Could the Axis Powers have won WWII?

Question

In the spring of 1942, Germany and Japan had to make crucial decisions. Do you think they would have won had they chosen differently?

The German advance in the Soviet Union got bogged down, and they faced the threat of losing ground. Hitler ordered his soldiers to dig in and stand to the death. At the same time, Tokyo was bombed by Doolittle. The raid did little real damage, but the Japanese were humiliated.

Hitler could have told his soldiers to strategically retreat to a more easily defensible eastern front, thus freeing up large numbers of troops for a Meditarranean offensive. Egypt, Malta, and even Gilbralter would have been vulnerable. A victory there would have seriously crippled the British and would have made the Middle East (and its oil) easy pickings.

The Japanese were winning in the Indian Ocean, which was almost a Japanese lake after the fall of Singapore, Malay, and Birma. Ceylon couldn't hold up, and it would have been easy to take Madagascar--thus stopping any British attempts to reinforce their fleet or India. Instead, they moved east to Midway.

The Germans lost at Stalingrad; the Japanese lost at Midway. Could they have tried these alternate strategies and won the war?

Obviously they would have had to coordinate their actions and they would have had to work together as true allies--in fact, they basically divided the world into two parts and each side did its thing independently of the other.

Answer 1

Yes and no. Strategically yes, there were many times when the axis had the advantage and gave it up. In Europe, perhaps the biggest mistake Germany made was attacking the USSR when it did. If they had waited until taking over the rest of Europe before attacking there would not have been the three fronted war, thus allowing them to put more supplies into the effort. Another problem with the axis is Italy. If anything, Italy was a burden to Germany. Initially in North Africa Italy was the only one fighting the British. When they needed help Germany had to divert troops and supplies desperately needed on the eastern front and in the end they lost all of the Afrika Corps.



In the Pacific, Japan should not have attacked the US at Pearl Harbor. Political pressures led Tojo to do this but it was never a good idea.



Politically no. Hitler was mentally ill. He was fighting in WWI when he was gassed. His stay in prison didn't help. He was too hands on in the military and had too little experience in the area. His generals were brilliant men but Hitler didn't use their "war smarts." He threw their ideas aside and ran the army himself, leading to the demise of Germany.



Japan was crazy. They had a puppet leader(Hirohito) and created an insane society. They used little to no military sense. Human sacrifice will not win a war.



If you are looking for a good book about this subject that will explain it in detail I advise getting "How Hitler Could Have Won World War II" by Bevin Alexander.

Answer 2

Wwii Axis Powers

Answer 3

If Nazi Germany wouldn't have tried to take on so many countries at once on 3 fronts and instead attempted to takeover Europe one at a time then yes they could have been victorious. I would say their biggest mistake was the invasion of the Soviet Union, because the Nazis sent over 60% of their whole army to the Eastern European front to fight the Soviet Union and it's Red Army. I believe they would have managed to win the North African/Middleeastern front and Western European front if they would have never gone to war with the USSR because they would have more well trained troops, tanks, planes, equipment, and better Generals available. As long as the Soviet Union was a threat this couldn't happen, and if Nazi Germany would have never started a war on the Western front (which started a front in North Africa and the Middleeast) He would have more available forces and Generals to be sent to the Eastern front the same way and could have been able to get to Moscow in time and conquer USSR, and Italy would most probably be a member of the Axis powers too since the U.S and Great Britain would have never invaded it from Africa if Nazi Germany would have never started a war with them so they would have provided even more assistance too. But that never happened. Plus the Soviet Union was reaching the end of developing and right when the Nazis invaded Stalin started increasing manufacturing and building a massive Red Army full of almost half of the whole population but it would have all been a failed attempt if the Nazis would have got to Moscow before Stalin could have put all this into full affect. Japan's problem was it had VERY little resources because the U.S embargoed them because of their war with China so had to choose it's moves very wisely, sending it's troops as far as Madagascar and with such objectives there and in the Indian Ocean would cost a lot of resources and money which like I said Japan had very little of. So the cheapest and most effective move according to them would to be to just go for Midway, they started to invade other Asian countries including Singapore, Malay, and Birma really just to find more resources that was there from European territories anyway than just for domination, but it was still not enough nor very valuable and reliable to continue their campaign very victoriously. And it was because of all these problems both these countries had in their war that they couldn't assist eachother in the way you are suggesting. Plus the Soviet Union, and British and French occupation was right inbetween them covering large distance. (The Soviet Union was also at conflict with Japan during the war and the Japanese didn't stand a chance because of the same problems and was fighting a difficult war with the U.S and China)

Answer 4

They could have tried something different and come out better but there's no possibility that they could have won.

Geography alone shows that the Germans couldn't win in Russia. The farther they went, the more spread out they became, and the longer their supply lines. That's inescapable. All the Red Army had to do was make sure they didn't mess up too badly after the initial onslaught, and eventually, the Germans had to run out of steam.

The US began to go on a full war footing, and eventually would out-produce the entire rest of the world. By the end of the war, the USN was larger than all other navies combined, and the USN's submarine service had nearly starved Japan of the natural resources needed to prosecute a war. The Air Force was bombing Japanese factories into rubble, but a lot of those factories were already pretty well sitting idle for lack of materials.

Answer 5

The Axis powers made certain, key, assumptions.

First - they assumed that Britain was bluffing and would agree peace after the fall of France. This would have left the Axis free (and wealthy) to build up its power and use the French and Benelux resources. Wrong - that left the British Empire building and developing a counter attack.

Second assumption - the USSR would collapse at the top and the new states appearing would come to terms. Wrong again - Stalin and the party held there nerve and started the recovery.

Meanwhile the Japanese empire assumed that the USA would agree to a treaty of spheres of influence IF they nailed the Pacific carriers, we will never know what the USA might have done because the carriers survived Pearl Harbor and after that the industrial and population weight of the USA made the result inevitable.

Answer 6

Was there a "more easily defensible eastern front"? The very factors that made the advances of Barbarossa relatively easy also made the Soviet advances so overwhelming.



Could the Japanese have treated its eastern flank lightly?



Would the Germans had more success against the Soviet Union if Japan had attacked it in the east?

Answer 7

Yes, if the Nazi's had destroyed Britain's air fields and sank more of the navy's ships then an invasion of southern england in1940/41, would have been very feasible. Then the Nazi's could have recruited from the occupied countries for men to invade and conquer the Soviet Union. meanwhile the Germans should have distanced themselves from Japanese aggression in China.

German diplomacy should have convinced the Yanks that Russia was their main concern.

Things would have panned out differently for the Axis powers and both sides would have had a nuclear bomb by then!

Answer 8

Italy and Germany should've both focused on taken down Great Britain . After that he should've divided the colonies of Britain three ways. Then Mussolini and Hitler could've supplied Hirohito with oil next Japan Germany and Italy attacked the Soviet Union and summer of 1942 and brought their entire army focus on the USSR. Germany and Japan should both focus on completing their atomic bombs and other wonder weapons before taken on the USA let's say 1946.

Answer 9

Actually by the time the atomic bomb was dropped the WWII was basically over. Only Japan stood in the way of total victory. The atomic bomb was dropped to speed up the ending of the war.

Answer 10

They could have won. They should have won. If Japan assisted in stopping the Soviet Union then they would have won. The union was the main issue looking at how Berlin & marching up on Tokyo their force. America pretty much betrayed everybody. They betrayed Japan (WWI Japan helped) and the Soviet Union at Japans surrender.

Answer 11

History is history but many a turning point was a matter of degrees.



Wellington said that his victory at Waterloo was " a damn close run thing", had Blucher not turned up when he did the British and its allies would have been cleaned from the field.



The Germans almost turned the tide in Ardennes and market garden was a total allied failure, had the Germans bot had to maintain and eastern front and be able to pull all their resources westward the outcome of WW2 would have been significantly different.



The Japanese attack on pearl harbour was audacious and cunning but Yamamoto under increasing political and Military pressure with dwindling resources could not maintain the initiative that was required to keep the pressure on the allies and the US.



The US has intervened in many conflicts, usually under the guise of democracy of bullshiyt about freedom,. the truth is that the US never intervened in any major war especially 1 and 2 with first seeing an altruistic fiscal outcome and an opportunity to increase its world political domination.



remember in both world wars the US made heaps of money from supplies and war profits before it actually committed itself , usually after the heavy lifting had been done by others.



We owe more to the Russians than we do the Americans for our freedoms, without the Russians holding the Germans in the east in both conflicts the US would have been decimated with little or no impact on the outcome.

Answer 12

When you play with "What if.."'s, then anything is possible.



Could the have won? Sure.



Would it be at all likely? No.



They were successful at the start because of surprise and speed.

But they weren't able to maintain those advantages. When they ran out, it was only a matter of time before the superior production of the Allies wore them down.



The best likely outcome for them would have been that they prolong the war to a point where a treaty is designed. And even that would be highly unlikely.

Answer 13

1. Franklin D. Roosevelt is assinated in Miami in 1932. So he never led America out of the depression.



2. Because of that, crucial allied victories were never won because of lack of supplies.

Answer 14

There were a number of things that the Germans could have done differently that fall into the categories of arrogance though arrogance and boldness were there big asset early on so perhaps they could not overcome some of them.

-Hitler delayed going total war in industry & rationing until after things went bad in russia. Women were not fully introduced into the labor force and german production was slowed because of that.

-Japan and Germany both believed their codes were uncrackable, and the Japanese got thumped at midway and the mastermind of Peral harbor got shot down directly because of it. The cracking of german codes because of presumed infallability, led to tracking & sinking of german subs, troop deployment info etc, giving th allies a serious advantage and likely preventing the british from being more seriously starved out of supplies, food etc,. Had germans understood their codes were not uncrackable and had been directed to change their dials (Those of you familiar with enigma) each time they sent messages or even monthly or weekly then code cracking would have been near impossible.

-Had hitler not apparently punished his generals (per some shows I have seen on the history channel) by first pausing them at the scene of a german surrender for a day or so and then by pulling them back at dunkirk and letting Goerings airforce try to wipe them out then perhaps the germans would have prevented most of the 400,000 or so britsh and french soldiers who escaped from doing so. Those soldiers washed arrived on British soil, were rearmed and potential threats to any future german invasion or at least a morale boost. later those same soldiers were used against the germans from Africa to Italy to the invasion of Europe. Had even half of them been killed or caught think of the negotiating chip for a surrender or armistice with Britain, think of the morale killing effect of losing that many fighting men, think of the more intense draft the British would have had to implement, think of the French agents from that pool that the british could not insert in to france to organize resistance etc etc. Hitler sometimes screwed around due to his arrogance and it cost him.

Things that are not about arrogance that could have made a difference. More hindsight and ideology than arrogance.

- Had Hitler sent some paratroopers to assist the Italians in Greece, not that they knew the Italians would screw that up, then perhaps he would not have had to commit late in the game so many planes and troopers that it would delay his Russian invasion.

- Bigger is not better. Hitler loved big. The king tiger was too big. There was a massive transport glider that was a dangerous waste. He invested in several pocket battle ships despite knowing that the brits had overwhelming naval power. More money and resources into big tank guns and incremental change in proven models would probably have served them better.

-Some think that had he invested the money in giving the navy several dozen to perhaps 100 more submarines before the war started that the blockade against England may have forced them to surrender, and would also have meant far less supplies eventually have got to the Russians.

-In some cities half of the german doctors before Hitler came to power were jewish. The extermination of the Jewish people and their eradication from society likely boosted german casualties somewhat significantly and may have meant that averge daily forces in combat were lowered by one to several percentage points because of this and day by day that matters. ideologically it was probably a non starter to have saved the doctors or have saved their families by giving them new identities and let them serve in combat. The Jewish question rallied the german people, aided hitlers rise and if he had not gone after them he may not have risen to power in the first place in a perverse way, so only a hostage situation with them in field hospitals probably would be the alternative that could have helped but it would not have happened.

-The failure to train more pilots prior to the war. In the end they had planes, too little fuel and too few pilots.

Answer 15

It could of have occurred if the Allies did not fight the Axis powers

Answer 16

Several country's like th US, Britain, Germany, France, Netherlands, and others were building ship's for Japan, allowing Japan to grow it's Navy. All of these countries were getting rich by selling Japan all the supplies needed for combat ships. These wars were planned out years in advance. Objective was to kill as many people as possible, and to get rich doing it. This was like playing Monopoly, a strategic plan for the world. It was planned that Germany fight one side, and Japan fight the other sides. The best thing that could of happened was that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. This gave Hitler room to kill more people, and for other country's to kill there people as well. They could kill there own people but, blame it on russia or japan, or some other country. Germany gave America the A Bomb, so it could be dropped on Japan. So, in 1941 pearl harbor happened, and Hitler was doing his killings. This way, america could not interfere because America was in war with Japan. America could of dropped the A Bomb in 1941, but held off until hitler killed millions of people. Britain was the One Power in the middle coordinating all of this. I believe Japan and China were ousted from these Strategic plans. So, we made Russia our enemy in 1950, and we scared the Americans in believing Russia was our enemy, when in fact Russia was our brothers, along with Germany too. So, since we made Russia our enemy, we said we need more money for this or that to fight against Russia's spying, and to build our defenses up. So, from 1950-1970 we spent billions of tax payer money to build up everything except our military navy, and military army as well. We spent money on the US Air Force, Submarines, and satellites for the space program. In 1971 we were told that the man and women both have to work, so, we starting working, paying back all this money we spent. Then around 1972 they started fooling around with the stock market and manipulating the monies. I believe somewhere down the line I think in the early 80's the market crashed bad, but we rushed and made more money and kept it afloat till January 31, 2008. When in fact we were in a Depression, not recession, depression. We won't come out of this until the year 2021. This depression was all about making money for the RICH People in our world. They are called the Four Father's. None of this can be proved, this is just me taking a guess.

Answer 17

Shoulda woulda coulda.



The best chance for the Germans was to knock England out BEFORE attacking USSR.



Once they did that and USA got in the war, it was all over but the shouting.

I have heard it said that Churchill danced a jig when he heard about Pearl Harbor and exclaimed "We win. Now we win for sure!"

Answer 18

Geo political factors were loaded against them. Still, some Fascists like you keep asking this.

Answer 19

they didn't, that what really counts