The U-Boat, stealth technology that changed the face of warfare.
There can be little doubt that the U-Boat goes down in history as one of the greatest Stealth weapons ever developed. By utilizing tactics and technologies geared towards avoiding detection and disabling their opponents’ abilities to counterattack or effectively defend themselves, the U-Boat served as an impressive equalizer against the might of the British Royal Navy. It could easily be argued that the tactics employed by the Germans in neutralizing a far superior naval power led to the dramatic rise of guerrilla warfare in the 20th Century.
What the average person may not realize, however, is that the rise of submarine warfare, and possibly the First World War, where U-Boats first figured prominently, was a direct result of a birth defect. Indeed, the entire history of warfare in the 20th Century can, in a way, be traced to a single physician.
