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World War Two Weaponry
Like other wars, World War Two stimulated the technology of warfare tremendously. The machine gun and battle tank were first used in combat during World
War One, but both were perfected and adapted to numerous additional uses throughout the Second World War (Commager & Miller, 2002). Aircraft were in their infancy in World War One but also developed significantly in between the wars. However, the technological progress that took place in aviation in between the start of war in Europe in
1939 and its conclusion in 1945 was greater than all that took place in that field in the years between the two wars (Ambrose, 2001).
Some of the most revolutionary progress in weaponry during World War Two
included jet aircraft and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), both of which were used for the first time ever by the Nazis (Ray, 2003). The Americans introduced pressurized aircraft in the long-range, high-altitude B-29 Stratofortress bomber and the Norden bomb site used to increase the accuracy of bombs dropped from high altitude.
That device was considered top-secret throughout the war and was carried to and from allied bombers by armed guards (Bishop & McNab, 2007).
Much of the credit for the successful defense of Britain was the result of the invention of round-based radar that enabled British Fighter Command to alert their interceptors of the approach of Nazi warplanes during the crucial Battle of Britain in
1940 (Bishop & McNab, 2007). By the end of the war, American fighters were equipped with the first air-to-ground missiles. Of course, of all the many inventions and developments in weaponry during the war, the most devastating and revolutionary was the atomic bomb developed by the U.S. that finally ended the war in the Pacific almost a year after victory in Europe (Ambrose, 2001).
References
Ambrose, S. (2001). The Good Fight: How World War II Was Won. New York: Simon & Schuster.
Bishop, C., McNab, C. (2007). Campaigns of World War II Day By Day. London, UK:
Amber Books.
Commager, H., Miller, D. (2002). The Story of World War II: Revised, Expanded & Updated from the Original Text by Henry Steele Commager. New York: Bantam
Books.
Ray, J. (2003). The Illustrated History of WWII. London, UK: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
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