Quote Originally Posted by Kalaska'Agathas View Post
On topic: speaking of the blitz, why was it that Gloster Meteors were kept at home on V1 busting duty rather than used against the new Me 262 threat? While they developed tactics to successfully do so, why would the allies throw piston aircraft at jets when you have jets of your own?

That was kinda well after the Blitz, but...

Range, I suspect. And secrecy. It was still an experimental weapon, and putting it against V1s was nice and 'safe' and wouldn't result in one landing in the German's laps.

And although a lot of aircraft were moved across to Europe to operate closer to the front lines and extend their range, I suspect that things would be trickier with the meteor. You can take a Spitfire or a Mustang off from a grass strip, but you need a metalled surface for jets, and the allies were busy bombing them all, so there weren't many to capture.


Perhaps the claim that the sword was "better" than the polearm should be amended with "in single combat".
It really shouldn't. Pole weapons wielded with equal skill are still generally at least the equal to swords, even in single combat. In England the shod staff was viewed as a fearsome weapon, while over in Japan the spearman was reckoned to have the edge over the swordsman. Swords are in no way 'better' than pole weapons at killing people.

Swords are a weapon of the wealthy and a badge of rank. They're also handy to carry around and useful in a wide degree of circumstances against a wide range of threats. They are an expensive compromise in many ways. We've just been bought up to look up at swords as some kind of fantastic thing. So the 'mythology' is still working.


Would a curved blade sword, like a cutlass or a cavalry saber, be used as a side-arm?
Yup. Look at Japan. In the West though, such weapons only became prevalent long after the age of mythology, so the swords of our myths are straight ones.

Curved swords make great light cavalry blades, so were very popular as such in many cultures.


and see if the place is still there, and wheter the bomb is still there.
There are VERY few factories of the period still standing. But bomb disposal teams being called in to deal with 60 year old unexploded ordinance tends to be something that still occurs fairly regularly.