Most Important Technology for Allies in WW2

Gawdzilla said:
50,000 Sherman tanks, for example. Vs. ~483 King Tigers. Every other number is just as out of proportion. "Detroit is on the front!"
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The 50,000 T-34, KV, and JS not built in Detroit tanks may have helped some too.

And the 25,000 British built tanks also marginally outnumbered the total Panzer III, IV, Panther and Tiger production as well.
 
I don't think you can state a single most important thing in a war as massive as WWII. There are dozens of Allied inventions that were critical to the war.

You didn't mention Higgins boats, Liberty ships and the jeep!

BTW: I thought the Norden bombsight was more myth than reality and that it was pretty much outdated by the start of US involvement.
 
Chaos said:
Production technology.

It wouldn´t have mattered if the Allies hadn´t had all those fancy modern gadget, as long as they could bury the Axis under heaps of newly built tanks, planes and warships.
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My vote goes to this too. Specifically, not only the capacity but also the philosophy: to build things that are "good enough", but are easy to build in vast quantities. Others have already mentioned the vast numbers of Shermans and T-34's that were churned out. Individually, those tanks were no match for the German Tiger, but the numbers produced say all. By comparison, the Germans lost themselves in ever more convoluted designs.
 
Spindrift said:
I don't think you can state a single most important thing in a war as massive as WWII. There are dozens of Allied inventions that were critical to the war.

You didn't mention Higgins boats, Liberty ships and the jeep!

BTW: I thought the Norden bombsight was more myth than reality and that it was pretty much outdated by the start of US involvement.
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With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and the post-war strategic bombing assessment, the bombs dropped by the Norden in the name of precision bombing didn't hit much of what we aimed at. A huge amount of blood and fortune that might have better been spent on something else went down that rat hole.
 
ohms said:
Wasn't the mass production of penicillin figured out during WWII? I would rate that quite highly.
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When my dad was injured in WWII, he noted that he received two concoctions he had no previous experience with: Sodium pentathol and penicillin.
 
ddt said:
My vote goes to this too. Specifically, not only the capacity but also the philosophy: to build things that are "good enough", but are easy to build in vast quantities. Others have already mentioned the vast numbers of Shermans and T-34's that were churned out. Individually, those tanks were no match for the German Tiger, but the numbers produced say all. By comparison, the Germans lost themselves in ever more convoluted designs.
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There´s a nice quote by a German tank commander, said to his Allied interrogators: "One of our King Tigers could take five of your Shermans, but you always had six of them."
 
I'd like to see some numbers of how many tanks, aircraft etc. the respective countries produced, fielded and lost, if possible.
 
Spindrift said:
I don't think you can state a single most important thing in a war as massive as WWII. There are dozens of Allied inventions that were critical to the war.
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Yeah, I agree... there were many significant inventions, as well as some intelligent decisions by soldiers and leaders (e.g. to mass produce "simpler" weapons), as well as (in some cases) pure dumb luck.

Just wanted to see if anyone had a 'favorite' invention that they thought had the most impact.
You didn't mention Higgins boats, Liberty ships and the jeep!
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But was there anything about the liberty ship that was any sort of technical innovation? (I just assumed that they were significant simply because they were mass produced.)

Hadn't thought of the Higgins boats as a big technological advancement, but then, the Germans were never smart enough to think of anything similar.

BTW: I thought the Norden bombsight was more myth than reality and that it was pretty much outdated by the start of US involvement.
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You might be right. The Wikipedia suggests that there were certain factors it didn't handle well (wind sheer, etc.), although part of the problem might have been that some bombsights weren't tested or maintained properly.
 
There are a number of things that have not being mentioned in this thread
1. The Allies used women in the factories. Germans kept them home.
2. Blood transfusions. If a German lost of lot of blood then he probably was dead. A British or American would get a blood transfusion.
3. The command. Hitler had to remove many of his top people because they were a threat to him.
4. Population. The Allies had far more people than the Germans. That does not include the Russians.
5. R&D. The Germans did not have much of this, after the start of the war.
 
TubbaBlubba said:
I'd like to see some numbers of how many tanks, aircraft etc. the respective countries produced, fielded and lost, if possible.
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what good are extra tanks if there is no fuel to run them
or no transport to move the shells for the gun to the front
or trained men to man them

germans built plenty of jet aircraft air frames in the late war period
but lacked jet engines to power them
or fuel for the motors
and trained pilots to fly them
but they had 1000 or more airframes ready to go that never got off the ground

supply and logistics is the main tech the allies got right
true the liberty ship was low tech but the ability to build them fast and
use the liberty ship to move vast quantity of stuff to the right place on time
was a very deciding factor
 
Delvo said:
I wonder about obscure, mundane stuff that might go unnoticed. Were there differences between the two sides in what kinds of stuff the average soldier carried while marching from town to town... a gun less likely to jam or needing reloading less often or easier to aim... faster lighter ammo you could carry more of... boots less likely to cause blisters or infections... better preserved food or food containers making them less dependent on new supplies... better camouflage... more or better radios to make them better at coordinating with other units and aircraft... better binoculars or telescopes...? But I've never heard any such differences being discussed.
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Your posting did make me curious about that, so I did some research. (I'm not an expert in WW2 weapons, so if anyone has any corrections I'm open.)

The main U.S. weapon was the M1, a semi-automatic rifle with an 8 round capacity. The germans were using the 98k, which was a bolt-action rifle with a 6 round capacity. Thus, I think the American weapon would have the lead here. (The 98K may have been more accurate but I don't think it would have mattered much.)

According to the Wikipedia Page, the walkie talkie was largely developed in America. Not sure if the Germans adopted them, but if not it might have given an edge to the Allies.
 
That part of what I mean by "production technology" - having a design that can be built quickly, cheaply and in large numbers.

For example, sonar and decryption and the Hedgehog played a role in the Battle of the Atlantic, even a big role - but in the end they did not matter all that much, because the Allies, mostly the US, built ships faster than the Germans could sink them.
 
dasmiller said:
Not sure if it's a technology or a philosophy or just a way of life, but the Allies understood logistics in a way that the Axis never really did. I'd probably rank codebreaking above logistics as war-winning technologies for the Allies, but logistics was still a huge (if unglamorous) factor.
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I recall the quote of a captured German general. He was being driven to a POW camp in France and went through an intersection where one black GI was using a bulldozer to fill in shell holes. At the same intersection, he had once seen fifty German soldiers filling in similar holes with shovels. At that moment, he recalled, he knew the war was lost.
 
nota said:
what good are extra tanks if there is no fuel to run them
or no transport to move the shells for the gun to the front
or trained men to man them

germans built plenty of jet aircraft air frames in the late war period
but lacked jet engines to power them
or fuel for the motors
and trained pilots to fly them
but they had 1000 or more airframes ready to go that never got off the ground

supply and logistics is the main tech the allies got right
true the liberty ship was low tech but the ability to build them fast and
use the liberty ship to move vast quantity of stuff to the right place on time
was a very deciding factor
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I've read that the Germans used horses and mules to move stuff right up to the end of the war. Late in the war when German POWs were being marched back to the rear, they were amazed to see our troops, equipment and supplies heading to the front in trucks and jeeps.
 
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