The Allies and Axis Mistakes of World War II
The Allies and Axis Mistakes of World War II and Their Effects on the Outcome of the World
Jeff L Easterday
University of Tennessee-Knoxville
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The Allies and Axis Mistakes of World War II
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Abstract
The main purpose of this paper is to identify the key mistakes that took place during World War
II. The paper begins with a brief summary of decision making and mistakes that took place in
random events in history. It then goes into the ally nations and describes eight different
scenarios that took place that did not go as planned. After describing each scenario, it is briefed
what went wrong and what could have happened if a different course of action was taken. The
next session then goes into the Axis powers and the mistakes that they made. This essay
indicates the numerous issues that took place, and strives to discuss the issues and how they
affected the outcome of the war. After the analysis, the paper wraps up with a closing section,
and tries to outline mistakes and how they are a requirement of the human condition.
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The Allies and Axis Mistakes of World War II and Their Effects on the Outcome of the World
There are many areas of study that like to consider the possibilities of what
something might have become if certain events did not take place. This is a very broad question
to answer, and since there is no way to actually travel in time to arrange the chess pieces, we
are only able to use estimation to figure out what might have happened. Although it is truly
estimation, the amount of statistical data and analytics can make very accurate responses. This
kind of problem solving is used to estimate events in history, whether that be if Christopher
Columbus did not make it to America, or the outcome of a war. What is very intriguing is the
idea that different sized events can have varying degrees of effect. What if the United States
didn’t win the revolution is a much larger question than, what if more states seceded from the
Union? These very different questions pose many different outcomes.
The topic of this paper is going to take a deeper look into World War II, and the players
involved. We will be looking into the biggest mistakes that were made, and the potential
speculation of what might have been if other options were taken. The report will first look at
the allies, and then we will take a look into the axis countries involved. Throughout each
analysis, we will discover the major fumbles that each side had.
If you ask the average American citizen to think about World War II, they will usually
speak to three ideas: Pearl Harbor, Nuclear Bombings of Japan, or the Invasion of Normandy.
The fact of the matter is most Americans do not seem to realize that the world had been at war
for nearly three and half years before the United States ever became a player. In terms of the
allies involved, our main players were England and France. At the time, both of these countries
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were extremely developed and on paper, would be able to handle most conflict with any nation
trying to start conflict.
Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, and France and England declared war
on Germany. This was a good decision; however, the allies did nothing. It was as if they did not
want to rush into Germany and begin showing them how much it was going to hurt for invading
Poland. It showed cowardice of the ally forces, and it even showed a betrayal to Poland. France
and Poland had worked together to steal an Enigma Machine that the Nazis used to protect
military information. Germany was able to walk into Poland basically unscathed, and took over
a country that was just not ready for the conflict. It is also known that Germany’s generals were
so scared of a counter offensive, that they placed 46 infantry divisions across the western
German border. At the time, France on paper had the ability to mobilize hundreds of divisions,
not including four British expeditionary forces. Field Marshal Erich von Manstein noted in his
memoirs, “Poland’s situation was so dire that it’s only option was to “hold out until an offensive
by the Western Powers compelled the Germans to withdraw the mass of their forces from the
Polish theatre”. This attack never came, and it was one that German military leaders would be
thankful for. It also allowed for a very important variable: Planning for the Invasion of Paris.
Allied forces gave the German conflict nearly an entire year to plan its invasion of France, and
this planning led to the ultimate success of it doing so. It is also sent a psychological message
that the Western Powers were not prepared to intervene with any kind of military resolve, and
this message was heard loud and clear by Axis leaders. Even if this message was inaccurate, or if
it was miscommunicated, the axis countries took this message to heart, and began to push even
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harder into western allied countries. A final note to discuss, Frances ultra-defensive Maginot
line indicated, the country was clearly not looking into an offensive strategy.
France was not off to a good start in terms of planning for conflict with Germany, and
the Battle of the Ardennes was not an exception. It must be stated that the German General
Manstein and his sickle cut plan is maybe the greatest strategic maneuver in World War II, or
even in military history; but his plan also was able to go so well due to France’s lack of
preparation. France did not notice any build up of German military off their eastern border, and
the thought of Germany assaulting through the Ardennes was considered ridiculous. France
also assumed that Germany would attack and strategize exactly like the they did during the
First World War. This in turn allowed the Germans to attack with their first wave of troops,
allied forces rushed North to intercept, and Germany counterattacked with an offensive from
the south. This led to the situation at Dunkirk. The mistakes at Ardennes also led to another
unfortunate circumstance: No more defense. Due to the French not having any strategic
reserves to combat the invading Germans, the doors to Paris were essentially wide open. This
allowed Hitler and his blitzkrieg tactics to baffle the allied forces, and fully take over France in
just a mere six weeks.
In more recent times, Presidents of the United States have always had a secret service
unit attached to their hip wherever they went. A smart tactic that has proved useful in
deterring and combating threats to our executive branch, and has allowed the President to
make decisions without interference. The idea of body guards has allowed many leaders and
people of a famous nature to feel safe in a disturbing, and chaotic society. This teaching was
something that the British had to learn through their conflict with Germany. Ever since World
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War I, the British had become very close with Germany and her infamous U-Boat attacks. These
clever maneuvers would disrupt allied ships, and create chaos and terror for those who needed
to traverse the cold Atlantic waters. Through all of this fear came some brilliant planning by
Naval Fleet commanders, and the idea of the Ship Convoys became a standard operating
procedure. Convoys, much like the idea of having secret service, placed ships designed to
protect the bigger, bulkier, and less agile ocean liners. Eventually in practice, they would set up
convoys based on the cargo, whether that be crew or resources, and how fast the ships were to
move through their planned course. The zig-zagging motions of multiple ships helped keep
lurking U-Boats at bay, and scared them from launching most attacks. Submarines have the
element of surprise, but the convoys kept them from intervening. To emerge from the water
would be suicide in itself, with so many ships ready to launch artillery and depth charges on its
adversary; and if a submarine was to try and submerge to escape danger, all it would take
would be a few well placed depth charges to erase the threat. These tactics were perfected by
the British since World War I, but the Americans were not so lucky. One of Americans own
Admiral King, did not take the lessons the British had perfected seriously, and this led to an
onslaught on American ships. During the months of January and February of 1942, over two
million tons of shipping was lost. It would not be until May 1942 that America had learned her
lesson, and adopted the shipping convoy technique.
Never underestimate your enemy is one of the most important mindsets you must have
when going against another culture. The climate we have now in the Middle East could not be
more representative of this school of thought, and we have many people, soldiers and civilians,
that do not think of our adversaries to be on the same level as ourselves. This is a huge flaw
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that is not a very new concept. The Japanese were yet another culture that was very
misunderstood. It is known that many people believed that the Japanese were a sub-human
barbaric people. It is even documented that Japanese troops could not see very well in the
dark. They were believed to not have any original thought, and their military was believed to
be a “pathetic attempt to copy the obviously superior western militaries.” This led to the idea
that western powers would easily walk in, and wipe out the Japanese if they stood in our way.
These preconceived notions led to basically three outcomes. The first was that the allies only
placed a second string of troops and leaders to defend against a Japanese attack. The second
outcome was the fact that the Allies had made little to no effort to study Japanese military
tactics, or even try to understand the capabilities that they could have. The final outcome was
that Japan was able to conquer more territory in the first six months of the war, than any other
country. It is amazing to see how just a stereotype and racism of a culture could lend to its
success in combat. A success that led to the greatest conquest in history.
The battle of Normandy is one of the most gruesome scenes to speculate about during
World War II. It has been depicted in very famous movies and in video game culture. What is
even more astounding being that it was not the first attempt to secure a beach head during the
war. On August 19th 1942, Canadian Infantry with thousands of British troops and many
commandos laid attack down on the French port Dieppe on the English Channel. This was
apparently an attempt to secure Nazi-held land in Europe, but ended in disaster. The battle
lasted nine hours, and since the Germans were prepared and alert for the attack, over 1,000
soldiers were killed, and 2,000 were taken as prisoners. The air battle overhead destroyed over
106 allied aircraft, with only 48 German joining their demise.
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There are a few historians who believe that this was a plan by Winston Churchill to
prove to Americans how difficult a beach head attack would be in Europe. Others say that it
was completed entirely by British Commandos in an attempt to secure a Nazi Enigma machine.
What we do know is that it showed the allies how difficult a beach offensive would be. This was
not attempted again until two years later- The invasion at Normandy.
Public figures find themselves making some extremely rash and potentially idiotic
decisions. This is not a new subject, and it seems as if every day there is some politician getting
caught saying, or doing something stupid. President Franklin D. Roosevelt is known, during
World War II, to have uttered a seemingly careless phrase. During the Allied Casablanca
conference in January 1943, President Roosevelt gave a speech in which he demanded a
“unconditional surrender” of Germany. The speech was impromptu and obviously not well
thought out. Winston Churchill was completely stunned at the hasty remark, and it caused a bit
more problems than President Roosevelt would have anticipated. Before this remark, nothing
had really been stated about how to end this terribly brutal war; however, the die was now
cast. Nazi Germany had a propaganda minister, named Joseph Goebbels, and he could not have
been more excited about President Roosevelt’s outburst. Historians Agostino von Hassell and
Sigrid Macrae write:
“Goebbels’s propaganda was shrieking that all Germany would be enslaved; there was no
alternative but to fight to the bitter end. [Allen] Dulles quickly changed his mind [about the
policy of unconditional surrender]. He came to agree with the opposition that Goebbels had
been handed an extraordinary coup. Backing the nation into this cul de sac could only prolong
the war. He also knew about the stab-in-the-back theory promulgated by conservatives after
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Versailles—namely that Germany had not really lost the war militarily, but that revolutionaries
and democrats on the home front had stabbed the army in the back. Generals Hindenburg and
Ludendorff had an interest in camouflaging the German defeat, and blamed it on insufficiently
patriotic factions on the home front. Hitler had exploited this theory expertly.”
This demand for unconditional surrender sparked a huge moral boost to the Nazi cause, and
does explain why resistance towards the end of the war spiked significantly. The plan by
Morgenthau also did not help this cause. This plan would have turned Germany into an
Agrarian state, and would deindustrialize the entire country. These two ideas really helped push
the Germans back into their train of thought on how this war was going to be fought until
desecration.
Mistakes are sometimes made in situations that were the beginnings of great success.
Operation Shingle was one of those plans. During early 1944, the German forces in Italy were
forced back along their winter season line of defense. This seemed like a blessing to the allies,
and they created Operation Shingle, which was designed as an amphibious landing in Anzio to
restore mobility in the Italian campaign. The plan in itself was designed to outflank German
forces, which would have allowed an attack on Rome. The invasion started out great, but the
actual objective of out flanking the Gustav Line failed miserably. This in turn created a trench
war fare scene much like the World War I battle fields. Hitler himself is quoted in referring to
the battle as “Anzio Abscess”. The fighting lasted nearly four months, and it resulted in 66,200
casualties. The German figures were comparable. As a final thought to this setting, the United
States center of military history has published this analysis:
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“Anzio failed to be the panacea the Allies sought. As General Lucas repeatedly stated before the
landing, which he always considered a gamble, the paltry allotments of men and supplies were
not commensurate with the high goals sought by British planners. He steadfastly maintained
that under the circumstances the small Anzio force accomplished all that could have been
realistically expected. Lucas’ critics charge, however, that a more aggressive and imaginative
commander, such as a Patton or Truscott, could have obtained the desired goals by an
immediate, bold offensive from the beachhead. Lucas was overly cautious, spent valuable time
digging in, and allowed the Germans to prepare countermeasures to ensure that an operation
conceived as a daring Allied offensive behind enemy lines became a long, costly campaign of
attrition.”
This collection of mistakes is not complete, and there are many other reported blunders
committed by the Allied nations during this war. The inability for the US and British to produce
higher quality tanks, Churchill’s late decision to send troops to protect Greece in 1940, and the
United States sending very inexperienced troops to the front lines are just a few more topics
that could be discussed. This next section will be focused on Axis efforts, and the blunders that
they committed during the World War II era.
The Axis forces were compromised of three countries. Germany led the way with Italy
and Japan joining in on the influence. Exactly like their allied enemies, they to made horrendous
mistakes that could have made very different outcomes on the world. Throughout this section,
we will analyze the the blunders that Axis nations made during World War II.
Mussolini is not normally the fascist leader that people think of when looking at Axis
leaders, obviously that spot is saved for Hitler. Mussolini though was a strategist himself, and
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believed that he had a duty to Italy and her interests. After being in a world where Hitler had
already had conquered France, it was time for Mussolini to get in on the action. Mussolini
decided to invade Greece in the summer of 1940. This not only was a point that he wanted to
get in on the action that his comrades had already begun, but wanted to prove to Hitler and the
entire world that Italy was just as threatening as Germany. In fact, Mussolini is quoted in saying:
“Hitler always faces me with a fait accompli,” he confided to his brother-in-law, “This time I am
going to pay him back in his own coin. He will find out from the newspapers that I have
occupied Greece.”
Mussolini’s campaign began on October 28th 1940, but his efforts were met with equal force.
The Greeks immediately counter attacked their invaders, which forced roughly 530,000 Italian
troops back. March 1941, a subsequent attack was diminished as well. This second failure made
Hitler feel embarrassed for his Ally, and pushed him to make the decision to aid in Mussolini’s
efforts. Greece was defeated in April 1941. This would seem like a victory, although in the long
term it certainly was not. Germany had allocated resources into Greece, and this effort was not
sustainable for the German power. This in turn forced Germany to recuperate for nearly 5
weeks, delaying their invasion of Russia. This delay then pushed Germany to invade Russia
closer to the winter months, and this mistake eventually led to the German army being taken
over by Russia. The puzzle pieces that this decision had were astronomical, and Hitler blamed
Mussolini’s mistakes for his failure in invading Russia.
Hitler decided to carry on his Russian Invasion, naming it Operation Barbossa. Hitler was
actually hell bent on seizing the Russian territory, and believed that he was destined to have
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the east. The number of mistakes that were made in Russia were unsurmountable. The initial
invasion of Russia proved that Hitler had the power to essentially “kick down doors and watch
Russia crumble”. The entire conflict was absolutely massive, a front that spanned over 1000’s
of miles, which encompassed over 3 million axis soldiers and thousands of tanks and artillery.
One of biggest strategic mistakes was Operation Blau, which led to the Battle of Stalingrad.
Stalingrad was a very industrial Russian city, which was home to the manufactures of many
military facilities. During the push to Stalingrad, Hitler split his Wehrmacht group into equal
halves. One was to continue heading towards Stalingrad, while the other was to secure the
Caucasus oil fields. This decision to split the unit was disastrous. Even though Field Marshal
Paulus of the German unit captured over 83% of Stalingrad, he was eventually beaten by a
strategic pincer movement by the Russians. The combination of this movement and the terrible
winter weather sinking in, German morale and troops began to deplete. This left Field Marshal
Paulus no choice but to surrender. If Hitler would have not split his unit, he may very well have
taken Stalingrad, and continued on with his Eastern invasion plans.
Never is a country more patriotic than when they have to band together. The Olympics,
as well as international sporting events create this atmosphere, and so does war. When 9-11
occurred, Americans were screaming for the chance to go and serve and destroy their
adversary. By late 1941 the Japanese had found itself in a very difficult situation. Due to its
hyper-expansion policies, the country just could not simply sustain these efforts without
resources. The United States had already stopped exports of oil to Japan, and its large
encroachment was under pressure due to international economic concerns. The United States
was also providing military aide to China, and this placed even more pressure on Japan. At this
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point, Japan had two options: Pull out of its invaded territories, or acquire more resources from
European colonies of south east Asia. The current projections at the time showed that if the
United States did enter the war, they would surely trounce the Japanese. To stave off the
Americans, Japan planned its attack on Pearl Harbor. The operation was intended to destroy
important American fleet units, buy Japan precious time as it mounted its Southern Operation,
and strike a severe blow to U.S. morale.
This decision by the Japanese produced a very limited victory. Aside from damaging the
ships in port, American carriers were completing sea exercises at the time and were not
damaged at all. This would in turn prove devastating for the Japanese at Midway. This also
officially caused the United States to declare war. The Japanese could not handle the ensuing
onslaught, nor could it keep up with U.S. production rates. The United Sates also had higher
levels of technology, as witnessed by the dropping of two atomic bombs in 1945.
The United States was officially at war with Japan, but not Germany. The AntiInterventionist was still strongly supported by the United States, and there was not necessarily
any tension to declare war on Germany too; at least not until Hitler declared war on the United
States. After only a measly three days, Germany declared war on the United States. Hitler
decided that if he was to show a helping hand to the Japanese, they in turn would help him pin
Russia down later in the war. He also believed that the Japanese could have wiped out the
United States anyway. This rash decision proved most incorrect, and only caused Hitler more
problems. The United States was officially in the war, turned them into a military superpower,
and they brought the much needed punch to the European front.
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The third Reich is filled with conspiracy involving aliens, teleportation, and time travel.
These all have been recorded as false, but Hitler and his fascination with “Wonder Weapons” as
he described them, were not. Germany produced many cool types of tech during the war, but
not the one that truly mattered: The atomic bomb. The United States, Canada, and Britain were
busy working on the Manhattan Project, while German efforts were not even close. The project
cost the allies nearly 2 billion dollars, and over 130,000 people working on achieving the nuclear
weapon. The Nazi culture failed to appreciate the mathematics and physics behind it, describing
it as “Jewish Science”. Hitler used this spare time trying to build his wonder weapons. Some of
these inventions included a precursor to the ballistic missile, jet aircraft, and massive tanks.
Hitler required that the German tanks must be massive, and this placed considerable strain on
the manufacturing procedure. He got this idea from the massive tanks operated by the
Russians, but the only issue was the Russian KV tanks were fully functional and operational.
They were moderately fast, and had extremely strong anti infantry protection. Hitler’s tanks
were just a steel monstrosity, with almost no infantry protection and a top speed of 3
kilometers an hour. Overall, it can be seen that Hitler did not have his priorities in check for
research and development.
Hitler neglected many areas in the military theatre, but none was more neglected than
the German Navy. Nazi Admiral Karl Doenitz, the Kriegsmarine played the bench to the
Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe throughout the war. It is accurate that Hitler supported U-Boat
tactics, but he never quite devoted the time to develop a navy that could have secured his
vision for the worlds “largest stadium”. Prior to the war, Hitler spoke to to Albert Speer during
the budget discussion.
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“That’s less than two Bismarck class battleships. Look how quickly an armored ship gets
destroyed, and if it survives it becomes scrap metal in 10 years anyway. But this building will
still be standing centuries from now.”
The land ruling Nazi threat did not have the naval development to invade Britain. Hitler also did
not consider how much of a threat the British naval fleet could become. It is hard to speculate
what might have been, but its clear that if the Germans possessed a great navy, the war could
have very well taken place on different lands.
Russian people had lived under Joseph Stalin’s harsh rule for years before the Nazis
were at their front door. They were not strangers to cruel punishment, and situations such
Stalin deliberately starving 12 million Ukrainian peasants definitely were on the forefront of
peoples minds when the Germans came knocking. This invasion for some originally looked to be
blessing in disguise. This idea of liberation however, was completely destroyed due to Hitler
and the Nazi’s opinions of the Slavic people. What could have pushed Slavic people to fight for
Hitler turned into them realizing they were losing one repressive regime for another. This Nazi
ideology and racism trumped all practicality and common sense. The Slavic people were
considered sub-human and the Nazi’s could not accept any form of cooperation. By the time
the war was over, Nazi’s killed more than 9.3 million people throughout Eastern Europe. This
harsh treatment of people created super hostile environments for the Wehrmacht, and where
they were operating in. If the Nazi ideology was not as intense, the German culture could have
solicited help from these people, which in turn could have dethroned Stalin from power.
The story of Dunkirk has recently been a hit movie success, and is one of the speculation
areas for World War II. In May 1940, German Infantry and tank divisions had reached the North
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French coast of Noyelles-sur-Mer. It had only taken the Germans two weeks to traverse across
Europe, which forced the French and Allied troops to retreat. Germany victory began to look
inevitable, over 350,000 allied troops were being evacuated from Dunkirk to escape the
German assault. Hitler however did not order to attack the evacuating troops. This is potentially
the biggest mistake Hitler ever made during the war. It is said that after the war Hitler claimed
that he let them go as a gesture of goodwill, and hoped that Churchill would make an
agreement with Germany to allow the occupation to continue. The Allies were surrounded by
thousands of Nazi troops and tank divisions, as well as coming under heavy fire from the
Luftwaffe. Nazi Generals von Kluge and con Rundstedt halted their troops, as per direct orders
from Hitler. Some historians believe that this was done so Hitler could wield his authority over
his generals. No matter what the reasons were for his decision, they undoubtedly led to
successes carried out by the allied nations later in the war.
During World War II, there were more Axis powers than thought to be, but they were
not involved with the fighting. Spain was one of those countries. Spain was led by fascist leader
Francisco Franco, and he steadfastly refused to enter the war. Due to national interest, Spain
did not want to have its oil exports cut by the United States, and having to engage in another
war with the United Sates. The Spanish American war was still a fresh memory, and one that
the Spanish did not want to re-live. Hitler did try to persuade Franco to join up in arms, but
Franco demanded large quantities of grain, fuel, armed vehicles, and other armaments. Hitler
was so disgusted he threatened to annex Spanish territory, and is quoted in saying to Mussolini,
“I prefer to have three or four of my own teeth pulled out than to speak to that man again”.
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As for Turkey, as soon as war ensued they declared themselves neutral for the war.
Turkey was concerned with conflict with the Soviet Union, and did not want the conflict to
arise. They stayed neutral until their neighbor Bulgaria, joined the Axis powers. To confront a
potential threat, Turkey signed a non-aggression pact with Germany. Turkey kept with this
stance until 1944, where they decided to declare war on axis powers. Germany missed an
extremely useful opportunity to collaborate with these originally axis nations.
The Axis nation made many mistakes during its tours of occupation across Europe and
the Pacific. A large majority of these mistakes stemmed from strategic decisions, and had little
to do with error in operations. The axis nations led campaigns due to racial ideology, and a lack
of appreciation for other culture. These set backs as well as the lack of some decisive decision
making led to a demise in Axis military efforts.
The allies and the axis efforts both had their flaws in decision making. Decisions are
made by every single person, every single day. These choices have a butterfly effect on what
happens to the world as we make them. It is correct to state that we all have a hand to play in
the outcome of the world. We cannot accurately estimate every single choice and its outcomes.
The key to understand is that every player in this theatre was human, and mistakes are
inevitable. What makes the difference is how much return we get on a choice that we make,
and if we are able to carry on our operations by making our choices. Winston Churchill once
said, “True genius resides in the capacity for evaluation of uncertain, hazardous, and conflicting
information.” Our mistakes are based on the knowledge we collect, and when collecting
knowledge, we will have mistakes.
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Work Cited
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II.
Dvorsky, G. (2014, February 03). The 8 Worst Mistakes Made by the Axis During World War
II.
Gwatkin-Williams, C. R. (2009, September 14). World War 2: Convoy was the key to defeat of
U-boats last time.
The BIggest Mistakes of World War II.
Winston, G. (2015, September 03). Hitler's Mistake at Dunkirk