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Re: Luftwaffe copy the Merlin
Re the B29/Tu4. The story goes that Stalin ordered the copy, saying "It must be exact, down to the last nut and bolt". Stalin's orders were not disobeyed, to do so meant a bullet in the back of the head.
So, the Russians produced nuts and bolts and everything else, to the American imperial measures, not even daring to use their own perfectly adequate metric equivalents. Thus prolonging development even further.
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Peter Verney ex nav/rad
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