Top 10 Inventions Of WWII

Discussion in 'Weapons, Technology & Equipment' started by Herroberst, Feb 9, 2006.

  1. Arlo

    Arlo 'Nulli Secundus'

    Best inventions of World War II?

    I've got a list:

    1. Jet engine- German HE 178 and ME-262
    2. The Famed 88millimeter cannon-Tiger Tanks
    3.Panzerfaust-Disposable anti-tank weapon
    4.Napalm-US P-47Ds and B-29s
    5.Panzerschreck-Second best anti-tank weapon

    I'll add 5 more soon.
     
  2. ADM199

    ADM199 Well-Known Member

    Best inventions of World War II?

    I've got a list:

    1. Jet engine- German HE 178 and ME-262
    2. The Famed 88millimeter cannon-Tiger Tanks
    3.Panzerfaust-Disposable anti-tank weapon
    4.Napalm-US P-47Ds and B-29s
    5.Panzerschreck-Second best anti-tank weapon

    I'll add 5 more soon.
    Would we all be discussing this subject without T.H.Flowers . The man behind the Worlds first programable Computer;COLOSSUS.
     
  3. PeterG

    PeterG Senior Member

    Best inventions of World War II?

    I've got a list:

    1. Jet engine- German HE 178 and ME-262
    2. The Famed 88millimeter cannon-Tiger Tanks
    3.Panzerfaust-Disposable anti-tank weapon
    4.Napalm-US P-47Ds and B-29s
    5.Panzerschreck-Second best anti-tank weapon

    I'll add 5 more soon.
    With all due respect those are not inventions Arlo, they are innovative developments of inventions at best.

    As for the jet engine, Dr. Hans von Ohain and Sir Frank Whittle are both recognised as being the co-inventors. Frank Whittle was the first to register a patent for the turbojet engine in 1930 and Hans von Ohain was granted a patent for his turbojet engine in 1936. However, Hans von Ohain's jet was the first to fly in 1939. Frank Whittle's jet first flew in in 1941. The planes you mention are applications of the invention.

    As for The Famed 88millimeter cannon-Tiger Tank, that is a particularly unfortunate choice. It is listed in Martin J. Dougherty's book The World's Worst Weapons.The Tiger I quickly gained a reputation as a deadly weapon due to its heavy armour and powerful 88mm gun. The Tiger was not, however, quite the ultimate weapon it seemed. Hugely expensive to produce and rather complex to maintain, the Tiger absorbed a lot of resources in return for its formidable combat power. Just getting it to the battlefield presented a problem.

    The Tiger was too heavy for most bridges and a lot of roads, and the running gear suffered from clogging in muddy conditions. Its gun was immensely powerful, but traversed slowly, and its performance in the field was hampered by being underpowered and fuel-greedy
     
  4. Sgt.Pepper

    Sgt.Pepper Member

    Anyways i think weapons arent even on the Top 10 inventions of WW2 there are alot better inventions that save people instead of killing them and of course communications equipment
     
  5. Cpl Rootes

    Cpl Rootes Senior Member

    5.Panzerschreck-Second best anti-tank weapon

    Why not just say 'Bazooka' as the Panzerschreck was developed from Bazooka's captured in N Africa I believe (correct me if I am wrong)
     
  6. angeljoanes

    angeljoanes Junior Member

    Dora gun and Schwerer Gustav. The world biggest railway gun at that time. Using 80 cm bullet. It was used on the siege of sevastopol. I always admire this gun. To bad there's only one which used in the war.

    Schwerer Gustav - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
     
  7. Sgt.Pepper

    Sgt.Pepper Member

    I dont think any of the top 10 inventions from WW2 were "Machines of war"
    They were advancemets in communication, medicine, and other useful things that helped to better our lives, not take them.
     
  8. Glamorgan

    Glamorgan Member

    2 of the best inventions of WW2 were the:
    M4 sherman
    and the German Panther
     
  9. PFC

    PFC Member

    2 of the best inventions of WW2 were the:
    M4 sherman
    and the German Panther

    Why Panther?
     
  10. PFC

    PFC Member

    In that case we can also put an atomic bomb...why not?
     
  11. Glamorgan

    Glamorgan Member

    Panther because it had the firepower of the tiger but the moneverabilty of a panzer thats why

    Glamorgan

    Also another invention was the flamethrower
     
  12. kfz

    kfz Very Senior Member

    Has someone said the microwave oven yet?
     
  13. 4th wilts

    4th wilts Discharged

  14. PeterG

    PeterG Senior Member

    Also another invention was the flamethrower

    The flamethrower was invented in 1901 and was used by the Germans in the First World War.

    Peter
     
  15. Herroberst

    Herroberst Senior Member

    I dont think any of the top 10 inventions from WW2 were "Machines of war"
    They were advancemets in communication, medicine, and other useful things that helped to better our lives, not take them.

    It is interesting to note that some of the greatest inventions come from war. Some that are weapons can have "other" applications such as atomic power. When used correctly it is an extremely clean form of energy and very safe. Penicillin comes to mind, refined and used during WWII. Then there are things like night Vision and Radar.

    Good to note that if the bad guys have "Machines of War" it is a very good thing for the Good Guys to have them too.
     
  16. PrancingPanzer

    PrancingPanzer Junior Member

    I just have one thing I think should be on the list, because it might itself seem an inadequate tank to some people, but think about it. Its changed the entire thinking of how tanks are deployed and used, and the German offensives spearheaded by tanks, the majority of which were panzer IV's I do believe, and they were the extremely maneuverable tanks that lead to the collapse of France, achieved the shock and surprise in russia with its speed, and the tank that maneuvered so well that gave the Germans an upper hand in Africa. Basically--- It was the one tank that revolutionized the way the world believes tanks should be used. WW2 wouldn't have been WW2 without the panzer IV spearheading the armor formations, would it have been?
     
  17. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    I don't know mate, France was taken with primarily Mark I & 2's with only a sprinkling of support IVs. I think the glittering 'invention' from that period was the usage of the tanks & armies, rather than the tanks themselves, as they were broadly similar or even inferior to the Allied designs.

    Also the Mark IV didn't really lend too much to future technology or innovation did it? Other than a concept of 'expandability' it wasn't exactly cutting edge.

    Welcome aboard by the way. :)

    Cheers,
    Adam.
     
  18. Christos

    Christos Discharged

    I give you the words of Tom Lehrer...singing about WERNER von BRAUN....

    "a man whose allegience,
    Is ruled by expediance,
    Call him a Nazi,
    he won't even frown..
    "Huh!...Nazi SCHMATZI!"
    Says Werner von Braun..."

    "You too can be a big hero,
    Once you've learned to count backwards to zero,
    "In German, und English,
    I know how to count down......

    "UNT I'M LEARNING CHINESE.."
    Says Werner von Braun......"

    Best invention of the war.....The CAVITY MAGNETRON VALVE....absolutly VITAL to stay ahead in the RADAR race....airpower made the war, the CAVITY MAGNETRON VALVE kept radar AHEAD of the German TELEFUNKEN product.....(and the Kreigsmarine radar set 'SEETACKT', the secrets of which were discovered by a team that waited for the 'Graf Spee' to cool sufficiently to climb up and inspect the radar aerials first hand.)

    Look at the applications for "CENTIMETRIC RADAR", and how the valve turned technology like that into U-BOAT KILLERS...

    Oh...the MOST SIGNIFICANT INVENTION....hands down...

    THE COLOSSUS machine/computer for codebreaking.....

    NOTHING WAS MORE IMPORTANT....the British had a factory that, from the outside, looked as though it was producing CANDY........my ar$e!...they were turning out VALVES 24/7 and trucking them of to "somewhere'...
    The COLOSSUS ran on thousands of these valves...if even ONE had blown, the entire computer would have been rendered USELESS with no recovery (backup) of info....this valve factory was there specifically to feed 'Colossus'....EVERY VALVE was changed EVERY 24 hours.

    Nothing was more important to victory..R.V. Jones "The Secret War..",

    "Anyone who writes a history of the Second World War and does NOT include the activities of British intelligence and codebreaking, is only giving it's readers PART of the picture."

    Codebreaking and signals interception was Britians most important and effective contribution to the Allied war effort as a whole.....and it all came down to 'COLOSSUS'
     
  19. Christos

    Christos Discharged

    oh...one more thing....the flamethrower is a GREEK invention,....GREEK FIRE remained a closely guarde BYZANTYNE secret, and the recipe for it was lost to history.....

    They had HAND HELD FLAMETHROWERS for the siege of CONSTANTINOPLE
     
  20. Christos

    Christos Discharged

    Hang on...the mark IV tank was the one that they got the most variation from...lots of mk III and MkII chassis were actually converted to produce SP guns, something that eventually outstripped tank production in Germany....so the Pz-IV is not really a bad design, and as a CHASSIS, no equal...
     

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