by The Major
It is generally believed that the
Germans had a huge advantage in military hardware and training
because they had planned for many years to invade Europe and
consolidate regions of German speaking nationals in outlying
countries into the Fatherland. This explains Hitler's annexation of
Austria, the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, and Poland which also
had some German speaking regions.
The Germans did have a training
advantage from the invasions and its involvement with the Spanish
Civil War. However, there were some severe deficiencies. Hitler put
all of his eggs in the Wehrmacht (the German Army).
During the Battle
of Britain, the UK was able to maintain air supremacy because they
were continuing to build aircraft while the Germans were not. Hitler
was a charismatic political leader, but his military skills were
marginal. The allies did not try to assassinate him because they were
aware of his flawed military thinking and felt Hitler was more useful
alive than dead.
Many German weapons system were also
overrated. The British Spitfire was superior to German ME-109, particularly since
the US had provided the UK with 100 octane gasoline that the Germans
didn't have. The gave the Spitfire the edge in altitude and speed.
It also took time for the Germans to realize that the UK was
detecting their air formations using a new technology called radar.
Hitler also made a strategic blunder by
attacking London rather than finishing off the the RAF by continuing
the attacks against the UK air bases. If the Germans had to continued
to attack UK air facilities, they would have gained air superiority
in another three weeks.
The respite gave the RAF time to rebuild its
air force. Hitler gave up plans on invading the UK after huge air
losses and turned the Wehrmacht onto the Russians. This was a another huge
mistake that allowed the allies to launch the Normandy Invasion from
the UK in 1944.
At the beginning of the War, the best
tank was manufactured by the French. By the end of the war, the
Russian T-34 tank was considered the premiere tank. The Panzer tanks
had a single gear system that often stripped causing the tank to
fail.
The US Sherman tanks had a precision dual gear system that was
more reliable. The big German Tiger Tanks were slow and too heavy to
operate in many areas. Unfortunately for the Germans, Hitler invested
most of his war budget in armor that frequently had little utility.
Russian T-34 tank
The Germans followed a fascist
philosophy that encouraged corporate innovation. Unfortunately, the
German war efforts was overly decentralized and there was a lot of
duplication. The Germans were the first to field jet airplanes in
World War 2, but they didn't make enough of them to stop the allied
bomber runs. The Germans lost air supremacy because the US and UK
made more aircraft. The German nuclear program was small and years
behind the US program.
In the Atlantic, the U-boats enjoyed
great success early on. But the U-Boats were slow and not much
different than the subs used in World War 1. Once the allies started
using sonar to track the subs and radar on aircraft to locate subs
that had surfaced at night, the U-boats became ineffective.
The
allies also captured an Enigma machine that allowed it to break the
German code and to know the plans of the German U-Boats. However, The
Germans had also broken the UK code books as well.
When the Germans launched the siege of
Stalingrad, the Russians had some advantages. First the Russian
uniforms better protected their soldiers from the cold. In fact, a
documentary on the Military Channel indicated the Russians soldiers
could stay nearly 40 degrees warmer than the Germans. The Russian
uniforms protected their soldiers from brutal Arctic fronts. The
Russians also wore a cold weather cap rather than a steel helmet that
rapidly cooled the German soldier's head.
The Russians also had better scopes on
their rifles and the Russians snipers took a huge toll on the
Wehrmacht. The scopes were of a more modern design and could be
quickly calibrated by hand without using a screwdriver, The Russian soldiers
in Stalingrad had also been immunized against typhus and tularaemia.
Far more Germans died of infectious diseases who had not been immunized.
Russian Mosin-Nagant rifle with sniper scope
Hitler some bad mistakes. He considered
himself a field marshall, but he had military intuition of the
corporal. He over relied on the Wehrmacht and do didn't invest enough
of his war budget in air power and modern U-Boats. He failed to listen to his generals.
Since Hitler was unable to subdue the
UK, the US was able to launch bombing raids from the UK over Germany
during most of the the war. In fact, the biggest US fatalities in
Europe were from the Army Air Force, not the ground pounders.
The
Allies also opened up a second front from the UK in Normandy in 1944.
Hitler seemed to be unaware of lessons of Napoleon who was also
defeated by the Russians and a brutal Arctic winter. By the end of
the war, the Germans had a lot of advanced technology, but the US had
better aircraft and the Russians had better tanks.
Some small things like uniforms, cold
weather hats, rifle scopes and immunizations also made a big
difference in the outcome of big urban battles between the Nazis and
the Soviets. Hitler's poor leadership skills also hastened the defeat
of the Nazis.
P-51 fighter
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