Keeping this strictly to equipment.....
Amazing how the German philosophies about engineering still carry through to today's cars
Germany had great equipment throughout the war..very innovative......but they were way too expensive to make and too complicated to maintain.
On Land:- The 88mm was an awesome gun
- If you look at the Panther tanks that came after the Tiger, it had a high velocity 75mm actually had more penetrating power than the 88mm
- Sturmgewehr 44 - assault rifle....innovative.
- MG42 - changed tactics of how squads fought
- Panzershrek - improved Bazooka
- Panzerfaust - disposable shape-charged weapons
In the Air:- BF109e - great plane at the start of the war
- BF190 Fockewolfe - great plane with a BMW radial engine
- Me163 Komet - innovative but more of a death trap
- Me262 Jet Fighter - world's first.... Hilter messed the program by meddling and tried to make it a bomber
Don't forget the Allies:- The Russians had the awesome T34....sloped armor....reliable...76mm gun....built in quantity...
- P51 Mustang - Fly escort over Berlin with the range given by the drop tanks and then outfly the fighters when called on
- M1A1 Garand rifle - the best infantry rifle of the war
- Ma Deuce - 50 cal GPMG
- Spitfires and the unappreciated Hurricanes
- And my personal favorite the F4U Corsair (which saw almost all action in the Pacific)
Definitely not going to get into any part of the death or carnage of the war but I have been a history buff for along time and the equipment all sides fielded was amazing (ignoring the fact that they were meant to kill of course)
When I did alot of the reading and research in WWII, I was just amazed at how the Americans, specifically, just turn on the engineering and manufacturing might.
I often wonder if there was some incident that would require all of America to build great cars what would happen..... Look at the Corvette....kicks German butt without really trying.