Hitler and Mussolini discussed the Führer’s secret weapons for the first time at Klassheim Castle. The meeting lasted three days. Hitler realized late (fortunately for us) the potential of these weapons, which had actually been under development for several years, often before the war, and would only be dramatically accelerated in the final months of the conflict, when the Nazis’ military situation was desperate. Furthermore, these innovative weapons were often used ineffectively at the Führer’s stubborn orders, as in the case of the Messerschmitt 262, an innovative jet fighter capable of 1,000 km/h versus the 665 km/h maximum speed of the American P-51 Mustang, the fastest Allied fighter of the time. Hitler insisted on making it an offensive rather than defensive fighter-bomber, weighing it down with a ton of bombs and thus limiting its speed to just 200 km/h.
