The fanboys always seem to go week at the knees at the mere mention of the wunderwaffe. Was Germany really that technologically superior to Britain? How would the Meteor compare to the Me 262 for instance?
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Asides from rocketry, is there really any area where the Germans were able to make any significant lead over Allied scientific and technological knowledge?
Asides from rocketry, is there really any area where the Germans were able to make any significant lead over Allied scientific and technological knowledge?
Early on in the war German radar was better than Britain, the wurzburg was accurate enough for AA gunnery.
but the entire island of England.
German Rifles and machine guns were more advanced (e.g. MG 42/43 and Sturmgewehr 44)
Early on in the war German radar was better than Britain, the wurzburg was accurate enough for AA gunnery.
I think the OP is rather over simplistic. It could be argued that in matters of pure technology the Germans were more advanced but in the application of appropiate technology for the prosecution of the war Great Britain was way ahead.
Well, there was once an Arab geographer who thought that Scotland was a separate island, connected by the bridge of Stirling...Sorry to nitpick but since when has England been an island.
I think the OP is rather over simplistic. It could be argued that in matters of pure technology the Germans were more advanced but in the application of appropiate technology for the prosecution of the war Great Britain was way ahead.
In addition to the physical barriers that had to be overcome, for the German economic recovery there were also intellectual challenges. The Allies confiscated intellectual property of great value, all German patents both in Germany and abroad, and used them to strengthen their own industrial competitiveness by licensing them to Allied companies.[73] Beginning immediately after the German surrender and continuing for the next two years, the U.S. pursued a vigorous program to harvest all technological and scientific know-how as well as all patents in Germany. John Gimbel comes to the conclusion, in his book "Science Technology and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany", that the "intellectual reparations" taken by the U.S. and the UK amounted to close to $10 billion.[74][75][76] During the more than two years that this policy was in place, no industrial research in Germany could take place[citation needed], as any results would have been automatically available to overseas competitors who were encouraged by the occupation authorities to access all records and facilities. Meanwhile thousands of the best[77] German researchers were being put to work in the Soviet Union and in the U.K. and U.S. (see also Operation Paperclip).
Well, the Allies looted $10 Billion in 1945 worth of technology and patents from Germany after the war:
http://www.amazon.com/Science-Technology-Reparations-Exploitation-Plunder/dp/0804717613
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgenthau_Plan#Implementation
The Germans were significantly ahead in synthetic materials, had invented the magnetic recording tape, which was unknown to anyone outside of Germany, and had done a lot of interesting work with electronics.
However it should be noted that when the US army corps of engineers did a survey of German science during the Nazi era they found that depending on the field they were so badly organized due to the Nazi system that they produced between 10-50% of what they could have.
http://www.amazon.com/German-research-world-war-II/dp/B0007DVL80
The majority of the German rifles were not the Sturmgewehr 44s, they were bolt action-rifles which were quite handily outclassed by a fair number of allied rifles like the M1.
While the MG 42 was good as well, I was under the impression that it was also a result of such a firepower inferiority and a reliance on machine guns to compensate - although I admit that my knowledge concerning WW2 small arms is abysmal. Either way, the Allies weren't lacking in their own machine guns that were competent enough.
Good story, but the analogy would be that the enemy being fought were more akin to the Russians. At no time do they make any noticeable tehnological improvements the way the British from their jets to improve anti tank rounds to super bombs.Reminiscent of the Arthur C. Clarke short story "Superiority" which was based on the Nazi Wonder Weapons.
http://www.mayofamily.com/RLM/txt_Clarke_Superiority.html