Effect of Science on the Second World War

This fascinating account of how science was used by both the victors and the vanquished in the Second World War makes use of newly available material from the Public Record Office. The book provides an overall view of how the latest advances in science were fully exploited in the war, including radar, sonar, improved radio, methods of reducing disease, primitive computers, the new science of operational research, and finally, the atomic bomb, necessarily developed like all wartime technology in a remarkably short time. This progress would have been impossible without the cooperation of Allied scientists with the military, and the Axis powers' failure to recognize this was a major factor in their defeat.

This fascinating account of how science was used by both the victors and the vanquished in the Second World War makes use of newly available material from the Public Record Office. The book provides an overall view of how the latest advances in science were fully exploited in the war, including radar, sonar, improved radio, methods of reducing disease, primitive computers, the new science of operational research, and finally, the atomic bomb, necessarily developed like all wartime technology in a remarkably short time. This progress would have been impossible without the cooperation of Allied scientists with the military, and the Axis powers' failure to recognize this was a major factor in their defeat.

Guy Hartcup is a retired historian living in London and the author of many books.