Technology During World War II

The Manhattan Project was the American program for researching and developing the first atomic bombs. The weapons produced were based solely upon the principles of nuclear fission of uranium 235 and plutonium 239, The project as a whole cost approximately 2 billion dollars of taxpayer’s money and employed over 120,000 people . It was a massive undertaking to say the least. A project of this size needed justification and it seemingly came in the form of attacking the Japanese . The President's chief of staff Admiral Leahy The democrats would have suffered a political death blow if they were not able to justify the investment.

World War I, also known as the First World War, the Great War and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which took place primarily in Europe from 1914 to 1918.[2] Over 40 million casualties resulted, including approximately 20 million military and civilian deaths.[3] Over 60 million European soldiers were mobilized from 1914 – 1918.[4] The immediate cause of the war was the June 28, 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, by Gavril Principe, a Bosnian Serb citizen of Austria-Hungary and member of the Black Hand. The retaliation by Austria-Hungary against Serbia activated a series of alliances that set off a chain reaction of war declarations. Within a month, much of Europe was

Human life has many variables, and little is constant. One thing that seems constant through time is war. Another constant is human hunger for victory and glory. There will never be a time when people and nations are in perfect agreement. In a war, which is essentially a contest, it is imperative to keep up with the other side of the conflict, forcing constant alteration. Most of the major wars throughout time, including both World Wars, have been followed by dramatic technological and economic advancement typified by the 1920s and 1950s. War, and by extension, the competitive human spirit, drive new technological developments.

William Pollard once said, "Learning and innovation go hand in hand. The arrogance of success is to think that what you did yesterday will be sufficient tomorrow." Maybe the generals of World War 1 (WW1) should have been told this when they used cavalry when they were outdated and rifles and machine guns were the weapons of this war. They found this out the hard way which sparked the time of technological innovations and changes that was WW1. The three technological innovations I will write about are machine guns, planes and tanks.

In the 1940’s during World War II, technology had presented an importance to ensure success on the front. There were a wide range of scientists outside the military who could make things like this possible. When the war was ending, it had been discussed that lasting peace may not be guaranteed for the future. People in the war department of the Military and in other sections discussed the need for “private organization to connect military planning with research and development decisions” (cite

The Manhattan Project was created out of the fear of their current enemy, Germany of making the first atomic bomb and using it in the war. The current President of the United States was Franklin Roosevelt. It was seen that Germany was making great advances in the war which worried many. But the people who were very worried were three prestigious scientists. Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner, and Edward Teller who were Hungarian scientists who immigrated to the United States during the war. Szilard and the other scientists wished to advocate for the start of a program that put all efforts into making an atomic bomb. But of course they were very intelligent on how to get their cause across seriously. “Though the three men, particularly Szilard, were well known

Even before the outbreak of War, the United States was concerned with a fascist regime in Europe researching in nuclear weapons. In retaliation, the United States began to fund an atomic weapon development program which became known as “The Manhattan Project” led by J. Robert Oppenheimer. Over the next several years, the Manhattan project started obtaining key materials such as Uranium-235 and Plutonium and testing prototypes until they reached a working model (Coroner).

World War 1(WW1) introduced many different types of machinery and weaponry to the world. It was known to be the greatest enhancements technological warfare. It introduced many different types of machinery and weaponry to the world. Some examples would include the first models of tanks, machine guns, airplanes and aircraft carriers(History 1). As the war progressed in years, the weapons and machines got substantially better. These improvements contributed and influenced modern war tactics which in the end, results in an overall more deadlier war.

The result of World War II was affected by many different factors. One major factor which affected the war was the weapons and artillery used during the war. Since the beginnings of time, weapons have always been around. From swords and knives to nuclear weapons and missiles, weapons have evolved greatly throughout the years. The weapons and artillery used in World War II basically were evolved types of weaponry that were used during World War I (Military History 1).

It all began in 1939 when Franklin D. Roosevelt found out that the Nazis were funding money and were attempting to build some sort of nuclear weapons. Roosevelt knew if the Germans had gotten their hands on an Atomic Weapon, the war would be over quick. Who knows what could’ve happened next? As a result Roosevelt acted fastly but strategically by funding the U.S’s own experiment to build atomic weapons. The secret codename for this project was named the “Manhattan Project.” The Manhattan Project was run by the United States with the help of their allies, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The Manhattan Project was so large it employed over 130,000 people and costed roughly a little over $2 Billion. In today’s USD $2 Billion would be the equivalent of almost $26 Billion. Almost 90% of the overall money used on this project was used just towards building factories and the production of the Fission materials. This left only about 10% of the money which was used directly towards development and production of these atomic weapons. The Creation of the Atomic Bomb has led to Mass Destruction.

In 1942 Major General Leslie Groves began direction of the Manhattan project, a 4 year project created to make nuclear weaponry. It was headquartered out of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, but they had many locations across the United States and Canada. Some say that the Us should have dropped the Atomic bomb because of the unknown amount of people who could have died if we didn’t stop. Although, The United States shouldn’t have dropped the atomic bomb because of the cost of life, the health effects on survivors, and it pushed us into an arms race with Russia.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Michael Blow wrote in his book, The History of the Atomic Bomb, that the United States was building an atomic weapon for the main purpose of beating the Germans to the creation of the bomb (95-96). After uranium was used to create atomic fission in Berlin in 1939, Albert Einstein and other scientists wrote a letter to Roosevelt, talking him into government funding for atomic research in America (Foner and Garraty, “Manhattan” n. pag.). In a bit of irony, American leaders believed that the Germans, in the race to create the ultimate weapon, were beating them. In actuality, however, they never got far in their research, and America defeated them by a sizeable amount (Blow 96). In the United States, research for the “Manhattan Project,” the code name for the secret project to use atomic energy to create a bomb, expanded all around the country. This included universities such as Columbia, Princeton, California, and Chicago. While the research had been independent and government funded up until the middle of 1942, the army took over guidance of the project at that point. The possibility of an atomic bomb had become too realistic to keep the research in the private sector (Foner and Garraty, “Manhattan”).

The Manhattan Project was a project made up of the top scientist, split into two teams. The project started in 1939 and ended in 1946. Scientists were gathered to construct the very first atomic bomb. The scientists were not told why they were making what they were nor were they told what they were making. The U.S. used it to bomb Japan, killing innocent people in order to end the war. Later, Scientists who had worked on the project, like Albert Einstein, stated that if he had known what they were using it for/what they were making, he never would have worked on it. The U.S. tricked it’s own people into creating a weapon that was created solely for killing thousands. This evil injustice wasn’t just harmful to those who were bombed, but to those who were instructed to create the bomb, oblivious to what horrendous

The Manhattan project was a secret operation during World War II. The purpose was to develop a nuclear weapon to use as defense or an attack, based off of Einstein’s equation: E=mc2. The project employed 130,000 people, and cost over $20 billion in today’s money. The project was presided over at first by Roosevelt, but once he died, his vice president, Henry Truman, took over. The project was in fact, so secretive, Truman didn’t know about it until he became president.

Even before the outbreak of War, the United States was concerned with a fascist regime in Europe researching in nuclear weapons. In retaliation, the United States began to fund an atomic weapon development program which became known as “The Manhattan Project” led by J. Robert Oppenheimer. Over the next several years, the Manhattan project started obtaining key materials such as Uranium-235 and Plutonium and testing prototypes until they reached a working model (Coroner).