Germany Early Victories of Germany

Germany

Early victories of Germany

The Second World War began with only one objective in mind: world domination. With Germany, Italy and Japan having incurred massive losses in the First World War, they sought revenge and redemption. It is rightly said that, "The Second World War was a war of ambitions and denials." The ambitions obviously belonged to the three precipitators while the denial was also encountered by them. They were denied their over ambitious goals with the help of Allies, namely Britain, France and the U.S.

It is important to mention here that despite the fact that Germany lost the war, there was a time in the beginning of the war that it seized control over large areas of land with its brilliant moves and artillery. This was a time when victory looked like an imminent possibility for Germany. We shall now discuss the early successes and why they actually happened.

The war began when Germany invaded Poland in September 1939 without any formal declaration of war. Two days later, Britain and France announced war against Germany with other commonwealth countries following in their footsteps soon after. According to Columbia Encyclopedia, the main reasons for the early successes of Germany were the "German blitzkrieg, or lightning war, with its use of new techniques of mechanized and air warfare" and this led to complete collapse of Poland.

With Poland conquered, Germans' next targets were the very unlikely countries of Denmark and Norway. It was a move not expected by the Allies and thus the attack took them off guard which led to more victories for Germany. Denmark was easily vanquished while Norway was seized in June 1940 after much resistance from the Allies. Interestingly while Allies had more troops and better weaponry and artillery, they still failed to save Norway and with that they also opened doors for Germany to other territories in Europe. Bradley Lightbody (2004) sheds light on the reasons for the failure of the Allies in the west and for Germany's success:

The only key Allied deficiency was the lack of ground attack aircraft - they had nothing comparable to the Stuka dive-bomber. Ultimately it was superior tactics rather than superior strength that defeated the Allied powers - in particular the high speed of the German advance. In the Great War the western front was locked in stalemate with neither side able to gain an advantage, but in May 1940 Blitzkrieg tactics broke the Allied defense in only five days and defeated the whole of Western Europe inside only six weeks.

Germans were unstoppable after that. They broke off the English Channel blockade and were soon all over Europe. This forced France into submission as it signed an armistice with both Germany and Italy. Britain posed serious resistance and was the only Allied force that showed strength under pressure. One after the others, many countries either joined hands with Germany or succumb to its military might. Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria joined Germany in 1940 while Yugoslavia and Greece were forced to submit thus multiplying the victories of Germany in the war.

The Turnaround:

These early successes of Germany were however short-lived. The surprise turnaround came when in June 1941 Germany forced Russia to side with the Allies by launching a joint attack on Russia. Initially Germany managed to destroy a major part of Russia but by December 1941, Moscow's staunch resistance had stopped the flow of victories for Germany.

Quickly after that the United States was forced to give up its neutral stand and join the war. Since U.S. has planned not to join the war, it was safely watching the progress and was not exactly a threat to any country. However in Dec 1941, Japan made U.S. join the war by attacking Pearl Harbor without any declaration of war. U.S. entered war with a vengeance only to see Germany and Italy declare war on it. Initially there were many setbacks for the Allies in Asia but by summer 1942 things began to change. This happened because Germany had been in the war for more than two years now. Its army was tired, its resources depleted and its artillery and weapons weakened. But at the same time, the biggest force in the Allies, the U.S. had just started using its full force and was in absolute command of the situation.

Germany suffered first major defeat when Britain captured and liberated North Africa in 1942. Just the very next month, America invaded Algeria and free forces of France quickly joined Allies. Allies launched a solid attack and soon Germans were heavily defeated in North Africa. At the same time, German 6th Army surrendered to massive attacks in Russia and after that, Russia quickly advanced to other areas.