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What Weapon Had the Largest Impact on the Outcome of WWII?

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  • #16
    1) Mass use of radios. In WW1 comms were limited to telephones, heliographs and some very rare radios. In WW2 they were practically ubiquitous, making command and control of deployed forces massively easier. Without them, even with all the other advances such as tanks the battles would never have progressed much beyond the western front in the first world war.
    2) The internal combustion engine. While a few of these existed in WW1, by WW2 they were all over the shop with some armies like the BEF dispensing with horses altogether. While the radios allowed command and control to happen, the internal combustion engine allowed supplies to be moved vast distances quickly and flexibly. Combined, the two made the kind of Blitzkrieg/deep battle that characterised WW2 possible.

    Not individual weapons, but they had a far greater impact on how it was fought than anything else.
    Rule 1: Never trust a Frenchman
    Rule 2: Treat all members of the press as French

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    • #17
      Originally posted by ArmchairGeneral View Post
      But it had virtually no effect on the outcome of WWII.
      True. But it did influence later weaponry.
      "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes." G-Man

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      • #18
        Loosely, I would say our advances in electronics had the largest impact in WW2.

        1. proximity fuse
        2. radar
        3. sonar
        4. radio (ours were more compact and portable)
        5. signal intelligence
        6. Bletchley Park

        Now these are physical items that impacted the war. I don't think their effects were as large as the American industry on the war though.

        The American mass production technique and organization almost reached their peak in late 44, early 45, when the war planners realized the war could be won without further pushing our manufacturing capacity.

        The United States account for more than 50% of the world's GDP in 1945. This capability was beyond the imagination of just about everyone, including the United States.
        "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

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        • #19
          Originally posted by ArmchairGeneral View Post
          Not to nitpick, but sonar does not involve radio waves.
          That's not nitpicking - that's just calling it as you see it. Thanks for the correction
          "So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand." Thucydides 1.20.3

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          • #20
            I think the weapon which impacted WWII the most would have to beeee......

            *drum roll*

            Soviet Union :)

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            • #21
              Originally posted by shek View Post
              Ttreat,

              Go to the library and check out Richard Overy's "Why the Allies Won." A relatively quick read with several different reasons (this focuses on the war in Europe), although not all of them have to do with weapons.
              I bought the book five years ago... one of the best reads on WWII ever... it is of a mainly economic/production focus. I recommended it a few days ago in The Staff College.
              "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

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              • #22
                Technilogically speaking, all of the above. But the greatest weapon in the war was the USA itself with its almost unlimited manpower, manufacturing facilities, food supply, research centers and the drive for Victory Bonds that paid for much of this.

                When Winston Churchill received word that Japan had attacked America by bombing Pearl Harbor, he broke out a bottle of Champagn and offered it to his staff. He said, "Gentlemen. We have just won the war. With America now in the war with all its resources and relatively too far away for any major assaults on it's own land, there is no way the Axis powers can win."
                Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

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                • #23
                  The human mind.

                  Love
                  Hate
                  Fear
                  Anguish
                  Hope
                  Determination
                  Dedication
                  Awe
                  Reverence
                  Solice
                  Joy

                  Without the human side of it everthing else was purely inmaterial. Technology included.
                  Last edited by Dreadnought; 13 Feb 07,, 19:14.
                  Fortitude.....The strength to persist...The courage to endure.

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                  • #24
                    Originally posted by cedarman View Post
                    I think the weapon which impacted WWII the most would have to beeee......

                    *drum roll*

                    Soviet Union :)
                    That is the best sarcasm of the week.
                    "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

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                    • #25
                      Most everybody has put forward either weapons that BOTH sides used, OR non-weapons, like countries or attitudes/feelings/emotions.

                      WEAPONS. That HAD THE GREATEST IMPACT. That's what the original question was.

                      Let's all try again.

                      ANYhoo, for my money, the four-engined heavy bomber was THE weapon that had the greatest impact. It could hit any target at any time and could devastate the enemy. NOTHING else had the capability to destroy enemy population centers, transportation, industrial production, sometimes even strike tactical targets with as much force and as quickly.

                      Whole cities devastated in ONE DAY. Road and rail nets rendered useless a hundred times farther away than the longest-ranged guns. Industrial capacity destroyed or damaged to a degree that FAR outweigheed what was spent to take it out.

                      And one side had it, and the other didn't. So, as far as sheer impact goes, it far outstrips ANYthing that both sides shared, no matter the relative merits of comparable weapons may have had, like this tank versus that, this radar versus that, etc.

                      Inaccurate? Tell it to the mayors of Dresden, Tokyo and the Abbott of Monte Cassino. Hell, tell it to Churchill, because he'd have had to capitulate if Britain had been blitzed by Lancasters, Flying Forts and Liberators. Edward R. Murrow, present during the Blitz, remarked that it had been a puny effort to burn a great city. No word on what he may have thought of The Big Week, though I bet 'puny' wasn't an adjective that jumped to the fore of his mind.

                      The human mind? The enemy had human minds, too, and dam' fine ones, at that. And until mental energy can kill, it ain't a weapon, properly understood. Radar? It verges on being a weapon, true enough, but the enemy had it, too, so I'm not sure it would've had much impact on the outcome of the war. And so on.

                      But when you can put that much HE on a target simply because you decide to, and the enemy, although spending vast amounts of his scarce resources to counter you simply canNOT stop it from happening...that is IMPACT, man.

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                      • #26
                        Yeah, but without the massive numbers of the 4 engine bombers, the bombing campaign wouldn't have been that successful.

                        Germans had 4 engine bombers. HE-177 was a 4 engine bomber. It was an exceptional machine. Unfortunately the German high command insisted on using it as a dive bomber and insisted on putting 2 engines in a tandem in a single nacelle to drive a single prop. The true 4 engine version, HE-277, was better than everything we had except for the B-29. If the Germans managed to build enough of those and use them correctly as strategic bombers, the war could have lasted a bit longer.

                        I was thinking, there weren't many items that we built which was heads and shoulders above the axis equivalent. B-29 was one. No axis bomber came close. But it was only used in 1 theater, against Japan.

                        The one ubiquitous equipment that we had which was heads and shoulders above everyone else was the M-1 Garand. No one else had a rifle with that much firepower. Not the Enfield. Not the Mauser. Not the Arisaka. Not the Mosin. Our infantry squads pack 4 times the firepower of any other infantry squads not armed with the Garand. Patton said the Garand was the greatest battlefield implement ever devised.

                        I don't want to say the Garand had the greatest impact on the war. But it sure had the greatest impact on our guys on the ground.
                        "Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.

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                        • #27
                          Bombers schmomers
                          My proximity fuse kills your massed heavy bombers at a fraction of the cost.
                          Also the only way to achieve total victory is to put troops on the ground, and the best way to kill large numbers of enemy troops in WWII? Proximity fuses.
                          In the realm of spirit, seek clarity; in the material world, seek utility.

                          Leibniz

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                          • #28
                            Devastating though they may be, proximity fuses didn't change the course of the war.
                            "The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world. So wake up, Mr. Freeman. Wake up and smell the ashes." G-Man

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                            • #29
                              Command and control

                              Bombers, radar, proximity fuse, all good answers but were not available until late in the conflict and or in some theatres. Which weapon was available from the beginning in 1939 and or in all theatres thus having the most effect? The radio, it was available and used extensively on all fronts from the beginning.

                              The radio speeded up the tempo of ground operations by an order of magnitude. Forces lacking in effective radios suffered a quick and inevitable defeat. Without the improvements in radio it would WWI all over again, a slow brutal slug match, no Blitzkrieg, no bomber offensive, no maneuver warfare.
                              Last edited by sappersgt; 14 Feb 07,, 00:22.
                              Reddite igitur quae sunt Caesaris Caesari et quae sunt Dei Deo
                              (Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and unto God the things which are God's)

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                              • #30
                                Originally posted by leibstandarte10 View Post
                                Devastating though they may be, proximity fuses didn't change the course of the war.
                                Battle of the Bulge, Kamikazes, V1's.
                                In the realm of spirit, seek clarity; in the material world, seek utility.

                                Leibniz

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