Technology during World War II
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Technology played a significant role in World War II. Some of the technologies used during the war were developed during the interwar years of the 1920s and 1930s, much was developed in response to needs and lessons learned during the war, while others were beginning to be developed as the war ended. Many wars have had major effects on the technologies that we use in our daily lives, but World War II had the greatest effect on the technology and devices that are used today. Technology also played a greater role in the conduct of World War II than in any other war in history, and had a critical role in its outcome.
Many types of technology were customized for military use, and major developments occurred across several fields including:
- Weaponry: ships, vehicles, submarines, aircraft, tanks, artillery, small arms; and biological, chemical, and atomic weapons
- Logistical support: vehicles necessary for transporting soldiers and supplies, such as trains, trucks, tanks, ships, and aircraft
- Communications and intelligence: devices used for remote sensing, navigation, communication, cryptography and espionage
- Medicine: surgical innovations, chemical medicines, and techniques
- Rocketry: guided missiles, medium-range ballistic missiles, and automatic aircraft
Military weapons technology experienced rapid advances during World War II, and over six years there was a disorientating rate of change in combat in everything from aircraft to
World War II was the first war where military operations often targeted the research efforts of the enemy. This included the exfiltration of
Between The Wars
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In August 1919 the British
The great artillery manufacturer
In the late 1920s, Germany helped the Soviet industry begin to modernize and to assist in the establishment of tank production facilities at the
In France the lesson of World War I was translated into the
As always, Germany was at the forefront of internal combustion engine development. The laboratory of Ludwig Prandtl at University of Göttingen was the world center of aerodynamics and fluid dynamics in general, until its dispersal after the Allied victory. This contributed to the German development of jet aircraft and of submarines with improved underwater performance. Meanwhile, the RAF secretly developed the Chain Home radar and Dowding system for defending against enemy planes.
Induced nuclear fission was discovered in Germany in 1939 by Otto Hahn (and expatriate Jews in Sweden), but many of the scientists needed to develop nuclear power had already been lost, due to Nazi anti-Jewish and anti-intellectual policies.
Scientists have been at the heart of warfare and their contributions have often been decisive. As
Allied cooperation
The Allies of World War II cooperated extensively in the development and manufacture of existing and new technologies to support military operations and intelligence gathering during the Second World War. There were various ways in which the allies cooperated, including the American Lend-Lease scheme and hybrid weapons such as the Sherman Firefly as well as the British Tube Alloys nuclear weapons research project which was absorbed into the American-led Manhattan Project. Several technologies invented in Britain proved critical to the military and were widely manufactured by the Allies during the Second World War.[5][6][7][8]
The origin of the cooperation stemmed from a 1940 visit by the
Vehicles
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The best
Aircraft
In the
Since the end of World War I, the
German aircraft rapidly achieved air superiority over France in early 1940, allowing the Luftwaffe to begin a campaign of strategic bombing against British cities. Utilizing France's airfields near the English Channel the Germans were able to launch raids on London and other cities during the Blitz, with varying degrees of success.
After World War I, the concept of massed aerial bombing—"The bomber will always get through"—had become very popular with politicians and military leaders seeking an alternative to the carnage of trench warfare, and as a result, the air forces of Britain, France, and Germany had developed fleets of bomber planes to enable this (France's bomber wing was severely neglected, whilst Germany's bombers were developed in secret as they were explicitly forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles).
Air warfare of World War II began with the bombing of Shanghai by the Imperial Japanese Navy on January 28, 1932, and August 1937. The bombings during the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), further demonstrated the power of strategic bombing, and so air forces in Europe and the United States came to view bomber aircraft as extremely powerful weapons which, in theory, could bomb an enemy nation into submission on their own. The resulting fear of bombers triggered major developments in aircraft technology.
The Spanish Civil War had proved that tactical dive-bombing using
British long-range bomber planes such as the
Despite the abilities of Allied bombers, though, Germany was not quickly crippled by Allied
The practical jet aircraft age began just before the start of the war with the development of the Heinkel He 178, the first true turbojet. Late in the war, the Germans brought in the first operational Jetfighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262(Me 262). However, despite their seeming technological edge, German jets were often hampered by technical problems, such as short engine lives, with the Me 262 having an estimated operating life of just ten hours before failing.[10] German jets were also overwhelmed by Allied air superiority, frequently being destroyed on or near the airstrip. The first and only operational Allied jet fighter of the war, the British Gloster Meteor, saw combat against German V-1 flying bombs[11] but did not significantly distinguish from top-line, late-war piston-driven aircraft.
Aircraft saw rapid and broad development during the war to meet the demands of aerial combat and address lessons learned from combat experience. From the open cockpit airplane to the sleek jet fighter, many different types were employed, often designed for very specific missions. Aircraft were used in anti-submarine warfare against German U-boats, by the Germans to mine shipping lanes and by the Japanese against previously formidable Royal Navy battleships such as HMS Prince of Wales (53).
During the war the Germans produced various glide bombs, which were the first "smart" weapons; the V-1 flying bomb, which was the first
Fuel
The Axis countries had serious shortages of petroleum from which to make liquid fuel. The Allies had much more petroleum production. Germany, long before the war, developed a process to make
The USA added
Land vehicles
The Treaty of Versailles had imposed severe restrictions upon Germany constructing vehicles for military purposes, and so throughout the 1920s and 1930s, German arms manufacturers and the Wehrmacht had begun secretly developing tanks. As these vehicles were produced in secret, their technical specifications and battlefield potentials were largely unknown to the European Allies until the war actually began.
French and British Generals believed that a future war with Germany would be fought under very similar conditions as those of 1914–1918. Both invested in thickly armoured, heavily armed vehicles designed to cross shell-damaged ground and trenches under fire. At the same time the British also developed faster but lightly armoured Cruiser tanks to range behind the enemy lines.
Only a handful of French tanks had radios, and these often broke as the tank lurched over uneven ground. German tanks were, on the contrary, all equipped with radios, allowing them to communicate with one another throughout battles, whilst French tank commanders could rarely contact other vehicles.
The
World War II marked the first full-scale war where
The most visible vehicles were the
Ships
Naval warfare changed dramatically during World War II, with the ascent of the aircraft carrier to the premier vessel of the fleet, and the impact of increasingly capable submarines on the course of the war. The development of new ships during the war was somewhat limited due to the protracted time period needed for production, but important developments were often retrofitted to older vessels. Advanced German submarine types came into service too late and after nearly all the experienced crews had been lost.
In addition to aircraft carriers, its assisting counterpart of
The German
The Kriegsmarine introduced the
The most important shipboard advances were in the field of anti-submarine warfare. Driven by the desperate necessity of keeping Britain supplied, technologies for the detection and destruction of submarines was advanced at high priority. The use of ASDIC (SONAR) became widespread and so did the installation of shipboard and airborne radar. The Allies Ultra code breaking allowed convoys to be steered around German U-boat wolfpacks.
Weapons
The actual weapons (guns, mortars, artillery, bombs, and other devices) were as diverse as the participants and objectives. A large array were developed during the war to meet specific needs that arose, but many traced their early development to prior to World War II. Torpedoes began to use magnetic detonators; compass-directed, programmed and even acoustic guidance systems; and improved propulsion. Fire-control systems continued to develop for ships' guns and came into use for torpedoes and anti-aircraft fire. Human torpedoes and the Hedgehog were also developed.
- Armoured vehicles: The flail tanks, flame tank, and amphibious designs
- Aircraft: Messerschmitt 163)
- Missiles: The pulse jet-powered V-1 flying bomb was the world's first cruise missile, Rockets progressed enormously: V-2 rocket, Katyusharocket artillery and air-launched rockets.
- Specialised bombs: cluster bombs, blockbuster bombs, bouncing bombs, and bunker busters.
- Specialised warheads: high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT), and high-explosive squash head (HESH) for anti-armour and anti-fortification use.
- Proximity fuze for shells, bombs and rockets. This fuze is designed to detonate an explosive automatically when close enough to the target to destroy it, so a direct hit is not required and time/place of closest approach does not need to be estimated. Magnetic torpedoes and mines also had a sort of proximity fuse.[clarification needed]
- Guided weapons (by radio or trailing wires): glide bombs, crawling bombs and rockets – the precursors of today's MCLOSradio-guided ordnance designs in World War II service.
- Self-guiding weapons: torpedoes (sound-seeking, compass-guided and looping), V1 missile (compass- and timer-guided), and the U.S. Navy's Bat air-launched anti-ship glide ordnance, using active radar homingfor the first time anywhere.
- Aiming devices for bombs, torpedoes, artillery and machine guns, using special purpose mechanical and electronic analog and (perhaps) digital "computers". The mechanical analog Norden bomb sightis a well-known example.
- The first generation of nerve agents was invented and produced in Germany, but wasn't used as a weapon
- Napalm was developed, but did not see wide use until the Korean War
- Nobel 808, Hexoplast 75, Compositions C and C2
Small arms development
New production methods for weapons such as stamping, riveting, and welding came into being to produce the number of arms needed. Design and production methods had advanced enough to manufacture weapons of reasonable reliability such as the
World War II saw the establishment of the reliable
Developments in
Despite being overshadowed by self-loading/automatic rifles and sub-machine guns, bolt-action rifles remained the mainstay infantry weapon of many nations during World War II. When the United States entered World War II, there were not enough
During the conflict, many new models of
When World War II ended in 1945, the small arms that were used in the conflict still saw action in the hands of the armed forces of various nations and guerrilla movements during and after the Cold War era. Nations like the Soviet Union and the United States provided many surplus, World War II-era small arms to a number of nations and political movements during the Cold War era as a pretext to providing more modern infantry weapons.
Atomic bomb
The
In July 1940, Britain offered to give the United States access to its scientific research,
Between 1942 and 1946, the American project was under the direction of Brigadier General
The
Work on weapon design was carried out by
The
Electronics, communications and intelligence
Electronics rose to prominence quickly. Blitzkrieg was highly effective early in the war, with all German tanks having a radio. Enemy forces quickly learned from their defeats, discarded their obsolete tactics, and installed radios.
Equipment designed for communications and the interception of communications became critical. World War II cryptography became an important application, and the newly developed machine ciphers, mostly rotor machines, were widespread. By the end of 1940, the Germans had broken most American and all British military ciphers except the Enigma-based Typex.
The Germans in turn widely relied on their own variants of the
German radio intelligence operations during World War II were extensive. The intercept part of signals intelligence was for the most part successful but success in cryptanalysis depended in large part on loose discipline in enemy radio operations.
Americans also used electronic computers for equations, such as battlefield equations, ballistics, and more. The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (
Rocketry
Rocketry was used greatly in World War II. There were many different inventions and advances in rocketry, such as the following.
The V-1, which is also known as the buzz bomb. This automatic aircraft would be known as a "cruise missile" today. The V-1 was developed at Peenemünde Army Research Center by the Nazi German Luftwaffe during the Second World War. During initial development it was known by the codename "Cherry Stone". The first of the so-called Vergeltungswaffen series designed for terror bombing of London, the V-1 was fired from launch facilities along the French (Pas-de-Calais) and Dutch coasts. The first V-1 was launched at London on 13 June 1944), one week after (and prompted by) the successful Allied landings in Europe. At its peak, more than one hundred V-1s a day were fired at south-east England, 9,521 in total, decreasing in number as sites were overrun until October 1944, when the last V-1 site in range of Britain was overrun by Allied forces. After this, the V-1s were directed at the port of Antwerp and other targets in Belgium, with 2,448 V-1s being launched. The attacks stopped when the last launch site was overrun on 29 March 1945.
The V-2 (
These two rocketry advances took the lives of many civilians in London during 1944 and 1945.
Medicine
See also
- Military invention
- Military funding of science
- Military production during World War II
- List of equipment used in World War II
- List of ships of the Second World War
- List of aircraft of World War II
Notes
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- ^ Dominic Selwood (29 January 2014). "The man who invented poison gas". The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2 February 2014. Retrieved 29 January 2014.
- ^ Roberts, Eric (16 March 2004). "British Technology and the Second World War". Stanford University. Retrieved 26 April 2015.
- ^ Paul Kennedy, Engineers of Victory: The Problem Solvers Who Turned The Tide in the Second World War (2013)
- ^ James W. Brennan, "The Proximity Fuze: Whose Brainchild?," U.S. Naval Institute Proceedings (1968) 94#9 pp 72–78.
- ISBN 9780814208526.
- ^ James Phinney Baxter III (Official Historian of the Office of Scientific Research and Development), Scientists Against Time (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1946), page 142.
- ^ "Jet Fighters: Inside & Out", Jim Winchester, 2012.
- ^ "Meteor I vs V1 Flying Bomb", Nijboer, Donald.
- ^ Parshall and Tully, Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway. p. 336.
- ^ Jones 1985, p. 12.
- ^ Rhodes 1986, pp. 322–325.
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 39–42.
- ^ Gowing 1964, p. 109.
- ^ Phelps 2010, pp. 126–128.
- ^ Phelps 2010, pp. 282–283.
- ^ Rhodes 1986, pp. 372–374.
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 43–44.
- ^ Jones 1985, pp. 41–44.
- ^ Gowing 1964, pp. 174–177.
- ^ Jones 1985, p. 344.
- ^ Wellerstein, Alex (1 November 2013). "How many people worked on the Manhattan Project?". Restricted Data. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
- ^ "The secret cities where the atomic bomb was built". CNN Style. Retrieved 28 March 2023.
- Gross Domestic Product deflatorfigures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 723–724.
- ^ O'Brien 2015, pp. 47–48.
- ^ Smyth 1945, pp. 154–156.
- ^ Smyth 1945, pp. 158–163.
- ^ Hewlett & Anderson 1962, pp. 89–91.
- ^ Groves 1962, pp. 53–55.
- ^ Jones 1985, pp. 204–206.
- ^ Groves 1962, pp. 85–89.
- ^ Groves 1962, pp. 149–150.
- ^ Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 226–229.
- ^ Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 245–248.
- ^ Hoddeson et al. 1993, pp. 245–249.
- ^ Rhodes 1986, p. 541.
- ^ Groves 1962, pp. 315–322, 341–346.
- ^ Landsman 2002, pp. 301–303.
- ^ Shapley 1978, pp. 152–157.
- ^ Macintyre, Ben (10 December 2010). "Bravery of thousands of Poles was vital in securing victory". The Times. London. p. 27.
- ^ "The Brief History of the ENIAC Computer". Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved 2021-11-07.
- ^ "Computer History". www.cs.kent.edu. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
- ^ "Discovery and Development of Penicillin: International Historic Chemical Landmark". Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society. Archived from the original on 28 June 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ^ "Nursing History: The History of WWII Medicine for Schools". NurseGroups.com. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ^ a b Trueman, C.N. (16 Jun 2019). "Medicine And World War Two". The History Learning Site. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ^ Tobey, Raymond E. (23 February 2018). "Advances in Medicine During Wars". Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Foreign Policy Research Institute. Archived from the original on 15 July 2019. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
References
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- Jones, Vincent (1985). Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb (PDF). Washington, D.C.: United States Army Center of Military History. OCLC 10913875. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
- Landsman, Nicolaas P. (2002). "Getting even with Heisenberg" (PDF). ISSN 0039-3681.
- OCLC 907550561.
- Phelps, Stephen (2010). The Tizard Mission: the Top-Secret Operation that Changed the Course of World War II. Yardley, Pennsylvania: Westholme. OCLC 642846903.
- OCLC 13793436.
- Shapley, Deborah (13 January 1978). "Nuclear Weapons History: Japan's Wartime Bomb Projects Revealed". PMID 17812933.
- OCLC 770285.
Further reading
- Ford, Brian J. (1969). German Secret Weapons: Blueprint for Mars (Ballantine's Illustrated History of World War II / the Violent Century: Weapons Book #5)
- Ford, Brian J. (1970). Allied Secret Weapons: The War of Science (Ballantine's Illustrated History of World War II / the Violent Century: Weapons Book #19)