Military Success of Germany

On , Germany invaded Poland, using the false pretext of a faked "" on a German border post.

On September 3, the United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany, followed quickly by Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The French mobilized slowly, and then mounted only a token offensive in the , which they soon abandoned, while the British could not take any direct action in support of the Poles in the time available (see ). Meanwhile, on , the Germans reached , having slashed through the Polish defenses.

On , the , pursuant to its agreement with Germany, invaded Poland from the east, throwing Polish defenses into chaos by opening the second front. A day later the Polish president and commander-in-chief both fled to . On , hostile forces, after a one-month , entered the city. The last Polish units surrendered on . Poland, however, never officially surrendered to the Germans. Some Polish troops . In the aftermath of the September Campaign, occupied Poland managed to create a powerful  and  for the duration of World War II.

Right after the Polish invasion, the Germans used the winter period to regroup and reorganize their strategies; however the European Allied forces were on the defensive during that period.  This is a key point to note in answering the question as it proves that both the Germans and Allies contributed to Germany’s success during that period; the Germans remained militarily active while the Allies were too unsure and not forthcoming in actively repelling Germany.  The Phony War as the journalist referred to it was the period of little ground action, with Britain and France primarily being defensive.

On sea the Germans still recorded victory up until 1943.  Their U-boats were devastating to the Royal Navy of Britain despite the fact that they were at a numerical disadvantage.  Between 1930 and 1943 the U-boats sank 11 British vessels.  The superiority therefore is the only reason for such victories.  Even after 1943 the Germans had improved the U-boats but by then it was too late to change the face of the war, but it still remains a fact and an important point that the U-boats wrecked havoc on the British between 1939 and 1943.

German military superiority was subsequently fully established as they marched through the Scandinavian countries of Denmark and Norway before marching through the low lands of The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium and France.  The Danish raised little or no opposition to question the firepower of the Germans, however Norway proved to be stubborn as they actively resisted their invasion but only for a short period of time and the British could do almost nothing to protect Norway; once again an instance of Allied negligence along with German superiority resulting in German victory.

On , , the Germans invaded , , the , and , ending the Phony War. The  (BEF) and the French Army advanced into northern Belgium and planned to fight a mobile war in the north while maintaining a static continuous front along the  further south. The Allied plans were immediately smashed by the most classic example in history of . The Dutch city of  was destroyed in a bombing raid.

In the first phase of the invasion, Fall Gelb (CACA), the Wehrmacht's Panzergruppe von Kleist raced through the , a heavily forested region which the Allies had thought impenetrable for a modern, mechanized army. They broke the French line at , held by reservists rather than first-line troops, then drove west across northern France to the English Channel, splitting the Allies in two. Meanwhile Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands fell quickly against the attack of German Army Group B.

The BEF and French forces, encircled in the north, were evacuated from  in . The operation was one of the biggest military evacuations in history as 338,000 British and French troops were transported across the  on warships and civilian boats.

German forces then continued the conquest of France with Fall Rot (Case Red). France signed an armistice with Germany on , , leading to the direct German occupation of Paris and two thirds of France, and the establishment of a neutral (but pro-German) state headquartered in southeastern France known as .

Germany then began preparations in summer of 1940 to invade the United Kingdom in . Most of the UK Army's heavy weapons and supplies had been lost at Dunkirk. The Germans had no hope of overpowering the Royal Navy, but they did think they had a chance of success, if they could gain air superiority. To do that, they first had to deal with the . The ensuing contest in the late summer of 1940 between the two air forces became known as the . The  initially targeted  aerodromes and radar stations. Hitler, angered at the UK bombing of Berlin, switched his attentions towards the bombing of London, in an operation known as . The Luftwaffe was eventually beaten back by Hurricanes and Spitfires while the Royal Navy remained in control of the English Channel. Thus, the invasion plans were cancelled indefinitely, as Hitler turned to the East.

Not including the Battle of Britain the German military had a distinct superiority from 1939 to 1941 on land.  They were able to succeed in all but one of their main battles.  That is, although, not to say that negligence and inadequacies from the Allies did not contribute to their success, the main point is that Germany was a lot more prepaid for the war than any of their enemies so they had concentrated on winning and consolidating on their various victories with little or no time being on the defensive.  The essay has therefore proven that primarily the German military was a lot more superior to their enemies but along with that, they had been granted an easier passage by several inadequacies from their enemies and the negligent attitude of what should have been their toughest opponents, Britain and France.