Why did Germany Lose

WW2?
Essential Question: How did Germany declaring war on the US
affect their loss in World War 2?

Vocab:
Tripartite Pact
Two-front war
Erwin Rommel
 Breaking down the question
What is the question asking?

How did Germany declaring war on the US affect their loss in

World War 2?
- Did the German declaration of war against the US affect their warfare in WW2?
- Did it cause Germany to lose the WW2?
- What were other reasons for German loss?
What happened? Germany Declares War
- December 7 1941 - Pearl Harbor
- Japan declares war against the US
- The US answers on December 8
- Tripartite Pact did not oblige Germany to declare war on the US.
Germany, Italy, and Japan
“ARTICLE 3. Japan, Germany, and Italy agree to cooperate in their efforts on aforesaid lines. They further undertake to assist one another with all
political, economic and military means if one of the Contracting Powers is attacked by a Power at present not involved in the European War or in
the Japanese-Chinese conflict”

Plan: April 1941, Hitler secretly guaranteed that he would join Japan in a war on the United States. Hitler
thought he could strengthen relationship between Germany and Japan by declaring war on the US
December 11 1941. Hitler’s plan was to declare war and hope for the US to ‘get bored’.

Germany’s strategy was to defeat the USSR by a two front war.

-Declaring war on The United States → helping Japan
-Japan would then attack the USSR from other front.
“The Japanese decided they wanted a different prize — namely, the Pacific region.” MIguel Faria

Context: Germany was attacking the USSR, and German troops were losing outside Moscow
Reasons For German Defeat
“It has often been said that Hitler's greatest mistakes were his decisions
to go to war against the Soviet Union and the United States”
Mark Weber, the director of the Institute for Historical Review
Hitler was an idiot
- Overly confident
Hitler said: “If we succeed this year in getting our new tanks into the
line in the proportion of twelve per division, we'll crushingly outclass
all our opponents' tanks. It's enough to give Rommel twenty-four of them
to guarantee him the advantage. If the Americans arrive with their
tanks, he'll bowl them over like rabbits”

Erwin Rommel -known as Desert Fox, was Senior German Army Officer

Economic and military superiority of The Allies

The US was the biggest industrial state of the world, now focusing 90% of their military power against
Germany.
Churchill, 1940 “U.S. aid was the only thing that would make an Allied victory over Hitler possible. On its own, the best
Britain could do was to avoid defeat. Not until the U.S. joined the war could winning be a realistic aspiration.”
Reasons for German Defeat

● Germany overstretched
○ Two front war
○ Troops everywhere
○ Unfocused
 Significance of the declaration
- The US declared 90% of their military power against Germany
- Hitler could have focused more power against USSR
- D-day would not have happened
- 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces on fortified Normandy.
- Germany would not have had to fight on two fronts
- Germany could have won the war.
Answering the question
- Did German declaration of war affect German warfare in WW2?
- Fight two-front war
- D-day and Operation Barbarossa
- Did it cause Germany to lose the WW2?
- Yes, The US, which was the economically strongest state at the time focused over 90% of
their military power on Germany
- What were other reasons for German loss?
- Attacking Russia - Operation Barbarossa
- Two-front war
 Bibliography
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