“irrational faith in technology to prevail in operationally or strategically complex and desperate situations.”
Technology does win wars, but it isn't magic. If Hitler had followed Karl Doernitz' recommendations and had 300 submarines on hand before going to war, Britain would have fallen to commerce losses to submarines. It was a series of top level decisions to defer the development of revolutionary weapons on the part of the Germans combined with a concerted pursuit of advanced technology by the allies, like RADAR aboard anti submarine airplanes, that decided the war.
If it weren't for such decisions, the V2 and Type 21 would have appeared sooner.
Yup. Like the decision to send the engineers and technicians working on jet engines to join the infantry in late 1940, because they'd be needed for the war against the Soviet Union and jet engines wouldn't be required in the short term anyway(!) -- a costly mistake which set them until the surviving skilled technicians could be hastily recalled. Or Hitler's demand for a jet bomber which forced Messerschmitt to hang bomb racks on the Me-262, delaying their first operational jet fighter for 18-24 months.
And some of the stuff they did pursue was absolutely barking. Like the Landkreuzer P. 1000 Ratte:
Or Hitler's demand for a jet bomber which forced Messerschmitt to hang bomb racks on the Me-262
Apparently, their insistence that new types be capable of dive bombing delayed and compromised many new designs, including the jet powered Arado bomber. It's interesting to note that the Nazis engaged in typical "Pointy Haired Boss" behavior. (Of course, the US did the same with the Space Shuttle and is now doing the same with the Senate Launch System.)
I take some deal of comfort knowing that an evil and criminal regime was also stupid and irrational. It is kind of like that bank robber that hands in the note to the clerk and the note is a his bank receipt with his address on the bank.
It is good that they sent rocket scientists to die in the infantry. Good that they spent resources building that stupid tank. Good that they didn't take too much interest in the nuclear bomb.
I take some deal of comfort knowing that an evil and criminal regime was also stupid and irrational.
Apparently, the Nazi regime was into teutonic myth based occult woo, but I have no idea if that's more a modern distortion than an accurate portrayal.
I wonder if society in the US is any more rational. We gave up on Thorium so we could build bombs faster. The authorities sell us wars with the exact ease and facility that Herman Goering spoke about. Supposedly, GM started building cars larger in the post-war decades just so engineering managers could feel more prestigious. (Prestige came with volume of one's subsystem, apparently.)
Technology does win wars, but it isn't magic. If Hitler had followed Karl Doernitz' recommendations and had 300 submarines on hand before going to war, Britain would have fallen to commerce losses to submarines. It was a series of top level decisions to defer the development of revolutionary weapons on the part of the Germans combined with a concerted pursuit of advanced technology by the allies, like RADAR aboard anti submarine airplanes, that decided the war.
If it weren't for such decisions, the V2 and Type 21 would have appeared sooner.