“The Greatest Generation”: A Study of World War II Technology

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

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

World War II, the second time of the world war, lasted from September 1th, 1939 to September 2th 1945. There were two difference alliances in the WWII, the Axis and Anti-fascist Alliance. The winner of the WWII was Allies, and there are many reasons that can explain why Allies can win it. The most important reason is that Allies gained most support from the public and citizens because Allies represented the justice side. However, there is also a crucial factor that helps the Allies to win the WWII which is the new invention and technology. Inventors made new weapons such as tanks, proximity fuses and atom bomb. The impacts of these weapons were positive to Allies in WWII and those new inventions make a big step of human progress.

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 Maybe the generals of World War 1 (WW1) should have been told this when they used cavalry when they were outdated and rifles and machine guns were the weapons of this war.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.

The technology of World War II, which lasted from 1939 to 1945, was a big part of the determination of the outcome of the war. Much of the technology was developed during the interwar years. Some of it was developed because of failure and hindrance in war progression, obviously because of inefficient technology. Still some was in the beginning stages of development as the war ended. Though earlier war greatly utilized science, mathematics, and innovation, World War II had the largest impact on the innovation in technology of the current lives of Americans. Furthermore, no war, preceeding or succeeding, was as profoundly affected by science, mathematics, and technology as World War II. Science and technology have always made

It was dubbed The Manhattan Project and consisted of some of the most brilliant physicists at the time such as Albert Einstein. Then, in 1945 arguably the most powerful and controversial technology was developed. This was the nuclear bomb and it completely changed the world forever. This weapon could be used to decimate entire cities and the only time it was ever used during any conflict was in 1945 (Shalett, n.d.). Japan was the target and the bomb left nothing but rubble in its path.

Jackie Robinson once said “Life is not a spectator sport. . . . If you're going to spend your whole life in the grandstand just watching what goes on, in my opinion you're wasting your life.” Robinson was always looking to advance not only in baseball, but in life as well. During the years 1945-1970, Americans experienced prosperity, advancements, and controversy. For example, the assassination of John F. Kennedy caused Americans to question the honesty of the government. In addition, Americans also faced massive Civil Rights movements and anti-war protests that divided the country. Some other events/people that affected this era were Martin Luther King Jr., the Space Race, and the wars in Vietnam and Korea (“Prosperity

War is always a deadly business, but the modern warfare of World War I was particularly devastating. The invention of items such as barbed wire, flamethrowers, mortars, poison gas, and the machine gun made conventional charges impossible. Millions were lost in the face of this terrible new technology. Ironically, this new technology also helped end the war by bringing the Americans into the conflict. The impact of technology can be terrible as well as

World War II was and most likely will be the largest and most great war to ever appear on this earth. Although it brought so much death and destruction with a striking total of over 60 million deaths, it is also the deadliest conflict to ever have happened as well. Out of all the horror that was WWII it did create a lot of advancements like the boost in advancements in technology. As well there were great social changes in the United States. Also there were significant boosts in medical sciences. There were economical advancements in the United States. Finally there were advancements in world peace never seen before. Though war should never be defined as good, World War II created many beneficial advancements for the United States and the world.

During World War II Hedy Lamar, the most beautiful women in the world, had an idea. The idea was that she would use frequency hoping to communicate secretly with through the military. After receiving a patent for her frequency hoping she brought her idea along with her patent to the navy. The Navy rejected her idea, and told her to go and raise money for the war. As the years after the war, Hedy watched other people take her idea of frequency hoping to new heights. However she had signed her patent over to the Navy, and never would make a single penny. She did win a few awards for it, however.

How did the new technologies of WWI affect soldiers fighting on the front lines? Please include at least three examples of new technologies in your answer

It was challenging for the armies to continue the war while having a huge loss because of the guns, thus there was a need of the methods, like trench warfare. Trench warfare reached to its peak usage in WWI and one of the factors affecting that was the achievement in the weapon technology. Specially, MG 08, which is the German version of Maxim machine gun was forced people for trench warfare, otherwise just one machine gun was able to destroy one army of the opposite side. Moreover, in order to defend against the the military ships that has extended range tanks they were using the trenches that are a bit far from the shore, like it was in Dardanelle war. Furthermore, the use of bombs and gas made some issues on the trenches. For instance, with the use of gas, from mid-1915, every trench had some form of warning of gas attack. We can imagine these situations from the memories of Paul Baumer from “All Quite on the Western Front”: Paul mentions that soldiers cannot define bomb sounds from the other sounds and were dying because of shrapnels; This is terrible that because of the limited time, they could not have trainings and they were dying in front of their eyes, because of the lack of experience. Under those circumstances, it is possible to see how the technology caused the transition to trench warfare and how it

From the progression of the machine gun to the development of the atomic bomb and further still to today and stealth aircraft technology, the United States has consistently pushed the envelope on innovation in order to say one step ahead as a military superpower. With this being an online course, one would be remiss to not note the great American accomplishment of creating a computer communication network through the collaboration between the Department of Defense, engineers and scientists during the Cold War.

There was a lot of inventions from WWII that changed the world. One of the inventions that changed us is helicopters because they help us get around faster and easier. Another was the Gustav gun it was so large it defined how we can build guns and war machines. The last one is the Goliath it was a gas powered RC vehicle that destroyed enemy tanks, which helped people get past the enemy defense. These are some of the things that changed our world.

American army officer Omar Bradley once said,“If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.” The meaning of this quote lies in the destruction and devastation of humanity and geography during war. If we do not stop advancing in ways of killing and causing suffering, we will soon face the consequences of these technologies. Throughout World War I and World War II, there was a ginormous technological boom in which countries were competing to invent new weapons or vehicles used in warfare. Specifically, World War I could be blamed for the start of the creating of new technologies used in warfare even today. These technologies were often invented or created during World War I,