Railroad-track-style numeric comparisons persisted against quality in Britain’s pre-war assessments

Evidence

This pattern of assessment was not limited to air power. In judging their naval strength before World War I, the British also relied exclusively on numerical comparisons without consideration of quality. As the battles showed, seamanship, strength of armor, accuracy of fire, ship design, and the effectiveness of shells were extremely important, and the German superiority in the latter two categories cost the British dearly. The impact of factors such as these also shows up in ground combat. In 1940, French tanks were superior to German tanks in numbers and roughly equal in quality. Tactics, training, morale, coordination, and political will made all the difference. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2599

Categorization

• XREF: The 1940 French-tanks-superior-to-German example is a well-known case that connects to broader counterfactual military-history readings.