By that, I think most stories I had heard, was that the French didn't like him, and he was released because he was innocent.

The show, Hitler's Managers" shot he heck out of that theory.

Yeah, I guess the Tiger was better than both the T34 and the Sherman, but they were outnumbered. Which, in perspective, IMHO, was a good thing.

I don't think the program was an indictment of Porsche, the man, nor the company. It just told a story, I had not heard til about 2 years ago. There is no doubt, Porsche was a brilliant man, he just had flaws, like the rest of us.

Bill

 

Keep in mind the perspective of that era - if Hitler summoned, you DID NOT say no.......

 

I guess it's a matter of perspective. Having had my entire family (yes, everybody but my parents. That is every aunt, uncle cousin, grandparent, and every distant relative)murdered in the Holocaust, it's pretty tough to call **** collaboration "flaws like the rest of us". A lot of rich Germans just got out of Dodge. The car isn't made by him any more, but if it was, I don't think I could own one.AS

 

T-34 was a faster, lighter more maneuverable machine. Tigers were way too heavy pigs for that time (had a hard time to turn around them selfs and were outperform by smaller T-34). It's like comparing AK-47 to any other machine gun. I'm sure there still some of them laying around in the woods of former USSR.

<<I remember one interview where a Tiger commander said he and another Tiger came up on a group of 60 T-34's and they knocked out about 40 of them before the T-34's retreated...>>
Tiger commander should of stop dreaming... Those tanks were burned like a fireballs from simple bottle of kerosene mix.
a little bit of history
lipamax

 

Hitler is often attributed more political power than he really had. He still needed popular support for whatever he did (even if it was manufactured through brainwashing propaganda). Here is a fact: Germany never managed to mobilize their women to work at the factories for the war effort in the same way the USA and USSR did. They had to use slaves in manufacturing. What do you think were the odds of a U-boat torpedo exploding correctly when fired properly when it was build by slaves captured in the eastern front?
It was certainly a good thing for me that slaves were building Panthers and Russian women were putting together T-34s.

 

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing".

To be sure, had Porsche not labored to engineer some **** war mechanisms, there were others who would have done so - and did. After the war, Dr. Porsche was arrested and imprisoned by the French. It took the family nearly two years to buy the aging Porsche's freedom from his French jailers. I don't believe Porsche was ever prosecuted by the allies as one of the **** industrialist "war criminals" tried at Nurenburg.

 

Your little history is wrong.

Tiger against T34 = one on one = game over T34. Period.

Tiger's 8.8 against T34 's strawgun = game over T34. Period.

All tanks of that time were easily molotoved. Whats your point ?

Yes the Tiger could be bogged down in muddy conditions because of their weight due to extreme armor for the time . That was the reason it could take on multiple opponents and swallow direct hits plus, well, the 8.8 which everyone feared for a reason. Conclusion : high survial rate for the operators.

Your weapons knowledge is very limited or shall I say, non existant, a AK 47 never is , was or will be a machinegun.

 

Didn't you also HAVE to come when summoned by Stalin???

 

I read the book "Small Wonder" way back when I was 14-15.

http://www.amazon.com/Small-Wonder-A.../dp/0837601479

From what I recall from that book (its been a LONG TIME) - wasn't Dr. Porsche pretty much held "captive" by Hitler for the purposes of designing and building "The People's Car" - (the bug)? Like I said, its been a long time since I read that, but that is something that sort of sticks in my memory for some reason.

 

Wasn't one air cooled and one water cooled

 

An interesting read: http://www.autohistory.org/feature_6.html