Saturday, February 18, 2012

How Germany Lost The Arms Race In WWI


How Germany Lost The WWI Arms Race -- Saul David, BBC

A new, mostly female workforce populated the factories of UK and France to solve a shell crisis that had threatened to defeat the Allies in World War I.

History tells us that a general can move and feed an army as efficiently as he likes but the real litmus test is the battlefield.

All the energy he expends getting his men to the front line fit and healthy counts for nothing if they don't have the right equipment.

What they need, above all, is sufficient ammunition - yet there were moments during the war when a shortage of artillery shells meant the guns almost fell silent.

Given the unprecedented scale of the conflict, it was bound to take time for each side's peacetime armaments industry to adjust.

Each of the major combatants, moreover, had its own limits to production.

Read more ....

My Comment: The same can be said about the Second World War. The industrial might of the allies overwhelmed what Germany or Japan could ever dream of producing.

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