>>Hitler’s Germany, thought that wonder weapons would turn the tide of their deteriorating war machine...

My wife's uncle (UIL?) as part of allied air development was in England through WWII. At the close he got to fly one of Germany's wunder waffen - the jet engine fighter. According to him, it outclassed everything the Allies had in the air - speed and climb wise. The Germans had working jet engines, which might have changed the course of the war (and might not) - but their jet engines pretty much all went into bombers - and they couldn't make enough of those to make a difference.

Very cool guy, was in the first MIT class of aeronautical engineers (19...32?). He had lots of stories. When I got to know him, he was losing his eyesight to macular degeneration, so I got to escort him to a couple of MIT class reunions, and flew with him to the 85 (or 6?) Paris Air Show (lots of military hardware; he seemed to know everyone there) via SST. I miss the guy. He had time for everyone, loved to laugh.

Anyway, the air war over Brittain was a closer thing than most history books make it out to be. Ambassador Joseph Kennedy (JFK's dad) skedaddled, leasing one Brit to quip: "I thought daffodils were yellow, then I met Joe Kennedy!". He was quickly replaced by FDR, but the risk was real.

Far off topic, sorry.