Innovating Victory: Naval Technology in Three Wars

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By 1945, within the span of a Jutland officer’s service career, basic naval technologies included radar and guided weapons. This construction program, code-named the Manhattan Project, began when scientists alerted the Roosevelt administration to the likelihood that highly destructive atomic weapons were possible and that Nazi Germany was probably already building one. In 1940, for example, the US Army set out to modernize its transportation equipment in case the nation should be drawn into the war.

When considering the title of the book I had expected some discussion of how innovation in certain countries resulted in victory in the wars considered. Losing battleships to mines or torpedoes without inflicting similar losses on the enemy would give the enemy an advantage that could be overcome only—if ever—by years of costly naval construction. Mines, mine layers, and mine sweepers do not evoke the emotional attachment that flow to aircraft, ships of the line, and submarines with crews admired for their bravery and exploits.Some of the new inventions helped the United States find the strategic goods necessary for fighting the war. Centimetric radar, a tool, allowed Allied aircraft during World War II to spot submarine conning towers at night. Where the text refers to aircraft, it includes both aircraft relying on engines to remain airborne (airplanes) and aircraft relying on buoyant gases (airships). Normally, the rubber for these items would have come from the latex produced by millions of rubber trees growing mainly in the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) and the Malay Peninsula.

Highly recommended for anyone wanting to better understand the implementation of historic naval innovations.

He represented the United States at Operation Torch 75th anniversary commemorations held in Algiers and Oran, Algeria. Seaplanes encompass floatplanes—airplanes kept afloat by attached pontoons—and flying boats—in which the airplane’s fuselage acts as the float.

This is followed by six chapters exploring the historical development of mines, torpedoes, radio, radar, submarines, and aircraft. He represented the United States at the 75th anniversary commemorations for Operation Torch held in Algiers and Oran, Algeria. To make sure enough of these vehicles would be available for the war, the Army awarded production contracts to all three companies, with Ford and Willys making the majority.

In most cases this occurred after the war in which discovery took place, although submarines passed through both a discovery phase and an evolution phase during World War I, and radar did the same in World War II. If Germany had fielded 50 more submarines when World War II began, the outcome may have been quite different. At every turn Americans seemed to need more of everything—more supplies, bigger bombs, faster airplanes, better medical treatments, and more precise communications. O’Hara and Heinz provide a very even analysis, emphasizing that technical advancement, in and of itself, is not enough to implement innovation. The bibliography is well-organized, showing that the authors made liberal use of official histories and primary documents and hundreds of articles, chapters, and books by well-respected scholars.

The authors use their expertise to explore six case studies that analyze technological developments in the twentieth century.In relation to naval aviation the authors conclude that: “It is difficult to know whether the carrier has had its day, but the current crop of antiship weapons give little cause for optimism. Differences in national resources, force mixtures, priorities, perceptions, and missions forced nations to approach the problems presented by new technologies in different ways. The exploration of a half dozen key naval innovative technologies covers all major navies; no one nation has a corner on innovation. O'Hara and Leonard Heinz present new perspectives and explore the process of technological introduction and innovation in a way that is relevant to today's navies, which face challenges and questions even greater than those of 1904, 1914, and 1939.