Germany

## Nazi Germany

One of the official flags of the Wehrmacht, used throughout most of World War II by Nazi Germany

## Geographic Information

### Terrain

Various, as Germany expanded throughout all of Europe

## Political Information

### Notable Cities

Linz (post Anschluss), Munich: "Capital of the Nazi Movement", Hamburg: "Capital of German Shipping" and Nuremberg: "City of the Reich Party conventions"

### Government

Unitary, Nazi, one-party, fascist state under a totalitarian, dictatorship

### Leader(s)

Adolf Hitler (23rd March, 1933 - 30th April, 1945), Karl Dönitz (30th April - 23rd May)

### Affiliation

Axis

Germany or Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later on as the Greater German Reich, was the main leader of the Axis faction and the main belligerent that fought against the Allies during World War II.

Notable engagements that Nazi Germany was involved in, included the invasion of Poland, the Western Front of World War II, during which, Nazi Germany had managed to successfully conquer the Lowland countries of Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium, then easily being able to steamroll over France under 2 and a half weeks, which in turn, resulted in the collapse of the French Third Republic and the German occupation of northern France and the establishment of Vichy France in the south, the North African Campaign, during which, Nazi Germany and Italy had engaged in vigorous attrition warfare with the Allies in their colonies in Africa and the Eastern Front of World War II, during which, Nazi Germany had used over 3.8 million Axis soldiers, which is the largest ever invasion force recorded in history, to invade the Soviet Union over a 2,900-kilometer or 1,800 mi frontline and in the ensuing chaos of the invasion, Germany had managed to take approximately 5% of all of the European land that the Soviet Union had possessed, throughout the whole operation. Nazi Germany was also involved in heavy fighting up north during Operation *Weserübung*, which was the codename for the German invasion of the Scandinavian states of Denmark and Norway, with the motive behind this invasion being to secure an important supply of iron ore that was much needed for the German war machine to keep on functioning properly.

## **Nazi Germany before the war**

Before the official start of the war, Nazi Germany was gaining more and more power behind the scenes, which is how it came to flourish during the middle years of the war. After Adolf Hitler became the de facto dictator of Nazi Germany on the 2nd of August, 1934, he had begun a campaign of national economical revival, by using a mixed economy and also using heavy military spending, which had managed to reverse the effects of the Great Depression and eliminate mass unemployment in Nazi Germany.

Due to the weak nature of Nazi Germany's army due to the restrictions put on them by the Treaty of Versailles, Hitler had to resort to deficit spending to secretly start a rearmament program, thus creating the *Wehrmacht*, the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany that would fight throughout most of World War II.

After the rearmament program ended and economic stability was brought to Nazi Germany, Hitler decided to expand his sphere of influence outside of the German mainland. It started with the German occupation of Austria, which would come to be known as *Anschluss*, which the Allies did nothing about, surprisingly enough. Then came the Sudetenland crisis, during which, Nazi Germany demanded the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia, of which in, about 3 million people lived, mostly ethnic Germans. The Allies agreed to give the Sudetenland to Nazi Germany for an exchange of no further territorial ambitions being pursued by Nazi Germany, which Hitler had also agreed to. Yet about 1 year later, Hitler had invaded the state of Czechoslovakia and conquered the western part of Czechoslovakia, proclaiming it as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, while setting up a fascist Slovak puppet state in the eastern part of former Czechoslovakia, again, the Allies did little to nothing about the issue.

Then Nazi Germany turned its attention towards the Polish corridor, which was what was splitting Nazi Germany from it's Prussian territories in *Königsberg* and after about a year of diplomatic talks between Nazi Germany and Poland constantly failing, nothing had come out of it. Therefore, Nazi Germany had decided to take aggressive measures against Poland instead. The only issue was, both France and Great Britain had guaranteed the independence of Poland, meaning that if Nazi Germany was to invade Poland, then the Allies would get involved as well but Hitler was not deterred from this and on September 1st, 1939, the invasion of Poland had begun. 2 days later, the Allies declared war on Nazi Germany. The Second World War had now officially begun...

## **The Invasion of Poland**

Following the German declaration of war on Poland, the severely underpowered Second Polish Republic was now at war with the much more heavily militarized and modernized state of Nazi Germany. From the very beginning, Nazi Germany had a very easy time pushing into Poland, as the young nation was completely unprepared for a war with any country. Nonetheless, the Poles had fought bravely against the invading *Wehrmacht* army with everything that they had, including outdated guns, bayonets and horses and due to their immense bravery in the face of an overwhelming enemy, the Poles had actually managed to stall the German army's progress somewhat but this moment of grace wouldn't last long, as on the 17th of September, the Soviet Union had started invading the eastern half of Poland, which completely wiped away the hope of Poland surviving this war. After the eventual capitulation of Poland on October 6th, Germany had annexed most of the western half of Poland, including the former Free City of Danzig and placing the rest of western Poland under a new civil administration which the Nazis called the "General Government", while the Soviet Union had annexed it's eastern claimed half of Poland. The Second Polish Republic was now no more.

## **Operation *Weserübung***

Just before the beginning of the Western Campaign by Nazi Germany, the Germans had invaded and occupied both Denmark and Norway. This became known as Operation *Weserübung*, which was initiated due to the fear of the Allies threatening the Norwegian iron ore supply, which was much needed to keep the German war economy going smoothly. The operation lasted about 2 months and 1 day, during which, 9 German divisions, 1 artillery battalion and 1 motorized rifle brigade managed to go up against and defeat 6 divisions from Norway and 2 divisions from Denmark. Following the fall of Denmark, the United Kingdom had decided to launch 2 military operations into the Danish colonies of Iceland and Greenland, to keep them safe from a possible German takeover.

## **The Western Campaign (Western Front of World War II)**

After an 8 month period of neither side doing any significant military action, which became known as the Phoney War, Germany had decided to strike once again, this time, at the country of France. Even though Hitler was advised by many of his high ranking officers not to go after France, Hitler still had decided to go ahead with the plan and started mobilizing forces on the borders of the Lowland countries, this was done due to the fact that France had built a line of fortifications along it's border with Nazi Germany during the Interwar period, to deter any possible German aggression. This line of defenses would eventually became known as the Maginot Line. The fortified line was considered almost impenetrable by the Germans, therefore, they decided to go around the line instead, by invading the Lowland countries of Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Belgium, which they did successfully. Then afterwards, they would push through the newly occupied territories into France and eventually capitulate the country, which they also successfully did.

After the Lowland countries had fallen to the advancing Panzers, France had managed to fall within only 17 days after the evacuation of Dunkirk, during which, over 338,226 Belgian, British and French soldiers were encircled at the French harbor city of Dunkirk and therefore, all of the soldiers had to be evacuated back to the British Isles via sea, to avoid capture and being annihilated by the German Forces. After France had fallen shortly after the battle of Paris, which Germany had won, the Second Armistice at Compiegne was signed by the fallen French Third Republic, which in turn, allowed the Germans to occupy most of the north half of France, while setting up a French fascist government in the south, which came to be known as Vichy France. After the Fall of France, Germany expected the British government to sign for peace, due to their isolated situation in Europe, however, the United Kingdom refused to surrender and because of this, a number of bombing raids shortly took place over the British Isles, which aimed to cripple the Royal Air Force, to allow complete air superiority for the *Luftwaffe* and to allow the beginning of operation Sea Lion, the planned invasion of the British Isles by Nazi Germany. However, this operation never came to fruition, following in the culmination of the Battle of Britain, the RAF had managed to retain it's air superiority over the English Channel, therefore denying any access to the Germans for an invasion of the British Isles via sea, therefore putting operation Sea Lion in the dust.

## **The North African Campaign**

During mid-1940, the Italian Empire had joined the war alongside it's trusty partner in the Axis, Nazi Germany. Due to this, the Allies began a campaign of taking over the Italian colony of Libya, which the Italians resisted fiercely but due to their limited supplies and weaker military compared to that of the Germans, the Italians had to seek help from Nazi Germany, which they gladly provided. During this time, the Allies and the Axis had engaged in various attrition warfare against each other, hoping to make one side run out of supplies quicker than the other side. In the end, with the United States getting involved in the war in 1941, they began to offer direct military assistance to the allies in North Africa, which eventually led to the Axis being completely kicked out of Africa and the Americans using this opportunity to stage the eventual invasion of Sicily, codenamed Operation Husky, in 1943.

## **Eastern Front of World War II (Operation Barbarossa)**

As Nazi Germany kept on conquering more and more of Europe for more "*Lebensraum*", they eventually came to the realization that it was time for their biggest challenge in the war, the invasion of the Soviet Union. The Germans started preparing, eventually mobilizing over 3.8 million personnel across all of the Axis, which was the largest ever known invasion force to be mobilized in the history of warfare. The Germans began the invasion of the Soviet Union on the 22nd of June, 1941, which had caught the Soviets completely off guard, which gave Nazi Germany the momentum to keep on going and take over major cities of the Soviet Union bit by bit, such as Kiev, Minsk and others. Eventually, the Germans would find themselves at the gates of Moscow, as they pushed into the "Third Rome" city. Initially, the offensive went well but due to the tenacity of the Soviet defenders, the German offensive on Moscow was halted, which in turn, gave the Soviets time to launch a counter attack at the German troops, completely kicking them out of Moscow and making them retreat into the surrounding cities surrounding Moscow. Nazi Germany was now in trouble.

Following the humiliating defeat at Moscow, Hitler had dismissed Walther von Brauchitsch from his position as the supreme commander of the German army, which Hitler replaced him for. During the re-thinking phase of the German offensive, the Soviet Union had managed to start a well thought out counter offensive against the German invaders, which forced the Germans even further back from Soviet territory. This would mark the end of Operation Barbarossa and the beginning of the Soviet counter offensive.

## **Allied pushback and Allied Invasion of Nazi Germany**

By late 1944, Nazi Germany had all but lost their advantage in the war, with their borders being reduced back mainly to their pre-1939 borders and getting even smaller by the day, as the western Allies (America, Great Britain, Canada, etc) advanced from a now liberated France in the west and the Soviet Union pushing from a liberated eastern Europe in the east, aiming for the German capital of Berlin, looking to avenge their fallen comrades. In a last ditch attempt, Hitler had ordered the execution of a similar movement that was done at Dunkirk, during the invasion into France, this similar offensive that was attempted by the Germans however, didn't go as smoothly as the one in 1940 did. This upcoming offensive which would come to be known as the Battle of the Bulge or the Ardennes Offensive, initially went well for the Germans, being able to surprise and semi-incircle the divisions that were located along the Ardennes region in Belgium and Luxembourg, yet just in a few days, the Allies had managed to launch a well thought out counter attack against the Germans, with the Germans trying another counter attack in return to keep tightening the encirclement, which the Allies successfully repelled. The Battle of the Bulge would become known as the last major offensive to be conducted by the *Wehrmacht* and would also become known as one of the most unsuccessful German military operations throughout the whole war, as after this, the western frontline of Nazi Germany had all but completely collapsed, allowing to the Allies to push in even deeper into German territory, while also allowing the Soviets in the east to launch a surprise early offensive, which then culminated into the eventual Battle of Berlin, which the Soviets had won. After the eventual Fall of Berlin, Hitler would commit suicide on the 30th of April, 1945 and Nazi Germany would proceed to surrender 8 days later after the take over of leadership by Karl Dönitz, which would mark the end of World War II in Europe.

## **Nazi Germany after the war**

After the end of World War II, the German Reich was completely devastated from the war, both politically and economically. Most of the former Nazi leaders and high ranking government figures had committed suicide, leaving almost no one to lead the devastated Reich. The infrastructure of the German Reich had also all but collapsed under the weight of the allied invasion of Germany. In the end, due to the anger of the Allies at Germany for starting a global war that killed millions and the lack of trust for an independent Germany due to their past military history, the Allies decided to split up Germany among themselves, with the Soviet Union taking a good portion of eastern Germany, America taking the south-eastern half of Germany, France taking the south-western half of Germany and Great Britain taking the north-western half of Germany. All of the above zones except the Soviet one, would eventually be merged into one unified state that would become known as West Germany. This was done in retaliation due to the Soviet Union's implementation of communist, totalitarian puppet states in eastern Europe and the fear of possible Soviet invasion of allied occupied zones in Germany, to help the spread of communism. Eventually, the Iron Curtain would descend across all of Europe and Germany would stay separated for another 45 years as the Cold War raged on between the United States and the Soviet Union...