Military Technology During WW2
World War II was the first war where military operations widely targeted the research efforts of the enemy. This included the exfiltration of Niels Bohr from German-occupied Denmark to Britain in 1943; the sabotage of Norwegian heavy water production; and the bombing of Peenemunde. n August, 1919 the British Ten Year Rule declared the government should not expect another war within ten years.The great artillery manufacturer Krupp was soon active in the south of the USSR, near Rostov-on-Don. In 1925, a flying school was established at Vivupal, near Lipetsk, to train the first pilots for the future Luftwaffe. Since 1926, the Reichswehr had been able to use a tank school at Kazan (codenamed Kama) and a chemical weapons facility in Samara Oblast (codenamed Tomka). In turn, the Red Army gained access to these training facilities, as well as military technology and theory from Weimar Germany. In the late 1920's, Germany helped Soviet industry begin to modernize, and to assist in the establishment of tank production facilities at the Leningrad Bolshevik Factory and the Kharkov Locomotive Factory. This cooperation would break down when Hitler rose to power in 1933.
In January 1941 RCA proposed a new TV-guided anti-shipping weapon called Dragon for which an operator would use the TV image sent from the nose of the weapon and operate aerodynamic controls during the weapon’s fall. The Pelican was a June 1942 modification to instead drop depth charges against submarines using semi-active radar homing. By mid-1943, the design was changed again to use a new active radar homing system from Western Electric with a 2,000-pound. The Bat was the production version which combined the original NBS airframe with a 1,000-pound (454 kg) AN-M65 GP bomb. the same basic ordnance that was used in the contemporary Azon guided munition, and the Pelican active radar system. Strategic bombing during World War II was the sustained aerial attack on railways, harbours, cities, workers’ housing, and industrial districts in enemy territory during World War II. Strategic bombing is a military strategy which is distinct from both close air support of ground forces and tactical air power. During World War II, it was believed by many military strategists of air power that major victories could be won by attacking industrial and political infrastructure. Strategic bombing often involved bombing areas inhabited by civilians and some campaigns were deliberately designed to target civilian populations in order to terrorize and disrupt their usual activities. Strategic bombing during World War II began on 1 September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland. the Luftwaffe (German Air Force) began bombing cities and the civilian population in Poland in an indiscriminate aerial bombardment campaign. As the war continued to expand, bombing by both the Axis and the Allies increased significantly. When the United States began flying bombing missions against Germany, it reinforced these efforts and controversial firebombings were carried out against Hamburg (1943), Dresden (1945), and other German cities. When the war began on 1 September 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt, President of the neutral United States, issued an appeal to the major belligerents (Britain, France, Germany, and Poland) to confine their air raids to military targets. The British and French agreed to abide by the request, with the British reply undertaking to “confine bombardment to strictly military objectives upon the understanding that these same rules of warfare will be scrupulously observed by all their opponents”. Germany also agreed to abide by Roosevelt’s request and explained the bombing of Warsaw as within the agreement because it was supposedly a fortified city — Germany did not have a policy of targeting enemy civilians as part of their doctrine prior to World War II. The British Government’s policy was formulated on 31 August 1939: if Germany initiated unrestricted air action,
Earlier wars may have planted the seeds for lethality, but this new war that engulfed the planet was a quantum leap into the future of weaponry. The weapons were often utilized with a degree of barbaric cruelty and hatred. Automation became a standard for what had merely been mechanical. The pistol was notoriously inaccurate and useful only in close combat.This weapon was carried by infantry officers, tank crews and pilots. There were no significant innovations from those pistols used in World War 1. All were semi-automatic. Many of the armies entered the war equipped with World War 1 rifles. Americans were issued 1903 Springfield, bolt action. The Japanese were using a weapon that was in vogue in the Russo-Japanese conflict of 1904. By 1945, the standard rifle for the United States was the 9 lb Garand M1 (John Garand) with a maximum range of 5500 feet. The rifle was semi automatic and self loading. It was gas operated and fed with an 8 clip .30 caliber cartridge. Its sight was extremely accurate and the gun unaffected by weather. The butt carried swabs, brush and cleaning rod. Its simplicity was confirmed by every infantryman who could it tear it down and put it together in the dark. It was described as 9 plus pounds of terrific “knock down” power and never jammed.
Tanks were an important weapons system in World War II. Even though tanks in the inter-war years were the subject of widespread research, production was limited to relatively small numbers in a few countries. However, during World War II most armies employed tanks, and production levels reached thousands each month. The tank was invented by the British in World War I. World War I tanks moved at a walking pace, were relatively unreliable, and the best usage of them was still developing up to the war’s end. A breakthrough in tank design was the Christie suspension: a suspension system developed by American engineer J. Walter Christie which allowed considerably longer movement of the suspension than conventional leaf-spring systems then in common use, and allowed the tanks to have considerably greater cross-country speed. Tank design gradually improved in the inter-war period also. Reflecting the growth of the automotive industry, tank engines, transmissions, and track systems were improved. By the beginning of the war in September 1939, tanks were available that could travel hundreds of miles on their tracks with a limited number of breakdowns.
Military aircraft in World War II included bombers, fighters, and reconnaissance airplanes, as well as a limited number of cargo transports, gliders, blimps, and even jets. Aircraft of various kinds had played a highly visible, but relatively minor role in World War I, but during World War II they were arguably the most important weapons delivery system. Technologically, military aircraft rapidly evolved during the war. The wood-and-fabric biplanes of the Great War were superseded by sleek aluminum airframes with powerful, often supercharged piston engines. While the British had the Spitfire and the Germans the Messerschmitt, the U.S made innovations as well, developing the successful P-51 Mustang in collaboration with the British, and introducing important innovations in long-range bombers, such as the B-17 “Flying Fortress” and the famous B-29. The Germans, English, and Americans began to experiment with jet-powered aircraft, with the Germans and British actually flying some combat missions in them. These new aircraft achieved very high speeds using the jet engine, a new type of engine that had no propellers. The Germans, and, to a lesser extent, the Americans even developed pilotless, guided missiles during the war, such as Germany’s V1 and V2 weapons. However, the bulk of aerial combat was conducted using propeller-driven, human-piloted fighters and bombers.
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