What three factors led to Allied victory in Europe during WWII?

Question

so far i can only think of two:

1. good leadership/ operational planning (successes: Battle of Stalingrad & Operation Cobra)

2. The air war over europe which destroy the german airforce and the petroleum industry, also the french railways which cut the German supply transportation

i need a third one for my history class though, any ideas?

Answer 1

Hitler's blunders contributed to the allied victory; eg, withholding the Panzer reserves away from local control of Rommel prior to the Normandy invasions. His stance of not retreating, led to the debacle of the Falaise pocket which destroyed many of his best divisions in the west, among them the 12th SS, Panzer Lehr, and others.

Answer 2

Nice easy question for 5am, The Allies won WW2 because Britain bought the cause some time after the fall of most of Europe. America financed the war effort and the Russians gave millions of lives. I believe I am paraphrasing Stalin. In 1940 Britain (and the dominions) stood alone against the Axis powers, Russia was on the side of the Nazis. By 1942 Germany was at war with Russia AND the USA. Hitler declared war on the USA after Pearl Harbour. It is clear to me he seriously overestimated Germany's capabilities. Britain won victories in North Africa in 1942. Churchill warned "this is not the end, or the beginning of the end but it is perhaps the end of the beginning" These victories paved the way for the invasion of Italy. Anyway with the Eastern Front sapping Germany's strength (Stalingrad 1942 was the bloodiest battle in human history, Kursk in 1943 was the largest tank battle in history) it was down to Britain and the USA to go on the attack. First came the invasion of Italy and then D-Day (6 June 1944) The Germans were incredibly outnumbered and outresourced on all 3 fronts. It was almost a matter of when and not if the war would be lost once Europe had been re-invaded, Except for one episode - the Battle of the Bulge (Dec 1944) when Germany almost cut off and destroyed an American Army. After the Battle of the Bulge it was 4 months of hard fighting before the end of the war.

Answer 3

Your item 2. is only partly correct. The key targets of the bombing campaign in the latter part of the war were roads and railways - bridges, tunnels, and marshalling yards - and the key weapons against them were BIG bombs, 6-tonners and later on 10-tonners, not silly little 500-pounders. Guerrilla forces in Southern Europe attacked bridges which were out of range of the Allied bombers. The Germans couldn't move their troops and supplies to where they were needed.

3. Successful breaking of the German "Enigma", "Fish", "Lorenz" and other codes at Bletchley Park, which was the key to crippling the German U-boat offensive against the North Atlantic convoys from late 1943 onwards. But this was a very close-run thing. Churchill was more worried about the steady loss of merchant shipping in the Atlantic than about anything else, and he put a higher value on the decrypted intelligence from Bletchley Park than on any other piece of the British war effort.

I heard Tommy Flowers on UK television, not long before his death in 1998, talking about building the amazing and top-secret "Colossus" machine which dealt with the hardest of these codes, and saying ". . . but of course, we could get anything we wanted; we were top, top priority . . ."

Answer 4

Industrial and economic power. The USA manufacturing base out of harms way. Britains Empire resources mostly untouched. The Soviet Unions sheer manpower and industrial bases beyond the Ural mountains. All germany's resources were the ruhr valley and captured territories ie Romanias oil reserves too far away to protect indefinately

Answer 5

If theres one factor that leads over the others in Germany's demise, which I believe most historians attribute to, it would be on the fateful day that Hitler decided to attack Russia.

Any good General knows you dont split your forces and fight two fronts. Hitler overestimated his abilities to hold off the American/British invasion of the western european coast dispite his advisors' many attempts to caution him on the diminished strength of both his naval U-boats and the Luftwaffe on the western front.

It was a fool's errand from the beginning to deploy such a force across all of the European fortress AND send troops into a battle-hardened veteran held winter-bunkered and heavily defendable Solviet line.

I have to give Germany credit, if it weren't for their superior tactics, equipment and battle hardened Blitzkriegers, I doubt the Nazi war machine would have been able to reach as far as they did. Stalingrad was a remarkable strategic move, even if they never fully held the city.

Answer 6

Manufacturing. The Allies has the USA's Giant industrial plants to fall back on the Axis powers couldnt keep up.

Answer 7

1. Hitler's failure to defeat Great Britain, thus ensuring a safe base for the USA when it eventually joined the war.

2. The strategic error of declaring war on the Soviet Union.

3. Hitler's disastrous micro-management of the war, undermining his generals.

Answer 8

The inability of Germany (and the Axis) in Europe to sustain war on two fronts: France and Italy in the west, and Russia in the east. This led to the depletion of Germany's 'Luftwaffe' and infantry/armour/transportation/logistics.
Thanks for the thumbs down, I see you know more about logistics than I do.

Answer 9

The distrust of Hitler and the dis-satisfaction with him and his failed policies by the German General Staff that led to the attempt on his life which led to many of the main Generals being killed in the hysteria that followed the failed attempt.

Hitler killed off his best Generals and took over running the war... and the end was predictable

Answer 10

i'd say it was due to the slow loss of alliances of the axis... honestly, hitler was formidable with russia and italy at his side (in europe)... but when hitler launched operation barbarossa to capture russia, not only did he create a new enemy to attack him from the eastern side of europe but also, as far as i know, he jeopardized a lot of his soldiers just venturing into the then USSR

then later when the allies captured italy, mussolini's fascist gove't failed... with mussolini captured although he was freed later on, italian fascist power weakened further incapitating the axis alliance

when italy surrendered... only germany was left.. it didn't help that germany was experiencing round the clock bombing... it was only a matter of time that the european axis fell

i hope that helps...