Even as the Third Reich teetered on the brink of collapse and the Wehrmacht was forced into a desperate retreat to Berlin, Nazi engineering continued to unveil weapons decades ahead of their time, leaving allied tacticians in bewildered awe.
As they drove into the heart of Germany, some GIs were confronted by a chilling and unfamiliar racketing. The haunting mechanical hum brought their advance to a sudden halt, and then, rising from the horizon came an unprecedented flying contraption: the first helicopter used in war.
The Flettner Fl 282 Kolibri, swift and groundbreaking, soared into the closing chapters of World War 2, a last-ditch effort to change the course of the conflict and reverse Nazi Germany’s impending demise.
The type of aircraft that would define warfare for the next 100 years made its debut as it combed Europe’s battlefields, scouting for allied formations and artillery positions.
In the 1940s, such a sight seemed like it was plucked from the pages of science fiction. Yet, for all its technological marvel, this pioneering aircraft faced overwhelming odds if it was to leave a mark in history as defeat bore down on Nazi Germany…
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never heard of this after decades of WWII study! i always thought sikorsky helicopter was the first!
Großartig! Danke dafür!👌
Slow, vulnerable, short range, unarmed.
They were no good for German blitz warfare nor for the eventual retreating from allied air superiority in the last years of the war.
America stole everything from the nazis . America is the new nazi regime
Good done….revealed this hide matter in the majority of WW2 history records…..good luck (dark skies ) channel …. I think the first attempt for producing helicopters by engineer Sikorski in Russian Empire times .
The end of WW2 American cowboys stole nearly all top technology from Germany. 😏
Spoils of war are not stolen…js
Good info tho. Very interesting
Just started the vid and already a bunch of silliness- nothing the nazis made was ahead of their time. That was a gyrocopter, not a helicopter. The Nazis didn't pioneer that or invent it, it's something that had been around for decades.
It was not "stolen by America". The Nazi butchers lost the war and Germany is lucky the country wasn't broken down into parcels to be handed to bordering nations.
The German people were not dumb just the leadership!
An I don’t call it stealing at all
Wasn't stolen, it was/is on loan and the Americans plan to give it back!!!
It was part of the war, it went to the winner.
The Germans came up with a lot of neat weapons which the Americans and Russians stole.
Why no tail rotor?
Thank you for this succinct and to the point documentary on this important invention!
Let's see, the German's had the first assault rifle the Sturmgewehr 44, the first Cruise Missile, the V-1, the first long-range guided ballistic missile, the first television guided bomb the HS293, the world's first jet fighter the ME-262, the first jet bomber the Arado Ar 234 B Blitz, the first rocket powered interceptor the ME 163 Komet, the Tiger. Tiger II, the Panther, and the first combat helicopter? We were lucky we won the war.
To the victor go the spoils.
This music makes me feel like I am 15 again shopping in Abercrombie and Fitch