Why germans lost ww2

In addition to continuous air bombing, fighting in the rubble of the city was characterised by hand-to-hand combat with daggers and bayonets, as each side ambushed the other under the cover of darkness. By November , Marshal Georgy Zhukov , the Soviet general, had gathered over a million men with several tank armies.

Zhukov encircled Axis troops in the north-west of the city. On 19 November , the Russians overwhelmed Romanian armies who were supporting the Germans in the north west of the city.

The Germans reacted slowly, and quickly became encircled. Despite General Paulus repeatedly requesting permission to surrender or retreat from Hitler, this was denied.

The , German soldiers that were surrounded by the Soviet Army quickly ran out of ammunition and food in the midst of the Russian winter. Of the 91, German troops that surrendered, just eventually returned to Germany. Most died from illness, starvation or exhaustion.

It was a series of four offensives carried out by Allied troops in central Italy who was a key ally of Germany in an attempt to breakthrough the Winter Line and occupy Rome. Monte Cassino was the mountain above the town of Cassino where the Germans had installed several defences in preparation for the Allied invasion. An Abbey sat on top of the mountain. One of the primary routes to Rome ran through the town of Cassino at the bottom of the mountain.

Other routes to Rome had become impassable due to flooding and the difficult terrain made worse by the winter weather. However, due to the German defences above, passing along the Monte Cassino route was impossible without first defeating the German troops on the mountain.

Allied troops landed in southern Italy in September , but only had limited progress due to the harsh winter and Axis defences. The first attack at Monte Cassino started on 17 January as British Empire, American and French troops fought uphill against the strategic German defences.

The German defences were extremely well integrated into the mountainside, and, following large losses, the Allies pulled back on 11 February. The Allies suspected that the Germans were using the Abbey which was situated at the top of a large hill and protected as neutral territory under the Concordat of as a military observation point.

In response, the Allies bombed the Abbey, starting the second offensive of the battle, on 15 February Following the bombing, German troops used the ruins of the Abbey as a fortress and observation post. The third attack was launched from the north on 15 March. After a large bombing campaign, Allied troops advanced through the town of Cassino.

The defences were tough and both sides experienced heavy losses. The German parachute divisions held on to the Abbey. The Allies fell back, and planned Operation Diadem — the fourth and final battle. The battle involved attacks on four fronts, and took two months to get all the troops in place. The attack started on the evening of 11 May By 17 May, the Polish corps broke through the German defences.

On 4 June , the Allies captured Rome, the capital of Italy. Despite this success, the Battle had come at a cost. There were over 55, casualties for the Allied troops in comparison to 20, German casualties. By the summer of , the Allies had enough coordinated strength to consider an invasion of France.

This invasion became known as D-Day. On the evening of 5 June , under the cover of nightfall, British, French, American and Canadian troops started to cross the English Channel, landing in Normandy. These troops were supported by paratroopers who were dropped behind enemy lines. The next morning, on 6 June , the attack began. With a huge concentration of troops defending the eastern front in the Soviet Union and the decoy measures implemented, resistance from the Germans was initially weaker than expected.

Despite this, the Allied troops experienced over 10, losses on the first day. Despite these losses, the Allied troops made small but significant progress. By 7 June , the Allies had managed to capture the naval port of Cherbourg.

This acquisition allowed Allied troops to flood in to France, fighting their way slowly across France, pushing back the German troops. The Germans had, by this point, received reinforcements, but they were overwhelmed by the sheer number of Allied troops. Fought between 22 June and 19 August, the attack resulted in huge casualties for German troops and destroyed their front line on the Eastern Front.

This pushed the remaining German troops back into Poland. They were being defeated and pushed back towards Germany, slowly, by both fronts.

Following D-Day and the Invasion of Normandy, the Germans were fighting a defensive war on two fronts. At this stage in the war, the Germans did not have the resources to sustain this. They were quickly pushed back in France, and retreated into Germany.

By March , the Allied troops had crossed the River Rhine. On the Eastern Front, following the Battle of Stalingrad in and , the German Army had been pushed into retreat. By 17 January , Soviet troops had liberated Warsaw, the capital of Poland. On 27 January the Soviets liberated the Auschwitz Camp complex, which included Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi extermination camp.

On 16 April , the Soviet troops started the offensive to capture Berlin, the German capital. Led by Marshal Zhukov, who had successfully commanded the Battle of Stalingrad, Soviet troops encircled Berlin, and started their advance inward. On 30 April , Hitler took his own life in his bunker underneath the Reich chancellery. On 2 May, Berlin was surrendered to the Allies. On 7 May , the German army commanders surrendered all forces to the Allies.

This surrender ended the war in Europe. However, the World War was not yet over, and continued in Pacific against the Japanese. On 6 and 9 August , two atomic bombs were dropped over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, instantly killing over , people. Germany had four key fatal weaknesses in the Second World War. These were: the lack of productivity of its war economy, the weak supply lines, the start of a war on two fronts, and the lack of strong leadership. However, they did so on very slow, overextended, supply lines.

These supply lines hindered the German advance, and eventually led to a huge lack of supplies on the front line. This, alongside key Soviet advances, contributed to the German retreat. Throughout the war, Germany became desperately short of fuel, coal and food. It was not until Albert Speer became Minister of Armaments and War Production in that Germany started moving towards a total mobilisation of the economy for war, although this was still with mixed success.

In mid, the economy peaked. For Nazi Germany, in retreat with a defensive war being fought on two fronts, this was too late. Following the Allies D-Day offensive and the simultaneous Soviet offensive Operation Bagration, Germany was fighting a defensive war on the eastern front and on the western front. This meant that the German troops were split, and neither side could have the full weight of the army. As a result of this, the German troops were pushed back into Germany.

In addition to the above, in the closing stages of the war there was a lack of strong leadership in Nazi Germany. Hitler had lost the faith of the German people, he was rarely seen in public and stayed confined to his bunker under the Reich chancellery in Berlin. On the 30 April , Hitler took his own life. For many, who had seen Nazism and Hitler as one being, the death of Hitler meant the end of Nazi Germany. Whilst initially the German invasion of the Soviet Union covered a vast area very quickly, the Soviets soon responded.

The Soviet Union had an enormous amount of manpower to call upon, and despite facing the German troops who were both more experienced and more highly trained, there was a constant ready supply of men to face them. The Soviets also heavily mobilised their women to work in almost all areas for the war effort. In the beginning of the Second World War, the Allies were forced into retreat due to early German victories, such as the Battle of France.

The American Lend-Lease programme strengthened the Allies. The Lend-Lease programme was an American policy of giving aid in various forms to the Allies prior to and following the American entry into the Second World War.

The Lend-Lease programme started in , but was greatly expanded in March In total, under the lendlease programme Britain received thirty-one billion dollars of aid, and the Soviet Union received eleven billion dollars. This aid came in the form aircraft, weapons, ammunition and medical supplies. Following the American entry into the war, the Allies also had a huge injection of fresh manpower. This undoubtedly aided their success during the D-Day invasions.

This became known as the Beer Hall Putsch. The exhibition promoted antisemitic stereotypes. On 9 November , Kristallnacht took place. Throughout Germany, synagogues were burned and Jewish businesses were looted by the Nazis. On 8 November , labourer Georg Elser attempted to assassinate Hitler. Elser was later murdered in Dachau concentration camp.

On 20 November , the Nuremberg trials began. Of the countless history books, TV documentaries and feature films made about World War II , many accept a similar narrative of the war in the West: Though Nazi Germany possessed a superior army, better equipment and by far the best weapons at the outset, the British somehow managed to hold on until the U.

After that, with Germany seriously weakened by its brutal clash with the Soviet Union in the East, U. A formation of Tiger II tanks — January Of the divisions used in May for Blitzkrieg in the West, only 16 of those are mechanized.

While understanding strategy including leadership and overall war aims and tactics the actual fighting on the front lines of any conflict is essential, he believes the operational level is what holds the strategic and tactical levels together. Germany Panzer Tiger II tanks in Army's 82nd Airborne Division goes out on a one-man sortie while covered by a comrade in the background, near Bra, Belgium, on December 24, A Soviet machine gun crew crosses a river along the second Baltic front, in January of The soldier on the left is holding his rifle overhead while his comrades push a floating device with the artillery gun forward, followed by two men with several supply boxes.

Low flying C transport planes roar overhead as they carry supplies to the besieged American Forces battling the Germans at Bastogne, during the enemy breakthrough on January 6, in Belgium. In the distance, smoke rises from wrecked German equipment, while in the foreground, American tanks move up to support the infantry in the fighting.

This image may contain graphic or objectionable content. The bodies of some of the seven American soldiers that had been shot in the face by an SS trooper are recovered from the snow, searched for identification and carried away on stretcher for burial on January 25, These German soldiers stand in the debris strewn street of Bastogne, Belgium, on January 9, , after they were captured by the U.

Refugees stand in a group in a street in La Gleize, Belgium on January 2, , waiting to be transported from the war-torn town after its recapture by American Forces during the German thrust in the Belgium-Luxembourg salient. A dead German soldier, killed during the German counter offensive in the Belgium-Luxembourg salient, is left behind on a street corner in Stavelot, Belgium, on January 2, , as fighting moves on during the Battle of the Bulge.

The three leaders were meeting to discuss the post-war reorganization of Europe, and the fate of post-war Germany. Soviet troops of the 3rd Ukrainian front in action amid the buildings of the Hungarian capital on February 5, Across the Channel, Britain was being struck by continual bombardment by thousands of V-1 and V-2 bombs launched from German-controlled territory.

This photo, taken from a fleet street roof-top, shows a V-1 flying bomb "buzzbomb" plunging toward central London. The distinctive sky-line of London's law-courts clearly locates the scene of the incident. Falling on a side road off Drury Lane, this bomb blasted several buildings, including the office of the Daily Herald.

The last enemy action of British soil was a V-1 attack that struck Datchworth in Hertfordshire, on March 29 With more and more members of the Volkssturm Germany's National Militia being directed to the front line, German authorities were experiencing an ever-increasing strain on their stocks of army equipment and clothing.

In a desperate attempt to overcome this deficiency, street to street collection depots called the Volksopfer, meaning Sacrifice of the people, scoured the country, collecting uniforms, boots and equipment from German civilians, as seen here in Berlin on February 12, So that you're proud your Home Guard man can show himself in uniform - empty your wardrobe and bring its contents to us". Three U. A party sets out to repair telephone lines on the main road in Kranenburg on February 22, , amid four-foot deep floods caused by the bursting of Dikes by the retreating Germans.

During the floods, British troops further into Germany have had their supplies brought by amphibious vehicles. This combination of three photographs shows the reaction of a year old German soldier after he was captured by U. Flak bursts through the vapor trails from B flying fortresses of the 15th air force during the attack on the rail yards at Graz, Austria, on March 3, A view taken from Dresden's town hall of the destroyed Old Town after the allied bombings between February 13 and 15, Some 3, aircraft dropped more than 3, tons of high-explosive bombs and incendiary devices on the German city.

The resulting firestorm destroyed 15 square miles of the city center, and killed more than 22, A large stack of corpses is cremated in Dresden, Germany, after the British-American air attack between February 13 and 15, The bombing of Dresden has been questioned in post-war years, with critics claiming the area bombing of the historic city center as opposed to the industrial suburbs was not justified militarily. Soldiers of the 3rd U. Army storm into Coblenz, Germany, as a dead comrade lies against the wall, on March 18, Men of the American 7th Army pour through a breach in the Siegfried Line defenses, on their way to Karlsruhe, Germany on March 27, , which lies on the road to Stuttgart.

Manuel M. Poliakoff, and Cpl.