The start of the War?
Some people think that the German invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, and Britain's threat to declare war on Germany if the Germans did not retreat, marked the beginning of World War II.
Without a doubt, the Germans did not retreat, and on September 3rd, 1939, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, and New Zealand declared war on Germany.
Others contend that World War II was only a continuation of World War I.
The big countries hadn't yet realized it, but if the conflict between the Axis and Allies went on, European supremacy of the globe and their colonial empires would be destroyed.
They merely secured their own doom by continuing the conflict, regardless of the outcome.
The Treaty of Versailles, according to some, was "harsh and unfair," guaranteeing the Second World War by doing so.
Germany would make an effort to right this error.
In reality, the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles were no harsher than those the Germans had attempted to impose on the Russians in 1917–18, when they compelled Russia to secede substantial portions of its territory and pay sizable indemnities under the terms of the Treaty of Brest–Litovsk.
Actually, many Germans' conviction that they had never lost the First World War was a bigger contributor to the Second World War than anything else.
The troops believed they had never lost since German land had not been attacked.
In actuality, the army had to reenter Germany in order to prevent societal collapse since internal opponents constituted a bigger threat to the country than the threat provided by the allies.
Therefore, it was thought that Germany had only lost the war as a result of being wounded at home.
This disintegration, however, was the product of a state that was put under a lot of duress and gave in to political and economic pressure. To win a modern war, one must now defeat the enemy's entire system in addition to the battlefield.
(i.e., eliminate its will to fight).
Germany had lost the strategic conflict, its system had broken down, and as a result, the war was over.
Even while the British Navy hadn't shown itself in open combat, it had been successful in its blockade of Germany's economy, leading to that country's devastation and defeat.
Turkey and Austria, two of Germany's allies, had been defeated, and the country had ran out of people while producing fewer tanks and warplanes.
Germany had lost the war even though it had not lost the fight.
However, this misconception that they weren't truly victorious made many angry at being called losers.
Soon, previous wrongs in Germany were the cause of every issue.
The breaking point came with the great depression.
An radical political group might flourish in the ideal climate of widespread unemployment and hyperinflation.
In this instance, the Nazis obtained enough political clout through a combination of nationalism, racism, authoritarianism, and the promise of better times to start the takeover and turn a democracy into a dictatorship.
Complete authoritarianism resulted from carefully manufactured catastrophes like the Reichstag fire and outright bully boy behavior.
Hitler, who represented the state, had to continue to grow, first via appeasement and later through outright war, in order to keep his promises.
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, which was struck on August 23, 1939, gave Hitler carte blanche to partition Poland with the USSR's consent.
The German army soon overcame Poland thanks to the Bitzkrieg tactics and greater ordanance.
Due to their inaction on the Western front, France and Britain are bringing shame on themselves.
Following the defeat of Poland, Germany solidified its position by occupying Denmark and Norway on April 9, 1940, ensuring its access to Swedish iron ore and widening the North Atlantic.
The invasion of France began on May 10th, 1940, along with coordinated invasions of the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Belgium. Thanks to meticulous German preparation and great execution, the invasion of France was a complete failure before it even got off the ground.
Lacking will only hasten defeat.
However, the seeds of Germany's eventual loss had already been planted when it failed to capture the French Navy and to annihilate the British at Dunkirk, who had started to flee on May 26, 1940.
This, together with onerous professions, led to a hardening of the will.
Victory had acquired Italy as a partner, but the union would prove disastrous since Italy proved to be more of a burden than an aid.
However for now the third Reich rejoiced at France’s fate and the French signed the armistice on the 22nd June 1940.
Germany had conquered all of its foes, with the exception of the British Empire, in less than two months after launching its onslaught.
Moving Eastward:
Historical records have made it abundantly evident that Germany lacked the capacity to invade Britain, and Hitler lacked the patience to wait for his current advantageous position to pay off in order to secure the situation and develop the essential naval supremacy and landing craft to attack Britain.
Neither should they develop the powerful bombers needed to seriously bomb Britain to extinction.
Due to a lack of patience and overconfidence in what had previously been accomplished, the catastrophic decision to attack Russia from the east was made.
The premature invasions of Greece and Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941, prompted by Italy's failure and Germany's rescue, which would later be repeated in North Africa, severely jeopardized this strategy.
Operation Babarossa's delay would be expensive.
On June 22, 1941, Operation Babarossa got under way.
Axis forces totaling more than four million soldiers were waiting to invade Russia with the help of three German army groups, and Comrade Stalin was "asleep at the wheel" after ignoring British information regarding Hitler's invasion preparations.
With the onset of winter and the confirmation to Stalin that Japan had no intention of invading, German success was doomed within sight of the Kremlin. This allowed the Siberian Army to be transferred to the defense of Moscow and the winter offensive, in which the Russians launched a counterattack on December 5, 1941.
The unprepared German army was killed by freezing.
Moscow Russians Launch Counterattack
Stupidly, on December 11, 1941, Germany declared war on the United States (After Pearl Harbour 7th December 1941).
Unofficially, the two countries were already at war, with the US sending weapons to Britain and the USSR while US warships engaged in Atlantic U-Boat battles.
Hitler, though, was the epitome of folly for formalizing it with a declaration of war.
Another roll of the dice.
On August 22, 1942, Hitler launched an attack on Stalingrad and the Caucasus oil fields following his inability to capture Moscow, seize Leningrad, or connect with the Finns.
With the Germans entering Stalingrad on September 8, Bitzkrieg tactics first reigned supreme.
Once again, Hitler mishandled the situation by allowing his troops to engage in an unsuitable urban firefight, which allowed the Russians to spring a massive trap and obliterate an entire army (which eventually submitted on January 31, 1943). This, coupled with Allied success in North Africa, which led to the obliteration of another German army, caused an irreversible shift in the course of the war.
The Allies retaliate.
With increasing success in the Battle of the Atlantic and the victory at El Alamein on November 4, 1942, the Allies started to go on the offensive. On November 8, 1942, Operation Torch was launched, and the Allies started to force the Germans out of North Africa.
They then attacked Italy, beginning on July 10, 1943, with the invasion of Sicily.
Due to the topography favoring the defense, they went onto the Italian boot, but this proved to be a costly operation; Rome wasn't freed until June 4th, 1944.
The invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, marked the start of the actual endgame (D-Day).
With the invasion's success and the bocage's breakout.
The victories at Kursk and the Falaise pocket sealed Germany's fortunes.
The Final Act
Despite Hitler's gamble at the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, the end was already near as the Russians and the Allies destroyed Germany with a horde of men and weaponry.
The Germans surrendered the day before V-E day, on April 30, 1945, and the devastation of Berlin and the murder of Hitler provided proof that the war was finished.
the reasons Germany lost the war.
It lost the diplomatic struggle and was unable to persuade Spain, another fascist country, to support the cause.
It was unable to win over the allies of the occupied nations.
It was unable to coordinate a strategy with its partners.
Imagine if Russia had been invaded by Japan instead of Pearl Harbor being bombed.
What if the USA had been urged to abstain from the conflict for one additional year?
In other words, rather than winning over those who would have happily engaged in the overthrow of Stalinism and helped ensure German triumph, Germany failed to win hearts and minds by the harsh activities of the SS and others in Poland and Russia.
Nazism had little to offer non-Germans because of its foundations in German nationalism and overt racism.
Although Germany achieved incredible scientific gains in rocketry and other areas, it was unable to win the technological war because it either lagged behind in developing key technologies like radar and nuclear weapons or failed to recognize and fully use breakthroughs like jet power.
It did not implement Total War.
German economic potential had not been completely realized until Albert Speer gained control of the country's affairs toward the end of the war.
Full employment and military usage of women had been prohibited under the Nazi doctrine on gender.
Unlike the Russians, who had no issues with women even serving in front-line combat troops.
The Nazis squandered tremendous human and military resources by killing Jews and other people they deemed undesirable. These resources could have been used for more beneficial endeavors.
In contrast to Britain and the USA, which had an army of willing laborers in "Rosie the Riveter," Germany depended on slave labor to fill the gap.
Germans also squandered resources on pointless endeavors like the Atlantic wall, which failed to even deter the Allies for a single day, and anti-aircraft weapons that absorbed hundreds of guns but were better used on the front as anti-tank batteries and the personnel needed to run them.
Additionally, it diverted resources to unneeded conflicts in places like Greece and North Africa.
It committed fatal errors as a result of believing its own propaganda.
Failure to recognize that the enigma machine had been corrupted was among these catastrophic errors.
Because the Nazis thought it was "unbreakable," they were unaware that information was flowing.
Other grave errors included failing to win the intelligence battle; aside from a remarkable victory in undermining the Dutch resistance, most German intelligence operations paled in comparison to British Intell.
However, Churchill's statement that "in war the truth is so important it must be encased in a web of falsehoods" accurately captured how imperfect British intelligence was.
Hitler was convinced that the Pas of Calais was the actual entry point.
Additionally, by placing all of its trust in the Fuhrer, it contributed to the collapse of Stalingrad, etc.
Hitler may have believed himself to be a military genius, but following the end of the invasion of France, he had little success.
What would have occurred if the German Generals had been given control of the situation, one could wonder?
There would have been a very good chance that they would have succeeded if the German economy had been completely prepared for the war from the start and if it had addressed some of the aforementioned reasons.
We shouldn't assume that the outcome of World War II was inevitable; the allies' ultimate triumph was only possible because to great sacrifice.
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