Was the Effort Made By the Soviets the Main Reason In the Defeat of Germany?

The other large influence in the war was the D-day landings in which the allied forces landed in Normandy this when Hitler made another error. He had the chance to move in with 500 tanks to stop the allied attack but he hesitated, as he did not now about the huge transport boat know as Mulberry which allowed lots of vehicles to be unloaded quickly. In a month the allied forces had an army big enough to overwhelm the German army. In first day 60,000 men where unload, 300,000 in a week and in a month 2 million men which including 450,000 vehicles. This completely destroyed the German army that had been drained by both allied and Russian defeats and the allies freed the France marched on to Berlin where they meet the Russians.

The third main contribution made was by the Americans who at first pledge weapons but did no real damage until the Japanese (one of Germany allies and a member of the Axis pact) declared war on them and destroyed pearl harbour that the USA turn against Germany. The Attack on pearl harbour was not really a successes as it did not completely destroy the United States army as many ships where on manoeuvres at the time.

The following factors are ones, which I think, are not as important as the first three but assisted to them and so the defeat of Germany.

As in world war one the Germans managed to find them selves fighting a multi front war with the allied forces moving in from two completely different directions closing in on central Germany. But these forces split in to small splinter groups making it very hard for Germany to defend the area. As most people agree it is a lot harder to defend many areas than it is to defend one as world war one and the trench system showed. Germany had the near impossible task of choosing where to put it fallen army in or to stop the Allied drive.

The next bad decision that lead to Germans defeat was its choice in allies they turned on there strongest alley Russia and if they hadn't done this the war could have been a lot different. They would have only been fighting a single front war and would have a super powered allied and may have defeated Europe and eventually the world would have crumbled to the power of Germany and Russia. The may have been many reasons for the German decisions to turn on Russia but the two main ones in my opinion where: -

Germany probably feared the power of Russia and fear being stabbed in the back as they where so close to the German border also Hitler would have wanted to be ruler of the world and feared competition from Stalin which brings me on second point. One government was completely left wing the other was right the other side and was right wing which meant that it would have been very difficult to rule the world when both sides had such different ideas in the way it should be done.

The axis plan was really useless to Germany as the was no strong power apart from Germany. The other strong force was Japan who were not interested in European affairs but more worried in Asian affairs and North American this was were they made there and arguably the war biggest mistake when they bombed pearl harbour and brought USA into the war. The was another mistake made buy another one of Germanys allies that could be said to be as important as Japans, this was done by Italy not once but twice first they over stretched them selves in Greece and then in Africa. In the battle in Africa Romme lost 500 tank which was 60% of Germanys tanks trying to bail Italy out. Under the terms of the axis pact they had to help them out causing them to delay there attack on Russia which allowed Russia to gain the upper hand as winter hit. There alley also where not high in natural resources which Germany where running low on. These decisions made by Germany's bad choice in allies cost Germany a lot in the war.

Another main influence in world war was the battle in the air where Britons RAF provide their technical supremacy. Britains main advantage was not there greater number of planes which of course was a large factor but the number of mechanics, Britain had 2 mechanics to one plane but Germany had the reverse with 2 planes to one mechanic. In 1944, at the same time as Germany where fighting in the Soviet Union the RAF and the American air force increased the intensity of they're bombing. The American air force would bomb during the day and at night the RAF would take over. This had devastating affects on Germany as 750,000 civilians where killed, 80% of there air force "Luftwalf" where grounded to defend the mother land which was unsuccessful as the Allied forces had the use of raider which helped them to plan there attacks. Also this diverted resources away from the Soviet Union as artillery was put to second importance behind anti-air craft guns.

Hitler's inexperience and rash decisions lead to the lose of many battle and possibly the war

After the Germans failed to captured the oil field of Caucasus there raw materials started to run very low and this was not a problem that the allied forces suffered and the way the war was going it would not take long for the supply to run out completely. The was no point in Germany continuing to manufacture new vehicles if they did not have the oil to run them on and as mentioned before there allies where not in a position to help them.

Germany made a very big mistake in not allowing normal civilians to join up or help the army in any constructive way. Whilst the British and the Americans where doing everything in their power to stop the German war machine. They did things that Germany would not dream of doing like allowing people with little or no training to join up but largest difference in the two nations was the roll of the women. Women took over the men's jobs and helped to make the artillery that was needed.

The was much civil unrest in France and in my opinion Germany should have waited until that had settled down before launching an attack on Russia. The French people did not like the laws that they had been put under since Germany had taken over or the nazi way of life. I think that Hitler should not change the way people lived in France until the rest of the world was stable and even then it should only be done slowly with a step at a time. Also the Germans did a lot of thing that would make people want to fight on such as the Jewish holocaust where nearly 7 million Jews where killed from the orders of Hitler. This encouraged (as well as the arrogant way the Germans said that they where better than any one else) the allied forces to fight on no matter what to avenge the life's of the innocent victims of Hitler's madness.

I conclude that although the soviet push was very important to the end of the war it was not the most important. Because I do not think that the was one single most important action in the Second World War because unlike the First World War the points are connected together and form a domino affect. Meaning that if one of the events did not happened the others would not have been so successful. If Germany had not helped out their allies and gone a head with their attack on time Russia would have had time to prepare for Germanys attack and if the was no bombing raid in 1943 the would have been more German weapons and a greater chance of success. If Hitler had been more intelligent over the leadership of the army they may have been able to make a breakthrough in Russia or been able to defend more effectively they may have been able to counter attack.

But I think that the reason if I had to say the was one that cost Germany the war was there choice of allies if they had kept an alliance with Russia they would have had a powerful country in Europe as a alley. If they had not allied with Japan and Italy America would not have the war and Germany would not have been force into battles which where not in the current plans.