Wwii Questions, Fall 2005

With the unleashing of Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941, Hitler launched Germany into a war that would prove disastrous. The Wehrmacht smashed its way into Germany all the way to the gates of Moscow, Leningrad, and Stalingrad. Stalingrad was a titanic struggle that marked the turning point for the German war in the East. After Stalingrad Hitler’s formidable Wehrmacht, which had smashed its way into the Soviet Union, was continually on the defensive and Hitler’s dream of conquering the East was over. The Soviet victory at Stalingrad was largely achieved by the tenacity and courage of the individual Red Army soldier but there were also many mistakes which Hitler made that cost him the city and ultimately hurt his overall war aims. Hitler’s first mistake was dividing his forces, with one force securing the Grozny oil fields and the other driving towards the Black Sea. Hitler had totally underestimated the strength of the Red Army and his dividing his forces put them in perilous position which the Soviets would exploit at Stalingrad. Had Hitler not split his forces he may well have conquered Stalingrad and severed the supply of resources which moved along the Volga River. Hitler’s second mistake was failing to realize that due to the absolute enormity of the Soviet Union his supply lines would be vulnerable. Supplies were also moved by horse teams because he had not waited to invade until more mechanized supply divisions were ready. Soviet partisans continually harassed German supply trains and attacked forces behind the frontlines. Frontline troops often were not able to receive supplies when they needed them, seriously hindering the war effort. With a more mechanized supply force, supplies could have been delivered on time and the Wehrmacht may have been able to launch more efficient attacks. It is possible that the Wehrmaht could have defeated the Russians in 1941-43. The German offensive was not doomed but a series of German mistakes and their underestimating of the Red Army proved their undoing. If Hitler had focused his forces on taking out Moscow, instead of spreading his army out across the whole of the Russia he could have taken out Stalin and severed the head of the Soviet government. In 1941, with the initial success of Operation Barbarossa Stalin had fled from Moscow; if the Germans had focused all of their strength on attacking Moscow at this time, instead of spreading it out across thousands of miles of worthless country, they may have taken out any form of Soviet government, causing the Soviet Union to crumble as Hitler had expected. Without the tight gripe of Stalin holding the country together, there may not have been a unified front fighting against the Germans. In fact, if Hitler had not mistreated the peoples he had conquered, Ukrainians and Poles, he may very well had a large group of Allies willing to assist him in bringing down Communism. The Soviet Union could have been conquered if Hitler had taken advantage of those who Stalin had oppressed; and if he focused his attention on taking out Staling instead of conquering worthless territory which sucked up men and resources. The fighting for Sicily and Italy was some of the hardest in the war for Allied troops. They experienced heavy fighting poor weather and inefficient and inept commanders. These commanders were totally pathetic at creating any strategy because many of them were in their positions because they were related to someone high in office in the U.S. The geography of Italy hampered Allied fighting as well. The terrain of Italy and the direction from which the Allied armies attacked was perfect for fighting a

defensive war. The Apennines Mountains run down the middle of Italy like a spine creating natural defensive positions. Italy is also a long narrow peninsula; therefore the amount of territory to be protected is much smaller and can be held by fewer troops. Since the Allied armies invaded from the South, which historically no army had ever done, they were forced to battle their up the boot of Italy fighting well emplaced German positions. The Germans were therefore able to use the natural defenses of the Apennines and utilize their troops more effectively in defensive positions. The narrow shape of Italy also left out any possibility of the Allies flanking a position which was well defended due to the fact that there was sea on both sides. Since large flanking maneuvers were not possible the fighting was head on and very brutal. In France and the Eastern Front the terrain was much broader and open therefore flanking maneuvers were possible. This of course made the terrain much harder to defend. The battle of Italy was quite important because it held German divisions which would have been defending France or fighting the Soviets. By opening up a front in Italy the Allies pulled vital resources away from Hitler’s main fronts. The Italian campaign may not have been of tactical importance but strategically it deprived Hitler of men and resources. Without the Italian campaign the fighting on both the Eastern and Western fronts would have been much longer and cost the Allies many more lives. The Allied strategy of strategic bombing may not have created the effect which it was designed for but it still proved crucial to the war effort. The waves of bombers did not crush the morale of the German people or greatly diminish war production. In fact German production increased at the same pace as the tonnage of bombs being dropped by the Allies. Without the bombing, however, German war production would have been much more than it was. The Allied bombings did not destroy or significantly hinder the German war effort but they did prevent war production from increasing faster than it did. The bombings did however achieve a goal which they did not initially strive for and that was the destruction of the Luftwaffe. The one two punch of the Americans by day and the British by night began to wear down the Luftwaffe, who lost great numbers of planes and pilots challenging the bombers all day and all night, day after day. In February 1944, the bombers and their supporting P-51’s attacked targets which would cause German fighters to challenge them. In this game of baiting Germans, the Luftwaffe lost 450 planes in one week and by May the Luftwaffe was losing over 20 percent of its planes a month. By the time of the D-Day landings in Normandy the skies were clear of German planes due to the efforts of the bombers and their P-51 escorts. The bombings were effective in stemming the tide of German production but the greatest accomplishment of the Allied bombings was the destruction of the Luftwaffe. With the Luftwaffe gone the Allied invasion of Normandy was achieved with Allied air superiority. Had German planes been able to attack the beaches, D-Day may have gone horribly wrong. As the Allies moved farther into Normandy from the beaches they encountered an area known as the Bocage. The Bocage country was a series of large hedgerows with large amounts of vegetation on them. These hedgerows became excellent defensive positions for the Germans to stall the advancing Allied troops. A German unit could

easily set up and defend any corner of hedgerow with very few troops and inflict heavy casualties on the Allies. Not only were the hedgerows excellent defensive positions but the Allies were also not prepared to fight in them. Allied generals had not prepared for the fighting that would occur after the D-Day landings and the troops were therefore without any strategy for fighting in the strange terrain. It was therefore up to the ingenuity of the average Allied soldier to find a way through the Bocage. They developed the strategies which eventually won the Bocage and invented ingenious devises to tear through the hedgerows. The fighting in the Bocage was very brutal and deadly for Allied troops. Since the hedgerows were so easy to defend, many more Americans died taking the positions than Germans did defending them. It was also impossible to use tanks in the Bocage because of the size of the hedgerows and the roads, which were sunken down between hedgerows, were usually mined and were excellent spots for ambushes with panzerfausts. Fighting was man to man and generally without the assistance of a tank. Troops relied on their own guts and ingenuity to get themselves through the Bocage and on to Paris. Operation Overlord was the largest amphibious invasion in history. The attack began on June 5, with the airborne invasion of paratroopers and gliders. On June 6 the seaborne invasion began as army forces stormed the shores of Normandy beach. The troops that landed on the beaches encountered stout resistance but managed to battle their way of the beaches and created a beachhead for Allied reinforcements. The beaches at Normandy were chosen because it was not as defended as Calais, which was only twenty miles from Dover. The Nazis believed that the Allied attack was going to occur at Calais and they therefore created heavy defensive positions on the peninsula. Allied commanders also feared invading Calais because of its narrow size. By invading on a smaller front they would allow the Germans to mass their troops and create a devastating counter attack. By attacking along a large section of the Normandy beaches, Allied commanders hoped to spread German forces out along a large area and therefore increase their chances of succeeding. The Allies made many strategic decisions which were fortuitous to the invasion force. They were many counter intelligence operations with the objective of convincing the Germans that the attack was going to occur in Norway, Denmark or Calais. The whether was also of strategic importance because the Germans did not except an invasion force due to the poor weather. Of tactical importance was the dropping of the airborne troops behind the lines on the night of the 5th. These units created large scale confusion and captured vital positions. Without the airborne units the German defense would have been much more cohesive and effective in its response to the landings. The French resistance also assisted in the invasion by cutting telegraph lines and hampering German communications. Patton played a large role in opening up Northern France in 1944. Patton’s forces first stormed into Brittany in an effort to seize Atlantic ports, they drove into the Loire Valley and across France at a rate of 50 miles a day. His mastery of combining tanks, artillery, infantry, and air attacks led to his swift race across France and a devastating defeat of German forces. After circling Paris Patton drove east towards the Siegfried line

but became mired because of a gasoline shortage and heavy German resistance. He eventually captured the city of Metz, which had not been conquered in 1,000 years. In regards to the Battle of the Bulge Patton is remembered for his fierce counterattack which relieved the 101st paratroopers who were besieged in Bastogne. His counterattack drove back the Germans and continued the advance into Germany. In the December of 1944 Hitler was desperate and in need of a way to end the war in the West. He developed a plan designed to capture Antwerp, cutting the supplies to the Allies and splitting the British and Canadian forces from the American armies. The Germans would then push the British into the sea, causing the Western allies to sue for peace. The attack would come through the Ardennes Forest and required two things: surprise and bad weather. On December 15 the Germans launched their attack. They achieved total surprise and quickly pushed back or captured the green American units they encountered. Even though the German attack was very destructive and cost the Americans many men; the German army failed to achieve its goal and was beat back by American tenacity and a break in the weather which allowed for air attacks against the Germans. Despite the Battle of the Bulge being the bloodiest American battle ever it actually shortened the war. Hitler’s desperate attack drained his army of men and resources which could have been used with better effect in defending Germany. The German soldiers and material that were lost during the battle, if used in the defense of Germany could have increased the length of the war considerably. The heroes of the Battle of the Bulge were those soldiers who in freezing cold met the German attack and held through all odds. They are the men who were trapped behind German lines and moved back to the Allied lines. There are many heroes of the Battle from both sides, such as the German and American medics who treated both friend and foe. The Bulge was a battle that created many heroes who became famous for their deeds as well as those who gave their lives and never gained any great recognition for their actions. Operation Market Garden failed due to many factors. First, the Germans had just moved new defensive units into the Netherlands. Second, Allied commanders were over confident and doubted the resilience of the Germans to continue fighting. Allied commanders believed that there was token resistance in the Netherlands and those units present would be brushed aside. Third, Allied paratroopers were dropped in areas were it was almost impossible to achieve their targets. Fourth, the ground based attack moved far too slowly and was unable to secure areas which the paratroopers had taken. Often the paratroopers were overrun after having taken a position because the ground forces failed to reach them in time. Operation Market Garden wasted the lives of many young men who could have been used in the fight towards Germany. The failure of Market Garden convinced Eisenhower that the only way to beat the Germans was to absolutely crush them by head on attacks. His next move was a head on attack on the Siegfried line. These attacks were horribly bloody and the Germans defended with great tenacity. The failure of Market Garden led to the direct assaults on Germany that cost many American lives and caused the war to drag on.