What are the key factors that lead to Germany's defeat during WW2?

Question

For eg. I know one of them is the controversial decison by OKW to halt Guderian's XVI panzer corps from taking Dunkirt. That move enabled Britain to evacuate more than 300,000 British and French troops back to London, which form the bulk of troop to fight Germany in 1944.

Answer 1

1. Hitler's stopping the bombing of RAF airfields/radar stations in 1941, and switching to bombing London and other cities, when RAF Fighter Command was nearly on its knees.

2. Started too late in the year (1941), by the time they reached Moscow, the coldest winter in years hit and the Werhmact was totally unprepared.

3. Guderian's Panzers were diverted south at the gates to Moscow in 1941, encircling Kiev, but not taking Moscow when the way was open..

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. 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 last strategic force in Germany. 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.

7. On the western front, two mistakes come to mind: stopping his tanks and allowing the BEF to escape to Britain via Dunkirk, as you've stated.

8. 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.

9. Hitler withheld Panzer reserves during the Normandy invasion, consequently, rather than counterattacking while the allies were on the beaches, the panzers were kept back expecting an attack around Pas De Calais. They were eventually brought into the Normandy fracas piecemiel and after it was too late.

10. Rommel could've used several more divisions in his quest to conquer Egypt, instead they were poured into Tunisian long after they were needed. The undersized Aftica Corps was not able to complete the victory. The way would've been open to the oilfields of the middle east.

9. 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 2

The previous two answers are good, and I have a few more to add.

Germany was involved in several secret research projects hoping to expand their arsenal. Although some had real promise, most were a tremendous waste of time and money. The other nations did this as well, but not on nearly as large a scale.

Additionally, invading Russia in the winter is quite simply a horrendous idea. It's been tried several times in the past and it just doesn't work. Supply lines were cut, and his troops were left freezing. This also served to initiate a war on two fronts, which is never a good idea.

One more thing is their failure to produce a nuclear device in a timely matter. They were working with heavy water, which would have worked, but not as well as what the US ended up creating.

Lastly, when some of Hitler's generals, such as the famous Rommel, discovered what exactly Hitler was doing, they turned against him. Rommel began doing all he could to stop Hitler without being discovered, but when they found him out anyway, they told him he could either take his own life or they would execute his family. Rommel elected for the former.

Answer 3

1. After the fall of Smolensk Hitler diverted the Panzer divisions from Army Group Centre to capture Kiev. If he had gone after Moscow he would almost certaily have captured it.
2. Attacking Stalingrad in 1942 was sheer folly. The Germans still had the initiative in the summer of 1942 but putting the 6th Army into an unsupplied situation was really stupid. To top it off he had his tanks fighting street to street when they should have been rolling up the line to Voronez.
3. Under resourcing the African Campaign. A few more divisions in North Africa could have made a real difference and enabled the Axis to Capture Alexandria and move on to the middle east oil fields.
4. Hitlers no retreat policy was a shambles. German Generals like von Manstein understood that to defeat the Russians required skilled maneuvers that sometimes gave up territority like the battle to recapture Kharkhov in early 1943.

Later on in 1944 and 1945 the Germans wanted to have minimal troops at the front outposts and keep their main strength in reserve to commit after the massive artillery barrages that preceded Russian offensives. Hitler did not allow his Generals to deploy this type of sophisticated tactic.

Answer 4

Something else to add, since you stated factors, is the residual of the invasion of the Soviet Union. The real goal of the invasion was the oil fields in the southern Soviet Union. Yes, the timing was terrible and the idea of a broad invasion was not a good one. The spike should have been to the oil. This is one of the reasons the battle for Stalingrad was so critical. If taken the road to the oil was open.

Access to resources - human and natural - is the cause of victory or defeat for most modern wars. It is why the North defeated the South in the Civil War. In WWII Germany and Japan were ground down because of the lack of resources. In the end for Germany human resources became an issue too. Thus you have Hitler youth and those too old for combat, defending Berlin.

Answer 5

A Russian person would be very insulted that you left out Soviet Union since they believe (correctly) that they had the biggest contribution the outcome of the war (about 80% of the German troops were engaged on the eastern front. As to why Germany lost - basically because their enemies had greater resources, larger population, backed by a strong resolve to resist the invaders. Soviet Union was a huge country with 3 times the population of Germany. United States had a powerful economy, capable of producing vast quantities of tanks, airplanes, ships, etc. Germany simply did not have the resources to fight such a prolonged and costly conflict.

Answer 6

Invasion of the Soviet Union

Main article: Operation Barbarossa

Hitler Tearing the Nonaggression Pact, a 1941 poster by Kukryniksy artists.
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Hitler Tearing the Nonaggression Pact, a 1941 poster by Kukryniksy artists.

By attacking the Soviet Union in June, 1941, Hitler enlarged the scale of the war, committing what today is widely regarded as a strategic blunder. Leaving a determined United Kingdom in his rear, in effect, opened up a debilitating two front war. Hitler also believed that the Soviet Union could be defeated in a fast-paced and relentless assault that capitalized on the Soviet Union's ill-prepared state.

One theory states that if Germany had not attacked, Stalin would have done so within the next couple of months, unleashing the Red Army and all the force the Soviet Union could bear. This would have been a disaster for the Germans, as the Wehrmacht would lose the element of surprise and the ability to maneuver, which contributed to the military's ability to confront the Soviets so successfully early on. Furthermore, the terrain of Germany's east would not have been favorable for defensive warfare, as it is flat and relatively open. Still, the view promoted by Viktor Suvorov relies on a number of assumptions, including the underlying notion that a war between the two powers was, for various reasons, inevitable.

[edit] Attack on Pearl Harbor

Main article: Attack on Pearl Harbor

The Japanese Combined Fleet attacked Pearl Harbor hoping to destroy the United States Pacific Fleet at anchor. Even though the Japanese knew that the U.S. had the potential to build more ships, they hoped that they would feed reinforcements in piecemeal and thus the Japanese Navy would be able to defeat them in detail. This nearly happened during the Battle of Wake Island shortly after.

Within days, Germany declared war on the United States, effectively ending isolationist sentiment in the U.S. which had so far prevented it from entering the war.

Answer 7

The main reason was that Germany should have taken another five to ten years to prepare. Imagine how quickly they would have rolled over Europe if they'd had jet fighters and bombers in quantity, and the atomic bomb! Sheesh!

The Dunkirk thing was much more important for morale than for the actual numbers of troops saved.

But Germany probably could have won if...

1) they had gone on an economic war footing in 1939 (i.e., factories running 24 hours a day, women working, rationing, etc.)

2) they had not taken on the USSR in June 1941.

3) they had not taken on the US in December 1941

4) they had not attempted to murder all the Jews of Europe.

Answer 8

The defeat of the Wehrmacht in Stalingrad and the collapse of the Eastern front was the decisive point for the defeat of Germany. Hitler was not very good in listening to his generals. Despite their reactions he broke the truce with the USSR and created a massive front although the Red Army was not able at the time to attack Germany and thus they were no threat to german troops.

Answer 9

There have been some good specific answers here, but I think people have overlooked general trends that led to German'y defeat. One such trend was Germany's tactical bombing campaign, which primarily targeted troop movements and other military targets. This was generally less effective than the Allies' strategic bombing policy, which targeted industrial, transportation, and economic targets as opposed to military targets.

Answer 10

The answer lies in many arenas. Total war, instigated by Goebbels, is one asnwer. Economic isolation, a two-front war, and resource drain from the Holocaust are others. There were, of course, key battles won and lost. Pearl Harbor and the addition of the US is another. WWII is a complex web of military, social, economic, and philisophical tangles.