How did tactics and weaponry during World War 2 revolutionize warfare?

Question

I'm writing an essay on this topic and i looking for some key points or ideas to mention. any help would be grately appreciated

Answer 1

The use of Carrier Task forces rather than Battleship groups, The use of the first jet fighters by the Germans versus bomber groups. The use of terror weapons (v1 and v2 rockets) against citizenry to demoralize in preperation for an attack.

The use of submarines to cut vital supply lines of the oppozing forces (germany vs allies ans Us vs Japan). The use of the german uboats ulitimately failed due to the might of the allied war machine to replace lost shipping. The us use of submarines was succesful due to the inability of the Japanese war machine to replace its loss of shipping and material, anmely petrolium to keep its fleet up and running.

Answer 2

Airpower. Entire cities wiped out from the air, huge ships taken out by a single plane, etc.

WW2 introduced airpower to the world. WW1 was nothing compared to the 2nd war.

Answer 3

Speed, mobility and massive firepower. Plus the end of battleships and the rise of carrier fleets.

Answer 4

bigger, badder bombs

people died on a scale never seen before. and for the first time, civilians were killed on a mass scale

Answer 5

Weapons:

There were many evolutions in weapons that took place during WWII, including the large leaps forwward in terms of tanks and aircraft designs, but there were not really revolutionary.  The revolutionary systems are as follows:

Guided bombs-The Luftwaffe fielded a TV guided bomb and used it in anti-shipping roles in the Mediteranian.

Guided missiles - Both the V-1 and V-2 were guided weapons of a sort never seen before.  Their range and their ability to guide themselves based on the use of a gyroscope was revolutionary.  They were used to bombard city sized targets, most especially London, Antwerp and Brussels.

Radar and Sonar - These systems were developed almost exclusively during the war, and both were major players in the conflict, and would, of course, continue to be developed and play important roles in the years after the war.

Shaped charge explosive munitions - The development of shaped charges for penetrating armor were noted before the war, but only came into production really during the war.  This advancement allowed relatively small weapons to do the damage of muc larger cannon against tank armor, for example.  The PanzerFaust, the Bazooka and PIAT and other similar weapons all used this technology to give infantry forces some chance of defeating tanks, and gave smaller-caliber cannon the ability to do so as well.

Assault rifles - The classic definition of an assault rifle is a selective-fire weapon using a smaller round that a full-throated rifle round and a fairly large capacity magazine.  The first true assault rifle in the world was the STG-44 fielded by the Wehrmacht, and then copied shortly after the war to become the AK-47.  It's impact on the war wasn't terrific because of the relatively small number produced, but it was a revolution, just the same.

Jet and rocket aircraft - Aircraft design was mostly evolutionary during the war, but Germany, Japan, Britain and the US all produced either jet or rocket aircraft during the period of the war, and the vast increase in speed was arguably revolutionary.

Aircarft Carriers - While developed before the war, these were seen as adjuncts to the battle ships.  The fact that they became the primary weapon of naval warfare was a revolution, to be sure.  During WWII, and especially after the war, carriers became pre-eminent, and all other surface vessels (and even subs) began to be seen as supporting carriers.

Tactics:

Maritime Convoys - In order to deal with the threat of U-boats, convoys had been used during the first world war, but the use of long range land-based aircraft, carrier based aircraft and sonar-equipped surface ships was new.  I suppose one could argue this was evolutionary instead of revolutionary.

Combined arms operations - Blitzkreig was the first itineration of this, and the combined arms task forces the US army used by the time of the Breakout from Normandy was the end result.  The use of massed tank formations, followed by mobile infantry and stuka strike aircraft was the characteristic of blitzkreig.  The Americans added self-propelled artillery and far better communications integration to the mix later.  Today, this mix remains essentially unchanged.  US forces advance into battle in mixed formations, with tanks, armored infantry carriers, self-propelled artillery, anti-air weapons and a combat air controller to direct strike aircraft.  

Submerged submarine warfare - Prior to WWII, submarines nearly always surfaced to attack shipping, and there was virtually no capacity for sub-to-sub battle.  The war changed that.  Sonar and more reliable torpedos were the keys.

Answer 6

It became much more mechanized as the war went on, planes became faster and could travel longer distances and before WW2 ships carrying planes on them was pretty much unheard of, carriers existed but not to the extent they were used in WW2.  Tactics also changed because in WW1 the primary tactic was trench warfare but during WW2 fighting from the sky became more common with paratroopers as well as dogfights and aerial bombings.