29-03-2006, 01:01 PM
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#50 (permalink)
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Join Date: May 2005 Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 8,059
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Originally Posted by mrya Well lets see. There's so much so I'll just name my top 10 German innovations because I feel Germany truly contributed to major technological advances during the Second World War.
1. Jet Aircraft - First jet aircraft to fly was the He-178 in 1939. The Germans were the first to enter the jet age.
2. Blitzkrieg - Yes I understand that 'Blitzkrieg' in the traditional sense has been used for thousands of years but the truly modern Blitzkrieg can be attributed to the Wehrmacht -- most notably suggested by Gen. Heinz Guderian.
3. Fallschirmjager - Yes paratroopers were experimented with before WWII, but the Germans truly utilized them to their fullest extent (that is until Operation Mercury).
4. Maschinengewehr - MG34, MG42, etc. -- the Heer had truly state of the art machine guns. Only fault I can think of with the MG42 (aside from inaccuracy) is its rate of fire was too fast. Even on the modern American M60 machine gun, German attributions can be seen.
5. Total War - Forget the text book definition; I mean everyone is affected. Civilians are no exception. I'm not saying this is a good thing, but it's realistic, IMO.
6. StG/MP-43/44 - First true versatile assault rifles. It had its faults but it was truly ahead of its time.
7. Close air support for land-based forces - Yeah, yeah this existed before WWII but the Germans really took advantage of this concept. The Ju 87 Stuka divebomber is the prime example.
8. Heavy bombers - the Luftwaffe was the first European power to utilize heavy bombers to the fullest extent (despite the fact that German bombers were anything but 'heavy').
9. ____
10. ____
[That's all I can think of for now] | | Except for number (1) there is nothing in your top (8) that was useful to the German people post war.
__________________ Spidge, 
------------------------------------------------------- My Avatar is the memorial to the 22 Commonwealth Coastwatchers at the Temakin Cemetery on Betio (Tarawa Atoll) who were beheaded by the Japanese on 15th October 1942. http://www.dva.gov.au/media/publicat...mem_beito.html
"You were given the choice between war and dishonor.
You chose dishonor and you will have war."
(Winston Churchill made this prophetic pronouncement in a House of Commons speech in 1938, just after Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain signed the Munich agreement with Hitler. Chamberlain returned from Germany with the signed agreement in hand, proclaiming that "peace in our time" had been achieved. Churchill attacked Chamberlain's "politics of appeasement" in this and many other speeches.)
What did the Australians do in ww2 and other conflicts? Check out this site:
http://www.diggerhistory.info/00-pag...ster-index.htm |
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