Germany's Early Success in World War II

Though Adolf Hitler and the Third Reich had made it quite clear to most astute observers in the early 1930s that Germany was intent upon regaining ground lost economically, politically, and militarily after Germany's defeat in World War I, the quick series of decisive victories achieved by the resurgent German military in 1939 and 1940 were nevertheless a stunning surprise (Parker, 1989). In relatively short order Germany invaded and conquered, Poland, Norway, the Low Countries, and France, establishing itself in 1939 and 1940 as the dominant hegemon in Western Europe with a foot firmly planted in the East (Bullock, 1991). In this report, it will be argued that the success enjoyed by Germany in these early military campaigns was due to four key factors: technological advantages, leadership policies, a lack of preparedness and response capability on the part of German targets, and the tacit collusion of the Soviet Union and its leader Josef Stalin.

Prior to World War II, Hitler focused on the rearming of Germany û a task involving both mobilization of once defunct military units and the deployment of new technologies (Tolischus, 1969). The economic mobilization beginning in the early 1930s in Germany after Hitler came to power included both a planned economy and the placing of the entire German economy under military command. As early as 1938, observers of Germany's new economy and its totalitarian military

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and the tacit collaboration of Stalin and the Soviets made this feat possible (Bullock 1992). In the case of both Norway and the Low Countries, similar conditions prevailed (Bullock 1992). In addition, the failure of both Britain and France to have intervened in the cases of Austria, Czechoslovakia and later Poland also aided Hitler; as Bullock (1992) noted, the move into Norway (and later, the Low Countries) was less surprising to the other European powers, but the German advantage had been secured. Parker (1989) and Bullock (1992) have each noted that Hitler was impressed with the importance of Norway and her neutral territorial waters and the knowledge that the British were also preparing to occupy Norway. The Germans used their superior forces on the seas to beat the British to Norway in a completely surprising maneuver that also included the seizure of Norwegian airfield with German airborne troops. Bullock (1992) states that the Germans had clear dominance in terms of both air and sea forces and the British and French (in the case of Norway) never recovered from the advantage that the tactic of surprise had given to the Germans. According to Colonel David Zabecki (1999), Hitler's use of surprise and rapid f
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Approximate Word count = 1213
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

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