| The biggest mistake of WW2 and indeed of WW1 was that a country so enclosed in the European land mass as Germany was,its leadership chose to fight on two fronts.
Apart from coal, Germany had no access to oil similar to the inherent problem of Japan, to wage war against industrial opponents.To gain oil it had to conquer territory and that became increasingly difficult as the Allied Powers wound up their war machine to a fine tuned war economy and carried the war to the German industrial heartlands by the sea blockade in both wars and in WW2 by air.
With hindsight it can be fairly said that the Germans after their intoxicating victories in the west would not have been able to land sufficient men and material on Britain's shores to defeat the British.The Luffewaffe would have had extreme difficulty in controlling the skies above the invasion beaches with aircraft having less than one hours endurance over the target area.Moreover Hitler had difficulty amassing invasion barges for the Channel crossing and had to embark on requisitioning anything he could lay he hands on.Germany did not possess any craft designed and available to carry armoured vehicles in sufficient quanties to sustain a successful invasion.As it was during the Battle of Britain, Bomber Command continued to hit the anticipated jumping off invasion ports and hamper any build up of invasion craft and barges.However, it would have been a grim struggle for Britain had Germany been successful in creating a developing bridgehead on these shores.
The landings in Normandy were achieved after extensive planning and an understanding that the invasion of Europe would be the main operation for the European theatre for 1944 with a date envisaged of 1 May 1944.Even so that was put back because landing craft availabilty was not as planned.If attempted, a German invasion might have gone the same way as the Canadian/British raid on Dieppe (admitted not a committed invasion of Europe) without deep German military long term planning.
In 1940 Hitler did not have the men and materials to be involved in two active fronts.His strategic thoughts were always on Russia,the vast territory in the East which he forecast in his Mein Kampf as Germany's lebensraum.He showed his slanted anglophile personality when he lost interest in the British Isles always anticipating an accomodation agreement with the British Government.(Give me a free hand in Europe and I will not interfere with the British Empire).
It would be difficult to see the US defeated in WW2 by a combination of the Axis Powers even after a German victory over Europe and Russia.The US was too much of a formidable opponent in terms of land mass, industrial capacity and military manpower strength.It is difficult to accept that Germany and Japan could have sustained a successful invasion of North America.It would have also drawn Mexico and Canada into the common alliance against Germany.The US would have taken serious military precautions had Germany and Japan became so increasingly threatening to their postion in the world order.
If Hitler had been able to develop the atomic bomb during this era then it might have been a different possibility and the US mainland would have been presented with a serious threat to its existence. |