After the end of the Great War… and after
an unsatisfactory peace, huge inflation, and an unprecedented economic crisis, Germany
was on its knees… Even being a country with huge economic potential,
due to the factories and companies that still existed there, Germany was, however, only
a shadow of the former monarchy. But ... from 1933 to 1941 Germany achieved
what it had not realized in the previous war. It had a new army that was considered unstoppable,
acting with precision, speed, and communication, taking by surprise the great European powers! Thus, at the end of 1941, almost all of Europe
was controlled by Germany and its allies. German soldiers could see the buildings of
Moscow from a distance ... Almost all predictions led to a total German victory. But How did this all happen? Was it just the efficiency of the German Army? Or was it a multitude of reasons, including
sound planning or even luck? ---
The end of World War One brought about a time of chaos for the Germans, and what the rest
of Europe likely believed would prevent a near future containing a powerful German military...but
they were wrong… The ability of Germany to rebuild its military
might generally came with the rise of the Third Reich But, before this rise was a fall brought about
by the events of the WeimarRepublic… After the end of the first world war, Kaiser
Wilhelm The Second became the target of intense backlash and pressure from both the general
public and his own military… On November 9, 1918, Wilhelm was forced to
abdicate and a provisional government, made up of members from the Social Democratic Party
and the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, was established in his place the
following day. By next spring, the Weimar Republic had been
formed with Friedrich Ebert as the first President. Shortly into Ebert’s term, the Treaty of
Versailles was signed, reducing the German military to a mere 100,000 men. Furthermore, Germany was compelled to take
responsibility for World War One, pay hefty reparations, and give up some of its territorial
possessions. This treaty was a huge blow to the newly established
Weimar Republic and was quickly followed by a new obstacle, this time in the form of hyperinflation
and the Great Depression… This was the turning point for many working-class
Germans and the moment in which Adolf Hitler and his party, suddenly became a beacon of
hope… With a building concern that the Weimar Republic
could soon be overrun by the communists, the German people turned to this new alternative
which quickly became the largest political party in Parliament by 1932. The following year, Adolf Hitler was elected
as the new Chancellor of Germany… The first few weeks of his term were hugely
influential and brought about a drastic shift in Germany’s projected rebuilding. The new chancellor and his party had a plan,
as could be anticipated then from his speeches and from his book. It had to start from the inside, and the new
party tried to consolidate its power through propaganda and normative acts. Then the rebuilding of the army had to begin,
ignoring the treaty of Versailles, with the next phase being to annex the German-Speaking
territories through diplomacy, influence, or military intervention. Meanwhile, with increased production and a
larger army, the focus was to be on defeating the biggest rival in the region - France! First, Article 48 was invoked, which largely
reduced the progress that had been made on the grounds of civil rights, and put a strong
lid on the Communist Party. Next, Hitler established the Enabling Act,
which gave him the ultimate authority to pass any law he wished without the approval of
the President or Parliament. One of the main goals was now aimed at bringing
back Germany’s prior military might, and building upon it. One of the new chancellor’s most famous
changes to the armed forces was the establishment of the Wehrmacht. This was the unified military of the Third
Reich, beginning in 1935, and made up of the Land, Marine, and Air Forces. The new military force was much larger than
the Treaty of Versailles had allowed, and brought about a radical increase in defense
spending and the reinstatement of conscription… The chancellor solidified his self-proclaimed
role as the ultimate authority over the armed forces and required every commander to now
be at the beck and call of his orders... In spite of internal opposition and skepticism
from some of the commanders, the army was able to re-occupy the Rhineland, a very industrialized
region that was vital for the future war machine. The annexation of Austria, the Sudeten-land,
and Czecho-slovakia strengthened the German economy and production lines. At this time, the goal of the Allies was appeasement,
and all those within the Wehrmacht who had questioned the chancellor had been proven
wrong thus far. The overall approval rating from the German
people concerning the new regime had vastly skyrocketed, and any opposition was essentially
silenced. The handful of generals and troops who had
been on the fence about the new chancellor were now willing to back his plans for war
after his territorial successes; and with a fully
equipped and prepared military, Germany was ready to invade Poland with already-building
momentum… The goal, beyond wanting to regain territory
that had been lost from the Treaty of Versailles and expand further, was to avoid a long war
at all costs. To accommodate this lofty aim, the Germans
adopted a new military tactic known as the Blitzkrieg , or Lightning War. This wasn’t a completely new form of warfare,
the strategy that Germany followed had much in common with the strategy that existed in
the First War when the idea was the same - to defeat its enemies quickly and decisively
- as the country was ill-suited to win a long and drawn-out conflict against larger, better-prepared
forces… But now! The German Army had the benefit of new military
technology that included better and more rapid tanks, motor vehicles, aircraft, and radios. These new tools, combined with an emphasis
on the element of surprise, speed, mobility, focused attacks and at the end, encirclements,
enabled the army to turn traditional military tactics into a devastatingly modern brand
of warfare. Not only did the Blitzkrieg tactic sound good
in theory, but it also genuinely worked. The Germans utilized the new strategy when
they invaded Poland and subsequently set off World War Two, and then again when they faced
off with enemy lines from Denmark, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, France,
Yugoslavia, and even Greece throughout the first two years of the war. The Blitzkrieg was an extremely profitable
tactic and played a hugely significant role in Germany’s immediate success. This strategy worked to quickly disorganize
and throw off the enemy troops by using a narrow line or formation of concentrated offensive
forces to break through enemy lines. The Germans would first locate a weak point
in their opponent’s defenses to create a breach, permitting armored tank divisions
to penetrate rapidly and roam freely behind enemy lines, causing shock and disorganization
among the enemy defenses. As their counterpart struggled to reorganize
the frontline and prepare new lines of defense, the air force prevented additional help from
reaching their adversary and from sending reinforcements to seal breaches on the front. As the gap was widened, the flow of German
troops would continue to rapidly file through that area, and a focus would be put on preventing
the enemy from refilling the gap that had been created. The tanks were followed by motorized divisions
who formed solid flanks protecting the military convoys. In the middle, the corridor was supplied continuously
with more and more equipment and soldiers. By doing this, the enemy didn’t have much
time to react, as more piercing movements were created at the same time, in different
spots. Eventually, any enemy troops who were unable
to fall back or escape in time would be encircled by the Germans and forced to surrender. This made it easy for the latter to now seize
a dominant role in the battle and compel their opponent to surrender. This unexpected strategy left their adversaries
predictably destabilized as the German tanks filed through the breach in the front line. This tactic worked quite well against the
French who were shocked by the speed of the German Army and their attack through the Ardenne
forest. After France was conquered, the main goals
were achieved, and the Soviet Union seemed to be the last chapter of their conquest and
domination of Europe. On June 22, 1941, Operation Barbarossa was
launched with the goal of occupying the western portion of the Soviet Union. At first, the German Lightning war was severely
damaging to the Russians. The latter was pushed back toward the gates
of Moscow as their attackers were yet again carrying out an aggressively strong assault. The situation was made worse for the Soviets
since Joseph Stalin had initially had a hard time believing that the attack was going to
happen, even after receiving intel that a German attack might happen. By the time the Russians had realized the
true gravity of the danger they were in, the Germans had already gained an upper hand thanks
to their Lightening War strategy. Within a single week, German forces advanced
200 miles into Soviet territory, destroying nearly 4,000 aircraft, and taking out of action
around 600,000 Red Army troops. As before, the strategy, combined with the
element of surprise worked and would prove deadly for a medium-sized country; as the
land surface would allow the German army to move fast, to conquer the important cities,
and to force the other country into surrender within a few weeks. Against the Soviet Union, the situation was
different. After 3 months of warfare, the Blitzkrieg
tactic was no longer the deciding factor for a German success. It had worked at the start of the conflict
but now the situation had changed, mainly due to the huge size of the U.S.S.R, the winter,
and the better defense lines created by the Soviets. The counterattack of the Soviets was well-thought-out
and executed, but it also proved triumphant since the Germans had been fighting for longer
than they had anticipated on a huge front. They lost the element of surprise and momentum,
and they were fighting against a more populated country with high capabilities of production
which was also aided by other allies. And from that point on, the war turned against
the Germans… The reason behind why the German army was
so effective in World War 2 is a combination of many factors. The plan and fanatism of a party to dominate
a continent, the process of rearmament and war material production, and the expansion
against Austria and Czecho-Slovakia which was not followed by
major reactions, combined with the preparation of invasions against other countries created
the scenario for this efficiency to happen. Additionally, the work that had been done
to rebuild the German military might, despite the constraints of the Treaty of Versailles,
and the execution of the Lightening War strategy by competent officers, consolidated with the
mistakes of their counterparts, proved to be an almost unstoppable combination. Although Germany lost the war, its initial
success can be attributed to a multitude of factors and we can talk about them in more
detail in some future videos. In this one, we tried to oversimplify for
you the major agents that led to the effectiveness of the German Army in the Second World War. So, make sure to subscribe to our History
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