In the annals of 20th-Century warfare, World War II saw the sharpest and most dramatic rise in the design, manufacture and effectiveness of some of the world's most lethal weaponry. In 1939, the world went to war yet most countries used obsolete weaponry. Even Germany' s largest armies relied on horse-drawn transport equipment. In order to gain supremacy it was necessary for an army of designers, inventors and manufacturers to develop and implement more sophisticated killing machines. WEAPONS OF WORLD WAR II charts the evolution of weapon systems from the outbreak of war to its 1945 climax.