World War II?

Question

During World War II the Axis made several critical mistakes that in my opinion cost them the whole war? As sad as the world would have been if they won they could have. In my opinion the move that cost them was bringing in the U.S. into the war to early. Even if Pearl Harbor wasn't attacked Britian would have asked us to get involved sooner or later because they were being attacked relentlessly by Germany. But it would have been much later than we were originally suppose to be in the war. That would have given Germany enough time to weaken Britian more and possibly even try to invade Britian. What do you think the Axis biggest mistake was and why?

Answer 1

Keep in mind that the decision to attack Pearl Harbor was not an Axis decision. Rather, it was decision of the Japanese military. I am not even sure that Germany and Italy knew in advance - the Japanese wanted top secrecy.

Also, there was a wide split within Japanese government and military over the attack - a large contingent including, I believe, Admiral Yamamoto (who planned the attack) were not keen on the attack. They did not want to bring the United States into the Pacific War and would have preferred fighting only the French, Dutch, and English. The governing thought, however, was that as Japan expanded its zone of occupation it would eventually conflict with the US (think the Phillipines, for one). It was a calculated risk either way - it just didn't work out for the Japanese.

By early 1941, Germany had effectively abandoned the concept of invading Britain - so that simply wasn't going to happen (and the US would have been helpless to intervene, anyway, in such a case).

Simply put, the US was not about to go to war in Europe under any circumstances that existed in 1940-41, or could be foreseen for several years beyond. We were providing financial and logistical support, but we weren't going to get directly involved.

In the European campaign, the decision by Germany to delay Barbarossa by several months was probably the biggest mistake. By invading earlier in the year - as originally planned - Germany could have been (or should have been) safely and comfortably ensconced in Moscow by the winter of 1941-42.

Interestingly, December 1941 represented the turn of the war in both theatres, with the Pyrhhic victory of Japan at Pearl Harbor and the Soviet winter offensive, which drove the Germans away from the gates of Moscow.

Interesting question.

Answer 2

Let's look at a few critical junctures regarding where one might second guess actions:

1) Dunkirk. What is did was allow the BEF to escape, but did they change anything? If the British were not on the continent, it didn't matter all that much if they were in Britain itself.

2) Operation Sea Lion. A successful invasion of Britain would have ended the Western front war, allowing a full force against the USSR (Germany's primary target). A failure would have been a disaster for the invading force, perhaps leading to an earlier continental invasion by the British. This one's a toss-up.

3) Barbarossa. It wasn't a mistake to attack the USSR at this point. It WAS a mistake to keep pressing in a winter campaign. A strategic retreat followed by an aggressive spring campaign probably would have been successful.

4) Pearl Harbor. Germany did make the mistake of declaring war shortly afterward, but they were guessing that Japan was to be the US's primary target. Eisenhower argued successfully that Germany should be the main goal, against public will.

There are some more subtle errors that Germany made. One was too heavy reliance on the Enigma code, which had been broken by Polish and British cryptographers. Another was poor diplomacy with the U.S., which might have prevented the Lend-Lease that kept Britain in the war as long as it did. Another still was lower emphasis on their navy, critical to starving out Britain (which is was Germany was trying to do after postphoning Operation Sea Lion.

There were all sorts of points where one decision or another might have changed the nature of the war. Hopefully this highlights the larger ones.

Answer 3

First off. Pearl Harbor wasn't a mistake for the Germans. When the US declared war on December 8, they ONLY declared war on Japan, NOT Germany. The US went to war with Germany ONLY after the Germans declared war on the US a few days later. Now THAT was a HUGE mistake.

An earlier mistake the Germans made was not wiping out the escaping British army when they had them bottled up on the beaches of Dunkirk. If they'd taken out the British there it's likely the British would have sued for peace. Thus when Hitler invaded Russia next year, he wouldn'r have had to worry about a western front or North Africa. He could have concentrated ALL of his forces on the Russians who had no Officer Corps to speak of, and it's highly likely he could have won.

So, the two big mistakes: Germany not wiping out the British in 1940 at Dunkirk when they had the chance, and Germany declaring war on the US in 1941.

Answer 4

The biggest mistake of Hitler was splitting the war into a "various fronts war" (also considering the fact that Germany almost defeated England, but had to concentrate its troops on the Russian front). Consequently the Wehrmacht had to divide its troops and wasn't able to have them all in the best conditions. The supplies were destroyed by the allies, (mostly in the North Africa campaign, when the supplies traveled on the Mediterranean sea) with a terrible cost for the Axis. Attacking Russia on winter was a terrible mistake too, and no matter how much Russians they killed, it looked as they were infinite.

Answer 5

the invasion of the USSR by Germany was the most critical mistake in WWII.
Pacific Theater: The Japanese did not have enough industrial might to win a war with a country that had a large industrial base such as the USA. At the start of hostilities between the US and Japan; the Japanese had a better army, and a superior navy. However, even if they had been impeccably successful enough to invade the US mainland, they would have been pushed out eventually by the US. of that, there can be little doubt. the US mainland is just too big and too far away for Japan. Only with a concerted effort with an attack on the east coast (Germans, or even Italy) by their allies could an attack have any chance of success.
as it is, Japan would never again try to invade the USSR after they were given a "can of whoop-a*s" (they were defeated totally by none other than a junior general by the name of Zhukov.) in the early years. They did however keep a well trained and equipped army in Manchuria after that debacle. Just in case, i presume, for defense.
European Theater: the Germans had one problem, Hitler. although his political victories and willingness to "think outside the box" helped Germany tremendously early on; his irrational and very unrealistic vision would help them on the road of defeat. one must remember, Hitler had nothing but "yes" men around him. how can you tell a "genius" no?

Answer 6

1. Started too late in the year, by the time they reached Moscow, the coldest winter in years hit and the Werhmact was totally unprepared.

2. Guderian's Panzers were diverted south at the gates to Moscow in 1941.

3. Again in 1942, the Germans made the fatal mistake of splitting Army Group South in two culminating in the debacle at Stalingrad and the failure to reach to Caucasus oil fields.

4. The Soviets were into a mindset of ordering important and troop saving withdrawals. At Stalingrad the Germans lost 25% of their entire operational strength in the Eastern Front, a heavy blow by all accounts but NOT decisive. It would however be the main factor for Germany's not being able to complete the conquest of Russia.

5. The Germans blew another chance during their offensive in the summer of 1943. Against Guderian's opinion that the production of Tiger and Panther tanks should be up to operational standards, Hitler launched the ill fated offensive at Kursk. The results being the destruction of the panzer armies. The fact that the German still had the capability to launch an offensive of this magnitude in 1943 proves that Stalingrad was not a decisive turning point in the war. From then on, it was just a delaying tactical war against the Red Army.

6. On the western front, two mistakes come to mind: stopping his tanks and allowing the BEF to escape to Britain via Dunkirk, and switching from the bombing of airfields and radar stations to London and other cities....the RAF was nearly brought to its knees before that 'miracle.'

7. Hitler made the mistake of diverting resources to multiple designs, rather than picking the best and staying with it... example is the multiple tank designs.

8. The Russians were resilient, as one German officer stated, "attacking Russia was like an elephant stamping out ants, you killed thousands, maybe millions, but in the end their number told and you were eaten to the bone."

Answer 7

The "Axis" made many mistakes. But when you speak of the 'Axis" remember that germany was the dominant power. Secondly they did not always act in concert with each other. Italy made foolish moves in North Africa without german input eventually forcing the germans to rescue them there. Italy invaded Greece without German knoweledge which forced the germans to reduce Greece before attacking Russia. . This forced them to push back the Russian invasion by over 6 weeks. When germany Invaded Russia Japan didnt declare war on Russia as they were bound by treaty to do. Japan never informed Germany or italy of the decision to attack the US. So the "Axis" was not nearly as close an alliance as the US and England were. Whole books have been written on the Mistakes the Axis made. If I had to identify three Id say the German failure to invade England was one. Secondly was the Japanese attack on Pearl harbor instead of attacking Russia. Thirdly Hitler running the war in Russia after December of 1941. His bone head decisions led to the loss of millions of German soldiers and the ultimate defeat of Germany.

Answer 8

Undoubtedly the invasion of the USSR was the germans's biggest mistake until then Hitler had been totally successful but in 1941, after initial Nazi successes, the russian army held him at Leningrad and then in 1942 surrounded a german army at Stalingrad and totally destroyed it.
The germans never recovered from that and fought most of the rest of the war on the retreat.
As far as Japan was concerned their biggest mistake was to lose the Battle of Midway when they lost so many aircraft carriers that it gave the US navy control of the skies.
Italy were always too weak to be a serious threat to anybody.

Answer 9

Well, I think for starters, while we tend to view "The Axis" as some sort of unified threat, they never were. Italy, Germany and Japan operated more or less independently of each other, and that in itself caused them difficulty. I'll start with Italy. Italy's main efforts in the war seem to do little more than prove that Mussolini talked bigger than his military forces could deliver. Right from the start the Italians had problems with Ethiopia (forgotten part of the war to most Euro-centric historians, I guess Africa doesn't matter) and Mussolini's African adventtures eventually forced his German ally to bail him out. Later, I think Italy's excursions through the Balkans into Greece made a huge contribution to the defeat of the axis. Once again, the Germans came to bail out the Italians, causing a delay and virtual attrition of the forces for planned operations in Russia, which eventually had at least some effect in Stalingrad for the Germans. The old quip attributed to some German general or another was that "Next time, you can have the Italians". As near as I can tell, Italy was not a beneficial ally to the German cause.
Germany's flaws were more strategic. Flushed by initial successes, Hitler became a bit too convinced of his own brilliance. The obvious strategic flaw for Germany was in attacking Russia before neutralizing England. There's not much excuse for that but arrogance, and fighting on two fronts is difficult for any force. Less obvious, declaring war on the United States in December of 1941. I'm not totally convinced Roosevelt could have forced Congress to declare war on Germany and Italy when the whole country was really mad at Japan. Hitler (then Mussolini following the lead) declared war on us first, which made the Roosevelt administration's "Germany First" strategic plan much easier to accomplish. Japan did not declare war on Russia when Germany attacked to the East, there was no good reason for Germany to declare war on the US just because Japan was at war with us.
Speaking of Japan, their critical mistake really lay in two areas. First, their usage of carrier pilots was detrimentla to long term warfare. The Japanese method was to train a Naval Aviator and then keep him in the fleet. This was fine initially, since at the beginning of the war, Japan's carrier pilots were exceptionally well trained and highly experienced. The problem is, once the losses started piling up, the replacements rapidly declined in quality. Contrast this to the US NAvy's habit of training a pilot, getting him some experience, and sending the some of the best back to imporove the training. As the war went on, US carrier pilots became better trained on the average. Another issue for the Japanese was a prediliction for complex, huge battle plans that relied on perfect timing to concentrate forces. It rarely happened that way. The main Japanese mistake,though, in my opinion, was in not throwing a third strike at Pearl Harbor. Yes, they had accomplished the destruction of the battle fleet, but in the long term, they missed very important targets. A third strike at Pearl, wiping out the fuel storage areas and the repair facitilites woud have forced the US Pacific Fleet back to the mainland, and may have tipped the balance just enough to get them a negotiated settlement to the war (though I kinda doubt it, the US was pretty upset).
Stll, the primary Axis mistake was in not coordinating their efforts. Imagine a Eurasian continent united under Axis control, and it's just scary. Had the Germans (with the help of the Italians) attacked through the Middle East and Joined up with a Japanese assault through India, the odds of defeating them would have greatly been reduced. Fortunately, that's not the way it happened, and the Allies were able to defeat them seperately.

Answer 10

this will get me the weird answer of the day award . Germany never developed a long range heavy bomber. Think about how much different the Battle of Britain would have been if the Germans were using the equivalent of Lancaster's , B-17s. or B24s? Think of how much havoc to allied shipping long range bombers flying west would have caused ?