Im studying WW2, Which was worse. Germany attacking USSR or Japan attacking USA.?

Question

they are both such terrible decisions to attack countries with bigger populations and military capacities

Answer 1

Both were stupid moves and resulted in the failure of both wars.
Which was worse, that depends on where you were when it happened.
If Hitler had left Russia alone, WWII would have lasted a lot longer and who know how it would have turned out. Hitler's second biggest mistake was his failure to realize the ME 262 (The first operational jet fighter) was the fighter that could have won the war, but he wanted it to be a bomber. Double dumb.
Japan grossly under estimated the USA's resolve, which today we do not have.

Answer 2

Germany attacking the USSR was a worse move stratigally. It caused Germany to fight a war on two fronts thus splitting its forces. Germany had also signed a non-aggressive pack with the USSR prior to its invasion on Poland. This was to prevent the USSR from entering the war and as a gift Germany allowed the USSR to reclaim lands that were taken away after WWI due to the USSR dropping out of the war. I am sure the USSR got pissed about that stab in the back.

A second stupid move on Germany was declaring war on the USA after the we were attacked by Japan. If you look back at history, after the USA was bombed in Pearl Harbor we only declared war on Japan. 3 days later Germany declared war on the USA and then about 2 days after that we returned the favor. At that point Germany was fighting the 2 biggest nations in the world.

Many will argue that when the USA entered WWII we were not a military power and they are correct. Germany and Japan had far superior forces. But knowing that eventually we would be at war the USA started a build up of forces preparing itself.

But back to your original question. If Germany had just concentrated it forces on destroying the UK it could have eliminated any resistance in Europe militarily. The USA would have never had a base to launch it bombers or invasions from causing the war to go on much longer. Germany also thought that it could tear throught the USSR quickly but underestimated their military's potential. Once that happened it was the beginning of the end for Germany.

Answer 3

Japan had little if anything to gain from an attack into Siberia. The Japanese had limited knowledge at best of the vast resources that we know are there today. The Japanese were in a way unofficial allies of the Soviets... Japan was sympathetic to the Nazi regime which up until 1941 had signed various treaties with the Soviet Union (the division of Poland for example) The Japanese saw themselves as a Naval power of the Pacific much like the UK in the Atlantic. Yes the Japanese were fighting a major land war in China and South Asia but they always wanted to secure the Pacific for themselves above all. Unfortunately, this meant that Hawaii and the Philippines had to go. I imagine they would have gone to war with the Soviets eventually if the USA had agreed to a quick peace deal after Pearl Harbour etc.

Answer 4

Its hard to tell.....Probably the invasion of Russia. Only because of its size. Even if Hitler won it would take millions of men he didnt have to just control it.....However his main objective was the oil fields. Which he never reached because of the harsh winter and battles such as Stalingrad, which demoralized and depleted his troops. Another reason the invasion of russia was a bad idea is the flat landscape that required massive invasions of men which resulted in higher caulsualties. The winter also had a major influence on the outcome. If it was not for the harsh conditions of the Russian winter Hitlers troops would have been able to move quicker into Russia and put its Blitzkrieg style tactics to better use. Were as Japan made the mistake of attacking the U.S. This also was a bad decision but an unavoidable one for a ally of the axis powers. If Japan had changed its tactics and was able to better arm itself it might of been able to hold off longer. But defeat was ineviatable. And yes the nuclear bombs were used but the extent of the caualties was minimal (200-400,000)compared to the some 20 million killed in Russia.

I believe Russia was the worst choice only due to the time of year and because of the size of the country. Japan could have pulled something off especially if they had attacked our carriers at pearl and our oil reserves which were both left untouched. Were as for Russia was just too big and too massive an operation to effectivly win.

Answer 5

Germany attacking USSR, strategically is the worse, if I understand your question correctly.

The Japanese had advantage by means of a large navy and fighter planes that had three times the mileage then the American fighters. Besides enabling the Japanese with a longer attack range from carriers or land bases, the Japanese pilots where Kamikaze's.

Germany had to contend with long lines of communication over land, nasty winters, and on the short end of stick in terms of odd man advantage. It was a pure numbers crunch that by over whelming numbers, the Germans would eventually be exhausted.

Answer 6

In my opinion, Germany attacking Russia. The US and Japan weren't exactly allies when Dec. 7th occured. Russia and Germany were allies, and Stalin was taken totally by surprise when Hitler stabbed him in the back. He undoubtedly figured Russia had nothing to fear from Germany.

The US actually expected an attack from Japan, but not on Pearl. Enterprise had been dispatched to deliver Marine fighter planes to Wake Island. Lexington was carrying planes to Midway when the Japanese attacked. The expectation was US controlled territories closer to Japan were more the target. We were taken completely by surprise by the fact that we did not expect the attack to be on Pearl.

Answer 7

I guess you could say Germany's attack was worse, since there was a non-aggression pact that Hitler signed with Stalin...which Hitler ignored when he chose to. No such treaty existed between Japan and the US

Answer 8

i think it led the axis of evil down the path of destruction when japan decided tobomb the u.s so to it was the only reason the war didnt last longer cuz of the fact that the u.s wudnt have even gotten involved if it wasnt for japan so to answer the ? it wud be the japan attacking the u.s.
but u have to think about the ussr vs nazis was a bad move due to the fact of the weather was not on the nazis said when they decided to bring the soviets in.

Answer 9

I would say that the worse was Germany as they were not only attacking Russia but also England, France, Poland and North Africa. Hitler had his troops spread out all over the place.

Answer 10

Definitely the attack on Pearl Harbor was dumber.

Given the geography and history of Europe Germany and Russia would have gone to war eventually anyway. Also, the conquest of Russia was central to Hitler's whole "1000 Year Reich" plan. Where else was he going to get the "Lebensraum" or "Living space" he dreamed of. When the Germans attacked, the Russian military was weak as a result of years of Stalinist purges. The timing was right, but Hitler grossly underestimated the scale of Russia's willingness and ability to defend itself. He didn't even bother to equip his army with proper winter clothing, expecting the invasion to over with before winter came.

The attack on Pearl Harbor was as unnecessary as it was foolhardy. It wasn't inevitable that the US would go to war with Japan if they hadn't. We were about to get into the war in Europe and the last thing we wanted was to fight a war in two different theaters on opposite sides of the world like we did.