Technological Developments Made During WW2

The Axis powers failed to give a high enough priority to health and sanitation and it helped contribute to their defeat.  Many other advances such as tetanus injections, blood transfusions and skin grafts were all developed or improved during WW2.  The war undeniably accelerated the development of medicine and these advancements would not only help win the war for the Allies, but also pioneer future medical developments that continue to save millions of lives today.

Throughout the war, one major advantage the Allies had over the Germans was their revolutionary and diverse application of radar.  Radar is an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging.  Although experiments on radio-based detection had begun as early as the 19th century, the first practical radar air defence system was not established until 1939, when the Chain Home (CH) network was completed in Britain.  The CH would prove vital in the Battle of Britain, allowing British fighter command control network to accurately detect and track incoming German aircraft well before they arrived in Britain, thus giving controllers the ability to prepare and co-ordinate attacks on the incoming Luftwaffe.  As General Galland, the German fighter ace, wrote after the war:

“From the first the British had an extraordinary advantage, never to be balanced at any time during the whole war, which was their radar and fighter control network and organization.  It was for us a very bitter surprise.  We had nothing like it. ” 

The CH played a key role in combatting the Luftwaffe long enough for Hitler to postpone his plans to cross the Channel, and divert his attention to an invasion of Russia, meaning Germany would have to fight a war on two fronts instead of one.  

Allied scientists would continue developing radar and create the first microwave radar (cavity magnetron) in September 1940, which was a key factor in the winning of the war.  It would lead to the operational use of airborne radar that would enable controllers of night fighters to guide pilots to their targets.  Moreover, in 1941 the microwave radar would also be developed into air to surface vessel (ASV) radar, used to locate U-boats in the Atlantic and intercept their radio signals.  Allied radar innovation would also lead to the creation of the proximity fuse, a radio frequency sensing device designed to detonate an explosive automatically when the distance to target becomes smaller than a predetermined value.  The proximity fuse played a vital part in defending Allied troops and ships from Japanese kamikaze attacks and German flying bombs (V1s).  After the war, the British Chief of Staff concluded that the proximity fuse was a ‘permanent and notable advance in artillery technique that no modern defense force can do without.’ Today that still holds true.  Although Germany did have its own radar systems, they were unable to match the Allies diverse and creative application of radar.  Herman Goring, the leader of the Luftwaffe, was dismissive of British radar and it cost Germany dearly in the Battle of Britain.  

Radar developments during the war not only helped defeat the Axis powers, but also revolutionised society.  The breakthrough in microwaves during the war pioneered the creation of the microwave oven and television, and commercial aircraft and weather forecasting today continue to rely on radar technology.

Many revolutionary weapon advancements were made during WW2.  While some of those advancements would have little or no effect on the outcome of the war, they had a huge influence on the subsequent course of history.  One of these weapons is the German Vergeltungswaffe 1 (V1).  The V1 was one of two ‘vengeance weapons’ created by Germany towards the end of the war.  It was a pilotless aircraft that could bomb the enemy from very long distance.  The V1 was first launched against Britain in June 1944, just one week after D-Day.  While it would have little overall impact on the war, it was the world’s first cruise missile and would pioneer future drone and cruise missile technology.  Theoretically the cruise missile could bomb another nation into submission without sending any troops or pilots into combat, thus revolutionizing future warfare.  The Aggregat-4 (A4), more commonly known as the V2, was the second ‘vengeance weapon’ created by the Nazis.  It was the world’s first ballistic missile and first known human artifact to enter outer space.  Unlike the V1, the V2 fell at four times the speed of sound, making it impossible for fighters or anti-aircraft guns to shoot it down.  However, like the V1, the V2 arrived too late to have a significant impact on the outcome of the war.   Despite this it would set the stage for the next 50 years of ballistic military rocketry, revolutionizing warfare and culminating with ICBMs during the Cold War and modern space exploration. 

The final weapon that has shaped the course of history is the atomic bomb.  Similarly to the V1 and V2, it was not completed until the final stages of the war.  It was created via the Manhattan project – a collaboration of Allied and Nazi refugee scientists – and in August 1945 was used on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  It is debatable whether it was necessary to drop the bomb, especially on civilian targets, as Japan was already on the brink of defeat.  However, it is indisputable that dropping the bomb vastly reduced the length of the war and prevented a potentially very costly conventional invasion of Japan.  The development of the atomic bomb is an important event in history that marked the start of the nuclear age, the Mutually Assured Destruction of the cold war and all the non-military applications of nuclear fission, such as nuclear power and radiotherapy.

During WW2, science contributed greatly to the defeat of the Axis powers.  Although at the forefront of science and technology at the beginning of the war, Germany neglected key areas of technological advancement, which proved very costly.  The Allies developed the war-winning technology that Axis powers could not match.  Furthermore, many of these developments would impact not only on the war and future warfare, but on all areas of society, including health, lifestyle and transportation.  Today we still rely on technology that was developed during WW2, such as radar for predicting the weather and penicillin to fight infection. The war was not only won by force of arms, but through the efforts of scientists and engineers.

Bibliography:

Guy Hartcup, The Effect of Science on the Second World War, (Macmillan Press LTD, 2000) The Effect of Science and Second World War was a book I borrowed from the ANU and was the book was my main source of inspiration and references and gave me the most information about the technology of WW2. The book contained many key facts and specific technologies that helped me structure my essay and choose which technologies I believe were the most influential. Guy Hartcup was born in 1919 and lived and fought during the war. He was able to witness the effects of new technology first hand, however, he only published this book in 2000, and wrote this book having lived through the impact the technology during and after war, giving an interesting perspective on the effect of new technology.

  was my main Internet reference and source and was very useful and reliable. I found it reliable because many teachers in the UK use it. Furthermore, its creator, Chris Trueman, is an historian who majored in British history during the twentieth century. Moreover, The site has grown in popularity and is now viewed by hundreds of thousands of people each month from around the world. It was particularly useful in my paragraph about medicine and the V1 flying bomb. Date accessed 02-05 June 2012

 was another Internet resource that I used that was useful for finding exact definitions for the specific technologies. Date accessed 04 June 2012

John Boyd on Neil Hamiliton Fairley, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol. 12, November 1996, p.135. This book was useful for informing me about the effectiveness of medicine, especially sulphonamide drugs, since it was Neil Hamiliton Fairey who gave the order to send as much sulphonamide as possible to the Australian troops.

CAB (Cabinet Office) 122/365, Armaments Programmes – VT fuses, 22 November 1945. The CAB’s documents of the proximity fuse contain the quote I used in the paragraph about proximity fuses. The quote contained compelling evidence of the effectiveness of proximity fuses and its future importance.

RAF Hist. Soc., The Battle Rethought.  A Symposium on the Battle of Britain, 25 June 1990, p. 10. It contained much useful material on radar’s effect on the battle. The quote particularly highlighted the useful of radar in battle.

Medical Research, Edited by F. H. K. Green and Major-General Sir Gordon Covell, (Her Majesty's Stationery office, 1953) p. 264.  This book was highly useful on researching penicillin and gave me precise information for my paragraph containing penicillin.

Peenemünde, Walter Dornberger, Moewig, Berlin 1984, . This was a book I found on the Internet and provided me with interesting information about the V2 rocket. However, I only referenced one sentence from the book due to the word limit of the essay.

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