A dark version of this is the story of the Nazis inventing blitzkrieg. They were severely constrained by the WWI Versailles Treaty, which disarmed Germany’s military, forbidding it from possessing aircraft, tanks, and heavy artillery. The Army was reduced to 100,00 men, and it was forced to scrap most of its WWI-era equipment.
The unexpected upside was the Truppenamt were able to design the German military from a clean sheet of paper. This was in contrast to Britain and France, burdened by large stocks of recently produced WWI weapons with years of service left in them that were depreciating rapidly.
By the time Htler disavowed the treaty in 1935, the German military had already enjoyed the “benefit” of more than 15 years of disarmament that precluded significant manufacturing runs of aircraft and tanks and allowed study of advances in communications technology
Excellent (but certainly dark) example! Seems like Versailles was a sort of "brush fire" that on the surface seemed like a massive constraint, but really allowed Germany to break away from the burden of existing technology...
A dark version of this is the story of the Nazis inventing blitzkrieg. They were severely constrained by the WWI Versailles Treaty, which disarmed Germany’s military, forbidding it from possessing aircraft, tanks, and heavy artillery. The Army was reduced to 100,00 men, and it was forced to scrap most of its WWI-era equipment.
The unexpected upside was the Truppenamt were able to design the German military from a clean sheet of paper. This was in contrast to Britain and France, burdened by large stocks of recently produced WWI weapons with years of service left in them that were depreciating rapidly.
By the time Htler disavowed the treaty in 1935, the German military had already enjoyed the “benefit” of more than 15 years of disarmament that precluded significant manufacturing runs of aircraft and tanks and allowed study of advances in communications technology
Excellent (but certainly dark) example! Seems like Versailles was a sort of "brush fire" that on the surface seemed like a massive constraint, but really allowed Germany to break away from the burden of existing technology...