Today’s Technology in a 1936 world

[JerkyJerry]

If back in 1936 the world had today’s technology (cell phone camera’s, internet etc.) not war tech just civilian devices. Yes I know that satellites are needed for today’s tech yadda yadda yadda. Just go along.


If people back then had the devices of today how would WWII been different if at all?

What do you see as the good or the bad things with this tech being available back then?

If you were alive back then do you think that today’s technology would increase or decrease your chances of joining your country’s military?

Would you be more inclined to be part of partisan uprisings? Would you have joined the underground?


Do you think technology will prevent a third world war or have little or no impact?

Thanks for replying

 

[Sur]

EDITED RESPONSE

If people back then had the devices of today how would WWII been different if at all?

Do you think technology will prevent a third world war or have little or no impact?

Thanks for replying

Well it would be a very documented war first off if there was one. People would inevitably see some footage of the war I think unless there was some top tier censorship which there may have been in some countries like the USSR. In this country it might be easier for them to keep going and their leaders to lie about how well they were doing on the front lines while in less censored countries they would likely learn about more losses as well as victories and hearing about this may also discourage some people from wishing to join the army forces. TL;DR Less censored nations would probably suffer from how easily news would spread.

If you were alive back then do you think that today’s technology would increase or decrease your chances of joining your country’s military?

Would you be more inclined to be part of partisan uprisings? Would you have joined the underground?

Thanks for replying

I think in a more censored nation if you were being told you were winning easily then signing up would be more likely, I probably wouldn't have signed up if I had a better idea of what was going on via news on my iphone. Additionally I think uprisings could be much more structured than they were and worked in unison to create chaos behind enemy lines but then again the occupier would also have better communication. Ultimately I think it would be more likely to influence you into the underground as it would probably appear as some noble cause and more people would hear about it, it might make underground resistance actually a big threat to a country that can't spare many troops from the front lines.

Sorry for not correctly understanding the question the first time also I only really talked about the communication side of things from having a phone off the top of my head also I haven't proof read it >.>

I know I didn't answer everything but I didn't have an answer for all of em.

 

[JerkyJerry]

If back in 1936 the world had today’s technology (cell phone camera’s, internet etc.) not war tech just civilian devices. Yes I know that satellites are needed for today’s tech yadda yadda yadda. Just go along.

Like I posted Sur. Just civilian technology; cell phones, internet etc.
No war tech. No satellites. Nothing war related just civilian devices.

 

[Sur]

Like I posted Sur. Just civilian technology; cell phones, internet etc.
No war tech. No satellites. Nothing war related just civilian devices.

Sorry just glazed over that part x3 Ill revise my answser.

 

[Skjold89]

Civilian devices would for sure have been used for military applications. That goes for alot of things.

I can see it now, German tank crews chatting on their ReichPhone 6 to gain an advantage over the battlefield.

 

[Rommel 459]

It would have been a lot harder for countries to hide dishonorable acts. the war would still have happened as it was a failure of leadership and people that allowed it to happen.

And yes, the civilian tech would have bled over into military. i can's see a bomber navigator with a GPS capable cellphone getting lost because he's trying to estimate his position and guesstimate.

 

[Sur]

It would have been a lot harder for countries to hide dishonorable acts. the war would still have happened as it was a failure of leadership and people that allowed it to happen.

And yes, the civilian tech would have bled over into military. i can's see a bomber navigator with a GPS capable cellphone getting lost because he's trying to estimate his position and guesstimate.

Or maybe he'll drive it into a river because his sat-nav tells him to :3

 

[JerkyJerry]

Good responses
I was kinda looking at it more from the 1936 date. Since it would have been a couple of years before the war in Europe would have started. Does the date make any difference in your opinions?

 

[Sur]

Good responses
I was kinda looking at it more from the 1936 date. Since it would have been a couple of years before the war in Europe would have started. Does the date make any difference in your opinions?

its a fairly big bloody question that would affect everything it makes me feel like a muppet trying to guess at what would happen but I was thinking of it in general of that time period if that helps x3

 

[Pandoricus]

You must be as bored/hyped up as I am, so we would all be dead.

 

[SDAirborne173]

The nature of warfare and how the war is fought would change dramatically. The reason many nations no longer have large standing armies and why the Second World War is often cited as something that will probably never be duplicated again is because the technological progression of military equipment has largely made void the huge need in manpower that was once necessary to fight long term conventional conflicts. Even a well trained airborne rifle platoon can do as much damage as an entire company or battalion used to be able to do during the war, mostly due to the accuracy of munitions and how rapidly information can now be transmitted. Additionally, the availability to direct close air support with the kind of precision we see today was something that didn't even exist until about 20 years ago. As a result, we would probably see a dramatically shortened war due to advanced sensors and the accessibility of information they provide. You have to remember the massive amount of logistical headaches that were often encountered in trying to decide where to conduct coordinated attacks. Every single planned operation in WW2 first was built upon gathered intel, and the ability that many contemporary armed forces now have to gather it is hundreds of times more efficient than it's ever been in human history.

So, yes, to echo what many in this thread have been saying, it would probably be exceedingly bloody but also exceedingly short. And I don't think our prospects look too bright with certain madmen capable of launching intercontinental ballistic missiles strapped with hydrogen bombs, either.

 

[Oriflamme]

From a purely civilian point of view, imagine if the victims of Kristallnacht had iPhones. That definitely would have generated a stronger response. Then again, so too would the Moscow show trials.

 

[keynes2.0]

Good responses
I was kinda looking at it more from the 1936 date. Since it would have been a couple of years before the war in Europe would have started. Does the date make any difference in your opinions?

WWII was something of a black swan event. Sure Hitler wanted a war but a lot of things had to go wrong in a row for his war to be anything but as miserable failure that ended in a year. You needed the collapse of the Stressa front over failed negotiations concerning a scrap on the Ethiopian border, the assasination of the Yugoslav king, a radical shift in Belgian foreign policy, a radical shift in soviet foreign policy at exactly the right time. Hitler was really really lucky.

So if you go back in time and stomp on a bunch of butterflies the war probably ends pretty quickly when Germany runs out of oil and artillery shells after getting rebuffed at the Belgian border.

 

[Ottovski]

Nvm, swastikas.

 

[Oriflamme]

That picture breaks more than a few forum rules.

 

[Number 7]

you mean like this? pretty OP really

 

[1337JiveTurkey]

It would definitely change the direction that military technology would develop depending on where you draw the line. While some things would show up much sooner, other things probably wouldn't appear at all.

• Communication: If everybody on the battlefield can communicate lightning fast, battlefield commanders can respond more quickly. Fire support requests can be called in faster so doctrines might emphasize centralized artillery. Hitler and Stalin's tendency to micromanage would be a million times worse.
• Cryptography: Modern cryptography is unbreakable by historic standards but modern computers can trivially break historic codes. Modern encryption also uses tiny amounts of processing power on modern computers, so encrypting everything is quite possible. A lot of countries would probably ban civilian encryption out of fear of espionage.
• Radar: Anybody with the knowledge to make a modern digital radio of the sort used in cellphones can figure out the basics of radar and has the technology to make a relatively cheap and compact one. Without stealth, it'd be hard for people to hide.
• Engines: Modern internal combustion engines are insanely powerful, fuel efficient and reliable compared to then. Countries facing severe fuel shortages might have considered hybrid drivetrains for tanks. Aircraft would fly further and faster, and if jet engines count as military technology I don't know if anyone would bother switching to the primitive ones of the day.
• Guidance: The camera, compass, accelerometers, GPS (if it exists), radio and processor of a modern cellphone give a variety of options for someone looking to guide a weapon and they're dirt cheap. They wouldn't survive getting shot out of a gun, but dropped from an airplane or fired on a rocket would probably still work. Bombers would be far more powerful compared to everything else. Things with guns would probably still have stabilized weapons so tanks would probably be driving around at full speed blasting things.
• Rockets: With super accurate bombers on the rampage, everybody's quickly going to come to the conclusion that they need to shoot them down fast with some variety of missile. At the same time a rocket that can lob a guided battleship shell might be more expensive per shot, but it'll fit on a much smaller ship. Everybody's got a lot of incentive to develop better rockets fast.

 

[Dakka]

OMG! Look at this tank! #BlitzKrieg #OhNo #WarsawHasFallen #Panzer #SiegHeil #B&WFilter

 

[Victor Cortez]

I wish I could contribute to this thread, but for some reason I've started thinking that wehrmacht soldiers remind me of emo kids and now I can't get this out of my mind.

 

[1337JiveTurkey]

Also those giant Nazi rallies would probably feature a laser show, glowsticks, trance marching music and literal tons of KdF MDMA.