What are the main military changes from the first World war to the second Changes in Military tactics weaponry and sociatal views?

Answer 1

This is a broad topic but I'll make a few comments.

Most people remember WWII as contrasted from WWI for it dashing tank charges and great air fleets. However, the great dashes were mostly early in the war (until Germany began collapsing late in 1944). For much of the war, especially after 1941, it was fought on the ground not a lot differently than WWI - defensive positions, slugging it out. Note that almost all the big battles after 1941 were such fights - Stalingrad, Kursk, Berlin, Okinawa, Iwo, Philippines, Italian campaign, Normandy, etc. Even the air battles were just battles of attrition - little dash once you peel off the veneer. The western allies had pretty well given up on ever besting the German air forces in talent or quality so they just got into an attrition war in 1943 and swamped the Germans with overwhelming numbers. Once a certain point was reached Germany could no longer defend herself in the air and it was all downhill. In a way this was like the trench warfare of WWI... recall Verdun?

As for armaments, technology made many great leaps, culminating in the American A bomb (developed with some British input). At sea Germany developed the first true underwater cruising submarines along with a slew of other technological jumps such as acoustic and wire guided torpedos. Germany also developed cruise missiles using their leads in television and rockets. Tanks made huge strides in armament, speed, reliability and cruising range - especially for the German and Soviet armies. The Americans and Japanese perfected aircraft carrier warfare - to the point where the opposing sides sometimes never even saw one another.....something unheard of prior to WWII. In fact, all aspects of aircraft made huge jumps from WWI - speed, range, armaments, carrying capacity. Small arms had little major changed about them although rates of fire, muzzle velocities, and reliability all improved marginally. Early in the war, several of these arms were relatively new and untested. Thus they tended for a time to be spectacularly successful..........German subs up to summer 1942, German massed armor in 1939-41, Japanese AC carriers warfare in 1942. But, after the new wore off, the defense rose to its natural superiority and the battles became more slugfests again, as noted above.

As for societal views, I think the main difference in WWI and WWII was the complete disregard for civilian life. I cannot imagine the British or Americans partaking in the wholesale targeted slaughter of innocent civilians in WWI, but by WWII this was government policy. Direct military targets were only peripherally suggested in the massive carpet bombing and later, atomic weapons bombing, of civilian concentrations. To some extend I suppose this was inevitable as the improvement in communications meant that governments could gather the resources of their respective nations together for the war effort at a much higher percentage than in WWI. Thus every structure and person on the opposing side became a target.

The German/Soviet war was also unusually savage but this was mainly due to political issues. The two nations had fought wars before and they had been hardbitten affairs but generally some rules of decency were applied, especially by the Germans. For WWII, all the rules were suspended due to the opposing politics of Nazism vs. Communism. Both sides fought with such ruthlessness that they prolonged the war by preventing the other side from surrendering (Russia in 1941 and 42 and Germany in 44 and 45). The Soviet attrocities on German civilians right after the war are also unprecedented in modern times, reminicent of the Asiatic butchers of a thousand years or more earlier.

basicly easily summed up Tanks and mobile warfare