1940 to 1949: Computing During World War II and the Postwar Era - The Technical and Social History of Software Engineering - page 44

Chapter 3. 1940 to 1949: Computing During World
War II and the Postwar Era
The decade from 1940 to 1949 witnessed the first use of computers in warfare in
all of human history. The need for high-speed calculations to handle encryption,
decryption, logistics, ballistics, and other military purposes led to a rapid expan-
sion in computer and software sophistication. Thousands of analog computers
were used for naval gunnery, bombsights, and submarine torpedo aiming. By the
end of the decade, computers had become useful and powerful military tools and
were poised to expand into the commercial sector in the next decade. When the
decade started, the word “computer” was a job title that was applied to human be-
ings who performed complex calculations, sometimes with the aid of mechanical
calculators. By the end of the decade, the term “computer” was phased out as a hu-
man job description and had shifted to the modern context of an electronic device.
Global Conflict and Computing
World War II was a global catastrophe that left millions of people dead, homeless,
and impoverished. But the military need for high-speed calculations and crypt-
analysis led to rapid advances in computer technology and to the first software
applications that are similar to the ones used today. All of the major belligerents
had some research programs into computing: Australia, China, France, Germany,
Great Britain, India, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, and the
United States. Analog computers received more funding than digital computers
because they were used for ballistics calculations.
The United States and the United Kingdom were the most ambitious and the
most successful. The computers designed and developed by Great Britain are the
best known due to their success in breaking German codes and for deciphering
messages created on the German Enigma code machine.
In 1940, the word “computer” was used as a job description for human workers
who performed complex calculations for military and civilian organizations. Both
technical companies and military organizations employed hundreds of human
computers who worked by using either their own minds or mechanical adding ma-
chines and calculators. Some of the calculations were complex differential equa-
tions, while others were more mundane calculations of payrolls and costs.