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Episode details

Sounds,08 Dec 2023,36 mins

How Britain Invented, Then Ignored, Blitzkrieg

Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford

Available for 139 days

In 1917, a brilliant British officer developed a way to use an emerging military technology: the tank. The British army promptly squandered the idea – but the Germans did not. Blitzkrieg, the devastating advance of German tanks across Europe in 1940, was invented by the British. This is a common story: Sony invented the forerunner of the iPod, Xerox the personal computer, and Kodak the digital camera. In each case they failed to capitalize on the idea. Why?

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