After 1919, German statesmen had to rethink their foreign policy. Friction between Germany and the Allies over the terms of the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, especially German anger at scale of war reparations demanded by France and Belgium
Hitler new to start a war, he needed to re-arm his country. From 1933 he gained U-boats, tanks, planes and ships. These where all build in secret as the Treaty of Versailles stop them from doing this. Rearming gave Germany a boosted in continence. He also made treaties just to ensure Germany had friends instead of enemies.( Nazi-soviet pact) He also increased morale by all the victories and propaganda. Nothing bad ever went into a news paper! He controlled everything!
Hitler was a strong leader and his leadership was good at the beginning of the war. He gained Czechoslovakia on the 15th March 1939 by claiming that Germany would be satisfied if she was given it. This of course was not true but Britain did not know this and so told the Czech Prime Minister to let Germany occupy Czechoslovakia without fighting.
On the 1st of September Hitler told his troops to invade Poland, without any help from Britain Poland did not stand a chance and as Germany had signed the Nazi Soviet Pact with Russia it meant she did not have to worry about fighting a war on two fronts. This along with the Munich Agreement meant that Germany had a good pre war diplomacy. Although the Poles did fight bravely they had no choice but to surrender. The Russians and the Germans divided Poland up between them. Although this was good in the short term it did mean that there was no buffer between Germany and Russia and ultimately this was a bad thing because it meant that they were more likely to attack each other.
On 10th May 1940 Germany began the attack on France. The allies had been led to believe that the Germans would invade by coming through North – east Belgium but the plans had been changed and Germanys major attack came through the Ardennes. This was a good German strategy as it deceived the allies. A smaller German army invaded Belgium and the Netherlands. This meant that the allies had their troops stationed in the wrong place and this helped the Germans. The Germans won by speed. They were a lot quicker than the allies. German tank divisions crossed the Ardennes and reached the river Meuse in two days. Because of Germanys earlier deception there were only three French divisions to stop them.
The tanks rolled quickly across France. The allies had been taken by surprise this gave the Germans an advantage and within seven days the tank division had reached the English Channel. In Belgium and the Netherlands the Germans moved quickly and the Netherlands surrendered on 15th May.
Hitler told his tank divisions to stop their journey to Dunkirk because Hitler thought that the Germans planes could finish the British Expeditionary Force off at Dunkirk. However this was a problem for the future as it allowed British troops to escape so Britain still had some experienced troops and this made it easier for the British to build their army up again. It also meant that Germany could not invade Britain straight away. The evacuation began on 27 May and went on till 4 June. The BEF left nearly all its tanks, guns and transport on the beaches weakening them and making Germany stronger. On 14th June German troops marched into Paris. On 22nd June the French agreed to a peace treaty. In conquering France the Germans had lost only 27 000 men. Gaining France helped the German war effort. Food grown in France was used to feed Germans and helped industrial production.
At the start of the war Blitzkrieg was a new German attack. Germany found it very easy to invade countries like Poland, Czechoslovakia and France as Blitzkrieg confused and then surprised them. By 1943 however the allies had got used this tactic. This enabled them to use it to their advantage and as they knew what to expect from Germany they could retaliate accordingly.
In 1943 Germany took a turn for the worst. They took a nose dive into failure.
As in World War I, Germany’s primary downfall was its lack of allies and that they where having wars on so many different fronts. To our horror, Hitler came very close in World War II to achieving his quest for “Living space” yet his failure to think over his resources lead him to be unsuccessful. He also spent little time organizing the occupied land resulting in wide spread upheaval which in turn separated German forces. The North African campaign absorbed troops that were much needed on the Russian front.. The Allies combination of well-organized troops, weapons, resources and a little bit of luck in the closing stages of the war placed pressure on the already weakening Germany. Despite the early successes from Poland to France, the Battle of Britain and the invasion of Russia assured ‘the fatherland’ of a war against the world. A war almost impossible to win.
German preparation began well before the British had even consisderd war in 1939 with the invasion of Poland. When Hitler came to power in 1933 he was able to build, at first in secret, an army, navy and air force despite the treaty of Versailles, say that Germany was unable to have a proper army. By this time he had built a very powerful war machine. Despite threats from the west of the Rhineland in 1936, the capture of Austria, Bohemis-Moravia and Memel in 1938 and 1939 happened without revenge. The British, after declaring war on Germany on the 1st September 1939 did little to help Poland who surrendered three weeks later. This helped to convince Hitler he was not going to receive an international reaction.
With the threat from Russia on hold, Nazi forces in 1940 occupied Denmark and attacked Norwegian ports, securing iron ore imports from Sweden, which were needed for Germany’s war effort.
Using Blitzkrieg or ‘lightning war’ Germany’s mission was to quickly defeat and use a nation before anyone would arrive. After a period of ‘Phony war’ Holland, Belgium and France were defeated in quick series (operation case yellow) in 1940 where British forces were forced to evacuate France. After these quick defeats with little resistance the German army was ready to invade England.
In the Battle of Britain, 1940, the Luftwaffe achieved air domination in the first major disagreement of the war. Many believe this was the major turning point for Germany.
Hitler’s orders where to wipe out the Royal Air Force (RAF) and to prepare the way for Operation Seelowe (Sealion) which consisted of three massive armies invading on the south coast of England. It was at this time Germany began to suffer setbacks. Under the orders of the commander-in-chief of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Goering began in early June the ‘softening-up attacks’ on British coastal areas and convoys. By the 13th of August or ‘Eagle Day’ the all-out air battle began, yet the Germans failed to destroy British air warnings and radar systems which were much more advanced than their own. This was the first phase of the battle and although German losses were twice that of Britain Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Downing (Commanding-in-Chief, RAF Fighter Command) was facing difficulties as replacement fighter numbers decreased.
It was at this time Germany adopted a new approach and reasoned that by attacking the airfields in the southeast they could force the RAF to expose its remaining strength in its defense, which in the beginning seemed promising yet the plan from the start was a gamble. As Wagener stated ‘with the prospect of achieving complete air control in sight, an enemy hardly able to resist any longer was given an priceless break.’
The 15th September marked the ‘Battle of Britain Day’ and the Luftwaffe failed to defeat the RAF, having steadily underestimated the ability of the British fighter defense. Hitler had pushed the date of Operation Sealion back until it was deemed too risky and the Soviet Union took guide over Britain in Hitler’s plan. It was a ‘silent victory’ for Britain; it enhanced Britain’s position internationally and boosted anti-German morale feeling amongst its people, which was vital for a total war effort against Germany. Germany had taken its first step back and the Luftwaffe never fully recovered throughout the war.
The German army failed to avoid England and it had also failed to capture 338 000 British soldiers who due to the ‘miracle’ of Dunkirk were able to escape back to the shores of England. Britain’s ‘silent victory’ boosted the peoples confidence; its small number of bombing planes with fighter backing began raids on Germany, which over the next three years destroyed much of the German war industry.
Other chinks in the German Armour began to appear which at first seemed unimportant. The occupied land began to stand firm, rebelling fighters began to emerge causing damage and in particular in Greece, tying up fighting unions.
Hitler’s biggest mistake perhaps was to declare war on Russia which had never successfully been invaded before. The Russians had three advantages; the size of the country, its large army and its ally, the harsh Russian winter. Before the attack Hitler signed a new German-Russian treaty and as a result Russia was unprepared for the German attack. As Ronald Heiferman stated ‘Never had deception so brilliantly been achieved’ When Germany invaded Russia (Operation Barbarossa) they did so in the mistaken belief that war would be over in a few months and were equipped only for summer fighting. The attack was launched on three fronts, in the north towards Leningrad, in the south towards the Ukraine and center towards Moscow with initial surprisingly successful advances. Within ten days the Luftwaffe had already won air control, the Germans were surrounding Russian defenders and the Nazi legions had already captured 1200 tanks, 600 big guns and 150 000 prisoners. Hitler sought much needed resources in Russia and Germany’s main objective was to capture the Leningrad-Moscow-Volga line. This three-pronged attack was aimed at capturing production centers in Ukraine and the Donetz basin securing oil, mineral reserves and grain while also possessing the command of the Black and Baltic seas.
On the 3rd July Russian citizens were called upon to take on a ‘scorched earth’ policy where if forced to evacuate, and nothing of value was to be left behind.
As German morale decrease with the changing weather and increased resistance the Russian members were becoming more active as they took on heavy tolls on supply convoys.
The Germans captured Riga, Smolensk and Kiev and in August 1942 they attacked Stalingrad to secure the oilfields of Cacasus. After Hitler’s orders to split his forces in 1942 the sixth army, was aimed at the capture of Stalingrad where others moved south. The sixth army was forced to surrender in January 1943 after being surrounded by the Russians. Winston Churchill said at the time ‘this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps the end of the beginning’ As a result of the failure to capture Stalingrad the Russians took rest which is considered a major turning point in the war that Germany was to lose.
Hitler the main concern to the capturing of the oilfields saying that Moscow was little more than a ‘geographical location’. This was a fateful misjudgment on Hitler’s behalf for he had German Generals pressing on towards Moscow the Russians may have surrendered by the end of summer.
Russian resistance was stiff and although the German had victories in the south, their cost was far more then their gain. Unlike Germany the Russians were prepared to lose hundreds of thousands of men and were prepared to give up equipment as shown in their victory at Kursk.
German troops lacked enough winter clothing and rations, vehicles had frozen or were short of lubricants or fuel and communications and supply lines were overextended.
The deeper Germany got into Russia the more difficult it was for them to supple front line troops, and when the Russian winter set in the tide began to turn. The surrender of General Von Paulus and some 600 000 German soldiers was the beginning of the end for the Russian battle and only a small number of the German army was able to retreat to mainland Europe. Just as Napoleon had said in 1812 ‘Nothing is more dangerous to us than a prolonged war’ so was it true for the Germans in the 1940’s. These two recent defeats at Stalingrad and Kursk put an end to German hopes of victory against the Soviet Union. It is estimated that German losses totaled over 9 million killed, missing, wounded or captured.
Whilst Germany was losing in Russia the North African campaign was taking much needed troops and resources. Erwin Rommel’s asked for extra tanks fell silence in the African campaign. After the Allies well planned attack, which drove Rommel’s lines back to El Alheila and took over the port of Tobruk the Africana troops launched an extremely successful attack (Operation Torch) yet it could not be kept as his stocks of fuel had been seriously used up. The worn out African troops were forced to surrender in Tunis in 1942. Hitler’s worry with Operation Barbarossa and the failure of the supreme German workers, to take the African war seriously was yet another loss in the German fail.
Hitler’s decision to declare war on the United States of America (USA) in support of its Axis ally, Japan in December 1941 was made before the defeats in Russia. Hitler was convinced that due to Japans bombing of Pearl Harbor the USA would be worried with Japan in the pacific. President Roosevelt correctly assumed that Hitler posed a larger and more dangerous threat. For this reason American troops were sent to North Africa and Europe. The impact of American forces and more particularly their ability to supply enormous amounts of material made it possible for an invasion of Europe by the Allies. While the war was still long and bitter the German forces were far from defeated, the German surrender was near.
Italy fell to the Allies after only thirty-nine days of fighting in July 1943. This was a major blow to German moral and tied up yet more fighting places. Italy also offered the Allies with valuable details for their bombers, this tied with the D-Day invasion proved fatal for Germany.
Germany’s original weapon, the V2 rocket may have changed the outcome if the Allies D-Day invasion had it been ready. To Germany’s loss the weapon and was not ready, wasting much time and many resources.
The 6th June 1944 posed the beginning of the end for Germany with the D-Day attacking. Allied troops landed in Normandy and along the French coast in massive numbers as Germany struggled and in a few weeks France was held.
As the Allies moved through Belgium towards Germany, Hitler’s final attempt at victory in a German defensive known as The Battle of The Bulge had failed. The U.S. forces played a key part in the Allied success.
This proved the end for Germany and in 1945 was invaded on two fronts and in April, Berlin fell to Russian troops. Germany had now been defeated.
The main reason is that Hitler overreached himself (in other words he bit off more than he could chew!). The German conquest of most of Europe and a large part of Russia created problems of supplying his forces over a vast area, providing sufficient troops to control the conquered countries and created a coalition against the German conquests and cruelty.
Up to the end of 1942 Germany had military superiority on the battlefield. Her generals understood modern warfare – Blitzkrieg (as a tactic it was used to devastating effect in the first years of World War Two and resulted in the British and French armies being pushed back in just a few weeks to the beaches of Dunkirk and the Russian army being devastated in the attack on Russia in June 1941) and her army was modern compared to her opponents. Up to 1942 she really only had to fight a war on one front (first in the west against Britain and France and then in the east against Russia).
Germany’s failure to win at Stalingrad was to cause her to eventually lose the war. From a military point of view, the defeat of the Germans by the Russians was vital to the Allies' overall victory in Europe. Over two-thirds of the German army was in the Russian war and its defeat meant that the Allies in the west (GB, France and USA) had more chance of success against a smaller force. Winston Churchill stated that it was the Russians who "tore the heart out of the German army."
The German economy and industry was not geared to a long war – unlike Britain, women were not used to maintain industrial production. By 1943 the strain was beginning to tell and with the US providing support to both Britain and Russia, allied production was greater than that of Germany - a situation made worse by the allied bombing of Germany. Losses on the eastern front could not be replaced while Russia had an almost limitless supply of troops – and after 1943 the US was also sending troops against Germany.
As the war progressed military planning was increasingly controlled by Hitler. By 1943 it seems as if Hitler’s luck had run out. He began to make major mistakes, for example, his refusal to withdraw was to lose him an army at Stalingrad as well as troops in France after the D-Day landings.
Why Germany lost World War II cannot be attributed solely to the Allies lead in weapons and soldiers and their technical and economic control. It must also be considered that there were many fatal flaws in the German organization, both economic and strategic. Despite Hitler’s early successes, Germany could not keep up a war and therefore when the element of surprise was removed, the victories turned to defeats. This is why they lost the war.
