Technology during World War II

German Enigma encryption machine

Technology during World War II played a crucial role in determining the outcome of the war. Much of it had begun development during the interwar years of the 1920s and 1930s, some was developed in response to lessons learned during the war, and yet more was only beginning to be developed as the war ended. Given the scope of the war and the rapid technological escalation which happened during the war, a vast array of technology was employed, as different nations and different units found themselves equipped with different levels of technology. No area of military technology did not see development during the war.

1 Areas of technology
2 Weaponry
3 Weapons
4 Electronics
5 Industrial technology
6 See also

Areas of technology

While nearly all types of technology was converted to participation or assistance in the war efforts of the participating nations, the most important items were those actually employed in the war. The main areas of technology which saw major developments were:

Weaponry; including ships, vehicles, aircraft, hand-held weapons, artillery, and rocketry.
Logistical Support; including vehicles necessary for transporting soldiers and supplies, such as trains, trucks, and aircraft.
Communications and Intelligence; including devices used for navigation, communication, and espionage.
Medical; including surgical innovations, chemical drugs, and techniques
Industrial; including the technologies employed at factories and production/distribution centres.

Weaponry

Weapons technology experienced rapid advances during the Second World War. The war began with most armies utilising technology that had changed little from the First World War, and in some cases (such as Polish lancers), had remained unchanged from the nineteenth century. The war began with cavalry, trench systems, and WWI-era battleships, but within only six years, armies around the world had come to rely on jet aircraft, ICBMs, and atomic weapons.

Aircraft

In the Western European theatre, air power became crucial throughout the war, both in tactical operations (battlefield) and strategically (long-range). Superior German aircraft allowed the German armies to overrun Western Europe with lightning speed in 1940, largely assisted by deficiencies with Allied aircraft.

Since the end of the First World War, the French Air Force had been badly neglected, as military leaders preferred to spend money on ground armies and static fortifications to fight another 1914–1918-style war. As a result, by 1940, the French Air Force had only 740 fighter planes and 140 bombers, against 8,250 Luftwaffe fighters and fighter-bombers. Most French airfields were located in north-east France, and were quickly overrun in the early stages of the campaign. Britain's Royal Air Force possessed some very advanced fighter planes, such as Spitfires and Hurricanes, but these were not useful for attacking ground troops on a battlefield, and the small number of planes dispatched to France with the British Expeditionary Force were destroyed fairly quickly. Subsequently, the Luftwaffe was able to achieve air superiority over France in 1940, giving the German military an immense advantage in terms of reconaissance and intelligence.

German aircraft rapidly achieved air superiority over France in early 1940, allowing the Luftwaffe to begin a campaign of strategic bombing against British cities. With France out of the war, German bomber planes based near the English Channel were able to launch raids on London and other cities during the Blitz, with varying degrees of success.

After the First World War, the concept of massed aerial bombing – the "Bomber Dream" – 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). Wars across the world in the 1930's, such as the Spanish Civil War and the bombing of Shanghai, had demonstrated the power of strategic bombing, and so air forces in Europe and America came to view bomber aircraft as extremely powerful weapons which, in theory, could bomb an enemy nation into submission on their own. As a consequence, the fear of bombers triggered major developments in aircraft technology.

Germany had not developed large, long-range strategic bombers as it was thought that tactical medium bombers would be much more useful on the battlefield. The Spanish Civil War had proved that tactical dive-bombing using Stukas was a very efficient way of destroying enemy troops concentrations, and so resources and money had been devoted to the development of smaller bomber craft. As a result, the Luftwaffe was forced to attack London in 1940 with heavily overloaded Heinkel and Dornier medium bombers. These bombers were painfully slow – German engineers had been unable to develop piston engines

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 German Army had begun secretly developing tanks. As theses vehicles were produced in secret, their technical specifications and battlefield potentials were largely unknown to the European Allies until the war actually began. When German troops invaded the Benelux nations and France in May 1940, German weapons technology proved to be immeasurably superior to that of the Allies.

The French Army suffered from serious technical deficiencies with its tanks. In 1918, France's Renault tanks had been the most advanced in the world, easily capable of far outperforming their slow and clumsly British, German, or American counterparts. However, this superiority resulted in tank development stagnating after the First World War, and by 1939, French tanks were virtually unchanged from 1918. French and British Generals believed that a future war with Germany would be fought under very similar conditions as those of 1914–1918, and so invested in thickly-armoured, heavily-armed vehicles designed to cross trenches under fire. In contrast, the German Army invested in fast, light tanks designed to overtake infantry. These vehicles would be useless in trench warfare, but would vastly outperform British and French tanks in mechanized battles. German tanks followed the design of France's 1918 Renault versions – a thickly-armoured hull with a rotating turret on top mounting a cannon. This gave every German tank the ability to destroy other armoured vehicles, but in contrast, around 35% of French tanks were only equipped with machine-guns (again designed for trench warfare), ensuring that when French and German tanks met in battle, a third of the French vehicles could only fire machine-gun bullets, which simply bounced harmlessly off German armour. Only a handful of French tanks had radio sets, and these often broke as the tank lurched over uneven ground. German tanks were all equipped with radios, allowing them to communicate with one another throughout battles, whilst French tank commanders could rarely contact other vehicles. Britain's Matilda tanks were also designed for First World War conditions – with very thick armour. This was ideal for trench warfare, but made the tanks painfully slow in open battles. Their light cannons and machine-guns were usually unable to inflict serious damage on German vehicles. The exposed caterpillar tracks were easily broken by gunfire, and the Matilda tanks had a tendency to incinerate their crews if hit, as the petrol tanks were located on the top of the hull. Inevitably, British and French tanks were powerless against German armoured assaults, and a lack of armoured support contributed significantly to the rapid Allied collapse in 1940.

World War II marked the first full-scale war where mechanization played a significant role. Most nations did not begin the war equipped for this. Even the vaunted German Panzer forces relied heavily on non-motorised support and flank units in large operations. While Germany recognized and demonstrated the value of concentrated use of mechanized forces, they never had these units in enough quantity to supplant traditional units. However, the British also saw the value in mechanization. For them it was a way to enhance an otherwise limited manpower reserve. America as well sought to create a mechanized army. For the United States, it was not so much a matter of limited troops, but instead a strong industrial base that could afford such equipment on a great scale.

The most visible vehicles of the war are the tanks, forming the armoured spearhead of mechanized warfare. Their impressive firepower and armor made them the premier fighting machine of ground warfare. However, even more important to a fighting mechanized army were the large number of trucks and lighter vehicles that kept the army moving.

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 face of naval tactics. 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.

Submarines

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 biplane to the sleek jet fighter, many different types were employed, often designed for very specific missions.

Weapons

The actual weapons; the guns, mortars, artillery, bombs, and other devices used to actually do the killing and destruction, were as diverse as the participants and objectives. A bewildering array were developed during the war to meet specific needs that arose, but many traced their development to prior to World War I.

Note that weapon can be taken to mean any tool used to hurt the enemy. Thus one can consider the United States' industrial might to be a weapon against the Axis. This would not be incorrect, but for the purpose of this article and sub-articles, the term weapon is taken to mean the actual instrument of destruction, and not the vehicle it is carried on.

Specific Weapons substantially invented during the war were:

Infantry Weapons: The Bazooka and Panzerschreck Rocket propelled grenade and the PIAT Anti-tank weapons, the Assault rifle, the Rifle grenade
Armour Weapons: The Tank destroyer, Specialist Tanks for Combat engineering including mine clearing Flail tanks, Flame tank, Submersible tanks.
Aircraft: Jet fighter aircraft, the Glide bomb – the first "smart bomb",
Missiles: The Pulse jet powered V-1 flying bomb was the world's first cruise missile, Rockets progressed enormously: V-2 rocket, Katyusha rocket artillery and air launched rockets.
Components HEAT Anti Armour warhead; Proximity fuse for shells, bombs and rockets.
Explosives Atomic bomb

Electronics

Electronics rose to prominance quickly in World War II. While prior to the war few electronics were seen as important pieces of equipment, by the middle of the war such instruments as radar and ASDIC had proven their value. Additionally equipment designed for communications and the interception of those communications was, becoming critical.

Industrial technology

While the development of new equipment was rapid, it was also important to be able to produce these tools and get them to the troops in appropriate quantity. Those nations that were able to maximize their industrial capacity and mobilize it for the war effort were most successful at equipping their troops in a timely way with adequate material.