Could Germany have won the war?

Well...

There are the two scenarios in "Fatherland", the one in the movie and the one in the book.

The book version is far more realistic where in 1942 the Reich somehow discovers that the British have cracked their Enigma codes and are reading all their top secret communiques resulting in mounting German losses in the battle for the Atlantic. The Germans start sending false messages for the Allies to read while at the same time recalling all the U-boats from the Atlantic for refitting and reorganisation. Presumably they replace the Enigma machines with some other system which the Allies won't be able to break for some considerable time. They then set a trap for the bulk of the Royal Navy using false messages for Bletchley Park to decode and somehow inflict crippling losses thereby tipping the Battle of the Atlantic decesively in the Reich's favour. With the loss of both the priceless intell from Enigma and most of the Naval forces used in fighting the U-boats, Germany then effectively strangles Britain's Atlantic convoys. With no supplies of food (or anything else for that matter) Britain is then forced to surrender and the US has no forward base from which to attack Germany.
On the Eastern Front, Germany suceeds in it's 1942 summer offensive capturing the oilfields of the Caucesues, gaining important supplies of oil near the frontline and depriving the Red Army at the same time. The sixth army is not destroyed at Stalingrad (how this is played out is not detailed) and slowly the Red Army begins to crumble until some point in 1943 when it collapses completly.

The movie scenario differs in that the turning point is the Normandy invasion. Again, not much detail is given but it could be that the Omaha landing became a total disaster (it had been close run thing in real life too) and the beachhead evacuated. German strategic reserves held behind the beaches instead of dithering as in real life, are thrown against Juno, Sword and Gold beaches and stall the invasion on the all important first day. The invasion falters, turning into a more massive replay of the Dieppe disaster. General Eisenhower is forced to resign after the debacle and another invasion is unlikely to take place for at least another year. With the breathing space afforded from the victory, Germany slows the Red army in the east and is able to continue its rocket research AND Nuclear research most likely in the hollowed out mountain complexes the Germans had developed in real life when Allied strategic bombing had become irresistable. At some point in either 1945 or '46, the Reich use a pair of modified V2s equipped with nuclear warheads, one on London, the other on New York bringing WWII to an end. Some kind of conflict continues in the East right up until the events of the book/movie and seems to be consuming vast resources and men despite the Reich's dominince elsewhere.


Btw, the RAF's strategic bombing campaign had already begun before America's entry into the war in December 1941 since it was about the only way Britain could effectively strike back at Germany at the time. Even without USAAF intervention, the RAF Night bombing offensive grew steadily so that by the summer of '43 they were mounting thousand bomber raids on cities like Hamburg, causing the incineration of huge swathes of conurbation without assistance from their allies.

Just so you know!

[deleted]

Germany could have won the war only if America had never joined the war in Europe.

An Allied defeat at Normandy would not have changed the final outcome of the war. Germany might have won the battle, but not the war.

Germany could have won the war by only defeating Russia in 1941, before America joined the war. Germany should have made peace with Britain in 1940 after the conquest of France to eliminate the need to attack American ships bringing supplies to Britain. This would have prevented the war between Germany and America.

With Russia as Germany's only enemy, Germany could have conquered Leningrad and Moscow in the autumn of 1941.

Stalingrad was not decisive. It was already too late. Even if Germany had won the battle of Stalingrad in February 1943, so what?

Caucasus was not decisive either. Even if Germany had been able to advance to the Caspian Sea and thereby cut off the supply of oil from Baku to the Red Army, the Soviets still had a lot of oilfields in Siberia and Kazakhstan; and above all, the Americans and the British would still have been able to supply the Red Army via Murmansk, Arkhangelsk, Iran and Vladivostok.

Germany could have defeated Russia only if America and the Britain had not aided Russia against Germany.

Therefore, a necessary condition for a German victory would have been a peace with Britain before Operation Barbarossa, and the continuance of peaceful relations between Germany and America.

if the germans DID repulse the landings at d-day it would only prolong the war. on the eastern front at the time the soviet steamroller war crussing german forces and ontop of that the two largest ressistance groupes in the world would rise against the nazis as done in yugoslavia and warsaw.


but back in 1942-early 1943 germany WAS winning the war. had hitler captured stalingrad he would have gained masses of oil to drive the german econemy. the whole of the southern russian fromt would be captured and russia's oil would have been lost with their war machine. it would only be a matter of time before moscow fell. also stalingrad was before kursk. if the germans had alot of tanks there emagine how many tanks they would have now that they have the rich oil fields of southern russia!

The soviets were nearly bled white by 1945 in real life. All reserves had been committed at stalingrad in 1942. If there is a defeat there, most of the Red army will be incapable of resistance, and the germans can then advance unopposed to a line from Archangel to Astrakhan. The original plan was just to form a defensive line there, and consolodate the hold on european Russia. How is red army going to launch a successfull attack in that position? And how can you land in France if the bulk of the German army is intact and available for deployment? They will have forced a stalemate, and most likely resistance will halt.

"No man is just a number"

One way in which Nazi Germany could have put itself in a better position to win the war was to have common strategies with Japan. For example, if the Japanese had sent troops into Africa through the Suez Canal, it's quite possible that the Allies would have lost in North Africa, and Hitler would have been able to get control of Middle East oil fields. In addition, the Japanese could have co-ordinated with Germany in invading Russia, and thereby put the Russians in the unfavorable position of having to fight a war on two fronts.

If the Axis had actually collaborated on its strategies to win the war, they would have had a better chance. But, instead they fought the war only in their own part of the world, and hence put the Allies in a superior position that ultimately prevailed.

nope

Invasion of Russia (=> Lebensraum im Osten, the essence of all effords Hitler were ever conducting) and the war entry of the USA (=> you were threathing the existince of the Japanese empire by cutting it off from essential resources like oil) were inevitable developments.

The rest is pure statistic:

labour force
manpower
industrial output
access to raw materials
etc. pp.

and

nope @ surrender at once

The Nazi-regime didn't cared about the fate of the German people. Hitler himself said that only the stronger people has the right (to continue) to exist...and after the fall of Berlin it was not the German one.

For the Nazis, for Hitler, the German people had failed and thus deserved its annihilation.


Ich bin kein ausgeklügelt Buch, ich bin ein Mensch mit seinem Widerspruch.
Conrad Ferdinand Meyer

i'm sorry but the d-day was crucial, so much ammount of money, troops and preparation was put in that invasion that a disaster would crush any hope of defeat the germans we are talking here about 175.000 assault troops, 200.000 navy personal only in the d-day, and 2.000.000 total after the full invasion

how you rebuild that?