Wwii why the allies won

Germany and the other Axis Powers promptly declared war on the United States. After a long string of Japanese victories, the U. Pacific Fleet won the Battle of Midway in June , which proved to be a turning point in the war.

On Guadalcanal, one of the southern Solomon Islands, the Allies also had success against Japanese forces in a series of battles from August to February , helping turn the tide further in the Pacific. In mid, Allied naval forces began an aggressive counterattack against Japan, involving a series of amphibious assaults on key Japanese-held islands in the Pacific.

The approach of winter, along with dwindling food and medical supplies, spelled the end for German troops there, and the last of them surrendered on January 31, Soviet troops soon advanced into Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania, while Hitler gathered his forces to drive the Americans and British back from Germany in the Battle of the Bulge December January , the last major German offensive of the war.

An intensive aerial bombardment in February preceded the Allied land invasion of Germany, and by the time Germany formally surrendered on May 8, Soviet forces had occupied much of the country.

Hitler was already dead, having died by suicide on April 30 in his Berlin bunker. President Harry S. Post-war Germany would be divided into four occupation zones, to be controlled by the Soviet Union, Britain, the United States and France. Heavy casualties sustained in the campaigns at Iwo Jima February and Okinawa April-June , and fears of the even costlier land invasion of Japan led Truman to authorize the use of a new and devastating weapon.

Developed during a top secret operation code-named The Manhattan Project, the atomic bomb was unleashed on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August. On August 15, the Japanese government issued a statement declaring they would accept the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, and on September 2, U. Although more than 1 million African Americans served in the war to defeat Nazism and fascism, they did so in segregated units.

The same discriminatory Jim Crow policies that were rampant in American society were reinforced by the U. Black servicemen rarely saw combat and were largely relegated to labor and supply units that were commanded by white officers.

There were several African American units that proved essential in helping to win World War II, with the Tuskegee Airmen being among the most celebrated. But the Red Ball Express, the truck convoy of mostly Black drivers were responsible for delivering essential goods to General George S.

Yet, despite their role in defeating fascism, the fight for equality continued for African American soldiers after the World War II ended. They remained in segregated units and lower-ranking positions, well into the Korean War , a few years after President Truman signed an executive order to desegregate the U.

World War II proved to be the deadliest international conflict in history, taking the lives of 60 to 80 million people, including 6 million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis during the Holocaust. Civilians made up an estimated million deaths from the war, while military comprised 21 to 25 million of those lost during the war. Millions more were injured, and still more lost their homes and property. Over the following 18 months, the Wehrmacht strove repeatedly to regain the initiative — most famously at Stalingrad — but failed to do so to any decisive extent.

It was fuelled by immense if brutally executed feats of Soviet industrial production, and increasingly by vast economic aid from the United States. Following further German failure at Kursk in July , the Red Army pressed forward inexorably, and the Wehrmacht was never again able even to attempt to claw back the advantage.

Seventy-five years ago this month, Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allies, bringing to a close the European war. Historians tend to view the Second World War predominantly through the prism of strategic decisions and fighting at the coalface, when an arguably more important consideration is how combatant nations marshal their resources.

It suggests exactly what it is: a demonstration of immense materiel power and wealth. What is so astonishing is that, at the start of the war, neither Britain nor the United States had much of an army and both had comparatively small air forces — very small in the case of the US.

Yet in four years, they had grown exponentially and were fighting equally in the air, on land and at sea, on a truly global scale. They were also providing materiel support to the Soviet Union. That the United States became the arsenal of democracy is reasonably well known, but the speed with which it achieved this is less understood. Key to this was prioritisation, which was dictated by a very clear goal or endgame, and brought research, development and production into very sharp focus.

In contrast, both Germany and Japan were, after initial gains, caught in a production spiral from which they simply could not recover. Food and fuel were their biggest shortages, but materiel failure ran across the board.

James Holland is a historian and author. He is currently working on a new book about the Sicily campaign. It may be argued that American supplies — everything from aluminium to spam, boots, trucks and telephone cable — made an important contribution to Soviet victory, but in the crucial first 18 months of the eastern war, western materiel reached the USSR in modest quantities, making only a marginal contribution to the Soviet war effort until , by which time the battle of Stalingrad had been fought and won.

But I have always thought that if Hitler, instead of launching Barbarossa, had reinforced Rommel and completed the conquest of the Mediterranean and Middle East, as I believe he could have. It might well have been replaced by a Tory administration that sought a compromise peace with Germany. It is unlikely there was ever any easy route to winning the Second World War, or has been in any great clash between more or less evenly matched modern industrial powers. I suppose a scenario can be pondered wherein the western Allies dallied until an atomic bomb was built, then used it against Germany.

But that presupposes US entry into the war, and indeed many other things. I rest my case that an enormous amount of killing and dying had to happen before the Nazis were crushed, and though it did not seem so to the western Allies and their peoples at the time, posterity can see that the Soviets did most of it.

Between and , the Soviet Union produced 58, T tanks. They were not the most powerful tanks in terms of firepower, nor the fastest, but their vast numbers won battle after battle for the Red Army, which is what ultimately destroyed Nazi Germany.

British training came to emphasize patrolling the jungle aggressively and, if flanked or surrounded, avoiding a disorderly retreat as had happened in Malaya in —42 and Burma in Instead, they stood firm in defensive boxes with all-around fields of fire. By contrast, the Japanese never changed their tactics. Obviously, resources played a big part in each victory.

Recovering Burma depended on the Allied ability to airdrop supplies along the India-Burma border in , yet the campaign was won by the troops on the ground who fought successfully using those supplies. The Americans displayed similar improvement in their two Philippines campaigns.

Thomas Blamey, commander in chief of the Australian army, took personal command of Allied operations in New Guinea in September A subsequent report by Major General Stanley Savige on the operations of his 3rd Australian Division in the Salamaua area in emphasized the value of air support but also underscored the need for ground troops to be physically fit and led by experienced junior officers and noncommissioned officers.

He maintained that the Australians fought more effectively because of their training and determination. In contrast, the Japanese relied on simple, inflexible tactics, disliked moving in small patrols, and were inaccurate with small arms. Allied medical care, particularly important in jungle warfare, was far better than Japanese care. Resources and technology were important, but so was the way in which medical science was employed.

The British army transformed its care of sick and wounded during the war. Doctors used new medical practices that included immunizing against tetanus, and new drugs like sulfanilamides and penicillin. In contrast, the Germans lacked antibiotics and many of their wounded suffered from severe sepsis.

When early campaigns indicated that large field hospitals were of limited use in mobile warfare, the Allies emphasized field ambulances and mobile specialist units.

By , most British casualties were receiving treatment within hours of being wounded. By using antimalarial drugs and emphasizing hygiene, the British helped cut troop hospital admissions in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the central Mediterranean, with rates of sickness falling considerably lower than in the German, Italian, or Japanese armies. With experience, the Allies made incremental advances in antisubmarine tactics, weaponry, and doctrine.

These steps included not only better equipment improved radar and searchlights but also the development of formations and tactics for convoy escorts that proved more effective. In the crucial Midway Campaign, flawed planning and preparation doomed the Japanese.

They underestimated American strength, and their deployment in pursuit of an overly complex plan was very poor, as was their tactical judgment. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto also overestimated the role of battleships in any naval combat with the United States. American preparation was superior. The United States had developed carrier warfare techniques, enhancing cooperation with other surface warships. By intercepting and deciphering coded Japanese radio messages, Americans were able to anticipate what their opponents would do.

Despite these systemic advantages, the United States still had to win at Midway. Far from being an inevitable result, that victory reflected superior American tactical flexibility. This was a battle in which American ability to locate opposing ships proved crucial. In the air war, the Allies produced more airplanes than Japan and Germany, but also excelled in supporting them on the ground. Training large numbers of airmen and mechanics paid off in the Pacific.

In particular, there was a growing disparity in quality between American and Japanese pilots. The Japanese soon had fewer aircrews, and these typically had less training and flying experience than their adversaries. By the Allies had significantly better aircraft. The Japanese introduced no new plane types in quantity after the Mitsubishi A6M Zero, which had made such an impact in their initial advances. All not only outperformed the Zero but also had better protection.

In , the Luftwaffe lost large numbers of planes responding to American air raids, partly because the fighter ultimately developed to guard the long-range bombers, the North American P Mustang, was superior to German interceptors. Since the Germans had not increased their training programs in , by they were finding it difficult to replace pilots, and in any event the Luftwaffe could not afford fuel for training pilots.

By the time of the Normandy landings, the Germans had already lost the air war. Historians have also given insufficient attention to the failure of the Axis as an alliance. Germany and Japan never created a military partnership or provided mutual economic assistance that in any way matched Allied cooperation.

Their attempts at naval coordination proved ineffectual. Even where cooperation was possible, as when Germany shared technology with Japan, no real achievement resulted.