All countries involved in the Second World War faced difficulties in designing and producing weaponry. Various factors like geography, weather conditions, infrastructure, workforce, resources, etc., affected the artillery development in each country. In my thesis, I analyse the role artillery played in three of the countries, that had the biggest impact on the World War II: USA, Germany and Soviet Union. Fighting on several fronts at the same time had severely burdened German economy and consequently weapons manufacturing, which weakened the fighting ability of German armed forces. Geographical location of the continental USA and distance from the European theatre gave them relative safety, which led to the development of high quality, technologically advanced weaponry, with high level of motorization and well-organised logistics branch. The USA army successfully invaded North Africa, Italy and France, which led to the creation of several logistical bases. These bases were constantly receiving shipments of equipment, weaponry, vehicles and supplies. In battles with the German army, the US artillery enjoyed considerable advantage, because they always had all the necessary equipment and never faced shortage of ammunition and weapons. The Soviet Union lost a large amount of weaponry and trained artillery personnel in a German surprise attack. They adapted by designing relatively simplistic and lighter artillery weapons, by saving ammunition and with putting bigger emphasis on direct fire. In 1943, the Red Army managed to field large amount of artillery weaponry, which provided constant fire support during the counter-offensive. After this crucial transition, Germany was forced to slowly retreat from the Soviet territory.
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