Due to movies like The Good Shepherd and stories of Russians and Americans racing to get German scientists and technology, it seemed to me that the Germans were much more advanced, is this true? Why?

by Legionaairre
vonadler

The Germans were advanced in some areas.

Rocketry, jet engines, recoilless artillery, submarines (and related technology) and small arms were areas where they arguably were more advanced than any other nation.

The western allies were also very advanced, but in some cases in other things than the Germans. The western allies excelled in computing, code breaking, artillery systems, logistics, industrial streamlining, radar, aerodynamics and many other areas.

The Soviets designed some very good tanks and artillery hardware, but otherwise research and development had taken a backseat to the immediate needs of the war.

For the western allies, the potential reward of capturing German technology was not as large - but the potential of keeping that gain from the Soviets were huge. For the Soviets were behind on research compared to the Germans on most of the areas specified.