ORIGINAL: castor troy
while I think this is correct for most of the US equipment compared to the Japanese I don´t think this is true in comparison with the German equipment. There was definetely the factor of quantity but the quality was still very good of German weapons until very late in the war. The problem there wasn´t enough. Not enough of tanks, trucks, fuel,....
My grandfather served over 4 years as a tank commander and told me that they (the German) were always convinced about the "better quality" of their equipment in comparison to Western Allied ground troops while they feared more the equipment of Soviet ground forces. The thing they were really afraid of was the Western Allied Air force. And he never had something better on hand than a late model of the Panzer IV. Don´t want to start the old story about the Sherman vs. the Tiger or Panther again. Of course 10 Shermans are the better choice to produce but the 5 men sitting in a Tiger will be convinced for sure that they´ve got the better tank than those 4 or 5 crews that just were killed in the Shermans when taking on their beast. I bet Wittmann was convinced that he had a better tank than his Western Allied opponents. Though he feared the Eastern tanks that were capable of taken on Tiger.
And all of Hitlers "wonder weapons" were probably years ahead of Allied developments but with the problems with not enough of them and not operational early enough. Besides the fact of stupid decisions like the Schwalbe being a fighter bomber instead of a pure fighter. Producing them in 42 when it would have been possible would have caused more then 100.000 Allied crews lost of German held territory.
German equipment often suffered from reliability problems. Most Tigers were lost due to mechanical breakdown while retreating or in enemy territory. They were able to streamline production for some weapons and were able to produce some cheap and very reliable weapons. All the "super weapons" were tempermental and prone to failure. Many times the super weapons were over engineered and had been built by slave labor who were not exactly motivated to make the best product.
I've also read that Hitler's dithering about putting the Me-262 into production was not the critical path for it's delays. It's true the Me-262 was flying as early as 1942, but it wasn't ready for production until 1944. The biggest problem was the Jumo engines. A few experimental ones were available for the Me-262 prototypes, but the engines were not ready for full production in 1942. Jet engines take new advances in metalurgy and Jumo had a lot of trouble with metal failures in the core. Even when the engines went into production they were tempermental and prone to short lives. The problems were never worked out during the war.
Germany also suffered from raw resource shortages that required redesigns and limited many things. The high quality iron to make armor plate came from Sweden, and as the war progressed, Germany had a tougher and tougher time paying for more of it. Oil was a constant, ciritcal issue for the last couple of years of the war. For av gas, they had two grades 87 octane and 92. During the last 2 years of the war, 100 octane was available on every US and British base, with 140 available too. The B-29's engines ran on 140 octane. My father (who was flying in the Pacific) said that more often than not, they flew B-25s on 140 octane too.
Germany also was very wasteful of trained personnel. The US and Commonwealth rotated all aircrews so the experienced pilots would train the newbies. This had many effects. It kept morale up because crews knew there was an end to their tour. The experienced pilots were able to instill some of that experience on their pupils (though this wasn't fully incorporated until the Top Gun type programs). With plentiful oil, student pilots were able to get enough flying hours in so they felt confident in their mounts when they went into combat. As the war progressed, the quality of Allied green pilots steadily increased and the quality of Germany and Japanese pilots decreased sharply.
Germany was able to produce some spectacular weapons in some areas. Some of these such as the Panzerfaust and MG42 they were able to produce in sufficient quantities. In larger weapons, there were never enough tanks, guns, or planes after 1942.
Comaring one on one, many US weapons were inferior to the German counterparts. The US had two things going for it: quantity and reliability. The humble 2 1/2 ton truck could do something no other army's trucks could do: run almost continuously for more than a year and not wear out. It seems like a minor thing, but it isn't.
When Churchill heard about the Pearl Harbor attack, his first comment was, "so we have won after all". He knew that US manpower and production was going to turn the tide.
Bill
