Up to about the end of 1942 Germany was usually successful on the battlefield and was generally advancing. From the beginning of 1943 Germany was usually unsuccessful on the battlefield and was generally retreating. After Hitler had taken over Poland and France with his Blitzkrieg
warfare the
world was surprised in a bad way and shocked. The Germans did not have any unsuccessful offence during 1939 and 1942, this frightened many people. However, after 1942 the Germans usually lost on the battlefield and were pushed back into Germany. These losses were caused by a number of events during that period. Operation Barbarossa began in June 1941. Hitler started very successful and Leningrad and Moscow were under German control by the end of 1942. One reason for the success of the Germans was, because the Russians were not ready for
war and totally unprepared.
However, when Hitler tried to take over Stalingrad many things went wrong. It was winter when the German troops attacked Stalingrad, so it was very cold and the Russians were much better equipped for these conditions as the Germans. By November 1942 300 000 Germans were inside Stalingrad surrounded by Russians. The food supply stopped, so the soldiers had to starve. 30th January 1943, 90 000 Germans were forced to surrender and were taken as prisoners or shot by the Russians. This victory gave a major boost to the Allies because it showed, that the German army could be beaten. From the 5th to the 16th July 1943 the German army made a last offence to get Russia back, this was the biggest tank battle in the 2nd
World War. However, Germany eventually lost initiative in Russia. By August 1944 not a single German soldier was left on Russian soil. The Germans had lost in the USSR, because the Russians were after 1941 much better organised and used to the Russian winter, which hit the Germans very hard. Because 75% of the German
war effort was at the Eastern-Front, they did not only have great soldier losses in Russia, but also material losses, e.g. tanks, guns etc. This weakened the Germans in a great deal, because they had to held back the Russians at the east and fight against the British and Americans in the west, without all the soldiers they had lost in Russia. When the USA joined the
war in 1941 it was a great push-back for the Germans, because they now had to fight another country. The USA had very good equipment and a high production. They also had a good and large army. After they had invaded Italy, Germany had to fight at a
second front, so they had to divide their troops, which weakened them. The USA gave the Allies a great support mentally too as practically. With America joining the
war, there also came a country, which helped developing new technological things. Radar was developed by the British in 1940, this gave them a great advantage in the Atlantic
War. Another very important technological development was the Asdic, a location device which bounded sound off solid objects, such as U-boat hull. The Germans believed that the Allies could not read there encoded messages, but the Allies had produced a code breaking machine, called ULTRA. All these machines gave the Allies a great advantage, because the Germans felt themselves totally secure and developed these machines only some time later. Before 1942, the Allies did not use their Airforce in bombing Germany, so the German industry and civilians were relatively save. In May 1942 was the first bombing on Germany, it hit Cologne. 40 000 German civilians were killed from the first 1000-bomber raid. July and August 1943 a bomber raid over Hamburg killed 45 000 Germans. Overall, about 750 000 German civilians were perished from the RAF at night time and the Americans at day time. This weakened the Germans, because people began to realise, that this
war destroyed their lives. More and more people started to say things against Hitler, even though they knew, that they would be send to Concentration camp. It also weakened the army. Thousand of people being killed, so their were not enough men to replace the fallen soldiers at the front. Teenagers from the age of twelve were forced to fight. However, the did not have a great experience and
“war-education”, so they fought very bad and the Allies could move into Germany much easier. The Allies, however, did not hit the central heart of the industry, because the Germans had moved all their important companies underground or somewhere, were the Allies did not suspect them or found them. So the productions from the Germans went up, even in 1944. Romania quite the
war with Germany in 1994, so Germany lost 23% of it’s oil supplies. Only a little amount of oil was left. Producing more tanks etc. was therefore pointless. Before 1942 the Luftwaffe was mostly very successful and almost all the times the winner. However, the oil-crises affected the
war in the air, too. The RAF became stronger everyday, whereas the Germans became weaker from day to day in the air. The Germans id not have enough petrol, to use all the aeroplanes they had. However, this was not the only reason, why Germany had less aircraft’s than the Allies. The British and Americans splitted the bombing: at day time, the Americans bombed Germany and at night time the RAF flew raids over Germany. This was another big advantage for the Allies, because they controlled the
war in the air. It was very important for the Allies to win back France. So they America and Britain planned the invasion of France: D-Day. D-Day (Day-Day) took the Germans totally by surprise. Hitler had expected the Allies to land in Calais, because there was a large port. What he did not know, was that the Allies brought their own ports made out of flexible steel roadways. After the landings in the Normandy, the Allies opened a
second front, so the Germans had to fight in the east and in the west now. They had to split their troops, which weakened them and had to bring materials and food to two fronts. The most important reasons, for the Germans weaknesses after 1942 were the large losses in Russia, the USA joining the
war and the bombing of Germany. Without these factors Hitler might have taken control of Europe and established a Nazi-state.
