How far do you agree that Germany lost World War Two because the Nazis made critical strategic mistakes?

It can be argued that it wasn’t Germany’s strategic mistakes that lost them the war, but the poor economic situation in which the country was during it. The country was spending too much money on military equipment, which demanded taking the fund out of other sectors, such as the public service sector. This caused great poverty in Germany by 1943 and many people chose not to tolerate this because of the war and had decided to emigrate. Germany was also forced to abandon the Blitzkrieg tactics due to fuel shortages. Overall, the Germans were under-supplied. The leaders also could not keep the troops supplied, fed and clothed, and failed to supply adequate medical care. This caused a big loss in man power, especially whilst invading the USSR (due to extremely cold weather). Hitler tried to improve the economy as much as he could, so he emphasized the conquest of new lands in the East so Germany could exploit these lands to provide cheap goods for Germany. However, the intensity of battling on the Eastern Front and the USSR’s scorched earth policy meant that the Germans found little they could use. Worst was yet to come for Germany in 1944, when it was bombed by the Allies forces.  This destroyed Germany’s factories and cities at a rapid speed, which led to the final collapse of the German economy in 1945. The bombing cut Germany’s production of most valuable resources (e.g. oil, explosives, weapons). The bombing also caused a big loss in the working force as about 300,000 men were killed. As women weren’t legally allowed to work in most of the industries; this caused major problems for the economy, which later proved to be decisive. It can be seen all throughout the war that Germany depended heavily on the performance of its economy. However, going into war with a risk like that proved to be too much for Germany as the economy simply cracked under the intensity of the war.

Many historians claim that it was Germany’s poor choice of allies that cost them the war. The main problem in this case was that Hitler chose his allies based on ideology, not on shared interests. Over time, the partnership with Italy just proved to be a burden for Germany.  Italy didn’t contribute any good to Germany during the War; it only collected the pieces of territory that Germany had won (i.e. France). Whenever Italy tried to oblige to the ways of the Axis, they failed (e.g. invasion of Egypt). Worst came for Germany in 1943 when Hitler’s fellow dictator Mussolini was ousted and arrested by the Italian King. That same year, Italy declared war on Germany. This created another big problem for Germany as they now faced one more opponent. This situation for Germany was very bad as Italy was their biggest and nearest ally. That is the reason why many historians mark that year as the deciding one for Germany’s loss in the War. Germany had other allies in Europe, such as Romania and Hungary. However they were militarily weak and presented no threat to the Allies forces. There were a lot of rebellions within those countries that caused extra problems for Germany’s initial plans of recruiting as many soldiers. Germany’s biggest ally was Japan. Many Germans hailed Japan in 1941 because of the attack on Pearl Harbour. This distracted the Americans and allowed the Germans to recruit as many battle ships as they could in the Atlantic Ocean. Many Germans and Hitler himself thought he made the right choice by choosing to join forces with Japan. However, most people think that Japan would only have made sense as an ally if it had attacked the Soviet Union in the Far East. Otherwise, many saw that ‘partnership’ pointless. All of these outcomes show that Hitler made poor strategic mistakes by choosing weak and unstable allies that only acted as a burden for an already much occupied Germany.

In conclusion it can be said that the crucial strategic mistakes made by the Nazi Germany’s leaders were the key factors why Germany lost the war. The crucial mistakes made by Hitler in the battles against Britain and USSR have cost him the war as he made decisive history-changing decisions that influenced the final outcome of the war. In many situations, if he’d only done what he had initially planned, he would’ve earned Germany many crucial victories which would give him more power and space to continue fighting on other territories. However, it must be said that Germany was in a tough economic situation all throughout the war and were lacking all types of resources. Overall, there were too many factors influencing the result of the war so the exact reason why Germany had lost the war cannot be said. However, there are more strategic mistakes than any other factor and that is always going to be the case in a war.