United Kingdom tech levels

[Michael the Pole]

As ya'll know, I've repeatedly made the arguement that the Nazis consistantly lead the Allies/Comintern powers in technology. A little light reading has reminded me of some of the reasons why I hold that opinion. (I've been re-reading Len Deighton's Blood, Tears and Folly, which I highly recommend for its revisionist British look at the war.)
Deighton makes a number of salient points concerning British cultural shortcomings involving education (less than 1% of British males attended university prior to WWII,) government ineptitude (the stories concerning armor piercing shells that broke up on impact, bombs that consistantly failed to explode, and explosives that were known to be less than 50% as effective than German explosives to name just a few, make the U. S. Navy's problems with its Mark XIV torpedo seem like cute, cuddly confusion!), Union ludditeism and general bloodymindedness (on discovering a gang of British yard workers playing cards in the Captains day cabin during a refit of his corvette after a long, particularly nasty Atlantic patrol, a Royal Navy officer was ordered "not to make a scene for fear of causing a strike!") and the simply amazing ineptitude of British upper level commanders of every branch of service. But the most telling indicator of German economic and technical superiority concerns machine tools -- the equipment needed to produce intricate and advanced weapon components such as aircraft radar or proximity fuses. Quite simply, in 1939 when Germany was the worlds largest exporter of machine tools, the UK had to import the tubes (valves) for its radar sets and aircraft instruments such as altimeters because they simply couldnt be produced in the home islands. Ever wonder why the British consistantly mounted Swedish anti-aircraft guns on their ships -- there's a reason![X(]