World War II Economical and Military Abilities

World War II

Economical and military abilities of major participants of the war -

Germany

Soviet Union

France

Great Britain

Important military campaigns

France (including Belgium and Holland)

Balkan campaign (Greece and Yugoslavia)

Russian campaign

Industrial production in 1943

World War II is the most tragic but extremely interesting period of human history of al centuries. It was a regular continuation of previous absurd bloody conflict - World War I. New war began after Germany was defeated in WWI and after winners didn't give Germany any chance to have enough resources to feed own citizens and reconstruct national infrastructure. But British Empire wanted to become richer; United States wished the same. France in fact was destructed even more than Germany and wished to capture not only new territories but also to get as high contribution as it was necessary to restore ruined economics and rebuild vast lands bordering Germany (France was one of the main theaters of war in Europe). Russia suffered from two revolutions and Civil War and was not able to influence European politics. So, these main states which had won WWI wanted to have very profitable peace and were ready to do everything to gain own interests. This was a great mistake. Now we know - that was real crime against peace and humanity. Political leaders tried to settle peace on Earth, as they believed, but in fact they guaranteed fire and death for millions of people in Germany, Britain, Russia, France, the United States and some small European countries.

This event had changed the world. It had changed international relations and formed 2 greatest powers ever been - the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). They fought together against common enemy and thought that this cooperation would take place after the victory. Franklin Roosevelt once told Churchill and Stalin in Teheran: -- For our unity - during the war and peace... -- . (As He Saw It by Elliott Roosevelt, p. 221). Roosevelt wanted all countries to unite and live in peace, but his death stopped this peaceful politics and new U.S. President found USSR as the main enemy. This idea was the main in international relations since 1945 till 1991 and can be considered as the main result of WWII because world was divided in two parts between the Capitalistic states (leader - USA) and Communist states (USSR).

A winners brought little peace on Earth after victory over Germany which they fought for and promised... -- as German general Kurt von Tippelskirch wrote in his book -- The History of World War II -- . He was right: the winners could not preserve the world from new conflict which was called the Cold War.

World War II is a great event in our history and it is worth researching and finding out new facts about it, because if we know the reasons and consequences of this bloody conflict maybe it could help us, citizens of a democratic state, to stop future conflicts and foresee their terrible results.

Now let us try to figure out what were the major participants of WWII and analyze their economical and military potential to wage the war.

Major countries were: Germany, Poland, France, Great Britain and the Soviet Union.

Germany:

We have to admit that Germany was one of the strongest countries in Europe and in the whole world already in 1939. After Hitler captured power in 1933 and proclaimed Nazi ideology full of different cruel theories and wishes to conquer bordering states, the situation in Europe got worse and complicated a lot. Fascists wanted to revenge France and Britain because of the defeat in WWI. But also they wished to capture lands inhabited by Slavs (Hitler and Rosenberg considered them as -- non-human -- race and were sure that Polish, Russians and Czechs are not smart enough to rule in their own countries. That's why Hitler wanted to get excellent lands in the East of Europe and turn Slavic population into slaves. He proclaimed an idea of movement to the east and it can be explained only because of weakness of Poland and Czechoslovakia and also supposed weakness of USSR. Once after capturing Austria Hitler told Otto Schtrasser: -- Vienna is the first step to the east... Russia must be crossed out of the list of European states -- (Hitler and me. By Otto Schtrasser. page 124). This aggressive phrase explains Hitlers plans, all his actions were devoted to capturing Russia as the richest and largest country on Earth, and sure one of the weakest as he was sure.

After he got power Hitler dreamed of improving German economics and the only reason of this was his wish to create modern military industry. He received power in poor and destructed Germany which still suffered a lot from paying contributions and didn't have enough money to raise national economics. Hitler saw Germans' life: some of them gathered all money to buy some thing in the morning because at night its price could be 5 or 7 times more. Many Germans suffered being jobless and didn't have any money to help own families. Fuhrer knew that and started working. Otto Stchrasser, Hitters ideological opponent, wrote about Weimer republic: -- Sure, Hitlers regime was terrible but it gave jobless citizens a job and gave an idea to the whole country which didn't believe in happy future any more -- ( -- Hitler and me -- p. 76).

As a result he reconstructed heavy industry and started militarization of German economics. According to the information given by John Bourne, Peter Liddle German leader stared great program of producing military production. In 1936 German military production was only 8% of common production of all German industry. In 1939 it raised u to 23%, but in such important spheres as machine building and metal industry - more than 40%. -- In 1939 German army had more then 4 thousand military airplanes and more than 3 thousand tanks. The last Luftwaffe program (adopted in 1938) foresaw having 20 thousand planes of all types in spring 1942 -- as John Bourne and Peter Liddle wrote in their book (p.98).

Germany was the first country where tanks were highly valued as the main battle unit of future wars. Germans created different theories of using tank units and their tank strikes during the WWII could destroy any defense system. Heinz Guderian was the main person in forming tank troops in Germany.

Wechrmacht increased number of soldiers more than in 70 times (in June 1941 it contained of 7.2 million soldiers both in active and reserve units). Hitler spent 90 trillion German Marks on military budget (1933-1939). In 1939 it amounted 18,4 trillion DM or 58% of the whole German budget.

In 1939 German army consisted of: 32 infantry divisions, 3 tank divisions, 8 reserve divisions etc. Total amount of army units (divisions and brigades) was 71. Most of them were formed since 1936.

I have to admit the fact that Hitler was very popular in Germany and also in some other countries. He was supported by rich businessmen from both sides of Atlantic. British and American businessmen invested German industry and considered it very profitable. Hitler was popular in USA as well. In 1939 he was found a man of a year in America. American and European heads of industrial companies didn't understand Hitlers wishes or simply didn't wish to see them - investing was too profitable activity to stop it because of national interests. But not only capitalistic world supported Germany. Soviet Union did it as well. "Though Communists and Nazi were ideological enemies it didn't bother them to cooperate in military sphere and many German tank crews, pilots (including Gering) studied at Russian military academies. Many various military techniques were produced in USSR" (Germany didn't have any permission to produce tanks, artillery, planes on own territory).

So, I have to notice that Nazi Germany was the strong aggressive state in 1939 which already had formed developed and modern economics and strong, well-equipped army, which was very professional but without fighting experience. But even in 1939 Hitler was not able to wage a long and fierce war against main enemies - France and Soviet Union. Hitler found new allies - Romania, Italy, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Hungary, Spain which could participate in future war and help Germany to win (their support had great political but not economical or military success). Adolf Hitler needed capturing new lands though he already got Czechoslovakia and Austria. Also his army was not experienced enough because annexing Austria or separating Czechoslovakia was fulfilled without military interference (the troops just occupied territories but didn't fight). Hitler wanted more human and mineral resources to make own dream true - capturing whole Europe and European part of Russia.

Soviet Union:

Soviet Union was a special kind of country. After 1917 it was isolated and capitalistic states wished terminating such regime because they were afraid of Lenin's theories of international revolution and sure, were afraid for own political power. Soviet Union grew and developed without any international cooperation, trade and had to produce everything itself. Joseph Stalin proclaimed program of Industrialization which had to turn agricultural state into highly developed industrial country with strong and independent economics and mighty armed forces. This program succeeded and Soviet Union became one of the most industrialized European countries and if analyze its industrial production - he was 3rd after the U.S.A. And Germany in the world.

But Soviet economics and industry didn't stop own development and continued increasing and improving. Stalin knew that German aggression is inevitable and tried to prepare the country to the great war. He also knew that France and Britain would try not to participate in the war and let Hitler whatever he wanted. That's why Soviet leader ordered to reorganize Red Army and start producing absolutely new kinds of military techniques. For 5 years before 1939 182 trillion Soviet Roubles were invested in industry. USSR the same as Germany expected a big war. Military production was the main sphere of national economics and everything and everybody worked to strengthen the army. Soviet plants produced thousands of tanks, planes and cannons, but unfortunately many of them were outdated as George Zhukov (Soviet Marshall) noticed. He wrote: -- Many new infantry divisions were not equipped and didn't have enough soldiers... Commanders did their best to increase the number of soldiers in infantry division up to 8 thousands... -- . Zhukov wrote that Red Army received in 1939 about 3 thousand of tanks but there were very few modern ones among them. Some historians admit that Red Army was not ready to resist such strong enemy as Wehrmacht, and it was good only at artillery. It was true. Soviets had various and the main - numerous artillery which was represented by modern and good systems. But there was one problem - artillery was not mobile because there was shortage of trucks in the army and cannons were transported by horses. What about air forces, Soviets produce about 6 thousands planes in 1939 and only thousand of them were modern planes. Also there was shortage of experienced pilots. But the main problem was that Red Army didn't have highly educated commanders. It is well-known that Stalin was very cruel man and he killed thousands of talented generals, colonels and other officers. Army was not ready to fight because there were very few real officers able to command. Sometimes captains received colonel's posts and sure they were not able to do what was expected from them. German general Sepp Dietrich who fought in Russia said: -- They are excellent soldiers but they have stupid commanders who lead them straight to absurd death -- (Hitler's Gladiator, p. 235). Dietrich was right and both German and Russian historians admit this terrible fact of killing millions of people because of inability to command.

These reasons influenced Hitler's self-confidence: he was sure that Russia would be defeated during few weeks. Another reason was put forward by German general and later - historian - Kurt von Tippelskirch in his book -- The history of World War II -- . He noticed that -- Soviet failure in Finland made Hitler sure in inability of Russians to win a modern war and supply troops -- . Anyway everyone in the world was sure that Soviet Union being in isolation could not produce something worth and thought that Russians had no chance to resist German aggression.

France:

France was strong enough to fight against Germany: it had modern army which was well equipped and soldiers who were well trained and ready to stop German aggression. But France didn't have strong economical potential as Germany had. France still suffered from terrible casualties and destructions of WWI and didn't have any ability to improve the situation. But if we analyze French army in 1939 we'll see that it was practically the same as German and even in 1940 when Germany occupied France it could fight against Wehrmacht successfully. According to the geographical position and sizes of France and Germany France was able to wage modern war using that army it had in 1939. French techniques were quite modern and effective and Germany didn't have any superiority. Any superiority but one and the main one - political will and wish to wage a war to win. French government was sure that there won't be a new war between France and Germany and they didn't need to fight and be ready to defend their country from aggressor. When talking to the military students of an artillery academy in Moscow Joseph Stalin warned students: -- French people are too self-reliant. Their military theories stopped at the level of 1918 and since that time never moved forward. Nobody supported army and officers were considered losers who didn't find more profitable job. French government forgot about producing new kinds of military techniques being sure they'd live in peace. They are wrong. Future will show them their stupid mistakes

Great Britain:

British empire was not a serious enemy for Germany on the land but was a dangerous opponent on the sea. Britain according to its geographical position never had large army and kept all troops in colonies. But Britain had strong navy which was the largest and strongest in the world. Sure, British leaders wanted to preserve this position and protect own colonies. Again, the same as in 1914 Britain had own interests in Europe and was ready to use France (closest ally) in own interests. British industry produced different goods but they were not able to be competitors of German and American production. That's why Britain wanted not to loose colonies anyway because British goods were sold mostly there. But colonial system was outdated in 1918 already and nothing could stop its collapse. If we analyze figures of producing military techniques we'll see that Czech Skoda plants captured by Germans produced more techniques than the whole British industry.

British troops were well-equipped but they were not real strength able to stop German invasion. Even British navy was threatened by German navy building program. British army was increased before 1939 and some units were transported from colonies to the British Isles. But Britain had too few tanks and aviation, also their quality and reliability were very low. Britain as usually hoped to avoid serious battles and use France and other allies (this idea was proved by hundreds of years of British diplomacy). Also Britain wished Germany fighting against the more dangerous as Britons thought enemy - Soviet Union. History proved their mistake - as soon as the real (not -- strange -- ) war began British industry was not able to supply army and air force, so they needed support. United States helped Britain and started sending convoys with military production to Britain. That was very dangerous and many Americans died helping British nation. All this could be avoided if Britain really wanted peace and did own best to stop the conflict and defeat the aggressor before it became too powerful.

Other countries were not able to influence the situation in Europe and were more victims than real participants. So, the war in 1939 was already inevitable. It was inevitable even before - after the Munich agreement when France and Britain being afraid of Germany let Hitler separate and capture absolute innocent state - Czechoslovakia. Doing this French and British leaders made Hitler sure that any German action would be unpunished. After that Hitler told his encirclement: -- western leaders are worms - I saw them in Munich! -- 5 The war which could be stopped by calming Hitler down when there was such a chance began.

September 1st 1939 2 thousands bombers of Luftwaffe dropped their bombs on Polish cities, troops, airfields and main infrastructure centers. At the same time 54 Wehrmacht divisions including 4 tank divisions moved to Poland from Eastern Prussia and Slovakia. Britain and France declared war on Germany but didn't start it. Hitler said about this fact the following: -- It doesn't mean the will fight -- 6 Polish army was very small and badly equipped. -- Polish army had only 24 infantry divisions, 8 cavalry divisions, 1 mechanized and several battalions of national guard. Their weapons were outdated and ineffective against German new tanks and new tactics -- 7. Though soldiers and officers were brave they didn't have enough knowledge and techniques to resist German troops. But the fights were very bloody. Germany waged first war with real battles and serious casualties, but Polish casualties were much more serious.

On September 17th Germans captured the largest part of Poland and only several Polish units were still fighting but on 27-28th they surrendered. At the same time Soviet leader decided to adopt and agreement with Germany and get some Polish territories which Russia had lost several centuries ago. September 17th Russian troops crossed Polish border and occupied eastern territories of this country. September 28th this decision was approved in Moscow when Soviet-German pact was adopted. It had separated spheres of influence in Eastern Europe of USSR and Nazi Germany. This was a very smart Hitler's action. He wanted to move German borders far to the East. Soviet Union and Germany became neighbors. But the main idea of this pact was to make USSR a neutral state which would not interfere in German aggressions in Western Europe. Doing this Hitler was sure he would not have to fight in two directions at the same time. He wanted to defeat France and Britain first and only then use Polish territory as a bridgehead to attack USSR.

Hitler's success in Poland was the result of Polish mistake: USSR proposed Poland protection from Germany but Polish leaders refused being sure that France and Britain would protect them. But these countries only proclaimed the war but didn't want to wage it as Hitler said. But German Fuhrer wished this war. He planned to capture France, but do this in a special manner - do not strike to the Majino defense line but to attack through the bordering small European states - Belgium, Luxembourg and Holland. French government could not expect such strikes because they didn't believe Germany would capture 3 independent states. They were wrong. French society insisted on waging only defensive war because they believed that attacking Hitler's troops will collapse France. -- French generals didn't believe news about concentrating of German troops near their borders. They thought that Germany's actions are only political but not military, because war against France was a very dangerous military gamble as they believed -- this is what Tippelskirch said about French military theory. (The History of World War II. p. 94). German commanders managed to change plans of attack but French generals didn't understand their wish and left own troops at the same positions. -- French troops in the west direction contained 31 infantry division, 20 reserve divisions, 5 cavalry, 3 tank, 3 light mechanized divisions and other defense points plus one Polish division -- (The History of World War II p.116). British Expeditionary Force amounted 12 divisions (9 of them were located along Belgium border, 1 in the south, and two of them were not equipped yet and were still in French training camps, so last two could not be considered active). France also expected aggression from Italian border and located 7 divisions there. Their generals planned to move to Belgium while Belgian army fought against German troops in some region. Belgian army had 12 infantry divisions and French commanders were sure that was enough to stop Germans. Holland had only 8 divisions and could not expect fast and effective support.8 Germans used 72 divisions to attack. They concentrated many tanks, artillery and aviation but the main idea of the attack was sudden strike and separating hostile forces. German operation began with moving troops to Belgium and Holland and only after that their governments were informed about the war. Germans managed defeating Holland and Belgium and continued moving to France. French forces tried to stop them but were not able to do this - Germans moved 30 miles a day. Any attempt to transport fresh troops from Africa was too late and also French leaders asked Churchill to use British aviation more effectively, but the planes from Britain could be used over the battlefield only for 20 minutes. Churchill refused basing British planes on French airfields. French and British commanders were not able to cooperate and all of them fought alone and Germans, sure, used this. Very soon -- May 26th British troops were ordered to start operation -- Dynamo -- which meant evacuation by sea. British troops had only two days as generals thought to evacuate, but there were no enough ships and only 45.000 soldiers could be evacuated. To solve this problem commanders turned to the local population and asked for help. This saved about 100.000 lives... June 4th last British units leaved French shore but they were back in four years at the same date -- .9 After German strikes in Northern France and Belgium 30 French and 9 British divisions were terminated. France didn't have neither human nor technical resources to protect the territory. German casualties and losses in techniques could be filled up. Luftwaffe didn't lose many planes but French aviation consisted of only 400 fighter planes and 70 bombers. French industry could produce only 12 planes a day and American help amounted only 5 planes a day. German generals decided to defeat France before it was able to rebuild defense lines. This operation was provided and had a great success. June 24th a truce was concluded and the next day the war was over. British historian Charles Messenger wrote about this the following: -- Germans were happy. French nation was shocked by the fact of own defeat and occupation. British nation understood that every Briton has to fight for future because the next German aim was British Isles -- (Hitler's Gladiator p.157).

This victory shocked the world. Nobody could believe that France - one of the largest and strongest European states was defeated and occupied for 1.5 months. It was really hard to realize that French army could be defeated so fast. As a result of this military campaign Germany occupied France, Denmark, Norway, Holland, and Belgium. The reason of German brilliant success was inability of French army to wage modern mobile war using new kinds of military formations (for ex. tank divisions) and weakness of French economics. Also I have to mention weakness of British troops which were brave but didn't have enough knowledge and there were too few British units in France to influence the situation.

Another Hitler's action was Balkan campaign. Capturing Greece and Yugoslavia was not Hitler's plan. He was interested in peace in that region because his next victim - Soviet Union had to be defeated by practically all units of German army, so sending troops to fight rather far away from Russian border would make Russian campaign more difficult and long. As Kurt von Tippelskirch noticed: -- Benito Mussolini wanted to improve his authority and make Hitler respect him. That's why he was looking for some weak enemy to be easily defeated by Italian army -- . (The History of World War II p.189). October 28th Italy declared war on Greece and Italian troops moved to Greece through Albania. But Greek troops had taken excellent defense positions and Italian assault failed. Italians had serious casualties and could not move forward. Hitler was in anger: Mussolini told him nothing about this action. But Hitler knew that this operation could leave Italian troops in Albania but he expected them fighting in Russia and Africa. When providing this military campaign against Greece Hitler had to attack and capture Yugoslavia - strong country in that region. German leader was afraid of possible Russian and British bombings of Romanian oil plants which supplied German army. German generals decided to concentrate army units in Romania and they paid much attention to Luftwaffe activities because when capturing Greece aviation had to drop landing descents to capture numerous islands where British troops were located. Capturing Greece was a first step of this campaign. The next target was Yugoslavia. Hitler knew that these two southern counties would be used by British government as Germany's enemies and second front could be formed there. Very soon Hitler understood that Balkan operation was really necessary.

April 6th Germany informed the world about the fact that German troops were forced to start occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia. The reason as he told was strong British positions in these countries which could threaten Germany and Italy. Italy also joined the war against Yugoslavia. Fascists attacked Greece and Yugoslavia at the same time. Yugoslavian army was not ready to the war and this was one of the main reasons of Hitler's success. Armed forces of this country consisted of only 17 infantry and 3 cavalry divisions, but -- only 2/3 of them were equipped and ready to the war -- . (The History of World War II p.197). Yugoslavs had only 1000 planes but only 300 of them could fight. But there was also another reason of Yugoslavian inability to wage a war: -- One of the main problems was national misunderstanding in this multinational Balkan country. Mobilization was not successful: 30-40% of men called up for military service didn't join the army -- .10 These 40% were Croatians who hated Serbs and fought against them with Nazi conquerors. Yugoslavian army was moving back and could not stop German assault. Hitler's -- blitzkrieg -- had an amazing and extremely fast success. German tank divisions crashed Serbian defense and very soon German tanks were too close to the capital of Yugoslavia - Belgrade. Italians moved forward and didn't meet serious resistance. Very soon Croatia, Macedonia and many Serbian lands were occupied.

April 17th an agreement of Yugoslavian surrender was signed in Belgrade. Kingdom of Serbs, Croatians and Slovenians was crossed out of the European political map. 344.000 soldiers were taken prisoners of war and many of them died in concentration camps.

Greek troops were more dangerous enemy that Yugoslavian. They succeeded fighting Italians in Albania but later when being expecting German invasion they stopped at the Metaksas defense line and didn't want to move since considered this fortification impregnable. Germans used this mistake. -- April 6th 12th German Army and 4th Air Fleet started attacking Greek forces and moving inside the Greek territory through Bulgarian-Greek border... Greek resistance bothered fast movement, Greek soldiers fought bravely and it was hard to crash their defense -- . (The History of World War II p.205). British troops located in Greece didn't even manage to help Greeks as they thought they were too weak to fight Germans. Sure brave Greek army didn't have any opportunity to stop aggressors and very soon Greeks started going back. Two Greek armies mixed up their units and positions and it was very easy to terminate them. It was the end of Greek army. Commanders asked Greek King for permission to surrender but he refused. Then one of the generals proposed Germans to stop fighting and signed capitulation (April 21st) but later it was resigned because Italians were not present.

Yugoslavia and Greece were defeated but British troops located on Greek islands were still there and ready to fight. But fierce German attacks forced them to begin evacuation by the sea. 12.000 of British soldiers were left and were killed or prisoned by Wehrmacht. Another British attempt to help an ally failed. Germans were ready to finish capturing Greece with invading Crete by air descent. This operation was not that successful as the previous and as a result Germans lost about 3500 soldiers dead (during the Balkan operation the lost only 1206 soldiers). After such casualties Hitler banned air descents.

Balkan campaign was the last Hitler's military action before starting a war against Soviet Union. Capturing Greece and Yugoslavia improved German and Italian positions in that region and at last Germany was able to concentrate all troops on the Soviet border. Balkan campaign proved weakness of Italian army but also showed that Wehrmacht was the strongest army of the world which was equipped by the most modern techniques and had a great military experience. Britain lost last attempt of waging the war alone. Hitler wanted to capture British Isles and Britain was about to surrender: Luftwaffe bombed British plants and cities and English air force was absolutely defeated and had very few bombers and fighters. German U-boats started attacking British and American ships supplying Britain through the Atlantic Ocean. But Hitler left an idea of capturing Britain and moved his troops to the East, forward to a tragic end of his criminal regime. This is one of the most interesting and serious of WWII.

German troops were located in Eastern Prussia, Poland and Romania along the Soviet border ready to strike. Stalin worried about such activities but Hitler convinced him that -- he was preparing to the invasion on British Isles and concentration of troops in the east was provided to save them from British aviation. J. Stalin believed this, but was sure that the war will take place after Britain was defeated... -- 11

German army groups contained amazing amount of soldiers and military techniques. June 21st German troops amounted 140 divisions including 81 infantry, 1 cavalry, 17 tank, 15 mechanized, and 9 police divisions. Also there were 22 infantry, 2 tank, 2 mechanized and 1 police divisions in reserve.12 Three Air Fleets (1000 planes each) had to cooperate with land forces. This huge killing machine had to be used for the first time in history because no country ever been attacked by such terrible power. But Germany had several allies which also wanted to participate in the war. Romania, Slovakia, Italy, Hungary and Finland were ready to help Germans.

Soviet Union had about 170 divisions in the western part of the country but Soviet divisions were not supplied by techniques enough and each contained only 4-5 thousands of soldiers. Germans thought Russians had 125 infantry divisions, 30 mechanized brigades, 25 cavalry divisions plus 5 tank divisions.13 These figures can impress any person but we have to remember that Red Army was still reorganizing and many army units were not ready to wage a war: they were not equipped, trained and moved to their defense positions.

When the war began (June 22nd 1941) many Red Army could not stop German troops even having more tanks and planes (4-5 times more). The reason was their inability to use in the fight such huge and complicated units. Russian Marshall Zhukov explained the reasons of red Army's defeats during the first year of the war:

1. Red Army was not reorganized in time

2. Main German strike was expected in Ukraine but Germans attacked Byelorussia as the main direction

3. Shortage of talented commanders

4. Stalin's fears of provocations and wish not to provide preventive strikes on German positions