Originally Posted by
Tweetdrvr
..........The answer he told me was the Germans were masters at building technologically superior weapons in insufficient numbers to matter. Then I had the ah-ha moment when I realized that today the U.S. is building the same kind of "wunder waffen." We did not out tech the Germans, we out produced them. I remember reading once that one factory building B-24s at one point managed to get 1 plane per hour off the assembly line. I can't remember if it was a Consolidated plant or one of the auto plants that had retooled to help with the war effort.
"Wunder waffen." Love it!
I'm pretty sure the factory you're referencing was the Willow Run plant, but I think it was a new-build facility for the war, just financed/run by Ford.
Ah...but quantity has a quality all its own.
Read that one about a year ago, and I really like it. Example:
Germany again, on the Eastern front. Vastly superior army in training, discipline, weapons, communications, and tactics.
Disadvantages: logistic chain was horrifically long, and troops heavily outnumbered. Some would cite the brutal Russian winter, but the Russians had to deal without that, too.
In the end, it was a numbers game.