I apologize for a getting a bit sarcastic at times. I try to keep an open mind and argue facts (or at least time lines). My feelings are that ALL countries had people that had somegood ideas and some bad ideas. I am talking about technical stuff here and leaving politics out of it.
Sometimes there was more than one way to reach a certain goal and different countries/companies took different routes. It doesn't mean either one was wrong. Later developments sometimes affect how we perceive things now, but were anything but clear at the time when some decisions were made.
AS an example, I have been fairly critical of some French engines in another thread. They happen to be among the oldest basic engines in use in WW II. They way they were designed may have made good sense in the late 20s when 70-77 octane was as good as the fuel got. Why build a heavy engine capable of standing up to high cylinder pressures if the available fuel will not allow high cylinder pressures? They knew better fuels were coming, but they didn't know when. The choices they made were valid choices when the engines were designed. Problems came when they had factories tooled up for these engines and they were "stuck" with a basic design that didn't have a lot of growth. The designers were not stupid or dumb, the country they were from is not a stupid or dumb country.
The same with many German or Allied engines or designs, it takes years to go from drawing board to service use and often things beyond the designers control changed.
No engine, airplane, gun, tank, or ship is "better" simply because it was made by one country or another. And no engine, airplane, gun, tank, or ship is "worse" because of it's country of origin. Each one has to stand on it's own merits and in the time it was conceived/used few aircraft managed to have careers that spanned 10 years in front line service from 1935-45.
Hopefully this forum is a place where we can work towards some sort of "truth" instead of some of the partisan press release stuff that was published in past years (Forked Tail Devils and 400mph P-40s,etc) we may not agree exactly but there should be more room in the middle than on the fringes.
The US made some very good airplanes, It also made some real clangers ( junk), which makes me suspicious of "paper" airplanes that never flew. Claims that one country's engineers were "better" or didn't make mistakes probably won't stand up.
BTW I have had A BMW motorcycle, A German Ford Capri, several older German cameras and a number of German rifles and pistols. While I would take the BMW over a Triumph Bonneville as a day to day machine the BMW cracked it's frame 3 times in exactly the same spot due to vibration in under 24,000 miles and couple of the rifles have a flaw or two that casts doubt on "German engineering". Over all they were very good but they were not infallible.