Posted: March 6th, 2024

Military Innovations between World War I and World War II

Military Innovations between World War I and World War II
1. Introduction
The period between the two great wars was an important time for technology in general and military technology in particular. World War I was the first time that aircraft were used on a large scale. By the end of World War II, it was clear that the days of the propeller plane were over and that the jet engine was the way of the future. Similarly, the first tanks were used in World War I and the tank was an important weapon in World War II. Perhaps the greatest technical strides of the time were in electronics. The battles of World War I were fought with bolt-action rifles, machine guns and mustard gas. By the end of World War II, the world had seen the detonation of two atomic bombs and the beginning of the missile age. The purpose of this research is to analyze how technology impacted the tactics of war on both the battlefield and on the home front between World War I and World War II. I will focus on how technology affected the strategies of the military and the outcome of “total war” for the civilian population. Hope this can help me attract more readers or historians’ interest in my research.
1.1. Background
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the development of new weapons that were used in World War I also helped to develop new defensive and offensive strategies. For instance, newer, larger artillery pieces made the idea of massed infantry assaults against the enemy a disastrously deadly notion. The machine gun, for instance, had made these previous ideas of massive teamwork in the army virtually useless to the soldiers who still used such tactics. As a result, in order to successfully defeat the enemy, new technologies obtained during this time period had to be used to complement new strategies to increase the war efforts for both the Allied Powers and the Central Powers. It is the knowledge of these new technological developments and strategies that we can understand the successes and the shortfalls of the countries involved in this war. By extension, this knowledge can lead to further understanding of technological impacts and continued strategy developments over time that may have been influenced by the discoveries made during the time of World War I. With the armistice – the agreement to end fighting – signed in late 1918 by the Allied Powers and Germany, many participants of World War I were left searching for answers to the overwhelming carnage. This notion appears to have provoked continuing consultation around the world and prompted endless historical debates and studies of various facets of the Great War. However, the immediate response to the “New Germany” in the 1920s, the slave state of Nazism in the early 1930s, and the realization of the “lost generation” highlighted the impact of the growing strategies and technologies that were developed and made during such warfare. Over the interwar period, these technological and strategic ideas manifested into what is now described as “blitzkrieg”, or the quick and effective use of air and land troops in combination.
1.2. Purpose of the Research
Throughout the use of this investigation, it is anticipated that the various types of military innovations and whether the focus was predominantly on exploiting a pre-existing idea or on using a mixture of different types of technology to create a new and modernized piece of military hardware will be explored and addressed. However, the investigation is obviously limited by the fact that both World War I and World War II were such massive, global events that it is not possible to cover all types of military technology because there were so many different designs etc. in progress. For example, according to Kelly (2018), between the years of 1914 to 1918 the types of military technology that were being developed were aircraft, poison gas, machine guns and the tank. This suggests a heavy reliance on both improving current technology and creating new modes of weaponry and transport and it is evident that over time between 1914 to 1918, military tactics would also evolve and change as a direct result of these new inventions. Kelly (2018) also discusses the war tactics that were employed at the time such as trench warfare. With new military technology such as machine guns and poison gas being introduced, infantry were instructed to ‘go over the top’ and charge no man’s land but often with devastating effects from the largely static and well-protected defending side. This demonstrates a clear necessity to adapt military tactics and ideas to a changing and technologically advancing world. Another example, according to Smith (2013), between 1945 and 193 there were a new set of military technology such as aircraft carriers that allowed strategies to be increasingly naval focused, radio and communications technology, tanks such as the iconic German ‘Panzer’ and heavy machinery e.g. cog railway mountain paths. Smith (2013) suggests that such warfare technology was focused on speed, bolstering movement and breaking through enemy trench networks and subsequent analysis will ascertain the accuracy of this evidence. Communication information and technology would be invested in when a large amount of space would need to be conquered and taken. This information relayed by computer and intelligence scientists and the police. This large input on research and developments in sort of communication and technology would eventually serve to help with the successions of new and improved methods of fighting wars. The research provided by Briggs (2010) shows that, during the aftermath of World War I; which for Britain was a time of depression and post-war slump, generals believed that more could have been achieved had they been in constant communication with troops on the front line. However, no one at the time had the ongoing research and developments to then create a solution that would have provided that aid. This leads into explaining why the investigation is important because it will be able to provide a full analysis of the various types and aids of modern military technology in use and also, what are the deciding factors of why something would be researched further and why. The investigation therefore will help to inform and help progress future research of military technology over time as it will provide an insight into what drives and makes successful, modern military technology.
2. Section 1: Technological Advancements
The government regenerated the Canadian aviation industry in the early 1900s with large orders for Canadian-designed planes. The Department of National Defence opened the Technical and Engineering School at the Toronto Training and Re-establishment TD (Turret), and by 1919, the Canadian Air Board was established to provide a peacetime air survey and also to administer a tripartite government. By 1920, the Canadian Air Force was formed as the air defense of Canada was implemented and money was put out to develop North Bay as a major center. Also in 1920, a flight of four Canadian-manufactured de Havilland aircraft flew to Manitoba. In 1922, the Riley Aero Corporation started manufacturing the Riley Model A sport and seaplane in St. Catharines, which was the forerunner of a series of successful aircraft types such as the Riley Moth. By the time of the general tasks of the air force were declared as provision of defense for the coastal ports of the North Atlantic Ocean and also to protect Canada from air attack. In the late 1900s, the push-pull system of control wires was introduced. However, after a few catastrophes, it was completely altered to the present-day control system of using separate control wires for each separate control surface. The Department of National Defense (DND) started to get the material to develop ideas for the pusher-type plane after they saw that such a plane was successful; a contract was awarded to Canadian Vickers Ltd. for a prototype with a new form of external control, geared tabs operated by the pilot’s control column. By the start of World War II, the Canadian aircraft industry had progressed to a point that the British purchased new Canadian planes for use in the Battle of Britain. Also, the Toronto Flying Club (to become de Havilland) was formed. And in 1939, the National Research Council (NRC) formed what is now the Aerospace Research Center.
2.1. Aircraft Developments
By the time that the Second World War began in September 1939, the theories on the significance of air power had seemingly been proved in the conflict in Spain. Work of the aircraft designers and the planners of tactics and strategies from the late 1920s to 1939 had made Britain one of the leading air powers in the world. This period of rapid development was therefore of critical importance to the history of the RAF and the development of air power within British military thinking.
Students of military history will often find that, during the early 1920s, air power theorists were predicting a revolution in military affairs. Theorists such as the Italian Douhet and the Britishman Mitchell wrote large volumes on the potential of air power to be a war winning weapon. Mitchell, a former RAF officer, went so far as to use his publication ‘Winged Defence’ to argue that funding of naval projects should be cut in favour of increased spending on aircraft development. In the Royal Air Force, there were many officers who agreed with Mitchell and who saw fighters and bombers as the future of the service.
These rapid advancements in technology were not just confined to the design of aircraft. For any new technology to succeed, it must be sufficiently mature to be a viable tool, or the applications for the technology must be so great as to outweigh the investment – whether that investment is money, time or people. During the period of study, great strides were made in the development of new tactics and strategies for the use of air power.
For example, the development of stress skin construction and retractable undercarriages enabled aircraft to fly faster and more efficiently than ever before. The record breaking speeds of the Schneider trophy racers from 1922 to 1931 gave an indication of what might be possible, and this was confirmed when, in 1933, the Supermarine designed, Rolls Royce powered seaplane Spitfire reached a speed of over 360 mph. The Spitfire and its stable mate the Hawker Hurricane would, of course, go on to fight in the Battle of Britain.
During the 1920s and 1930s, the aircraft evolved from slow, fragile powered kites to sleek, monoplane bombers and fighters. New aircraft types were designed to fulfil a variety of roles, whether for reconnaissance, ground attack, fleet defence or the strategic bombing of enemy territory. This development of different types of aircraft was paralleled by the rapid evolution of aircraft design. In contrast to the relatively slow progress in the field during the early years of aviation, the acceleration in development in the 1930s was extraordinary.
At the close of World War I, powered aircraft were still relatively new and of limited military value. Although the war had hastened the process of development, and the conflict had shown how air power could potentially be of use, the new technology was still in its infancy. Military and political leaders were also still coming to terms with the concept of air power and how it would affect future warfare.
2.2. Tank Warfare
It is often thought that only numerate and scientifically-minded disciplines such as Maths and Physics can require the use of a clear and precise writing style. However, I hope to use this dissertation to prove that the ability to use language effectively is just as important within History. Also, in our complex modern world where many standard careers and professions require the assembling of sound, persuasive arguments on multiple different sorts of issues from a fragmentary spread of evidence, I find the clarity and coherence of my expression developed through the study of History to be very valuable.
I am hoping that through a very many trips to a number of national and local archives, I will be able to find a rich and varied source base which will hopefully contain a number of original blueprints, operational record books of armoured regiments and detailed minutes from meetings of the various military research and development establishments. I will also aim to gather a wide and varied collection of contemporary photographs and postcards, as well as new interviews with historians and curators and practitioners in the field of Second World War history. It is my belief that using this wide range of primary and secondary materials will help to present as full a picture as possible of the development of tank technology and doctrine throughout the interwar years.
Crucially, one of the primary conditions of purchasing foreign machinery was that a nation had to buy a set quantity of parent machines alongside the manufacturing rights before a production line could be set up in the buyer’s factories. This provided a very powerful disincentive to collaboration between tank-producing nations and intended to stop the international transfer of tanks and machine tools. However, the general chaos of competing interests that so characterised the life and foreign policy of the European powers in the interwar years – most vividly demonstrated by the web of treaties and agreements that brought the entire continent into a war after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand – meant that these measures were largely ineffective.
The continued instability of the interwar years ensured that radical new ideas about the deployment of tanks became increasingly attractive to European military planners. For example, machinery requiring Belgium and Czechoslovakia were designed primarily for export and were never used in significant numbers by those nations as they sought to enhance their own military industries by selling abroad. Italy, on the other hand, decided to buy British heavy machine tools and to send a number of engineers and technicians over to the Vickers Armstrong factory at Elswick in order to study best working practices for a highly mechanised, modern production line. This would become remarkable because in 1940, the Italian army fought against the British – using, in many instances, the very tools, equipment and sometimes even the ammunition that Mussolini’s Fascist regime had bought only 20 years previously.
These developments all contributed to the rise of the tank as a key military instrument of war during the period between the World Wars. In the immediate aftermath of World War I, France was acknowledged to be the world’s leading designer and builder of armoured vehicles. However, throughout the 1920s and the 1930s, many other nations developed their own tank research and production capabilities. For example, creating new tank doctrines, new successes and failures in different world conflicts, new inventions such as the continuous track and Christie suspension, new methods of tank production and their exploitation. And then, more broadly, the complex, two-way interaction between technological innovation and new ideas about how to employ this innovation in the battlefield and in cooperation with other kinds of military technology. These are some of the issues and questions that I will be exploring in my dissertation – putting the story of the tank into the context of the wider international history of the 20th century.
2.3. Naval Innovations
Also, the developments of sonar and oil power directly countered the use of the Deutschland class and the Bismarck class by Nazi Germany. The use of high-frequency sonar and acoustic lighting meant that submarines can be detected and adequately defended against when using effectively in wolfpack formation. The switch to oil came with stricter refueling and maintenance regimes and hence cut into the effectiveness and the flexibility expected by such high seas battleship. These innovations facilitated a shift towards a much more balanced military capability and strengthened the supremacy of the larger and technologically advanced naval powers.
The third major innovation was the development of sonar. Although ASDIC was actually invented in 1917, it was the inter-war period that saw the technology being refined and becoming more widely adopted. The first major innovation was the invention of the heptode valve in 1934, which allowed much more sensitive underwater sound detecting equipment to be made. The use of this new valve capacity allowed for a much clearer and wider range of sounds to be detected, and so it improved the accuracy and effectiveness of sonar. Secondly, various studies and tests have managed to increase our understanding of underwater acoustics as well as how sound waves interact and are manipulated by different water temperatures, pressures, and salinity. Such research allowed for the development of multiple frequency pings and methods to create acoustic shadows of the ship so as to hide its presence. These further expanded the sonar’s capabilities and uses. Also, divers began to experiment with passive sonar interpretations and displays, and this gradually provided a way for the development of a silent yet effective sonar system. Such multifold advancement in sonar technology made submarines increasingly vulnerable to surface fleets. As a result, the era of unrestricted submarine warfare as championed by Germany started to decline, and this new sonar technology defended secure and freely exercised navigation on the surface of the sea. This led to a more stable maritime trade and transportation, and these innovations made the navy more deployable and effective and opened up new possibilities such as naval blockade and carrier strike.
The second innovation is the standardization of the use of oil in place of coal in warship propulsion. The benefits of oil over coal were numerous, and the efficiency and therefore speed and range of ships were significantly improved. Oil also took up much less space and was quicker to refuel, which in turn saved time and reduced the fire risk on a ship. One of the major factors, though, was the fact that a number of oil refineries could be closely controlled and protected. This helped to ensure that a civilian population could be starved of such key resources in the event of war by disabling a relatively small number of targets. The United States and Japan were particularly keen on this.
The first is the development of naval aviation. Aerial reconnaissance assisted in major battles such as Jutland by locating the enemy fleet and relaying messages back to the fleet. However, the aircraft still had a very limited range and would have to be launched from the land. Therefore, the development of aircraft carriers allowed for much more efficient naval aviation. The first aircraft carrier was the HMS Argus, completed in September 1918. It was a design that combined a flight deck with an aircraft hangar and a lift. This allowed for a continuously running system of aircraft launching and recovering, and this significant innovation made the whole fleet more flexible and effective.
The 1922 Washington Naval Treaty was the first major effort to reduce naval weapons, and its success was partially shown in the later London Naval Treaty. It limited the construction of warships, as well as the size of each nation’s navy and the size of the individual ships in terms of their tonnage and gun size. By the time the London Naval Treaties were put into action, three key technological innovations became extremely influential in shaping the future of naval warfare.
3. Section 2: Tactical Strategies
Before World War 2, in Europe and Asia, the global powers were using different tactical strategies. There were two main strategies used during the early World War 2. The first strategy is Blitzkrieg and the second one is Guerrilla Warfare. Blitzkrieg is a German term which means “Lightning war”. This method of offensive strategy includes the coordinated use of air power, armor, and motorized infantry in such a way that it shocks and dislocates the enemy. The first use of Blitzkrieg was during the invasion of Poland, which was made by Nazi Germany on September 1, 1939. The attack on Poland was the opening of World War 2. When Germany attacked Poland with the new Blitzkrieg or Lightning war, the Polish army was using the old conventional method of warfare, e.g., horses. They had no match for German Blitzkrieg. The use of tanks and dive bombers achieved great success. The Polish armies were surrounded by German forces and within a few weeks, Germany conquered Poland. In fact, the speed and scale of German success in the Poland campaign were unprecedented. It was a very big shock to the rest of the world. The Blitzkrieg was focusing on speed and the element of surprise. It also used new communication techniques and coordination of different army services. Tanks were very important in the Blitzkrieg. The previous method that was being used before this had cost years and a huge amount of soldiers’ lives. But in Blitzkrieg, the tanks played a vital role in the warfare. The Ju87 Stuka dive bombers also played an important role in the Blitzkrieg because the Germans were using new tactics of close air support. The employment of fast, light, and simple machines such as the Panzer and the Ju87 had signified the start of a transformation. And the Blitzkrieg would influence the world dramatically. The next tactical strategy is Guerrilla Warfare. It is a form of irregular warfare in which a small group of combatants, such as armed civilians or revolutionaries, use mobile tactics in combat, including insurgency against a larger and technologically superior military. Guerrilla Warfare involves things like ambushes, raids, and sabotage. The Guerrilla tactics were primarily associated with the 20th century, particularly the Marxist.
3.1. Blitzkrieg Warfare
Blitzkrieg, which means lightning war in German, was a new method of warfare that was adopted in the inter-war years and perfected by the Germans in the Second World War. It used the new and innovative tactics of fast-moving and coordinated air and land attacks. The main principle of this type of warfare was to keep the enemy off balance by making unexpected attacks in unusual locations using an overwhelming and hard-hitting force. The classic example of where this tactic was used was when the German forces invaded Poland in 1939. The Poles were caught completely by surprise. They were still concentrated in their defensive preparations along the western border waiting for an attack, as they thought, from Germany and possibly the Soviet Union. There was no concentration of troops along the eastern border and this is where the main German attacks using Blitzkrieg tactics came. When the Soviet Union eventually did invade Poland from the east two and a half weeks later than the German invasion, they also used this Blitzkrieg tactic in their attacks. This time the surprise was so great that the Russians managed to capture large parts of eastern Poland before any significant defensive operations could be set up by the Poles. It was a stark contrast to the trench warfare of the First World War with its long periods of stalemate and static attrition. Blitzkrieg warfare represents a major innovation in military strategy and has been influential and inspiring for military commanders and politicians ever since. This is reflected in the fact that the principles of Blitzkrieg warfare have found many uses and adaptations in modern day warfare, for example in Iraq in 2003. The overall aim of a commander using Blitzkrieg tactics was to apply pressure on the enemy together from as many different directions and dimensions possible at the same time. For example, in the air, on the ground, in the sea if possible and in electronic warfare – quite often before the enemy was aware that they were under attack. This requires precise coordination of troops (using things like radio communications which were also a relatively new innovation in the 1930s) and requires that commanders honestly assess the behavior and intention of the enemy in a fast and, sometimes, ruthless manner. Blitzkrieg required a very different way of thinking to the many other military tactics that had been used before it.
3.2. Airborne Operations
In order to grasp the revolutionary impact of airborne operations during this period, it is important to first visualize the strategic and tactical advantages that such operations brought to attacking forces. Prior to the successful deployment of the German 22nd Air Landing Division during the invasion of France, the use of airborne forces was mostly limited to experimental missions. For instance, in 1935 Italy attacked the independent African nation of Abyssinia by dropping a large number of troops from transport aircraft. However, the Italian military was using the invasion as a test for the capabilities of their new aircraft, and as such the equipment and tactics utilized during the operation were not at all advanced. Rather, the aim was to shock the target and develop experience in using the aircraft, suggesting that the tactical advantage of creating pockets of isolated resistance by using airborne forces to capture key points had not been exploited. This was in contrast to the general and trench warfare strategies of World War I, where large bodies of infantry and tanks were used to push the enemy back mile by mile. Indeed, the fact that traditional and mobile warfare tactics used in World War II – such as the use of dive bombers in the blitzkrieg offense – were nascent and under development demonstrates the potential for a new method of attack offered by the use of airborne forces. The first successful deployment of paratroopers in the invasion of Denmark and Norway in April 1940 marked a significant advancement in such tactical strategies. The use of Fallschirmjager paratroopers was critical in the capture of key Norwegian airfields, and the surprise and speed of the attack enabled German forces to quickly gain air superiority in the area. Notably, the Norwegian garrison at the Vaernes airfield had to surrender in less than two hours after the German airborne assault commenced. This provided essential air support for the subsequent landings of more troops and the successful invasion in the following days, and thus facilitated the first operation in history where airborne forces were used to seize and hold an objective for conventional forces. These initial successes undoubtedly enhanced the reputation and prestige of the German airborne forces, and allowed for further strategic ideas and resources to be directed into the expansion and development of this type of tactical warfare.
3.3. Combined Arms Tactics
Combined arms tactics were widely used and became an essential practice in combined warfare in the inter-war period. It is a military strategy in which different and complementary branches of military forces such as infantry, tanks, artillery, and others are used together in an attack. This strategy was developed as a means to avoid a return to the stalemate of trench warfare experienced in the First World War. One way in which this innovation was implemented was through the creation of the tank division which was a formation in which the tank took centre stage, surrounded by the other arms, infantry and artillery. The emphasis was to make the most of the mobility and shock action offered by the tank and the various divisional tactics manuals of the time indicated that the tanks should be closely concentrated and then deployed to optimum effect. Using all three of the major parts of the division – tanks, infantry and artillery – simultaneously in a well-coordinated assault would produce the maximum chances of breaking through an enemy’s defensive line. Moreover, the coordination between the tanks and the other arms was essential and one tactic was for the leading tank to fire directly at an enemy’s defensive positions in order to ‘suppress’ the enemy, a term meaning to keep hostile action under at a given point. Meanwhile, the infantry would move forward under the covering fire of the tanks and the defences would be taken at close quarters and then the attacking force could consolidate and plan the next move. The trench would be broken and the pattern of defence unravelled – all because of the advanced tactics and the combined use of weapons.
3.4. Guerilla Warfare
Additionally, guerrilla warfare had emerged as an effective strategy in military innovations between World War I and World War II. Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular war where small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics, and mobility, to fight a larger and less-mobile traditional military. It was commonly used by smaller armies fighting bigger, occupying countries. Guerrilla tactics were based on intelligence, which was known as the collection of information for operational military purposes. By using knowledge of the landscape and methods of stealth and surprise, guerrillas were able to successfully attack and retreat before a military force was able to engage them. Intelligence gathered from locals was also employed, aided by tactics seeming simple to understand and execute, yet were often very hard to counter by larger armies. One main innovator was the Chinese leader Mao, who wrote ‘On Guerrilla Warfare’ and got it published in 1937. His book has been highly influential in the past, mostly in radical spectrums. The book emphasizes how guerrilla warfare, which had previously been seen as a primitive and sometimes petty form of battle, could be brought together as an effective and even mobile strategy. It affected and influenced many people at the time and he was able to change the generally accepted views towards guerrilla tactics. His military strategies shaped the Communist efforts against the Japanese in World War 2 and the eventual overthrowing of the Nationalists in the Chinese Civil War. Consequently, Mao’s realization that a guerrilla army and a larger defending army were essentially two separate war machines has become a major element to successful guerrilla tactics to this day. These tactics later inspired anti-colonial and independence movements in Malaya, Kenya, Cyprus, Vietnam and many other countries and during the Cold War. The US recognized that guerrilla warfare was a major strategic problem during the Cold War and decided that any Soviet invasion of Western Europe would be met by guerrilla forces behind the main front line. So the US began directly training people in countries such as Vietnam and, later, Afghanistan, which would be key Cold War conflict zones.
4. Section 3: Communication and Intelligence
The advent of wireless radio technology was revolutionary for military communications. A key development that came about during the interwar years was the tuning of radio waves – this allowed for a single radio channel to be used by many different individuals at the same time. This “frequency modulation” (FM) of radio waves greatly improved the quality and security of radio communication. FM is a type of radio transmission where the signal – i.e. the frequency – is varied. This is different to the more basic “amplitude modulation” (AM) method, where the strength of the signal is altered. AM radio waves are more susceptible to interference and the quality of this type of communication is poorer compared to FM. It wasn’t until the 1930s that the operational utility of FM was realised. The US military had been experimenting with the technology for use in aircraft communication but were struggling to find a way of adapting radio sets to rapidly switch between frequencies. Then, in 1934, an American called Edwin Armstrong patented the super heterodyne radio circuit, which can be used to produce continuous and uninterrupted radio waves on a range of frequencies. The days of using AM radio signals in the military were numbered. The British were somewhat behind the curve when it came to adopting FM technology. The research and experimental work that had been carried out during World War I had largely been wound down and almost immediately the British military found itself embracing a range of new technologies. However, the Royal Air Force in particular was quick to appreciate the potential that FM radio waves offered. By 1938, the standard radio set used in RAF aircraft was the R1382 – a fully capable FM transceiver that allowed aircraft to communicate more effectively and privately. Such equipment was vital for carrying out the first airborne radar trials on a British aircraft; the radar operators were able to report their findings directly back to ground-based personnel, rather than relying on traditional visual or flag signals.
4.1. Radio Communication
This stands in stark contrast to the late 1920s where most systems were still using long wave bands and, due to the low data rate and stability, were forced to rely on large and complex infrastructures of radio towers to relay messages across large distances.
By the outbreak of World War II in 1939, many vast improvements in radio technology had been made, and the most significant was the introduction of the Telefunken FuG 10 system in 1936. This was the world’s first synchronized voice and data communication system over the medium wave band and was primarily used in Luftwaffe aircraft. The overall range of the system itself was also incredibly impressive; the theoretical maximum was 480km for a single aircraft flying at 5km above ground level. This meant that for the first time, it was actually possible for different parts of a military force to coordinate and launch what we would recognize today as large, concurrent operations across many hundreds of kilometers.
At the start of World War I in 1914, radio was in its infancy, and most of the technology was quite primitive by modern standards. Since the very first radio wave was produced by a German scientist named Heinrich Hertz in 1888, the majority of the early developers were based in Germany and used by the German military in the war. The most widely used version of the early shortwave radio, known as the “Funkbake,” saw service as a long-range artillery spotter who could relay coordinates back to the gun batteries using Morse code over the radio.
Between the world wars, large advances were made in many systems and technologies. One thing that had a major impact on both daily life and military operations was the invention and development of radio. In 1894, a British physicist named Sir Oliver Lodge demonstrated how radio waves were capable of sending messages, but the very first system for mobile communications was only patented in 1949. This means that during the period between World War I and World War II, there were great strides in the development of this type of technology, and these advancements had a major impact on the tactics and outcomes of the war.
4.2. Codebreaking and Encryption
Methods of encryption became increasingly complex and sophisticated between the two World Wars as militaries sought to develop secure systems for sending and receiving intelligence and other types of information. During World War I, most of the involved nations used some sort of encryption or code, but these were often of the simplest kind, such as letter rearrangements or numerical substitutions. However, this led to the development and growth of military codebreaking programs, as intelligence organizations such as those in Poland, the UK, France, and the US sought to find ways through the German communication networks that had been closed to them. New electro-mechanical and later electronic machines and devices were invented over the years, each able to break progressively more complicated ciphers and codes. It is this period in history that eventually led to the first proper electronic digital computer, developed at Bletchley Park in the UK. Known as Colossus, this machine sought to speed up considerably the work already being done using electromechanical devices both in Poland and at Bletchley Park. By the start of World War II, codebreaking had developed from a relatively small-scale operation to a much larger, more complex and well-funded enterprise. England was particularly well placed to take advantage of the potential breakthroughs that occurred during this time, given its naval and geographic isolation from the main centers of fighting in Europe. Indeed, after the fall of France in 1940 and the beginning of the Battle of Britain, great efforts were made to transfer codebreaking operatives and machinery to the ‘safer’ ground of the US – to the Bell Labs in New York and to Dayton in Ohio, as well as other locations, such as the listener stations in Barbados and Trinidad. The United States had already been at the forefront of cipher machine development and manufacture for a number of years, and with the onset of war, it was deemed essential to absorb and retain as much knowledge and manufacturing capacity as possible – the Pearl Harbor attacks on the 7th December 1941 made this goal all the more vital. The role that codebreaking and the intelligence it provided indirectly played in the war was to greatly reduce its length, save large numbers of lives, and inspire great advances in the development of computers and other forms of machine intelligence.
4.3. Intelligence Gathering
By late 1939, most modern armies utilized pin cameras on the underside of planes in some way for intelligence gathering. The lessons of the Sudetenland had become clear to Allied military heads and to the League of Nations: that aerial photography was supremely useful in obtaining accurate and direct information on opposing forces, and that the more pictures taken and information gathered, the safer and more prepared a nation could be.
The value of aerial reconnaissance was unique in that it provided direct information on an enemy’s troops, fortifications, and numerous other activities. The camera could reveal what gun positions were in action and rest, the movement of motorized and horse-drawn units, and the arrival of reinforcements. One of the most famous cases, which vividly demonstrated the accuracy of aerial photography, was done prior to the German occupation of the Sudetenland in 1938. The Czechoslovak government commissioned three British aerial survey companies to fly over the western Czechoslovak border. When the thousands of photographs and miles of film were developed, the true extent of German military correspondence was revealed and presented to the League of Nations; images showed that the German army was massing on the Czechoslovak borders, and on September 30th, 1938, under the aegis of the Munich Agreement, the German army occupied the Sudetenland.
One of the most important European innovations in military intelligence was the widespread use of aerial photographic reconnaissance. In simplest terms, aerial reconnaissance is the gathering of information by an aerial observer. This means that anything that involves gathering information from up high- whether it be taking pictures or visual observation- can be considered aerial reconnaissance. The first instance of using aerial photography for reconnaissance was during the Italo-Turkish War, when Italian planes photographed Turkish positions in Libya; however, it wasn’t until much later that the use of aerial reconnaissance became widespread. By the late 1930s, ace my homework research uk writings essay pro many nations- including America, Britain, and Germany- had full-fledged aerial reconnaissance programs.
During the period between World War I and World War II, there were relatively few intelligence organizations. The U.S. Military Intelligence Division started in 1885, but the scope of activity was limited and it was poorly funded. Naval intelligence, likewise, started early, in 1882, but during the 1920s and 1930s it had so little money that in 1933 the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) ceased to exist as an independent entity and was absorbed into naval operations. This meant that many of the great intelligence gathering innovations that occurred during these years were based in Europe, except for a handful of significant and tactical human intelligence innovations that were occurring in America at this time.

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