German C3 Fuel, Uber Octane or Synthetic Crap?
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- čas přidán 11. 08. 2021
- There is a lot to cover here, the first 20 mins just go over the basics of calculating equivalent compression ratios in supercharged engines, I start with automotive examples because they are easier to understand. At about the 20 min mark we get into airplanes.
How good were the German B4 and C3 aviation fuels? We have allied reports on them, but they don't answer all the questions. Were the Luftwaffe aircraft really held back by low fuel quality, or was it something else like metallurgy?
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The Ricardo book is now in the Patreon section for all members, and my book on supercharging is now readable there for the premium tier members. - Auta a dopravní prostředky
Hey Greg, looking forward to watching this episode. Thanks very much for your kind words and showing off our book project! We are very happy to see so much interest in German primary documents and hope to do more of this in the future.
Thanks Chris.
Two channels with extraordinary content. Thank you .
Cool to see you here
Thanks for another fantastic video, Greg! And this is Chris approved!
I wish I could support more, but I already bought the book before those video came out.😅😅
I never knew fuel could be so fascinating. I learn more in any single video from Gregg on WW2 aircraft than most entire books I have read on the topic. Most books recycle the same generalized info and rarely get into the minutiae of these videos. It appears that often these small details and finer points of design and performance made much bigger differences in outcomes than is usually appreciated. Thanks so much Gregg for all your time and effort!
Or destructive?
Hey kids. What's your dad doing?
He's watching a long video about the octane ratings on WWII German aviation gas.
????????
LOL.
Great video, Greg, but my wife and kids will never understand.
Between Calum Douglas and his new book, Chris at Military Aviation History & you Greg with your content we have reached a Renaissance of information on WW2 aviation. This knowledge which has not been available since the end of the second world war when people with first hand experience were available to write on these aviation subjects. Now we have multiple You Tube channels with all 3 of you gentlemen doing excellent in depth research on these subjects. Well done & thank you.
I have been waiting 43 years for this video. Go, Greg!
I learnt so much from Ricardo's book. I found it in the local library when I was a schoolboy. Years later I bought the 4th edition (1953)
I wouldn't have believed that one could talk *interestingly* about one specific type of WW2 aviation fuel for an hour and a quarter, but you pulled it off. Thanks a lot for your knack of diving deep and separating the wheat from the chaff.
Watching this at 10:30PM on a Sunday night, the wife of 36 years walked by and asked what I was watching and if it was for work. It was right at the point of the fuels evaporation point in relationship to engine oil temp which I explained. She shook her head said "I can't believe I married such a nerd" and closed the door. Keep up the great videos!
And that's why only about two percent of my subscribers are women. Of those, one is my wife, one is my daughter, and neither of them watch my videos. Also a few flight attendants subscribed to show support when I started this channel. I think I only have about 25 actual female subscribers.
The amount of engine variants, aspects like temperatures evaporation etc etc is incredible… the detailed discussion you perform is just beyond what I can grasp and understand properly… I wonder how much the expectation of own over enemies performance actually influenced a pilot’s approach to an air fight.
In terms of the US aircraft like the P-47, a lot of the performance depended on the pilot being able to set things correctly.
Love the teachings Professor! Between you and the Chieftain debunking WW2 armor myths, I’m starting to feel like I “know” very little about the long held truths of the war. Thanks! (any update on possible sleeve valve engines?)
The decreasing quality of motor oil in the last years of the war("resembling water") is frequently mentioned as a factor with the poor reliability of the Tigers and Panthers tank engine, so that might be the reason for not exploiting the octane potential of c3..
That could be, a lot of the factors tie together.
And sabotage undertaken by slave labourers working in assembly plants.
I heard it was mostly drive train / transmission problems.
@@2lotusman851 Bad oil wouldn’t help with transmission reliability either (particularly under high load).
@@2lotusman851 Combat records by Tiger/Panther crews often mention how they found debris deliberately hidden inside the transmission(by slave labourers) to reduce its efficiency and cause breakdowns.
Good points about the life expectancy of the German fighters later in the war. I was reading about the Luftwaffe's Autumn 1944 attempts to stop the 8th Air Force Raids, and they are horribly lopsided bloodbaths for the Germans. In November 1944 they only go up 4 times in attempts to defend their oil installations, and are suffering loss rate of ~25% each engagement. Essentially the life expectancy of their fighters and engines are a couple of hours. That realization would probably make them less cautious with trying to preserve their engines when it came to the fuel.
There was some anti-knock research in the 1920 that looked at quite a few potential anti-knock compounds and rated their effectiveness. Among them was triaryl-bismuth, which was about a fourth as good as tetra-ethyl lead, thus requiring four times more concentration for the same knock reduction. I think I once calculated that switching to it would add about 10 or 15 cents a gallon to the cost of 105 octane, or something close to that. I wouldn't think it would effect valves or bearings any differently than lead, and the worst the exhaust might do environmentally is just make Pepto Bismol.
Doolittle's early drive for high octane fuel points out one sometimes neglected aspect of the man. Doolittle was not only a great pilot. He was also a great engineer. Doolittle had a doctorate from MIT. He did much of the work developing early instrument flying. He also had the foresight to see that with higher octane fuel available, higher compression engines would follow. This is often the case with technology. Develop a method for producing a chip with greater device density and electronics taking advantage of that device will follow.
😂 WE OWE A LOT TO JIMMY DOOLITTLE ‼️🇺🇲🗽
Another top notch video full of quality content. I always learn new things when watching these. It's amazing how much of an effect natural resources and access to them along with logistics affected the war.
Your videos deserve to be in A&P shops. I have learned so much more things from them. I'm still building A&P hours so it helps a lot. Thank you
Excellent video Greg! Thank you and giid job mentioning Chris and his Stuka book project at the end.
Love everything on the channel greg the trips and history combined with the cool educational content just absolutely top notch
I have listened to a lot of your talks ... and I found myself seriously excited for this one. I am totally down the rabbit hole. Best explainer ever.
I was listening to this video while I'm working on a 1/48 scale Bf109G-10, I really like these video's! So much so that you've got another Patreon!
Yet another amazing video. Not only your work is great but you also appreciate the great work of other CZcamsrs.
I've been looking forward to seeing this video since you mentioned that you were working on it. Thanks for the great content.
This is by far the best channel for technical review of aircraft, thanks.
Would love to see some more early jet aircraft featured as the developments in the late '40s and into the '50s were imo some of the most interesting in all of aviation history (both in terms of engines and aerodynamics).
Another great video,Greg.Dummies like me really appreciate someone doing the math for us.Complex subject matter, excellent delivery and explanation.
Greg I don't know how you do it but I'm glad you do! Another excellent video and enormous amount of research is indicated here. Well done and thanks for sharing.
I just want to say thank you for such a well researched interesting video with content no other CZcams channel or creator is offering. Much appreciated :)
When comparing the Merlin to the DB601A, keep in mind that the direct fuel injection on the DB601A can take advantage of the heat of vaporization of the fuel injected directly into the cylinder to cool the cylinder charge. On a modern spark ignition engine, the difference between direct and port injection (assuming approximately the same overall level of F/A mixture control) allows approximately 1.0 to 1.2 higher CR for the same RON fuel.
Well that assumption just got shattered...
I have thought for a long time the German engines just used port injection and the direct part was a changing in terminology.
Well thanks for these comments and making me look/learn
@@TheAneewAony we used fuel injection during the timeframe just to the best of my knowledge not direct injection
Great video. Thank you. I supported the Stuka book before watching this exploration of German WW2 octane and aircraft engine issues. Chris’s recent (not) in the cockpit video on the Ju 87 is an excellent introduction for anyone who wants to learn about the Stuka.
After watching this I'm motivated to go back an re-read my thermodynamics textbooks on combustion.
Greg you do such a good job of slowly and carefully explaining you subjects so well that I think even a non-technical person can follow along.
Man you sure put a lot of research into all your videos and it is greatly appreciated. 👍
Blue skies and tailwinds Greg. ✈
One of your best videos yet. Very, very insightful and informative. Thank you!
Great series you have here! Your videos are so unique and informative. Learning so much more than the stock documentaries out there.
I had no idea of your credentials. That's really awesome congrats. Great videos keep up the fantastic work. Your content helps me sleep at night.
Thank you Greg... You are a dude with quality information delivered in a technical yet easy manner. Please keep on posting. Cheers.
Greg either you are getting better at explaining these technical issues or I have actually been learning something this whole time but this was an excellent dissertation on the subject and I found i could keep up!
Haha
Excellent, outstanding; thanks. Greg finds answers and reasons to fill in the gaps, and makes it understandable. Raises the bar.
Amazing content Greg. Just so well done. As always I have watched this video several times and learned more each time. I have so enjoyed Callum Douglas's book...and really appreciate you insights. And thanks to you I have ordered the book on the Stuka. It is a fine time to learn about WWII aircraft...and you lead the way by miles and miles. Thanks for all the hard work, insights and amazing gift of presentation. I keep thinking you have maxed out how amazing your videos are, and then you just blow me away.
When you’ve literally wrote the book on supercharged engines. Great videos! I really appreciate all the information your able to share and the research you’ve put into it.
I remember reading a book on P-83 and early in the war they were using 122 octane. They switched to 150 and took off on a mission only to have all the spark plugs plate with lead and foul out.
Fantastic piece of work sir. This is one of my favourite channels and articles like this is the reason why.
I always wondered where your wealth of knowledge on these subjects came from, now I know! Thanks for these in-depth videos on what I know are decades-old debates among ww2 aviation enthisiasts
From an instrument engineers perspective 2x DIFFERENTIAL pressure produces 1.414x the volumetric flow through an orifice (Bernoulli’s theorem). Pressure loss along the intake and exhaust manifolds are significant to flow rates.
Increasing temperature decreases the mass flow as you stated.
Great as always, thanks Greg , keep going, many thanks from the uk.
(47:20) it was about Oil Fumes and the Oil Separator design. Spark Plugs getting hot was also an issue. In late 1943, after all of this has been addressed with newly designed components, they released the 1.42 ata again. Of course, this doesn't mean that they didn't push the limits of the engine with this kind of fuel too far, in general.
Coming back for a second view of a complicated subject after a few months, fascinating as always Greg 👍🏻
When the R+M/2 method,took over in the USA,Sunoco 260 was
initially rated at 97.5,dropping to 96,and eventually disappearing altogether.
Thanks for another informative video.
Was it "260 GT" or did Sunoco reuse the branding? If it's the former, it's still for sale as a race fuel in cans.
@@andrewahern3730 It was Sunoco 260.
yes still available in cans as street legal 100 unleaded,and all their other race fuels
Cheers
Thanks Greg, its Rob here from Christchurch, South Island New Zealand! You have answered my questions! Thanks Cobber from Down Under!
Greg, I love your Videos! Nice that you used the picture at 43:43! It was made at Schleissheim Airport and I live just 10 min away from this place :)) Greetings from Germany!
Love your posts and Bismark, through flight sims years ago , you have prompted me to look him up again !
Yes!!! Finally....I have looked forward to this for weeks...thank you so much Greg...love your research...
Greg with Another big hit
Very enjoyable to see the graphs and listen to your presentation. Thank you!
Greg, thanks for this jam packed full of data about fuel video. A lot of this was helpful for my understanding of some issues I have with my 3.0 L Twin Turbo automobile motor. It also helped me get a better feel for the nuances of my 3.8 L hopped up (LOL) flex fuel GT-R . I do have ECU maps for 93 and 100 octane for my 3.0 L. Now understand how and why the HP gains are so significant when using E85 and 100 octane fuels, with 70-73% alcohol giving me the most gain in my GT-R . Your video was very insightful!
First, I must say Bravo! to your newest video, Greg. Second, there are two factors beyond a fuel's octane ratings that may influence heavily on it's resistance to knock/pinging, i.e., the fuel's latent heat of vaporization and it's resistance to ignite because of a hot spot or lack thereof, such as a carbon deposit or a glow plug. A high fuel's latent heat of vaporization, specially in a direct fuel injection engine, favors an increase in ECR because it reduces the air/fuel mixture's temperature more than in a fuel with a lower latent heat of vaporization; this works just the same as an intercooler or W50 and also may explain at least some of the difference in motor and research and lean and rich octane ratings. For example, because of methanol's very high latent heath of vaporization, intercooling was not used for a long time in turbocharged Indianapolis 500 racers, fueled with methanol, but was, out of necessity, in all turbocharged Formula 1 racers, fueled with many mysteryous concoctions they called gasoline, for marketing reasons. The other factor is the fuel's resistance to knock due to hot spots and that may explain Mr. Cullum's remarks about exhaust valves temperatures and also the reduced ECRs on air cooled engines as compared to liquid cooled ones, I guess B4 and C3 might have low and maybe very unpredictable resistance to knock due to hot spots, what might force a reduction in ECR. That's why you may dare throwing a lit cigarette butt on avgas without much risk of setting it on fire, but don't even think trying to do the same with E85 or methanol. I also venture an educated guess and a very long shot in face of our lack of solid information, and try to explain the very high ECRs of DB engines as being due to fuel's high latent heat of vaporization and high resistance to knock to hot spots. Of course, that's just a guess. Sadly, available data sources are lacking information on both factors.
Top fuel cars use a similar trick to the turbo indy-cars where they will spray some of the nitromethane/methanol through the super-charger to help cool the air a bit.
@@666Blaine and that’s what many aero engines did too. Late Merlin sprayed most into the supercharger eye, I think. Will check that though. Callum Douglas points out that injected Daimler engines had an extra injector nozzle into the supercharger inlet
Nice getting that interesting background sketch some of us were wondering about; A pilot & flight engineer with a years of experience flying supercharged piston engine aircraft as well as having a specialty shop for turbo charges & super charged car engines and authorship on the subject.
Thanks Greg for another superb video! Maybe inter future you could do a video on the A-26 Invader. It definitely deserves a video from you imo.
I like the video and the presented information very much. A long needed explanation on that topic, with a lot of additional Information on comparing different fuel type's Octane number / detonation resistance, and on how many factors it depends. It also opened up a lot of new questions, like on how rich mixture did the german engines fly.
Well done.
+ please have a look at the 2013 Supercharging Book by the same Greg.
Perfect cont pet usual- have to re- watch this one, as with many others of Greg’s videos.
Extremely enlightening!
Consider the naturally aspirated GAcontinental IO 470 engines are 8.6:1 compression on 100 LL. They appear to be right at the top of the detonation envelope!! It is amazing to see where today's piston engine technology comes from! How difficult would it be to obtain more information about piston design? Whether they used cast or forged pistons, piston ring design and what clearance tolerances were adopted? Thanks for all the time and effort you put in to these presentations!
Fascinating and very thoroughly explained with added proof and calculations. Thank you for this educational aviation video. I picked up some new insights about the inner workings of engines.
Great video. I came across this video after my comments on another, so all the points were covered here.
Algo boost! Great content as always Greg, digging into this now!
Thanks Greg, a vid I have been waiting for
Thsnk you very much for your videos. I am learning a lot through your work!
Great again 👏 I knew about fuel and comp ratio . But it really give a good insight into what the German had to deal with and how Geography and resources . Determined the outcome of the conflict before it even started
Excellent. Nice to see your knowledge base and writing credits.
Oh this will be interesting! Thank you Greg!
Greg,
That makes total sense, I like your explanation, and agree with your conclusion about the 2 formulas
I suspect one of the reasons the "linear" formula for effective compression ratio doesn't work is because in pretty much every scenario of a compressed charge, some heat is always removed by the interface between the charge and the materials around it.
Obviously with an intercooler, the charge temperature is greatly reduced (and therefore it's tendency to detonate). But even in the worst imaginable configuration, such as a draw through supercharger mounted directly to the intake manifold, the supercharger body and intake manifold, short in length and limited in time interfacing with the intake charge as they may be, will draw SOME heat from the intake charge.
An NA engine with a compression ratio of say 16:1 will compress the charge on the compression stroke in a very small window of time, and the charge will remain inside the combustion chamber, which is a relatively hot area of the engine.
Where as a (theoretical) supercharged engine running 14.7PSI of boost with an 8:1 compression ratio, even without an intercooler, and even with a very short distance between the supercharger and the combustion chamber will bleed off SOME amount of heat from the intake charge before the charge is compressed again inside the combustion chamber.
Therefore it makes total sense that when it comes to a compressed intake charge + an engines compression ratio: 1 + 1 does not equal 2.
Just watched you video on aircraft fuels. Very interesting and well done. I am an Canadian AME wlith 56 years experience. Back in the 60s I worked on early Bell 47s with Franklin engines. We used to carry a can of Tetra Ethel lead I think it was for fuel in Barrels that were old and laying the tundra. I presume the fuel would loose there octane rating. They hand a mechanical waste gate and no manifold pressure limiter as later helicopters had. Max MAP was 36 inches on the gage and it was pilots job to watch and not exceed. The odd time a pilot would return to base camp a report a excedance in pressure. He could only say I saw it going south through 54 inches. Engines had a 600 hr TBO and quite often they were done sooner. Cylinder hold down studs were replaced every time.
Thank you for this beautiful hour of informations. Please go one. geatings from Germany
Thank You for a very detailed video. Well understood even for a viewer without a formal engineering background.
Magnificent work, as expected!
My three favorite under square non racing stock 92 octane motors from 1969, the 10.75 to 1 Pontiac 400 and 10.0 to 1 383 Mopar & Ford 9.5 to 1 390 . These were in everything from
a coupe to a pick-up and were not the largest displacements or highest output available. All are a joy to drive!
Thanks Greg. Fascinating information
As a mech. Eng. I appreciate your information and presentation style!
Wonderful Greg! Absolutely loved it
Yet another wonderful and informative video.
Having watched this video in full again, I can see where you are coming from on the matter of fuel quality with German engine performance, it's certainly impactful. Having read Calum's book however I more inclined toward his findings in regards to strategic alloy shortages. With Nickel shortages already hampering the 801's exhaust valves in 1941 until remedied with chrome plating, the same in regard to the DB605/3's valves. WIth the loss of the cobalt mines in 1943 making things worse.
Yet that alone would make things difficult but material shortages could have been worked around and compensated for with more intelligent design prioritization and industrial prioritization. The RLM's leadership was not up to the task of rationally devoting resources to key concepts and technologies before and during the war, as Calum's book notes; they spent too much precious resources on too many side projects while the engines that desperately needed attention to wage the war were neglected. The British by contrast acted and responded quite rationally quickly to changes. With tight coordination between government and industry Whom made far less mistakes compared to the RLM.
IMO both the issue of fuel quality and material shortages could have been mitigated with two stage supercharging and intercooling. The performance of the Jumo 213F/E being standout performers of what could be done with B4 fuel and MW50 and the proposed two stage two speed supercharged & intercooled BMW801F being also a very good engine. Daimler Benz even had worked on two stage supercharging in the DB600 before the war, it would not be a stretch to imagine German fighters with such engines during or after the BoB.
And yet they failed. The new generation engines are in many ways a disappointment, lagging behind until virtually the very end. The German's had the means to make such meaner engines for their fighters before the war but party politics and mismanagement sent them down the wrong path. The result was quite honestly, good but close to mediocre engines IMO.
Love your Videos Greg!
I think that was one of the first videos I watched on your channel. For some reason my mind thinks that happened more than 1 year ago. Is this a re-upload? In any case I love the way you explain, its very easy to learn listening your presentations.
Great video. I don't know if you've changed up your audio setup, but the sound quality was just awesome.
"Knock Knock"
"Who's There?"
"U Need"
"U Need Who?"
"U Need More Octane".
I'll show myself out.
Another great video thank you Greg. A video about sleeve valve engine's would be very interesting, just an idea. Keep up the great work!
I do want to get to that, but it will be a while.
@@GregsAirplanesandAutomobiles
In aircraft that would see a usable lifespan of very low hours I'm of the opinion that sleeve valves while superior especially in larger bore diameters due to the limitations that poppet valves put on the ability of the engine to breathe were in many ways a waste of the second most precious resource a nation at war has. First of course is the lives of its servicemen. Second is the manhours required to produce the weapons that your people need. In a fighter that might see very limitied hours it doesn't pay. Napier might of built a great engine but the role could easily ben handled by the Griffon at probably less manhours to produce. However in aircraft used primarily in the transport or naval patrol roles the sleeve valve makes perfect sense due to its lower specific power output in terms of fuel use per hp per hour. The same could be said for long range bomber aircraft.
@@mpetersen6sleeve valves cost the lives of plenty of pilots. I don't fully understand sleeve valves but it seems to me that they were just asking for trouble with the available machining technology, particularly during wartime. I have read that the main problem was a failure to properly warm them up.
The sleeve valve is basically a sleeve inside the cylinder with holes in the side. You twist the sleeve so that the holes in it line up with holes in the cylinder head or in the side of the cylinder, and that's how mixture gets in or exhaust gets out.
The actual engines (e.g., the Centaurus) actually moved the sleeves up and down as well as twisting them, but the idea is that the sleeve is what covers and uncovers the openings to let air flow in and out.
Sealing between the sleeves and the bore, or between the two sleeves (intake and exhaust), and there is definitely some complexity in making the sleeves move correctly.
Here's an animation of a Centaurus in action: czcams.com/video/_vrvep_YOio/video.html
@@davedarling4316
For some very good CAD drawings and animations look into the Aircraft Engine Historical Society's web site
Thank you for an extremely informative video. Across the theaters, in the air, at sea and on the ground, it seems that the decisive Allied edge was the American ability to make and supply war materiel in abundance.
Great video, Greg!
A couple of things I remember from Callum Douglas’s excellent book that are also relevant to this video:
- The allies were able to run much higher coolant temperatures due to being able to manufacture coolers that could withstand higher coolant pressures. Can’t remember the specifics, but he suggests that it drove German designers nuts, especially with their C3 evaporation problem,
- the conservative Merlin power levels may have been due to larger overlap values the Germans could run with the direct fuel injection.
I do like Callum Douglas' work. Of course that doesn't mean I agree with him on everything and I don't think he is right about the Germans inability to manufacture radiators that could handle the higher temps and pressures. That's a good theory, but it doesn't seem to hold up.
Thanks Greg. Excellent video as always 👊
Terrific video as always. Thank you
19:00 I like the way of thinking with the compression formula that lacks a correction for a temperature increase that has to be there. I think Greg could do well in teaching physical chemistry...
super super cool. awesome information and great insight on effective compression ratio. laid out and explained very thoughtfully, thoroughly in a very logical and sensible manner
Thanks, I was worried I spent too much time on ECR, but it seems like it worked out.
@@GregsAirplanesandAutomobiles I have actually re-watched the ECR segment several times, I recently acquired an older 01 beetle turbo 5 speed from a family member and it just so happens I am a mechanic/auto tech by trade and is still my day job. Very handy info not just for my own curiosity but for future engine tuning/ builds down the road :) the beetle is only the first turbocharged car I've been able to "mess around with' even aside from turbo'd applications the octane , compression and air/fuel information still applies across the board
Thanks for another excellent presentation! 👍
Nice book cover! Owned a 75 turbo i.e Evoluzione. Boosted the 1.8l to 220hp.
Astonishing
Thanks Greg :)
I'd have to say you have posted one of the best videos on youtube to date, and the content you have provided is excellent. From what my father told me about the carburetted aerofighters, the carburettor(s) fed petrol air mixture through the supercharger, and the evaporating petrol helped cool the air as it entered the engine. this was also something that aided performance of the spitfire. I am led to believe there was a fuel injected version of the merlin, but cannot say that was fact. Regardless, the German engines did not have this advantage like the carburetted engines of the allies.
Well, that is one of the few advantages of carburation - the disadvantages being very clear as well (dependency of the aircraft's orientation and accelerative forces, difficulty to automate, higher pumping losses in cruise throttle settings, and the inevitable waste of fresh mixture with high-overlap camshafts...). When directly comparing fuel-injected to carburated versions of the same engine (as was of course done repeatedly while estimating if this technology was worth pursuing), BMW found the experimental fuel injection on their model VI engine raised power output by 17% and also lowered fuel consumption by 3% - which obviously was a significant advantage by anyone's book, never mind the combat-specific advantages of injection.
In fact several officials at the Allies were lamenting the fact that they hadn't been far enough with fuel injection technology to put it into usable technology, while several companies in Germany had been doing literally more than a decade of research (Junkers having first introduced a fuel injected engine in 1916!) and had experience with that technology before the war.
Love your videos they have helped me with my research and references for my models I build military models full-time now I was a railroad engineer but im now retired I build models for Is clients and museums so my Aircrafts and vehicles have to be 100% Accurate .thank for sharing your knowledge.
In the comments under your alert post I said I'd be here as soon as I got off of work and here I am. :D
This has been an outstanding video, and I appreciate you making it.
There are always so many factors which contribute to the outcome of the war, but the analysis of one factor can often illuminate many others. The subject of German aviation fuel highlights the simple fact that Germany likely had lost the war almost as soon as it begun. Their assumption that combat excellence would overcome their serious lack of many strategic resources, their absolute failure to adequately prioritize logistics when developing war plans, and their inability to get their economy on a proper war footing, (not to mention their inability to manage or even profit from the economies of their newly subjugated territories) meant that they were essentially doomed to lose the day Hitler opened a second front with the Soviet Union. Hell, even had they not, simply holding on to Europe with a belligerent Britain was not a foregone conclusion. As it was, they had their hands full with the British, so they did not have the economic might to also take on the world's second biggest economy, and that's before they even *thought* of tangling with the first place one.
Meanwhile the United States had the largest known oil reserves at that time, the most advanced fuel industry, and the luxury of being able to drill as much as they wanted without worry of incoming fire. Furthermore their economic output was swiftly and efficiently moved to maximize war production, and they commissioned twice as many logistics officers as they did combat officers throughout the war. Combine these factors with reasonably secure supply lines most of the time, and with rare exception the supply of fuel, just like every other strategic resource, was simply not a serious concern to the American and allied aviator. The lack of high quality fuel was a constant drain on the Germans, and the common occurrence of completely running out routinely crippled them.
The totality of their fuel issues, the way they were handicapped when forced to use substitute metallurgy, the way synthetic fuel negatively interacted with other systems in their aircraft, the simple economics of turning coal into gasoline, all of them exemplify the absolute shit show which was German economic and logistical planning in the Second World War, and the hopelessness of playing the hand they dealt themselves.
Thanks Craig. I always enjoy your well thought out posts.
Also the insane depraved effort used in mass murdering target ethnic groups as if it was an _integral war aim_ and the prolonged years of effort and gigantic amount of material wasted on the static Atlantic Wall which contributed absolutely nothing after the allies got ashore on the first day.
Contrast the ruthless axing of overlapping complex programs such as Rolls Royce’s dead end upgrade improvement and attempted X-24 layout development of the old Kestrel V-12, cancelling the Westland Whirlwind, Hawker Tornado and the Avro Manchester with all the unorganised, unrestrained hare brained waste in nazi Germany which was so out of touch with hard reality that it later spawned all the Wehraboo super ahead of its time myths such as the Horten brothers useless but wacky _stealth fighter._
Greg, great video. Thank you for all the time you spend researching and putting these together. I've got some books relating to aircraft that maybe you've read, but maybe not. If you want them I'd be happy to give them to you. I'm not a Patreon supporter but I would give them to you just to say thanks if you're interested in them.
Thank you for a very interesting video. It would be interesting to see what fuel the Swedish used in the DB605B engines used in the Saab 21 and 18B.
This was super interesting. 1h17min flew by easily. Thank you Greg.
Perhaps Chris from MAH could help with obtaining some LW documents in your future projects / videos to fill in the remaining gaps, such as why the C3 octane potential wasn't exploited? :)
Wondeful deep dive ,,, Thanks 👍
I was wondering if you and Chris were aware of each other. A collaboration between the two of you would be epic.
We don't know each other, but we have communicated a few times via email. I have a lot of respect for his work. Same with Bernhard.
I have definitely seen other references to their work in Greg's videos, and I think I've read correspondence from Chris (MAH) that he has seen Greg's videos.
Not exactly a surprise, as they cover a lot of similar material from very different viewpoints and different levels of detail!
This needs to happen. Collaboration is an understatement; a full loop closure would better describe the many detailed connection that would be made.
Chris can't even pronounce "Junkers" or "Jumo" right most of the time. I's embarrassing since he is German.
@@Ausf.D.A.K. -- Chris has addressed that in one of his about-the-channel videos. He is using the English language style of pronunciation, because his videos are in English. It is a stylistic choice that I personally disagree with, but it is why he deliberately mis-pronounces "Junkers" and "Jumo".
Now if only he wouldn't use the German pronunciation of "GMBH", it would be a bit more consistent.
Hello Greg I enjoyed this listening to this information.
Oh my Dog, I had to sit in an hour plus long traffic queue and had this playing through bluetooth. It was so awesome to listen to this fascinating topic and your presentation of it during my commute time. Strangely enough, I had Callum's book on the passenger seat as, I'd ordered it months ago and it finally arrived. BTW, love Chris, too. He's definitely well-researched and presented on complex topics in aviation. CZcams is just not made for folks as thorough and expert as the two of you are. BTW, I wonder, if the 601 had roller bearings, it must have had a pressed together crankshaft to allow for this, no? Sorry, haven't cracked Callum's book yet, lol.
At least I am not the only one, who hasn't "done his homework" before watching this video. I hope to find some time on vacation to dig through the book! My professional network has covered it with praised (in fact the anticipation was such that we were in a race, to who got a signed copy first).