Germany lost the First World War largely because it couldn't fight a sustained two-front war. This series of articles represents an attempt to summarize the top mistakes and omissions that Germany made during the most terrible of all wars in human history. Photo: Museum of the U.S. Air Force (Courtesy Photo). And the Russian winter. 2 US taking on Japan and preventing them from attacking anyone else. After the defeat of Imperial Russia, which came as the result of the Bolshevik revolution in 1917, the German Army was able to move vast quantities of men to the western front and launched a final offensive in the spring of 1918. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. SolomonOf47704 22 days ago. British-built armour plate also had a much higher nickel content 3 per cent versus 1 per cent for Russian-made steel which reduced the risk of armour spalling (i.e. WebIn the summer of 1945, Japans war leaders knew they were not going to win World War II. There is no denying that German industry was able to produce some very fine weapons and military equipment. This would have reduced investment in the US arms industry and thus slowed it growth or even caused plants to close. Many of the arguments are colored either by existing national or social biases, and many of them are colored by propaganda be it World War II propaganda, be it Cold War propaganda. All rights reserved. British armaments orders would have started to dry up in late 1940 early 41 as currency reserves ran out. When we look at the situation in Western Front, we see Germans not sweating much to stall Allies after Normandy. However, if Germany had limited itself to liberating the Polish occupied German city of Danzig and invading the Polish Corridor, which represented the full extent of his territorial claims on Poland, and which it captured in the first four days of fighting, then Hitler could have requested an armistice from Polish leaders on September 5. With Great Britain in the war it meant Germany was dragged into various side campaigns from Greece to North Africa. "In a hypothetical battle one-on-one between the U.S.S.R and Germany, without the help of Lend-Lease and without the diversion of significant forces of the Luftwaffe and the German Navy and the diversion of more than one-quarter of its land forces in the fight against Britain and the United States, Stalin could hardly have beaten Hitler," Sokolov wrote in an essay for RFE/RL's Russian Service. But we have much to learn from that achievement as we face our troubles today. It would have been a negotiated armistice or a German victory. Stalin was of the same opinion but naturally did not admit it publicly. In all, the United States shipped $50 billion ($608 billion in 2020 money) worth of materiel under the program, including $11.3 billion to the Soviet Union. 117,000The armies of the Central Powers mobilised 25 million soldiers and 3.5 million of them died.World War 1 casualties. On the Soviet side, the Western Front still had 328 tanks left in thirteen tank brigades and the 1st Guards Motorized Rifle Division (1GRMD) by the end of October: thirty-three KV-1, 175 T-34, forty-three BT, fifty T-26 and thirty-two T-60. WebIf the US continued to send supplies to the Allies, then the Allies probably win, nothing else appearing. America supplied Stalin with 400,000 trucks, 2,000 locomotives, more than 10,000 rail Sure but this not what the OP specified so the answer remains yes the Allies could win without direct US involvement or even with the pre Lend-Lease levels of support if it happens early in the war. During World War II the Soviet Union received large amounts of aid from the Western world in the form of supplies and military intervention, both of which were declared to have been irrelevant for the Soviet Unions victory over Nazi Germany by Soviet historians. WebRelatives and friends have buried children and others killed in a Russian missile attack on the central Ukrainian city of Uman. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Individual Americans supported one side or the other, although the majority were sympathetic to the Allies. But we must also note that Lend Lease started without US joining the war, on FDRs initiative, andit would be there until the end of the war even if US did not join the war. This included such small arms as the MG34, MG42 and the world's first "assault rifle," the StG44. What do you think would have happened if the US had not entered the war on the side of the Allies? In conclusion, if Germany won WW1, the German government would have been considerably more powerful and the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires would have lasted longer. I think the USSR could have beat Germany even without american aid, aldo I wouldn't be surprised if one of the three mayor Soviet cities on the frontline had fallen, probably Stalingrad. ", Nikolai Ryzhkov, the last head of the government of the Soviet Union, wrote in 2015 that "it can be confidently stated that [Lend-Lease assistance] did not play a decisive role in the Great Victory.". In addition, much of the $31 billion worth of aid sent to the United Kingdom was also passed on to the Soviet Union via convoys through the Barents Sea to Murmansk. Malyshev encouraged the use of stamped parts and a cast turret in order to cut corners, accepting a certain temporary reduction in quality in return for much greater output of tanks. And they would have been perpetually hungry without American canned meat and fats. While the Japanese did draw away British resources to the Far East, which included the Commonwealth forces of Australia and New Zealand, as well as the Indian Army, this really didn't benefit the Germans all that much. But when we look at the production numbers, we notice that Soviet war production was multiples ahead of German and Japanese war production. I already posted a similar thread about US involvement in WWI. Inevitably so, since British were still in the war, and even though British and Canadians were frustrated in a grand fashion when they attempted a landing inDieppe Raidto test German defenses in regard to a possible landing, the risk of a potential landing was still there. There is one World War II historian, John Lukacs, who has said that all three major allies were needed to beat Hitler. By the same token, the extraordinary pitch of mobilization achieved by the Soviet Union in 1942 and early 1943 was not sustainable. One look at the map of southern Europe easily tells even people with non-military education that there is nothing soft about that location at all Italy is hilly, rough terrain, and where Italy connects to Europe is even worse impassable Alps totally clog the north, and beyond Alps there are many more difficult obstacles like Black Forest, or Yugoslavian hilly countryside. Even with everything noted above, Germany and its European partners could have still won the war were it not for Germany's declaration of war on the United States on December 11, 1941. In contrast, people in Eastern Front were ordered to die where they stood. That neatly sums it up. Lend-Lease also sent aviation fuel equivalent to 57 percent of what the Soviet Union itself produced. Why did Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria ally with Germany in WWII and what impact did they have? WebFor the Allies in World War Two, the defeat of Germany was their priority. The result would have been an eastern block streching to the atlantic and a much weaker post war US. So in World War One, I think fresh American troops helped change the outcome. By June 1944, Soviets were already positioning for their drive into Germany, as can be seen from the state of Eastern Front at that date: Just a month after Normandy, Red Army was already pushing into Germany. It was a great symbol of prestige for the resurgent Kriegsmarine, but the money and material could have been utilized in a larger U-Boat force. Lend-Lease trucks and jeeps put the Russian Army on wheels for the first time ever while US food (including, famously, spam)kept the Russian population going. By September 1944, we see Allies only coming to German border: The disproportionate advance of Allies in Western Front in the late stages of the war compared to the advance in Eastern Front after this point is due to German staff trying to prevent a Soviet takeover of entire Germany, and preferring an occupation by the other Allies. Though Germans would rightfully conclude that at that point a British invasion would not have much impact, therefore reduce their divisions in the West quite a lot. My object was to cheer up Harry and give him my ideas as to how he was to hold the president in line if he couldI have no doubt of the British people doing it. But right before the Normandy landings, this region (France, Atlantic Wall) was still considered a holiday region by German army, and sons, relatives of notables, party figures were sent there rather than Eastern Front as one old BBC documentary so bluntly put it. When the war ended, almost 33 percent of all the Red Army's vehicles had been provided through Lend-Lease. We cannot measure the distance of the Soviet economy from the point of collapse in 1942, but it seems beyond doubt that collapse was near. The Allies likely would have followed suit by making peace with Nazi Germany, too, thus ending World War II after a mere two weeks of fighting. Germany invaded France with more horses than Napoleon had used in 1812! Instead of the four Allied powers the United States, Great Britain, France, and the Soviet Union then standing together in a final Allied Victory Parade in a defeated Berlin in September 1944, the Germans could have celebrated the defeat of the British, marching through London and Moscow as they did Paris. During World War I not to mention wars in European wars through the ages Germany didn't really fight alone. This is the first in a series of five articles providing critical analysis as to how Germany Might Have Won World War II. Japan was far too behind in war production, technology in respect to other combatants. Such assessments, however, are contradicted by the opinions of Soviet war participants. Afterwards, he sent troops to occupy the Czech Republic on May 15, 1939 in flagrant violation of the terms of Munich Pact. W. Without the need to fight in the Atlantic; to transport large amounts of troops, equipment, and supplies across the entire continent; and the necessity to defend against Allied bombing, Germany could have massively reduced its U-boat, locomotive, and anti-aircraft gun and ammunition production and converted at least part of these capacities into the production of more aircraft and equipment for land warfare. The war might have ended in 1915 or 1916 with a negotiated peace "During World War II, only the supplies brought in by Lend-Lease prevented the paralysis of rail transport in the Soviet Union.". WWII- Whenever driven from Libya in defeat, would Axis forces have always retreated to & occupied Tunisia? It is hard to overestimate the negative impact Hitlers foolhardy violation of the Munich Pact had upon Chamberlain. Would The Allies Have Won Ww2 Without Russia? Rommel had scarce manpower and supplies at his disposal, yet he made good use of what he had, and Britain succeeded in stopping Germans only with amassing of massive resources and manpower in firstFirst Battle of El Alamein. It is a little known fact that Hitler passed up a huge opportunity to satisfy his few remaining territorial demands after the signing of the Munich Pact for the return of the free German city of Danzig and/or the Polish Corridor along with some former German colonies in Africa and the Pacific without the need for war between Germany and Poland, let alone between Germany and the United Kingdom and France. On April 23, 1947, this C-37 was forced to make an emergency landing with 36 people on board near the village of Volochanka on the Taimyr Peninsula. The Germans were fantastically luck between 1939 and 42, which by the way is when Lend-Lease to the Soviets actually kicked in, and their defeat earlier is entirely plausible. They are related because both buildups on both sides of the cold war started during WW2 to fight the Axis powers. WebFact: Adolf Hitler Could Have Won World War II As we celebrate the ending of the war 75 years ago, know this: victory for the Allies was never guaranteed, and historians agree The reintroduction of unrestricted submarine warfare. On April 23, 1947, it was forced to make an emergency landing with 36 people on board near the village of Volochanka on the Taimyr Peninsula. The captain, two crew members, and six passengers had left earlier in an ill-fated effort to get help. Eventually, those nations got out of the fight and in the case of Romania joined with the Soviets against the Hungarians. Responding to President Franklin D. US lost five major wars after 1945 However, the US was unable to get any significant victory in its wars abroad. The lend-lease deal wasn't signed untill september 1940 and therefore didn't affect the decision to "pospone" sealion. The major effects would have been on the US. Much of the American fuel was added to lower-grade Soviet fuel to produce the high-octane fuel needed by modern military aircraft. The others were never found. Allied advance in the West definitely took some heat off of Eastern Front, but as can be understood from the situation by the time of landings, Germans did not fear Western Front as they regarded Eastern Front. Franz Ferdinand was the strongest spokesman for peace in Austria-Hungary. You must log in or register to reply here. Hitler could have accepted Britains generous offer and scheduled the conference for late 1938 or early 1939 rather than foolishly violating the Munich Pact in March 1939. Though this indeed tied some German forces, the forces were not anything which could be compared to what was being thrown to Eastern Front, with one notable panzer group being stationed ner Pas de Calais (Hitlers folly), and most of the preparation taking the form of elaborate fortifications that were called Atlantic Wall prepared mainly by Rommel. Of course, the easiest way Germany could have won World War II was by avoiding a fight with Britain, France, and the United States of America. Recall that 75% of the German soldiers killed in WWII were killed by the However, it is likely he would have invaded all of those nations at some point during the 1940s regardless of what Hitler did or did not do since his massive expansion of the Red Army was completed by June 1941, by which time the Soviet Union boasted seven times as many tanks and four times as many combat aircraft as Nazi Germany. A monument in Fairbanks, Alaska, to the American pilots who flew almost 8,000 U.S. planes to Alaska and to the Soviet pilots who flew them on to Siberia as part of Lend-Lease. Britain, regardless of their stubborn perseverance, was undermanned and under supplied compared to Germany, as evidenced by quick reversal of the early victories they won in North Africa against Italy, after Rommel landed. WebThis June, seventy-five years will have passed since the largest invasion fleet in the history of warfare landed on five beachheads in Normandy, France.On Tuesday, 6 June 1944, D-day kicked off the Allied operation to liberate Western Europe from Nazi control. While the United States quickly transitioned to a wartime economy that had companies like IBM making rifles instead of typewriters and GM making tanks instead of cars; Germany was producing consumer goods all the way until 1942 when Albert Speer took over as Minister of Armaments. How behind Japan was in regard to war production and technology, we see in 1939 in Khalkin Gol, where Zhukov had devastated a sizable Japanese army during the course of ~4 months. His intended purpose of this second conference would have been to redress Germanys remaining legitimate grievances stemming from the unjust Treaty of Versailles and thereby secure a more just and lasting peace to avert the potential outbreak of World War II. But it would But as most historians are aware, German defeat in the war would have been far from inevitable had Nazi leader Adolf Hitler refrained from making certain critical mistakes. Scan this QR code to download the app now. The US had massively increased production of planes and had developed some of the best single engine fighters of the war. Which could be easily defended by much fewer divisions than the number of divisions it would need to attack. The Joint Chiefs of Staff anticipated trouble with Churchill. Had Hitlers claims against Poland been negotiated peacefully, not only would he have succeeded in averting the outbreak of war with Poland and the Western Allies, but he would not have felt the need to sign the Hitler-Stalin Pact of August 1939 carving up eastern Europe between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. metal splinters inside the tank) when the tank was hit by non-penetrating rounds.137 Although designed as infantry support tanks and employed in that role by the Red Army, the 2-pounder gun did not have an HE round, which reduced the value of the tanks in that role. If in a worse scenario the Soviets would have lost Leningrad or the Kavkaz oil fields, or maybe even Moscow, they would just move their government, army, factories and supplies to Siberia. Even with everything noted above, Germany and its European partners could have still won the war were it not for Germanys declaration of war on the United States on December 11, 1941. Germany had to deal with resistance and partisan efforts, and as the tide of war turned its "allies" left the fight. After that point it was about who would end up with how much of Europe at the end of the war. After the fall of France in June What would have happened if the Allies lost ww1? Germanys resumption of submarine attacks on passenger and merchant ships in 1917 became the primary motivation behind Wilsons decision to lead the United States into World War I. They were rapidly obsoleted and were relegated to back line duties (reserve, regional back line defense, training) towards 1943 due to speed of technological advancement on both sides. "I knew that its place was in a museum," Vyacheslav Filippov, a colonel in the Russian Air Force reserve who has written extensively about the Lend-Lease program's Siberian connection, told RFE/RL at the time. This series of events also would have almost certainly led to a German-Polish alliance against the Soviets that Hitler had long sought for as the Poles would have had no choice but to ally with Nazi Germany if they had any hopes of ever regaining the two-thirds of their territory which had been annexed by the Soviets under the terms of the original Hitler-Stalin Pact. Considering all the above information, it is reasonable to conclude that the war could be won without participation of US, or even Lend Lease, but it would cost much more lives and take much longer, and affect broader segments of world population. The Lend-Lease program also sent tons of factory equipment and machine tools to the Soviet Union, including more than 38,000 lathes and other metal-working tools. With Britain gone, Hitler could have transferred more of his Panzer Divisions from France as well as the Afrika Corps. The British Arctic PQ-1 convoy had reached Archangelsk on 11 October with twenty Mark II Matilda tanks, followed by PQ-2 on 30 October with seventy-six Mark III Valentine tanks; these ninety-six tanks were rushed by rail to Moscow and used to outfit the 146th Tank Brigade and four independent tank battalions (131, 132, 136, 138 OTB).136 Another major British Lend-Lease convoy, PQ-3, would arrive in Archangelsk on 22 November with 200 more British tanks. We would have lost North Africa and the far east. And how much steel! Adolf Hitler joined a list of would-be invaders of the British Isles but clearly didn't remember that no one successfully invaded since 1066 when William the Conqueror defeated Harold II, the last crowned Anglo-Saxon king of England. The disparage of manpower and supplies in the lineups are impressive, which makes what Germans achieved in North Africa even more noteworthy. The allies won WW2 and the allies won the cold war. How many U.S. troops lost their lives in ww1? But such aircraft were unable to defeat Great Britain. When landings become inevitable, he diverts the landings to Italy, calling it soft underbelly of Axis. So, until 1944 summer, Soviets were practically alone in Europe. Dont Violate the Munich Pact by Occupying the Czech provinces of Bohemia and Moravia. It was really the only time Nazi Germany had actually declared war on an enemy, and it needed not to have happened. Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer who has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers and websites. If Zhukov was able to destroy a veteran Japanese army in ~4 months in Khalkin Gol, they could easily hold them off with less divisions and resources. Most Russians believe the Soviet military would have been able to win World War II without the efforts of the U.S. or its allies, a new poll finds. In other words, Lend-Lease was stabilizing. FranceWhich countries have won the most battles? The highlight of the event was the lowering of the captured German standards, which were flung down in front of Lenin's Tomb to be trampled by Soviet marshals riding white horses. When World War II started, America was isolationist and the Soviet Union collaborationist. The notion that Britain could have survived long term with the US's aid is total rubbish. Instead, the United States became the arsenal of democracy and Germany's defeat was all but assured. In announcing he had achieved peace in our time at Munich in September 1938, Chamberlain revealed his belief that the Munich Agreement was just the prelude to a second and much more comprehensive Four-Power Peace Conference between the UK, France, Germany and Italy. The United States later declared war on German ally Austria-Hungary on December 7, 1917. Nevertheless, British Lend-Lease tanks helped the Red Army to restock its tank units until domestic production could catch up and are estimated to have comprised about 10 per cent of the tanks defending Moscow in NovemberDecember 1941. Archived post. This isnt to say the U.S. won the war on its own. And even if Atlantic War would have been more destructive to Britain and possibly not even won, Britains presence as a naval power would not diminish, and hence the risk of invasion of Western Europe would not go away. Lend Lease for USSR was important in non-combat equipment radios, trucks and similar. Isolation was no longer an option. Yes Lend-Lease was vital, In order to ensure that tank production goals were met by Soviet industry, Stalin made Vyacheslav Malyshev, an engineer who had proven himself in the expansion of Soviet heavy industry in the 1930s, head of the Peoples Commissariat of the Tank Industry of the USSR (NKTP) that was established on 11 September. At the same time, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini could have made demands for France and Britain to honor their promises to Italy for more Yugoslav territory in return for entering World War One on the side of the Allies. Siberia, is not even an option to consider. The Short History Of The Great Patriotic War, also from 1948, acknowledged the Lend-Lease shipments, but concluded: "Overall this assistance was not significant enough to in any way exert a decisive influence over the course of the Great Patriotic War. ", In 1963, KGB monitoring recorded Soviet Marshal Georgy Zhukov saying: "People say that the allies didn't help us. Both sides would have complained. Only Occupy the Polish Corridor, Not All of Western Poland. The First World War saw two factions of "great powers" square off. But for the sake of a full spectrum analysis, lets assume that Lend Lease was tied to US joining the war, and if US did not join, there would be no Lend Lease. The additional firepower, resources, and soldiers of the U.S. helped to tip the balance of the war in favor of the Allies. WebIn the 20032004 Captain America story arc Cap Lives (Captain America Vol. WebAnd without U.S. supplies, the Soviet war effort would have been massively diminished. Various French Kings conducted some raids, the Spanish planned to use its Armada, the Dutch managed to at least burn some English warships in the Thames but even Napoleon never dared mount what would have been a futile invasion. It is our living history. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty 2023 RFE/RL, Inc. All Rights Reserved. What were strength estimates of German forces in Budapest and Munich? It had Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria on its side. September 1 marked the eightieth anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, which cost the lives of an estimated fifty to sixty million people and was the most terrible war in world history. At these loss rates, the Red Army was still far more dependent upon Lend-Lease armour than it was willing to admit, and it did not have enough excess production to fully outfit its best units with T-34s until mid-1943. But it would also take longer and cost more loss of lives. Churchill kept working to delay/divert any landing in Western Europe: Roosevelt and Stalin Portrait of a Partnership. This abrupt reversal in policy ended up triggering a world war which would cost over fifty million lives. By the onset of the great depression, Americans no longer cared to talk or think about the great war; even veterans felt that way. After the loss of aluminum sources in the Ukraine, 80 per cent of the aluminum used in the T-34s diesel tank engine came from Lend-Lease deliveries; without Lend-Lease, there would have been significantly fewer T-34s.84. This would have slowed the growth of US armed forces once the entered the war in december 41 and probebly delayed overlord untill 1945. I think one of the key questions is whether the RAF and the British naval forces would have been able to resist for so long the Luftwaffe and the Nazi marine forces without the resources and aid provided by the USA. During the Spanish Civil War, which has been called a dress rehearsal for the Second World War, Germany's Luftwaffe perfected its strategy of using dive bombers and close-support attack aircraft.
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