German Weapons In World War II

In World War II, Germany had a significant advantage in several fields of weapons technology. The German advantage was particularly noticeable at the beginning of the war, and towards the end of the war, with a diverse series of innovative weapons, commonly referred to as German secret weapons by The Allies, and Wonder Weapons by the Germans.

German V-1 Missile from World War II on its Launch Pad (Val Ygot, France)

Order Digital Image 12.280 on A4 scale

Deutschen Waffen im Zweiten Weltkrieg

German Infantry Weapons in the Museum of the Battle of Normandy in Bayeux, France

Order Digital Image 12.408 on A4 scale

Armas Alemanas en la Segunda Guerra Mundial

Armes Allemandes dans la Seconde Guerre Mondiale

Senjata Jerman dalam Perang Dunia Kedua

第二次世界大戦におけるドイツの武器

Duitse Wapens in de Tweede Wereldoorlog

The German advantage in weapons technology was the result of three main factors:

Germany was one of the most scientifically advanced nations. It had a history of military innovation, and in the decades before World War II its science and technology leadership in many fields was at its peak.
Since 1933, when Adolf Hitler became dictator of Germany, with a firm and declared intention to go to war, Germany was making a maximum national effort to re-prepare to a major war. The German military industry, already a leader in many fields, was given enormous budgets and other national resources, in a major national effort to equip the German military with the most advanced weapons possible. Such an effort was bound to produce results, and did.
At those same pre-war years, the western technology leaders were led by nationwide post-WWI pacifism which preferred to ignore the rapidly rising threat, and their defense budgets were miserably low. Stalin’s Russia was also preparing to war, but had a bigger gap to close, and Stalin’s centralist terror regime almost eliminated free innovation. So there’s no wonder that in 1933-1939 Germany achieved a significant advantage in military technology over its future enemies, an advantage it partially lost during the war.
When the war began, the over-confident Hitler ordered to slow down German weapons development projects which were not expected to become operational within an 18 months time frame. But towards the end of the war, outnumbered and facing defeat, Germany did the opposite, and desparately invested in highly advanced new weapons development, with impressive results, but mostly at the expense of greatly needed mass production of available mature weapons, and too late to save Germany from defeat.