Saturday, June 23, 2007

Could Germany Have Won World War 2?

Question No. 2. Could Germany Have Won World War 2?

This is another frequently asked question on World War 2. The answer depends somewhat on the answer to Question No. 1 regarding whether Germany could have successfully invaded and conquered Britain in World War 2. Germany did not have to conquer Britain to win the war but it would have been difficult for them to win without accomplishing that conquest.

One scenario for Germany winning involved a much more aggressive armaments program coupled with a better planned attack on Russia in 1941. This scenario would have required the Germans to make a concerted effort to capture Moscow in 1941 instead of dividing their forces in three widely separated Russian offenses. All the multiple offenses did achieve quite a measure of success but the Germans failed to capture Moscow before the savage winter of 1941-42 set in. Instead, the force attacking Moscow found itself in the open as winter set in. They took tremendous losses as Hitler delayed allowing the German armies to retreat as the Russians counterattacked in the snow. The Germans had to capture Moscow! If they had captured Moscow, the Germans could have wintered there and Russia likely would have had to pull out of the war in 1942.

As far as the armaments effort went, Hitler was surprisingly very conscious of German public opinion and hesitated upsetting them by going with a 100% war effort as Goebbels, and later, Speer, advocated. For example, after France fell, Hitler sent a substantial part of the army home. Airplane production was in slow motion (Britain was actually producing more aircraft than Germany) and Hitler never allowed the German women to be mobilized as Russia, Britain, and the U.S. did. He dawdled in these areas even as he planned the attack on Russia. These are unbelievable actions for a country entering a world war. Hitler's relative inactivity from the fall of France to the Russian invasion was his greatest weakness. Later, his emphasis on producing "secret weapons" (unneeded long range bombers, death rays, etc,) instead of badly-needed conventional weapons (fighter planes, etc.) was almost as bad.

In addition to the Russian option, Hitler might have forced a draw in the war by not attacking Russia at all and, instead, adopting a Mediterranean strategy. This would have involved capturing Gibraltar and all of North Africa and the Middle East. By making the Mediterranean his lake, Hitler could likely have held out indefinitely. Turkey would probably have had to enter the war on Germany's side. These events would have put considerable pressure on Russia and they might have given in to whatever demands Hitler made of them.

But the fly in the ointment for the Mediterranean strategy was Franco and Spain. Franco, although a Fascist, would not enter World War 2 on Germany's side (actually, he just kept putting Hitler off with half promises). Without Spain's support, capturing Gibraltar was a much more daunting task. And Hitler liked easy "Blitzkrieg" type victories.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Whithout the US entering WWII we all would understand German and the metric system.
No illegal aliens, ACLU, Hollywood smut, no child molesters running free, law and order in the streets,
decent health plan for all citizens, border control,
Iraq war would have been over in 3 days, Iran and Korea in line, Islamo radicals in the caves, corruption
not a problem etc.
Would the world be better off?
Do the math.
If I am considered a rightwinger, thank you. These bleeding peacenicks who have no idea what is going on in the US, never experienced the "justified" bombings of Dresden, go to church and later have lunch in safety and comfort are dreamers. There always have been wars, will be wars because man is corrupt. They hardly know God's word and dwell only in the feel good part of Christ's dispensation.

Anonymous said...

I am reading this article second time today, you have to be more careful with content leakers. If I will fount it again I will send you a link

Anonymous said...

Hi Apes! Assume Germany conquered England and captured Moscow! Assume Germany had zillions of V2s and ME226 Jet fighters! It wouldn't matter! U.S. would have entered the WW2 & U.S. had the Atomic Bomb! Both uranium and plutonium! Any large concentration of German Military like Wehrmacht 6th at Stalingrad could be wiped out in blink of eye! Plus the U.S. had the industrial capacity that exceed all Allies + Axis powers combined!

Anonymous said...

Hi Apes! Assume Germany conquered England and captured Moscow! Assume Germany had zillions of V2s and ME226 Jet fighters! It wouldn't matter! U.S. would have entered the WW2 & U.S. had the Atomic Bomb! Both uranium and plutonium! Any large concentration of German Military like Wehrmacht 6th at Stalingrad could be wiped out in blink of eye! Plus the U.S. had the industrial capacity that exceed all Allies + Axis powers combined!

Anonymous said...

To the person that said we would have won evin if the Germans had Moskow, Britain and had a whole bunch of V2 rockets.
I hate to break it to you, but if it wasn't for Germany we wouldn't have had the atomic bomb. You see the Germans had made the blue prints for an atomic bomb and tryed to send them to Japan befor the war ended. But the Germans surrendered and the U-boat the blueprints were on was forced to surrender the allis. So America got the blue prints to the bomb and actually constructed it. (I can't remember if it was Platonium or uranium) America then used this designe to build the(Platonium or uranium)bomb. Which America used to end WW2. So yes it would matter if the Germans had a zillion V-2 rockets and control of britian and Russia. Becuse if they had those there would be no need to send a last resort bomb to Japan so the Japanees could stop the allis. So if the Germans had britian and Russia they would also have a atomic bomb. That they could use to drop on our AMERICAN forces. That means we would have lost WW2. If you have anything to say to that I'd like to hear it.

Unknown said...

http://nickdegeorge.hubpages.com/hub/How-Close-did-Nazi-Germany-come-to-Global-Domination

Read my article the question is superfluous Hitler never had any intention to invade England it was all a scam to fool england into negociating.

Hitler admired the British and wanted them as allies against Russia. When he realized England would not negotiate by threat of invasion he ordered city bombing to break morale his intention was to get Churchills government removed to be replaced by someone who would barter.

Hitler never deviated from Mein Kampf his intention was always to attack russia.