gary350 said:
he history channel and Secrets of the Dead have the best videos.
I MUCH prefer youtube videos done by single producers or small teams than I do those by The History Channel or other companies. I find there to be much better information in the former videos, as they often literally go through the numbers on production, costs, kills, and other statistics and often provide the very sources they're using. They're often less concerned with making shows that cater to peoples preconceived views on WW2 as well. I can't begin to count the number of claims I've heard from The History Channel that, upon looking into them, don't hold up to reality.
gary350 said:
Its all interesting especially the technology Germany was 20 years ahead of the rest of the world
What technology? The Allies were at least roughly equal to Germany technologically in almost every category except rocketry. I'd say we were even ahead of them in several key areas, such as electronics, almost right from the start. And most early gaps in equipment quality were made up by the Allies well before the war was over. Some of the claimed technological advantages, say in armored vehicles, are mostly myths. German armor was good, but so were allied armored units.
The main point most bring up in regards to armor has to do with the heavy tanks of Germany and how effective they were against allied tanks on the western front. Sure. But only because we had to literally ship our tanks across an ocean and couldn't just put them on a train right at the factory and ship them to the front lines. That constraint severely limited US and UK tank options to the point that the allies decided early on that they weren't going to focus on heavy tanks, instead relying on medium tanks (which had done the job just fine everywhere so far) for armored support. Not having heavy tanks was a disadvantage, sure, but it wasn't a technological disadvantage in my opinion, it was a logistical one.
Submarines? No, both Germany and the Allies had very good submarines. Naval weapons? Probably more advantage to the Allies if you include all of the anti-sub weaponry and supporting equipment. Surface warships? Absolute advantage to the Allies. The new state-of-the-art battleships (SoDak's, Iowa's) by the U.S. were more effective than the Bismarks thanks to better fire control, bigger guns, and better design (SoDak's had comparable armor, slightly less speed, but more guns of a larger caliber on 5,000 tons less displacement).
German DD's... basically didn't exist and the few that did were overweight monsters that wanted to be light cruisers. The Allies had what is arguably the best destroyers ever built for their time, the Fletcher class. They were well built, well armed, seaworthy, had excellent fire control and AA, and were versatile enough to take constant upgrades without compromising their seaworthiness. German heavy cruisers were inefficient and performed rather poorly. Comparable Allied ships, such as the New Orleans class, had more guns, better armor, and were just as fast. The Deutschland class had big guns, but not much else. The Allies had fantastic light cruisers, while Germany had basically none, so there's no real comparison here.
Aircraft? Allies absolutely win when it comes to bombers. No comparison at all. Fighters? Again, I have to give it to the allies. Especially in the last few years of the war. German rocket interceptors were a novel idea, but not very effective, and the British had operational jet fighters within two months of the Germans. Conventional fighters like the BF-109 were good, but not really better than many Allied fighters. Ground attack aircraft? Again, the Germans come out swinging hard with aircraft like the Stuka, but any gap is quickly made up by the Allies just a few years into the war if not earlier.
Production technology? I think the U.S. and perhaps the Soviet Union have that category hands down. Chemical technology? I don't know enough about the subject to say either way. Same for medical technology and other lesser known areas that aren't mentioned. And I'm not sure if Nuclear Weapons is its own category or not, but we all know who won that one.
There's really no clear area where Germany leads throughout the war except rocketry. If anyone has one they think Germany leads in, please let me know.
gary350 said:
even now no one has learned a lesson from WWII especially American.
I don't know what this means.
