Germany Secret Gambles

The Germans were losing aircraft and pilots fast; Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion. Germany had lost. The fighter pilots of the battle of Britain had saved Britain from invasion, but many of its major cities were severely bombed. German U boats and surface vessels also began a new campaign.

allies wanted to risk going behind German lines as their armies were already spread thin in any

In this essay I will assess the significance of strategic bombing of Germany. I will do this by evaluating four key areas of the German war effort. This will include German and British moral, German economy, its effect on the outcome of the Eastern Front and the results of the preparation for D-Day. Overall allied bombing did not have a significant impact on the outcome of the war as for the majority of the war bombing techniques and technology were primitive and so had little effect. It only became a threatening tool latter on in the war, when the allies had effectively won.

After the Germans Schlieffen plan failed they retreated to the north where trenches were constructed by both the Allies and the Entente. This subsequently led to a stalemate that would not be broken until years later. Due to the short war illusion misguiding nearly every country’s prominent leaders. Every nation involved in the Great War began to realize that they were not economically prepared for a long-term war. The type of mobilization that every country’s home front experienced was unprecedented. After the fall of 1914 social norms would be modified, new socioeconomic opportunities would be presented, government intervention would increase, and every citizen would experience some form of propaganda to influence their views on the war.

It was challenging for the armies to continue the war while having a huge loss because of the guns, thus there was a need of the methods, like trench warfare. Trench warfare reached to its peak usage in WWI and one of the factors affecting that was the achievement in the weapon technology. Specially, MG 08, which is the German version of Maxim machine gun was forced people for trench warfare, otherwise just one machine gun was able to destroy one army of the opposite side. Moreover, in order to defend against the the military ships that has extended range tanks they were using the trenches that are a bit far from the shore, like it was in Dardanelle war. Furthermore, the use of bombs and gas made some issues on the trenches. For instance, with the use of gas, from mid-1915, every trench had some form of warning of gas attack. We can imagine these situations from the memories of Paul Baumer from “All Quite on the Western Front”: Paul mentions that soldiers cannot define bomb sounds from the other sounds and were dying because of shrapnels; This is terrible that because of the limited time, they could not have trainings and they were dying in front of their eyes, because of the lack of experience. Under those circumstances, it is possible to see how the technology caused the transition to trench warfare and how it

The factors that made the Allied victory happen include the Germans beginning to effectively organize industrial production at the very least six months too late to give them a chance at victory. By the time they got the production to be swiftly working on weapons such as fighter planes, the Allies were in firm enough control of the air space. This meant that the Allied bombing prevented the German economy from reaching it’s full potential. Another flaw in the German production meant that tanks such as Tigers and Panthers, of which dominated tactical situations on the battlefield, had logistical and maintenance nightmares. If the Germans were to overcome their problems in production then it would have stood them in much greater stead, giving them an advantage over the Allies.

When most people talk about World War I, they typically only talk about the Western front. The Eastern front was entirely different compared to the Western front but equally as ghastly. Nonetheless, the one thing both fronts had in common was the vitality of the German army, which was the only country that fought a two-front war, as it had to fight in the West against the Entrance powers of France and Great Britain and in the East against the Russia. Germany had to bear the brunt of the fighting on both fronts as Austria-Hungry proved incapable of resisting Russian offensives without German support. The support of the Entrance and Central powers’ home fronts were essential to the war efforts and came in multiple forms such as economic assistance or social acceptance. For instance, the West proved to be an effective adversary against the Central Powers as the Entrance Powers’ approach to economic warfare disheartened the Central Powers’ armies and helped undermined their ability to wage total war. Total war demanded total mobilization of all a nation's resources, but what the most important resources were, differed between the two fronts. For example, vast munitions industries had to be built to provide supplies for the stalled armies on the Western front but in the East, providing transportation and the mobility of such transportation was the most significant challenge. While both fronts faced their own unique challenges, overcoming such challenges was key to military

The Battle of the Bulge is considered the United State Army’s greatest victory as American soldiers withstood the full force of the German War Machine. Allied Forces faced freezing temperatures, fog, threats of espionage and battle tested German units. This victory was not without shortcomings, most notably in intelligence and subpar battlefield performances.

The Allied forces essentially had more personnel, weaponry and munitions supplies. This, along with their ability to develop tactics and engage all elements of the battlefront, supported the perpetuation of ‘Total War’ and the allies’ victory.

     In the first phase of World War II in Europe, Germany sought to avoid a long war. Germany's strategy was to defeat its opponents in a series of short campaigns. Germany quickly overran much of Europe and was victorious for more than two years by relying on a new military tactic called the "Blitzkrieg" (lightning war). Blitzkrieg tactics required the concentration of offensive weapons (such as tanks, planes, and artillery) along a narrow front. These forces would drive a breach in enemy defenses, permitting armored tank divisions to penetrate rapidly and roam freely behind enemy lines, causing shock and

Leading into the Fall of 1914, tactics on both sides of the line involved the rapid mobilization, maneuver and envelopment of the opposing side.10 Pre-1914 doctrine took little into account the effects of emerging new technology and their impact on both defensive and offensive operations. This disconnect between doctrine and technology contributed to the failure of early offensive operations in the Fall of 1914 and resulted in staggering casualties.11 Both sides developed doctrine that took into effect the unique terrain and technology that had been developed prior and during World War I. However by the end of the war, a combination of flexibility, decentralized control, and counterattack at every echelon made the German defensive system the most effective.12 This “elastic defense” had three unique characteristics; dedicated counter-attack force at all levels, decentralized command and control, fluid defensive belts and integrated artillery support at the Division level. Under this new doctrine, Corps headquarters had the role sustaining subordinate units, but not directing their actions during battle.13 This defense-in-depth and the lessons learned during the Verdun battles of 1918 were so successful that British forces adopted many of the German tactics with a special emphasis on their counterattack capability.10 Utilizing the new doctrine, by August 1918, Germany had made substantial gains, however had

Germany was not able to claim victory during World War II due to poor military guidance. Hitler’s military tactics led

Why was Germany unable to translate tactical and operational victories into strategic success during World War II? More pointedly and stated simpler, why did Germany loose World War II?

During the early stages of the war, most of Germany’s victories were because of the success of blitzkrieg, or lightening war. Blitzkrieg tactics

From observations from the battlefield and experimentation the Allies developed a number of tactics that allowed them to gain substantially more ground than in the past while reducing the number of casualties. To reduce wastage, the number of soldiers killed during a normal day, the French adopted the use of “difeme en profondeur (defence in depth)…” (Smith 195). The British, also, developed the tactic Bite and Hold that centered on advancing troops only as far as they could hold, which reduced the chance of a successful German counterattack. Both the British and French developed the creeping barrage to force the Germans defenders to stay under cover until the attackers advanced up to the German lines. With these new tactics and more available to them the allies could