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"MOst people at the time weren't aware of just how far ahead of the Allies the Germans really were."

No. Most people aren't aware of how far the *Allies* were and are ahead of the Germans.

The Germans lost, so *everything* that they had became ours. Their secrets couldn't remain secret, so we know all of their advanced work. The same doesn't hold true for the Allies.

What we *do* know is that the Allies were ahead technologically in all of the areas that counted such as electronic computers (the Germans used *mechanical* relays and wheels for their calculating machines), digital logic (the Germans didn't even have it, it was invented entirely by the Allies...one man really - Turing), encryption (the U.S. proved mathematically way back in 1917 what made a code breakable or unbreakable...something that the Germans and Japanese found out the hard way by 1945), mass production, supply chain management, and atomic weapons.

That much of the Allies' secrets of success has been made public.

The German V-2 was made from stealing the patents of the American rocket scientist Dr. Robert Goddard, who examined one after the War and found *exact* copies of his gyroscopic control, fuel injection, and other rocketry breakthroughs.

The German V-3 super-cannon was a copy of an 1865 American civil war cannon, scaled up several times and using electronics instead chemical firing delays.

German submarines were no match for American radar, sonar, and depth charges, either.

To put this further into perspective, the U.S. landed a mere 6 divisions in France on D-Day...against 44 Wehrmacht divisions guarding Normandy. Guess who won the day?!

By 1945, the U.S. produced 50% of everything made on this planet, too.

That's the reality. Everything else is the myth.

The Krauts made some inpressive technological achievements. The Me-262 was the outstanding example.

When Hilter invaded Russia he took 3,200 tanks and 600,000 horses. Anyone brought up on Hollywood History would think it was the other way around. The horse was the principle means of transport for the Wehrmacht all during WW-II.

While inspecting captured American trucks in North Africa, Rommel was impressed by the fact that they had hydraulic brakes. Eisenhower said that the deuce and a half was one of the most decisive advantages that the American Army held in WW-II.

Most people are not aware of the fact that German forces in the West outnumbered Allied forces by almost two to one all during the War. (The Russians enjoyed overwhelming numerical superiority in the East.) The Americans had a seven to one advantage in artillery and five to one in tanks and flat-out air supremacy. The best German tanks outmatched the Sherman when employed in a defensive role, but they were slow and difficult to use on offense and extremely maintainance prone. And vulnerable to air attack.

R.V. Jones in his memoir, "The Wizard War", recounts that the question asked by British scientists and engineers after the War about the V2 was not "Why didn't we think of that?", but rather, "Why did they do it?" The V2 was terrifying and impressive (in words of one CPL Schickelgrubber, "Es war, doch, ehrfürchtig.". Point was, in military terms, it was an ineffective and expensive weapon.

German submarines were no match for American radar, sonar, and depth charges, either.

Interesting side note: a lot of the really advanced RADAR work was done by Britain. To prevent a lot of duplication-of-effort, the Brits agreed to 'give' the US access to their technology in exchange for 'our' research on atomic weaponry. Licensing the Rolls-Royce "Merlin" engine to Packard would be another example of technological cooperation. You can probably think of dozens of others...