Turning Points & Reasons

for Allied Victory in World

War II

Adapted from a History Lecture by Ken Webb

The issue of hindsight in history…

Advantages:• We know the result• Perspective• Can see the long-term effects of events• Research• Lack of emotional involvement (hopefully)

Danger:• Nothing in history is inevitable, even if hindsight suggests it is!

An outline…Turning Points:

• Identifying a turning point

• Suggestions– Battle of Britain (Aug – Sept 1940)– Survival of Moscow (Dec 1941)– El-Alamein (October 1942)– Kursk (July 1943)

Reasons for Allied Victory:

• Economies, organisation & mobilisation

• Victory at sea

• Air supremacy

• Moral high ground

• Leadership

Identifying a turning point…

• An ‘unhistorical’ notion?

• Too simplistic

• History is complex

• The danger of ‘what if’ history

• List of turning points is (almost) endless

The Battle of Britain: Aug – Sept 1940

• What, when, where?

• Outcomes

• Reasons for outcomes– RAF skill, courage– Churchill & British determination– radar– where battle was fought– German errors

• Beware the myths!– the ‘few’

Significance of the outcome of

the Battle of Britain (1)• End of Operation Sealion

– the debate: was it realistic?

• Britain’s survival– Churchill’s survival– galvanised opposition

• British morale

• International impact– the USA & Roosevelt

Significance of the outcome of

the Battle of Britain (2)• Richard Overy’s argument

– revisionist, but…– a calamity avoided

• Strategic significance– two-front war– ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’– promoting resistance– D Day & after

The Survival of Moscow: Dec 1941

• Operation Barbarossa

• Success of blitzkrieg– staggering Soviet losses– ‘unstoppable’ Wehrmacht

• August: Kiev & the Ukraine– impressive victory, but…

• Dec: Moscow, so close, but…– climate– logistics & communication– Stalin & Soviet morale– Zhukov’s tactics– effect on German morale

Significance of theSurvival of Moscow (1)• Russell Stolfi’s argument:

– Hitler so close in 1941– Britain no real threat– result: German control of Europe

• Rodric Braithwaite’s argument:– chaos of Moscow– impact of Moscow’s fall/survival

• Significance of Moscow:– communications hub– industrial centre– issue of morale– military & political collapse

Significance of theSurvival of Moscow (2)

• Moscow’s survival meant the Soviet Union’s survival

– economically, politically & psychologically

• Strategic significance– meaningful two-front war– economics an issue– the USA

• Why not Stalingrad?– symptom not cause of Nazi failure

The Battle of El-Alamein: Oct 1942

• October 1942:– British 8th Army, led by Montgomery– Deutsche Afrika Korps, led by Rommel (on leave)

• The battle:– artillery bombardment– overwhelming Allied superiority in tanks– infantry assault– ‘WWI battle fought with modern weapons’

• Lasted 12 days– ended with heavy Axis losses & DAK in full flight

Significance of the outcome of

the Battle of El-Alamein (1)• End of the Axis presence in

North Africa:– Nov ’42: Allied landings in Vichy N. Africa– Apr ’43: Tunisia falls– 250 000 Axis POWs

• Strategic importance:– Suez Canal is safe– oilfields of the Middle East safe– threatens Italy, Balkans

• Morale booster

• Historians’ differences:– John Bierman/Colin Smith call it

a major ‘turning point’– Russian historians claim it was small compared to the E. Front

• Churchill’s view:– ‘This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is perhaps, the end of the beginning.’ – ‘Before Alamein, we never had a victory. After Alamein, we never had a defeat.’

Significance of the outcome of

the Battle of El-Alamein (1)

The Battle of Kursk: July 1943

•Operation Citadel– Hitler’s view of Kursk– Stalin’s view of Kursk

• The battle:– greatest tank battle in history– Hitler ‘tantalisingly close’?– had to partially disengage to reinforce Sicily

• By Nov ‘43…– Germans had lost Kharkov, Smolensk, Kiev, etc

Significance of the outcome of

the Battle of Kursk (1)• Paul Carrell’s argument:

– in ’43, Nazi victory still a possibility– victory by the Germans would allow them to regain the strategic initiative

• General view of Kursk:– decisive defeat for Germany– strategic initiative passed to Red Army– inexorable process of weakening of the Wehrmacht

Significance of the outcome of

the Battle of Kursk (2)• Richard Overy’s argument:

– impact of German losses– balance of armoured vehicles now completely in favour of the Red Army– initiative passed to Red Army

• Teheran Conference in Nov ‘43:– dominated by the ‘Big Three’– discussed setting up post-war Europe– gave Stalin leverage

Axis defeat: isn’t it obvious?

Axis defeat has an air of inevitability

about it

Allies had:more men,

more weapons, more everything

Superior Allied

economic strength

Germany had ‘bitten off more

than it could chew’

Axis Defeat

Reasons for Allied Victory

ReasonsFor

AlliedVictory

USA’s‘economicmiracle’ Soviet Union’s

superhumanefforts

Situationinside

Nazi Germany

Allied controlof theseas

Alliedleadership

Alliedair

supremacy

Allied victoryin the

‘war of morale’

Situation inside Nazi Germany

• Germany in 1939 was geared for a short war

• Success of blitzkrieg led to complacency

• Internal structure & rivalries

• Role of ideology

• Belated move to ‘total war’ in 1943

• Chaos, confusion, rivalry & duplication

USA’s ‘economic miracle’

• Roosevelt’s persuasion & preparation

• American ‘know how’

• Mass mobilisation

• Patriotic profit

• Relatively untouched by war

• Some amazing production stats

Soviet Union’s superhuman efforts

• Fight for survival

• Single-mindedness of the Soviet state & people

• Economic relocation

• Rationalisation

• Soviet morale

• Some amazing production stats

Allied air supremacy• Effects of air supremacy

– closed the ‘Atlantic Gap’– destruction of enemy ground forces & supplies– freedom of movement for own assets– reduction of enemy morale & industry

•Relationship & differences between tactical & strategic bombing

• Allied innovation in strategic bombing

• Significance of strategic bombing

Allied control of the seas

• Britain almost brought to her knees by U-boat menace in WW1

• Churchill extremely worried by U-boat threat

• Kriegsmarine neglected by Hitler

• Allied control of shipping lanes crucial to supply Britain & build up troops to liberate Europe

• Air power crucial to closing the ‘Atlantic Gap’

• Achieved by mid-1943 in Atlantic & Mediterranean

Allied victory in the ‘war of morale’

• The ‘side of right’/moral ‘high ground’

• ‘Big Three’ presented a united front to the Axis

• The Resistance in Occupied Europe

• Nazi rule by fear/terror

• Domestic propaganda

Allied leadership• Hitler’s lack of perspective & decision-making

• Nazi system of government

• The ‘Big Three’

• (Western) Allied leaders were politically answerable to their countrymen

Reasons for Allied Victory

ReasonsFor

AlliedVictory

USA’s‘economicmiracle’ Soviet Union’s

superhumanefforts

Situationinside

Nazi Germany

Allied controlof theseas

Alliedleadership

Alliedair

supremacy

Allied victoryin the

‘war of morale’