How was Germany able to do so well at the beginning of the world wars considering it was up against huge enemies?
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I’m gonna focus on WW2.
One of the big reasons Germany did well at first was, that it had a very capable, mobile force that could outpace it’s enemies. Look at the French campaign and watch the Panzers (German tanks) running circles around the French army, regularly attacking rear units, which is an easier fight for an armored spearhed of strong units, all with some form of motorized transport, but hurts the ‘sharper’, more combat capable of the enemy units w/o having to engage them. The frontline commanders were somewhat more independent (‘Auftragstaktik’), exploiting advantages as they occured (think of Rommel, this is where his legend was born).
Another factor is combined arms warfare, which the Wehrmacht (German armed forces) might not have done perfectly, but still in a ‘better’, more innovative way then others. Combined arms is the employment of many different kinds of arms in concert. You have an integral (i.e. they belong/train/engage together) set of units, some of it tanks, some infantry, artillery, some planes also attached to them. This way they’re always together and can combine their strengths in one focused movement.
The Soviet Union was hit at a particularly vulnerable time, because they had been restructuring their forces after their lackluster performance during the Winter War.
One big factor is that Germany was a militarist dictatorship while many of its victims weren’t (well the Soviet Union kinda was, but again, pants down) and had been getting ready for war, while the others basically were forced to react. Once the allies were able to spin up their recruitment and training and especially manufacturing, it was pretty much over for the Wehrmacht.
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