The winner of a major battle or war has always done so through some advantage over its opponent. This usually means one side having superior troop numbers, employing better tactics, or an advantage of position or terrain over the opposition. However, if one side has developed better weaponry or battlefield technology than the other, it can often help that side overcome one or more of the traditional battlefield disadvantages it may be facing. If an army is able to kill more of the enemy faster or more efficiently through the use of superior weaponry and technology, then disadvantages like having smaller troop numbers will become easier to overcome. In World War II, it was thought that gaining superior speed and firepower would bring the war to an end more quickly. This was a departure from World War II, where entrenchment and defenses took precedent, and from earlier wars, where having a larger number of troops was usually the key to victory. During World War II and the years leading up to it, there were significant advancements in military weaponry and technology in many fields, including air, naval, and ground.
Air power was a crucial part of World War II, especially in the Western European Theater of operations. The aircraft of World War I were not very fast and the canvas-covered wooden frames they were built with made them fragile. They were first used for the purpose of aerial surveillance and as a way to quickly deliver messages. Aircraft had to be weaponized in order to knock out the enemy’s surveillance aircraft and keep the enemy from finding, and being able to target, artillery and troop positions. Though the end of the war saw airplanes used for attacking troops and for bombing, this didn’t fully come of age until World War II. The German Blitz attack Battle of Britain is a prime example of the use of aircraft as direct attack weapons rather than secondary scouting vehicles. However, the Germans were not able to develop a heavy bomber for the attack and were forced to use slower and underpowered medium bombers that were over laden with bombs and had engines that were prone to exploding. This led to large numbers of German bombers being shot down and Germany was unable to use aircraft to knock Britain out of the war or prepare for the planned invasion of the island. Still, during the war, as new aircraft that were being developed before and during the war came into production, fighter planes got faster and more maneuverable and bombers got larger, faster, and could carry larger payloads of bombs.
The American-made B-17 Flying Fortress was a four engine heavy bomber with a ten-man crew and is one of the best known bombers of World War II. Its development began in 1934, and testing began in 1935, with the aircraft entering service in the war for the Royal Air Force in 1941 and for the USAAF in 1942. The B-17 became the first truly mass-produced aircraft, with over 12,500 of them built by the time its production ended in May 1945. The technology of bombing itself, however, was far from perfect. Even equipped with a optical electro-mechanical gyro-stabilized computer called the Norden bombsight, only about 50 percent of American bombs hit within a quarter-mile of their targets. This low accuracy made necessary the development of carpe bombing, in which a large number of bombs are dropped in a lone over a target in hopes of doing as much damage as possible even given the low accuracy.
One development that was technologically advanced, but came to little tactical importance was the development of the jet engine and jet aircraft. During the war development began on the German Heinkel He 178, the first true turbojet aircraft, and late in the war Germany put into operation the first jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262. Despite the technical superiority of the jet fighters, they were overwhelmed by Allied air superiority.
Before and during the war there were also significant gains in ground weapons technology. One field that had a strong growth was that of tank technology. During its ground invasion of the Soviet Union, Germany had a tank race of sorts with the Russians. As one would improve its tank design, the other would counter by designing an equal or better tank.