Far far too much attention is paid in WWII histories to the new weapons created by wartime scientists and not enough to the vastly altered geographic balance of power of that war viv vis WWI only 25 years earlier.
The general consensus today - from hoary headed professor emeritus to tow-headed tween - is that Hitler was far, far more evil than the Kaiser could ever hope to be.
Yet most of the nations that had fought the 'mildly evil' Kaiser became neutral to, captives of or even allies of the much more evil Hitler.
And this greatly changed the geographic position from which both sides launched those supposedly shiny new scientific weapons.
If German artillery, submarines and aircraft were now just 3.7 miles away from the UK in June 1940 , even WWI technology could be 'good enough'.
The French and UK had already won the U-boat war or so it seemed in mid 1940 - with WWI technology as well - as long as Germany's effort was bottled up in the shallow and small North Sea .
It was only when Germany gained new long (and truly open ocean) coastlines in Norway and France that WWI technology U-boats could turn the resulting Battle of Atlantic into the most decisive of all WWII.
I could go on and on about this - I do go on - but it really is important.
It provides a badly needed corrective to the Man cum Science oriented histories of the war that give geography, climate, harvests and Mother Nature such short shrift ...
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