the bulk of the fighting

The most familiar image relating to the turning point of World War II in the Western world is the iconic image of American and British forces landing at the beaches in Normandy as they proceeded to liberate France from Nazi oppression, however what they fought through was an already war ravaged Europe, it took them six months to conquer what the German Army did in six weeks!

Not only was that because they had unchallenged air space for most of the way but it was also because only 20% of the German Army was all that was left behind to defend that space, not until the Battle of the Bulge which saw the Germans launch a massive offensive against a larger force of Americans using their big artillery guns.

The bulk of the fighting that had slowly eroded the solidity of the German military might was the war on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union, which saw the Russians not only fighting back the invading Nazi Army but also Finns and several other states seeking independence from Stalin's Soviet Russia (most notably Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia).



But what the Soviets did do was break the back of the German Army after being besieged in their major cities of Moscow, Leningrad and Stalingrad (which saw 20,000,000 people slaughtered), the Soviet counter offensives broke the back of the German Army which had broken into three divisions (Army Group North, South, Centre) which ended up too widely stretched to defend Germany itself.



Emptying the Baltic States, Ukraine, Poland and several other smaller states in Eastern Europe of German forces the Soviets eventually entered Germany itself and captured Berlin meeting the Allies at the Elbe River not long afterwords, they were the biggest single party to contribute to the war effort of ridding Europe of the Nazi's.

Even though they received American equipment from the Lend Lease they gave the manpower logistical support and the practical elements of winning such a huge war, right down to the guns, boots and uniforms that made up their large infantry groups.

While the American effort did help Britain fight out a hefty amount of the war in the European Theater, in the Battle of Britain the Royal Air Force cut down hundreds of Luftwaffe bombers and fighters and from 1941 on had proceeded to fly bombing raids against Germany and the occupied countries in Western Europe, this accelerated into the devastating firebombings of Dresden and Hamburg near the closing stages of the war.

However the Lend Lease from the United States which resupplied Britain during the war cost the equivalent of $500 billion today, a loan that literally bankrupted Britain after the war and was only paid off in 2006!

could Nazi Germany have taken over the world?

I don't like alternative histories, I don't like "what ifs" but the Nazi Germany question in relation to the rest of the world is an interesting one, the Third Reich was a true super power that crushed most of Europe in little over a year, but the question is if it played its cards right could it have actually taken over the world.

For instance their thrust into the Soviet Union forced the Russians to literally try and slow their advance by scorching the earth as they retreated, the Germans had hit nearly everywhere in Russia before being driven back, and apart from that fact by 1942 (perfect timing) the US were joining in with Britain and carrying out raids against the Nazi industry, what if Britain had been taken out of the fray so Nazi Germany could use its fair might against the Soviet Union.



Well these scenarios are explored in the novel Fatherland by Robert Harris in which the history is the same until the year 1941 when the Russians arrive at the gates of Moscow, but succeed in another offensive in the Caucasus in 1942, cutting the Red Army, since its armies are immobilized the Soviet Union is forced to surrender in 1943.

Britain is defeated after the Germans find the British have cracked their Enigma code, they withdraw their submarines and send false signals luring the Royal Navy into a series of traps and destroy it, using their U-boat fleet to full force with little resistance they destroy merchant shipping starving mainland Britain into surrendering in 1944.



The novel then details the Greater German Reich as a super power stretching as far east as the Ural mountains where they still fight a large number of Russian insurgents in an endless war, they are also at a Cold War with the United States both of which have nuclear arms.

But this scenario seemed possible for the time if Germany would have been able to use all its forces to the right extent, but the question remained if it would have been able to keep its occupied territories, (heavy resistance in the Ural mountains seems logical), and with the oil rich Caucasus under their belts the German war machine would definitely stay on its feet, plus if they succeeded in the Soviet Union and defeated Britain before December 1941 then the US would have no leverage or real reason to go to war with Germany.

Its an interesting scenario Harris puts forward but the truth was that the evil Adolf Hitler did have that amount of striking power, he nearly did succeed in bringing the Soviet Union to its knees but he was stupid near the end and brought a lot of pain and suffering to the people of Russia and Europe.