In World War II, German military tactics nerds were able to find an initial advantage. Fortunately, the rulers (Nazis) were fuzzy-headed populists who believed in mysticism and half-baked distortions of economic and scientific theories, so it wasn't the engineers who ruled -- it was still the jocks and popular kids. By the end of the war, it was the allies who had significant technical advantages in military hardware, sensing equipment, and cryptography.
EDIT: There were also many instances of higher-ups impeding technical advances that could have been decisive, like stealth bombers.
It's not often mentioned today, but in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries the Germanic states were a massive source of high-skilled emigrants. In the 18th and somewhat the 19th centuries as professors and colonists to Russia and the USA, after WWI a large number of German engineers were employed in the USSR (most of them were expelled in 1937), and many more emigrated to the USA. The next large wave took place after WWII.
