How could Germany have won the war?

I say, don’t forget to bring your heavy jackets to the russian front in the winter of 41/42!! It gets mighty cold up there. You don’t want to lose the initiative and have the russians counterattack while their dressed warmly, and your’e freezing your nuts off!

But that would not be necessary if Herr Hitler didn’t invade Yugoslavia or that nation didn’t throw out its pro-fascist government. Or even if Hitler made peace with his position in the fall of 1941.

Hitler’s plan was simple–to complete Fortress Europe. He wanted to blockade Britain to submission and crush the red armies so the US would face a Europe impossible to attack. However the U-boat menace was soon tamed, and the Soviets drove the Jerrys back at Stalingrad. Also, they developed the V-2s and Me 262s near at the end of the war. And they didn’t spend resources on nuclear weapons. So it was possible they could have won the war, but many factors contributed to their demise.

@balungaloaf:

Hitler at the begining drew up the plans himself for the attack into the lowlands and norway.  I think, not sure, even france.  The generals even saw how well it went and gave him huge credit and respect.  Remember hitler did win the Iron Cross.  It takes a badass.

Im not saying that Hitler was a complete moron when it came to making tactical military decisions, he did plan some military operations that were highly sucessful as you have mentioned.  But when he made a HUGE mistake (such as at Stalingrad), he blamed his Generals rather than his poor decisions.  In the end thats what caused the downfall of Germany.

I believe that if Hitler would have went for the middle eastern oil maybe he could’ve help Japan with some of their resource issues and prolonged the attack on America keeping them from officially joining the War and let Japan move forward ion attacking Russia from behind.

With the UK garrisons in India, Germany would NEVER have been able to provide supplies to Japan.  He could not suply his own units fully by mid-war, he certainly had none to spare, even if he COULD have somehow shipped the supplies.

@ncscswitch:

With the UK garrisons in India, Germany would NEVER have been able to provide supplies to Japan.  He could not suply his own units fully by mid-war, he certainly had none to spare, even if he COULD have somehow shipped the supplies.

Thats not completely true.  Yes, India was garrisoned pretty well, so Germany aiding Japan with supplies overland would have been impossible.  However towards the end of the war, Germany was sending Japan their jet fighter technology via U-Boats through the Indian Ocean and did so quite succesfully.  So sending supplys would have been a possiblity……but I highly doubt that the supply system beetween Germany and Japan would have lasted very long unscathed.

You are talking a COUPLE of disassenbled ME262’s and other tehcnological innovations via a couple of U-boats basically AFTER Germany had fallen.

BIG difference between that and full-scale supply runs from say Egypt to Burma…

And I am not just talking about land transfer… the UK (and US) both maintained effect air and naval superiority in the Indian Ocean for the duration of the war.  Britain was never kicked out of Port Morresby, or Rangoon…

Germany went around cape horn and had supply ships in the south atlantic and a few in the indian ocean. they did indeed send some goodies to Tojo. Tojo had some 100 Japanese me 262’s in some underground mountain in japan ready for our operation Olympic.

@ncscswitch:

You are talking a COUPLE of disassenbled ME262’s and other tehcnological innovations via a couple of U-boats basically AFTER Germany had fallen.

BIG difference between that and full-scale supply runs from say Egypt to Burma…

And I am not just talking about land transfer… the UK (and US) both maintained effect air and naval superiority in the Indian Ocean for the duration of the war.  Britain was never kicked out of Port Morresby, or Rangoon…

Well that is a “what if” situation.  It may have been possible, but since it never did……I guess well never know for sure.  Most likely it would have failed after a few weeks.

Regarding full scale German shipments to Japan early in the war, 2 words…

Flying Tigers

@ncscswitch:

Regarding full scale German shipments to Japan early in the war, 2 words…

Flying Tigers

Flying Tiger Tanks? O.o

Germany only had one chance and that died with the battle of Britain. If Germany would have waited until 1944, then that would have also given the allies more time to arm and think about future German agression. Hitler hit France at the right moment, but only an idiot opens a second front without finishing the first. The intelligent German generals knew that it was all lost when the Luftwaffe was unable to bring Britain into submission. U-Boats and firebombing Britain into submission would have done the job. Germany was not ready, nor would have been ready for a seaborn invasion (sea lion) for years to come.
-Ezto

@Imperious:

El Jefe posts:

“forget the Master race crap.  Jesse Owens was a good lesson.”

That episode is a great propaganda piece that keeps getting repeated by History, while if you look up the facts you will notice that Germany won more medals in 1936 than at any other time before or since… they had a huge lead over all other nations at this event… Just look at the results… This “little fact” has gotten the brush off for too long. I am not saying they performed better because they believed in the “nazi superman concept”, but it shows what happens when people belive in what the nation is doing and the direction its heading.

Can you say cheating?

There were many things the Germans could have done differently. The biggest obstacle for Germany to win the war was Hitler being the supreme commander.
    Hitler was a fanatic and an awful commander. The holocaust required a great amount of resources but his anti-semitism is who he was and how he unified the country from the depression so there is no way we can remove that. Hitler did refuse to have women work in the factories. The Russians, along with many other countries, used everybody to work in the factories and were capable of producing double the tanks in a month than the Germans.
          When Hitler saw the 262 jet fighter he demanded it be used exclusively as a bomber. It delayed the production for 1 and a half to 2 years of the me-262, which would despite the setback, still become the first mass produced jet plane in history. They eventually went around Hitler and made it back into a fighter. Imagine jet airplanes obliterating the bombers hitting germany, and germany controlling the skies.
          Hitler also messed up D-Day because he would not allow 3 of the 6 tank divisions to be moved in Normandy without his consent. Well, Hitler slept late into the morning on D-Day. Around 11:00-12:00 A.M. late.
      Hitler made many mistakes. If Hitler had not screwed up the me-262 and D-Day, Germany could have survived longer. If the war would have gone on for 1 more year, Germany would have had the Atomic bomb. Plus, they had a stealth jet bomber that was successfully flown and was being modified for strikes against the U.S. 
      Then there is the Russian front and ordering that no one surrender or retreat. We can list his failures for a long time.

@CrazyHomer87:

Plus, they had a stealth jet bomber that was successfully flown and was being modified for strikes against the U.S.

Why is the only image I had on reading this the dreadful sequel of the Philadelphia Experiment?

Somebody has been at the www.Luft46.com  site again. That sub orbital jet bomber was only a drawing. no prototype was ever made or flown. I wish it was different but it wasnt.

No, it was the history channel, luftwaffe airplanes. They have film of a succesful test flight and they realized that it was hard to see on radar, and they discovered it had stealth abilities. also the plane is in a museum. It looks just like the b-2 stealth bomber. Its called the Horton. http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=105

@CrazyHomer87:

No, it was the history channel, luftwaffe airplanes. They have film of a succesful test flight and they realized that it was hard to see on radar, and they discovered it had stealth abilities. also the plane is in a museum. It looks just like the b-2 stealth bomber. Its called the Horton. http://www.militaryfactory.com/aircraft/detail.asp?aircraft_id=105

Horten was the manufacturer (named after the brothers who founded it).  They had many flying wing types with varying degrees of completion.  Some didn’t make it much farther than a drawing board and raw materials.

It doesnt matter anyway. Those inventions would not have turned the tide. They needed them in 1941 when Germany still had a chance. 44-45 was too late for victory. Even a settlement by some method of “attrition” would not be possible. The resolve of the allies was too great… especially the Soviets.