How was Germany able to do so well at the beginning of the world wars considering it was up against huge enemies?
In: 154
Germany was good, but it was also lucky.
The French commander made just about ever possible mistake – failing to press an offensive in September of 1939 against a weakly defended German western front, passivity through the spring of 1940, a failure to invest in the defenses around Sedan, and a decision to move the most mobile forces deep into Belgium when the war started and without holding any good reserves. The French literally had ample reserves near the location of the German breakthrough and moved them far away a few days before the German attack.
Against Russia, the Germans were lucky that Stalin purged so many of their best commanders and then also refused to believe intel reports about German attack preparations.
I think Germany pulled Sucker punches initially, got greedy and tried to bite more than it can chew, ticking off many giants in the process
One thing is that Germany KNEW it was going to invade other countries and ramped up it’s military to do so. The other countries were like “Hmm.. is Germany going to invade us? Maybe? Yes? No?” meanwhile Germany was sharpening it’s claws.
It’s like when you’re standing next to some guy and he knows he’s going to sucker punch you in the face, but you don’t. Obviously, he gets the upper hand.
Some historians have argued that Germany was able to do so well at the beginning of both world wars because it was able to take advantage of its strategic location. Germany is located in the center of Europe, which allowed it to easily attack its neighbors on both sides.
Additionally, Germany had a large population and a strong industrial base, which allowed it to quickly mobilize its resources for war.
WWI, from what I understood. Germany were the new guys, made up of a bunch of very wealthy cities and former countries all under one new union. Germany knew their neighbors were not very happy about having a new united superpower on the block, so the Germans spent a lot of time building up a military and making plans to defend itself if their neighbors declared war.
The rest of Europe was in an economic boom, rich people getting richer, and the idea of a war in Europe between superpowers was unthinkable. Why would someone go to war in Europe when that would just hurt everyone’s wallets? Then a dying kid kills a duke, Russia decides it’s train time, and Europe is at war.
In order to answer that, you first have to realize that Germany in the 1910s and Germany in the 1930s were two completely different countries. In the run-up to WW1 Germany was the industrial powerhouse of Europe. They had better manufacturing processes, better engineering, and a better education system than most of the rest of Europe. They also had a much more dynamic culture in this time period, making everyone in Germany believe that it was germany’s time to shine. Having all this going for them gave them the ability to engineer newer, and larger, weapons quicker than everyone else which scared their neighbors.
Now in the run-up to WW2, Germany was a vastly different state. They were still recovering from the great depression, the repression of the nazis dumbed down their population quite a bit, and they were essentially trying to build as many weapons as they could as quickly as they could. Now this is not to say that everything was bad in Germany at that time. Industry was recovering, their financial system was recovering from runaway inflation, overall things were looking up for them. Using a lot of shady tactics, and political maneuvering, Hitler managed to rearm the country and pretty much scrap the Versailles Treaty without firing a shot.
Now the reason they did so well in WW1 was because they had the equipment, resources, and political will to do it. In the start of the war they had the best guns, the best artillery, and the most thorough planning processes that enabled their army to run like clockwork. The Schliefen plan had everything, and I mean everything, planned out down to the timing of each train used to move the military to the front. This plan is also, ironically, one of the reasons that Germany got involved in WW1 to begin with… it gave no time for talking between countries, once it had begun that was it.
Now as far as WW2, the reason that Germany did so well has been said many times in this thread. Maneuver warfare, plain and simple. While the allies were still warming up to the idea, Germany put it into practice, and they proved it to be the far superior method.
The reason they lost both wars is the same though, logistics. They could only use what materials they had within their borders to fight, while the allies had the materials of the rest of the planet. The allies simply could build more stuff, and get it to the front lines where it was needed. My grandfather was drafted into the German army during WW2, and he told me a story once. Him and his buddy were sitting in a bunker in France, when they saw a sea of US bombers/fighters flying overhead heading towards Germany. His buddy looked up and said something to the effect of How do you fight something like that? My grandfather simply said, You can’t.
Very good Germanic, Northern European genes I guess, in much the same way as danmark, Sweden, Netherlands and Norway are similar nations full of high rankings in pretty much every single standard of living indexes
I think it’s important to understand 19th Century Europe. While the United States was tearing itself apart (and trying to put itself back together), the colonial powers of Europe, specifically Great Britain, France, Germany, and Russia were playing chess all over the world, and they regularly switched alliances to foil one another.
I mean, as WWI approached in the very early 20th Century, the British King, the German Kaiser, and the Russian Tsar were all first cousins or some such.
What you need to understand about late 19th century Germany is that its culture, science, and arts began to outshine their colonial competitors. It had nothing to do with Nazis.
The National Socialists arose because of the living hell of WWI and the unwise demands placed upon Germany for war reparations. Combined with World Wide economic depression, the conditions were ripe for a nationalist fervor that could combat both colonialists (this is where Hitler inserted “Jewish bankers”) and Communists. The horror that resulted should never be forgotten.
By the way, when Teddy Roosevelt was plotting his pathway to becoming President, it was accepted as a given in the 1890s that the most likely country that the U.S. would face in the next war would be Great Britain, a country with 50 battleships to the 3 fielded by the U.S.
So the start of the war was “let’s sit here and do nothing” that’s how it started. England and France declared war and sat there for a bit.
Belgium didn’t join in despite having a huge chunk of a the French defensive border called the maginot line.
So English forces basically sat behind Belgium with the plan to come in and reinforce Belgium’s section of the line when Germany attacked
France also had their own section of the maginot line and invested heavily into it.
Germany didn’t attack the maginot line right away or in a meaningful way though. Instead Germany either attacked from the air or went through gaps thought impossible to send vehicles through due to terrain.
Once the line was broken through the British and french had issues holding.
There was lots of other issues. Like poor communication and leadership ultimately lead to the French loss. With France gone England had a 0% chance of holding with their tiny force so they also retreated which is where the Dunkirk story takes place.
As for the war with the USSR, Germany did ok as well due to much better technology and much better leadership. They also had decent man power.
Germany eventually lost vs the USSR.
Britain did much better in Africa which also helped beat Germany elsewhere. Britain also maintained naval superiority at least in the European theater.
Eventually Germany stalled in the USSR then finally was in retreat as the USSR had way more people and as the war progressed had much more in terms of material. They also arguably ended up with better tanks and planes. Even if you could consider a German tank better the Soviet tank was likely much cheaper and faster to build in response.
Tbh d day didn’t even need to happen. The USSR was winning. But everyone knew Stalin wouldn’t stop. The writing was on the wall after Stalingrad and it became a land grab in many ways.
Japan was also virtually useless to Germany throughout all of this. Japan wasn’t going to attack the USSR. And even if they tried they would have lost.
So tldr. Germany had better planning officers and vehicles but they were harder to build and took longer. They also had worse supply lines in general. So while they started very strong they had no sustaining power
Outstanding leadership.
Adolf Hitler was among the greatest leaders of all time, despite being an antisemitic, racist, mass-murdering lunatic.
Edit: grammar
Latest Answers