Human ingenuity played a crucial role in Americans winning World War II. As General Dwight D. Eisenhower writes:
It is not too much to say that Allied development of great quantities of revolutionary types of equipment
was one of the greatest factors in the defeat of the plans of the German General Staff.
The range of technology from landing boats, transportable bridges, vehicles and weapons is remarkably clever.
It is not too much to say that Allied development of great quantities of revolutionary types of equipment
was one of the greatest factors in the defeat of the plans of the German General Staff.
The range of technology from landing boats, transportable bridges, vehicles and weapons is remarkably clever.
Mulberry Harbours
For example, the Allies knew they could not get adequate ports to meet all their needs, so they built artificial harbors on the coast of Normandy using a “gooseberry” and a “mulberry.” The gooseberry was a line of sunken ships that provided a sheltered coastline so Allied ships could unload. The mulberry, according to Eisenhower “was practically a complete harbor.” The mulberries consisted of enormous box-like concrete ships sunk end to end. The enormous task of getting supplies to the Allies seemed daunting. Reinforced divisions used almost 700 tons of supplies a day. Allies also had to evacuate the wounded as quickly as possible from Normandy so they could get medical care in England.
Because of Allied aerial bombardment, many bridges were purposely bombed, to prevent German reinforcements from getting to Normandy. Allied forces therefore needed to construct bridges in order to cross the countryside as they advanced toward Germany. With the Bailey Bridge they could quickly assemble a bridge of almost any required length.
Close up view of the Bocage during our Normandy Institute Trip
Another obstacle to crossing the Normandy countryside were the hedgerows. The French had planted hedgerows that were in some cases 1,000 years old and 10 feet thick in places. An American general said fighting with hedgerows was worse than jungle fighting. Even tanks could not always get through this tangled dense brush. Because hedgerows are planted on a four foot berm with a 1 foot deep trench dug around them, tanks would tip up while trying to run through the brush. This exposed the tank underside, and meant tipped tanks could only shoot up, making them vulnerable to attack.
The solution to getting through the hedgerows was to put giant cutters on the front of the tanks. Often the army attached to the tank front the sharp German “hedgehogs” that dotted the beach.

These tanks were dubbed “tankdozers” and could more safely cut through the hedgerows by jamming into the hedgerow base.
Soldiers also found an interesting innovation to allow tanks to proceed through land mines. They covered a Sherman tank with a series of pipes, each of which contained a Bangalore torpedo. “As the tank advanced it automatically fired these makeshift guns in succession, so that, as each of the torpedoes flew into the air and exploded some thirty feet in front of the tank, it cleared a continuous path through the mine field.” (Stokesbury) They could make a path 50 yards long using this method, and so avoid foot soldiers from being blown up by mines.
Most people know planes for the first time played a significant war-time role, and of course there were submarines, just like World War I. However, other less known innovations also helped win the war. Measures and countermeasures were continuously being taken. For example, Germans placed magnetic mines in the English Channel and the Brits responded with mine-sweepers. Battleships were equipped with catapults to launch planes into the air. Unfortunately they could not land back on the ship deck, so the pilots could only hope to hit the ocean close to a ship that could retrieve them.
The search by both sides to find new weapons foreshadows the ultimate weapons used to end the war—the atomic bomb
The search by both sides to find new weapons foreshadows the ultimate weapons used to end the war—the atomic bomb