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Axis Success
Why was
the German Army so  successful
in Europe in 1939 to 1940.
An obvious reason is that Hitler had begun rearmament
earlier and more quickly than other governments. Conscription was introduced
in Germany in 1935 and production was concentrated upon new weapons,
such as tanks and dive-bombers. As a dictator, Hitler could make decisions
much more quickly than the British or French Governments. In Britain,
for example, there were many arguments about rearmament and its cost.
All British politicians wanted to avoid war and therefore tended to
see military expenditure as wasteful. To Hitler it was a necessity.
The German Army worked out new tactics. Tanks were to be used in large
numbers to smash through enemy positions; dive-bombers would hit specific
targets, paratroops would drop behind enemy lines and mechanised infantry
would follow up attacks. This became known as "Blitzkrieg",
or lightning war.
In 1936 the Condor Legion of about 10,000 men was sent to Spain to support
General Franco and practise the new tactics. The success of the Condor
Legion was seen in every European country and influenced the thinking
of military leaders. Many over-exaggerated the significance of the success
and came to regard the German armed forces as almost invincible.
France adopted an almost entirely defensive mentality. A huge line of
fortifications was built along the German border, connected by underground
railways. The "Maginot Line" was intended to stop any German
attack. However, it stopped at the Belgian border and, although it was
hurriedly extended in the late 1930s, it was not completed. In the event
Hitler simply by-passed it and went through Belgium, as the Germans
had in 1914.
When war broke out in September 1939 the British Expeditionary Force
and the French Army took up defensive positions and dug themselves in.
They expected that the war would be static, like the First World War.
When Hitler used Blitzkrieg they were taken by surprise, particularly
by the mass use of tanks.
The British and French commanders expected Hitler to attack across Belgium,
where the land was flat. In fact his tank commanders found a way through
the Ardennes, a hilly, wooded area in southern Belgium and Northern
France. The Allies were taken completely by surprise. The German tanks
rushed to the sea within two weeks forcing the British back onto the
French coast at Dunkirk and Calais.
Although the French Army was larger than the German, it seemed to lack
the will to fight. Once the Maginot Line proved ineffective, leading
figures in France were ready to make peace with the Germans. Some believed
that Hitler would protect them from Communism. General Charles de Gaulle
wanted to retreat to Brittany and fight on, but the government surrendered
at the end of June. \
Hitler now turned his attention to Britain and the invasion, Operation
Sealion was set for September 24th. However when Operation Sealion was
cancelled Hitler began to plan the attack on the USSR, Operation Barbarossa.
Why was
Operation Barbarossa so successful at first.
One obvious advantage that the German Army had was
experience. It had already fought a series of campaigns whereas the
Red Army's soldiers were inexperienced of such events.
Stalin was also taken by surprise and almost forced to surrender. His
spies in Berlin had told him about Operation Barbarossa, but he did
not believe them. When the attack came on 22nd June 1941 he was unprepared.
Most of the commanders of the Red Army had been purged in 1937 and 1938.
In 1941, junior officers who had been promoted very quickly occupied
senior commands.
Much of the equipment of the Red Army Much of the equipment of the Red
Army was of poor quality. Stalin's Five Year Plans had emphasised quantity,
not quality. 
Many Soviet citizens supported the Germans. In the Ukraine and the Baltic
States there was little love for Stalin. The Germans were welcomed as
liberators.
So by the autumn of 1941 the German Army was on the verge of capturing
Leningrad and Moscow.
Why were the Japanese armed
forces so successful in 1941 and 1942.
Like Germany, Japan was a dictatorship. In the 1930s
the army was the most important influence in the country and took more
and more of the decisions. This led to the invasion of Manchuria in
1933, the decision to leave the League of Nations and the attack on
Shanghai in 1937.
The Japanese Government planned an empire in South East Asia, the "Greater
South East Asia C-prosperity Sphere", and therefore believed that
a war with the USA was inevitable. The key factor was oil. In July the
US Government stopped supplying oil to Japan in protest at Japan's attacks
on China.
Japan now planned a surprise attack on the US Pacific Fleet, which was
stationed at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. This took place on 7th December
1941 and achieved complete surprise. Many people assumed that it was
a practise air raid. In fact US intelligence had broken the Japanese
codes and had the message ordering the attack on the previous Friday
afternoon, but it was not passed on.
The key to Japanese success in 1941 and early 1942 was their use of
aircraft carriers. They were the main strike force of the navy. Increasingly,
in the Pacific, the other naval vessels were used to protect the carriers.
Battles were won by destroying the enemy's carriers. In January 1942
two large British warships, the "Prince of Wales" and the
"Repulse" were completely overwhelmed by Japanese carrier-borne
aircraft and sunk.
The US Army in the Pacific was forced to evacuate island after island.
During the 1930s the US armed forces had been reduced and few new weapons
had been designed. They were completely unable to defeat the Japanese.
There had been strong support in the USA for "isolation",
meaning having nothing to do with the affairs of Europe. The USA had
not joined the League of Nations. This had led many US politicians to
assume that the USA would not be attacked. So the USA was taken completely
by surprise by the raid on Pearl Harbour. The US president, Franklin
Roosevelt, immediately ordered huge increases in manpower and the production
of war materials but it was likely to be a year before these took effect.
In the meantime US forces had to hang on some how.
The British forces in South East Asia also collapsed very quickly. Singapore
surrendered in February 1942, despite having had new defences built
before the war and having a garrison of 130,000 British troops.
In early 1942 it seemed that the Axis powers were on
the verge of victory. The German Army had failed to capture Moscow,
but Leningrad was almost surrounded and the oil fields in the southern
USSR were threatened. In North Africa, Rommel's "Afrika Korps"
were about to invade Egypt and capture the Suez Canal and the oil fields
of the Middle East. Japan had apparently knocked out the US Pacific
Fleet and had occupied most of the South West Pacific. Malaysia, Thailand,
Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines and New Guinea had also all been
occupied. Australia was next on the list. Americans began to imagine
Japanese forces landing on the California coast. All over the USA Japanese
Americans were rounded up and interned.
In September 1939 the German Army attacked and defeated
Poland in three weeks. In the spring and early summer of 1940, Denmark,
Norway, Holland, Belgium and France were all forced to surrender.
I
Summary
In 1941 German armies conquered most of the Balkans,
North Africa and huge areas of the Soviet Union. Many of the countries
that were attacked were small and had few military resources. Some like
Holland and Belgium were neutral. But this does not explain why the
German armed forces were so successful.
Answer!
1.Why was the German Army so successful in Europe in 1939
to 1940?
2.Why was Operation Barbarossa so successful at first ?
3.Why were the Japanese armed forces so successful in 1941
and 1942?
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