As we celebrate the ending of the war 75 years ago, know this: victory for the Allies was never guaranteed, and historians agree there were countless ways Germany could have won the war. Defeat never came down to one battle or one campaign.
Was Germany ever close to winning WW2?
The answer is no. By the time Germany surrendered, Soviet forces had already invaded the majority of the country. Even if Germany hadn’t surrendered, its ally Japan was under a lot of pressure from the Soviet Union after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
What would Germany do to win WW2?
Germany had the military potential to defeat France and could have likely forced Britain to make peace, but with a Navy less than one-sixth the size of Britain’s, it had no means of attacking U.S. territory, let alone defeating the U.S. military.
Could the axis have won WWII?
That’s not exactly a win, but there was no way the Axis could ever defeat the United States. In the long run whichever side gained the upper hand scientifically (nuclear weapons, jets, snorkel submarines, etc.) might have been able to win a continuation of the war, immediately or at a later time.
How close was Germany to making an atomic bomb?
Although it is now clear that the German nuclear program never came close to producing a bomb, there is no doubt that it provided an impetus for the Manhattan Project.
Would Germany have won ww1 if the US didn’t enter?
It would have been a negotiated armistice or a German victory. The Allies alone could not possibly have defeated Germany. Without U.S. entry, there would have no Versailles Treaty, termed a “diktat” by Hitler, who used it to arouse Germany against the Weimar Republic and Wilson’s League of Nations.
Could Japan have won WW2?
It could have happened. Key point: Japan could never have crushed U.S. maritime forces in the Pacific and imposed terms on Washington.
Could Germany have won the Battle of Britain?
Hitler’s air force could have won a pivotal World War II battle if it had attacked earlier and changed tactics, a study says. Between May and October 1940, the German Luftwaffe fought British-led fighter pilots – including Australians – over the skies of southern England in the Battle of Britain.
What if the US joined Germany in WW2?
We are at the gates of the second world. War nazi germany and the communist soviet union are political opposites hitler says that lebensraum the german's vital living space is in the east.
Did Japan regret Pearl Harbor?
Abe’s Pearl Harbor speech has been well received in Japan, where most people expressed the opinion that it struck the right balance of regret that the Pacific war occurred, but offered no apologies. Julian Ryall reports.
Could the US beat Japan?
Bottom line, no likely masterstroke — no single stratagem or killing blow — would have defeated the United States. Rather, Japanese commanders should have thought and acted less tactically and more strategically.
Did Japan think they could beat the US?
And although the Japanese government never believed it could defeat the United States, it did intend to negotiate an end to the war on favorable terms. It hoped that by attacking the fleet at Pearl Harbor it could delay American intervention, gaining time to solidify its Asian empire.
Has Britain lost a war?
Battle of the Somme, 1916
They were so confident that they told their troops to simply walk across no man’s land instead of dashing from cover to cover. The British lost around 20,000 soldiers on the first day of the battle. Over the next three months, both the Brits and the Germans lost around half a million men each.
Did German troops ever land in England?
For two or three years afterward, large numbers of British subjects remained convinced that the Nazi invasion of Britain might still happen. But the fact that the Germans never did land on England’s shores, and in reality couldn’t have done so, is perfectly obvious in hindsight.
Why did the Luftwaffe fail?
By the end of 1941 the Luftwaffe had been reduced to just 30–40% of their original strength. The winter weather and the snow caused damage to aircraft, as engines seized and the oil and fuel froze inside the tanks. The Luftwaffe was losing as many aircraft damaged than in combat.
Is Germany still paying reparations for ww2?
Germany started making reparations payments to Holocaust survivors back in the 1950s, and continues making payments today. Some 400,000 Jews who survived the Nazis were still alive in 2019. That year, Germany paid $564 million to the Claims Conference, which handles the payments.
Could the Luftwaffe beat the RAF?
The Luftwaffe estimated haughtily that it would be able to defeat the Royal Air Force’s Fighter Command in southern England in four days and destroy the rest of the RAF in four weeks. Pilots from the RAF’s 601st Squadron scramble to their Hurricanes in August 1940.
Who shot down the most German planes in ww2?
A new book examines the life of the WWII German ace. Luftwaffe fighter pilot Erich Hartmann was exceedingly good at aerial combat. While serving in Germany’s Luftwaffe in World War II, Erich Hartmann flew more than 1,400 missions in the Messerschmitt Bf 109, enabling him to score an astonishing 352 kills.
Who was the most feared German fighter pilot?
Erich Hartmann
Erich Hartmann became Germany’s top ace in just three short years with more than 350 aerial victories. His streak remains the deadliest in history.
Who has the best fighter plane in ww2?
North American P-51 Mustang
The number 1 is no surprise: the North American P-51 Mustang. Often and usually considered the best fighter of the war, the P-51 was a game-changer for Allied forces. Employed as a long-range bomber escort, the P-51 was unmatched by German planes, especially at high altitudes.
What country had the best pilots in ww2?
That meant their best pilots flew far more missions than their British or American counterparts, and recorded much higher individual victory totals: 379 German pilots had 40 or more combat wins, compared to one each from the US and UK.
Who has the best Navy in WW2?
At the beginning of World War II, the Royal Navy was the strongest navy in the world, with the largest number of warships built and with naval bases across the globe. It had over 15 battleships and battlecruisers, 7 aircraft carriers, 66 cruisers, 164 destroyers and 66 submarines.
Who has the strongest army in WW2?
LARGEST ARMED FORCES
- SOVIET UNION (21,000,000) ENTERED WAR: 1939. …
- GERMANY (17,900,000) ENTERED WAR: 1939. …
- UNITED STATES (16,354,000) ENTERED WAR: 1941. …
- CHINA (14,000,000) ENTERED WAR: 1937. …
- JAPAN (9,100,000) ENTERED WAR: 1937. …
- ITALY (9,000,000) ENTERED WAR: 1940. …
- GREAT BRITAIN (5,896,000) ENTERED WAR: 1939. …
- FRANCE (3,500,000)
What plane shot down most in WW2?
It is accurate to state that the P-38 did shoot down more Japanese aircraft than any other USAAF plane with 1,857, with the P-40 running a close second at 1,633.5. Even though the F6F did not start reaching Naval and Marine units in the Pacific until late 1943, once it did it came in prodigious numbers.
Was the hurricane better than the Spitfire?
The Spitfire and Bf 109E were well-matched in speed and agility, and both were somewhat faster than the Hurricane. However, the slightly larger Hurricane was regarded as an easier aircraft to fly and was effective against Luftwaffe bombers.
Who was the best pilot ever?
#1: Charles Lindbergh
- Chesley ‘Sully’ Sullenberger.
- Florence ‘Pancho’ Barnes.
- Louis Bleriot.
- Erich Hartmann.
- Charles E. Yeager.
- Baron Manfred Von Richthoven.
- James ‘Jimmy’ Doolittle.
- The Wright Brothers.
Which US fighter had the most kills in ww2?
Lockheed P-38 Lightning. Plane Type: Fighter-Bomber. … P-51 Mustang. Plane Type: Fighter, Ground Attack Fighter-Bomber. …
Chuck Yeager.
| Chuck Yeager | |
|---|---|
| Service/branch | United States Army United States Air Force |
| Years of service | 1941–1947 (Army) 1947–1975 (Air Force) |
| Rank | Brigadier general |
Who has the fastest planes in ww2?
These Were The 10 Fastest Planes Of WWII
- 8 Heinkel He. …
- 7 Messerschmitt Me. 163 Komet (624 Mph)
- 6 Dornier Do-335 Pfeil (474 Mph)
- 5 Arado Ar 234 Blitz (462 Mph)
- 4 Supermarine Spitfire Mk. 24 (454 Mph)
- 3 Vought F4U Corsair (446 Mph)
- 2 North American P-51 Mustang (440 Mph)
- 1 Republic P-47 Thunderbolt (433 Mph)
How many kills does the F 22 have?
In aerial combat, it has a staggering 100 confirmed kills and zero losses. In an earlier report by The EurAsian Times, a USAF pilot had admitted that the ‘mighty’ F-22 Raptors would avoid a dogfight with Sukhoi Su-35 jets and instead call on the F-15 fighters to tackle the Russian threats.
Which aircraft sank the most ships in ww2?
The Swordfish sank more tonnage than any other Allied plane during the World War II.
Has a battleship ever sunk a carrier?
This is what happenned. At 4 p.m. on June 8, 1940, the aircraft carrier HMS Glorious was cruising west across the Norwegian Sea towards the British naval base of Scapa Flow when her lookout spotted two grey blips over a dozen miles away on the horizon.
Who sank the Yamato?
U.S. military aircraft
TOKYO — Seventy-six years ago, on April 7, 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy vessel Yamato, the world’s largest battleship, was sunk by U.S. military aircraft. It had been deployed on a Surface Special Attack Force suicide mission to drive back U.S. forces that had landed on Okinawa.