Why Germany Lost World War II ?

To answer this question you should know who contributed to it. There is two major factors contributed to the frustration of German leaders during WWII:

- The Great military mistakes and the Lack of logistics supplies.

1- The Lack of logistics supplies :

By the time the full military productivity of the United States industrial might was at 110%, late 1943 or so, the German military fate was sealed. The German military was fighting against fresh, well fed, well supplied troops with odds of ten to one or better against them. In addition to well fed troops, the Americans and their allies had complete tactical air superiority over the front.

While the Germans had only partial battalions, little functional armor, poorly trained, poorly fed, poorly armed troops with essentially no tactical air support and they could only move at night. And yet they were expected to not only defend Germany from invasion but throw the Allies back in the sea. Therein lay the total and complete frustration of the German commanders as they watched the Allies advancing.

The movie is “A Bridge too Far” - it’s subject was Operation Market Garden. It has a scene where a German General, I believe it was General Bittrich, exclaims as he watches several thousand aircraft filled with paratroopers darkening the sky over his head says in frustrated awe “If I could have such power for even just a day, a single day!” - It also spoke volumes about the dismal condition of the German forces arrayed against the allies.

Another reference to the German plight is also noted in another movie. A fictional German tank commander character in an old movie, “Battle of the Bulge” complains about how the allies have the men, ships, and planes available to ship cake to a man on the front lines while they struggle just to get fuel for their tanks. It seems to highlight what was very likely a very frustrating issue for German commanders, the continuous struggle to get enough supplies to fight an enemy that was very well supplied.

and this does not even address the Russian war machine coming from the East. It was hopeless yet they fought on and tried to obey orders - stupid and pointless orders, but orders which in a very real sense they were trained from birth to obey automatically and without question. Even the most brilliant plans had little chance against a thousand airplanes bombing you day and night every time you took a single step and with near complete impunity .

If they were offended it would have been because the Americans considered their victories a result of great strategy and tactical skill "some of that is true" but much of the American success was due to their absolutely overwhelming power.

No matter how skillfully a German commander might plan his defense of a position, or however clumsy the Americans might have been, when someone drops a thousand tons of bombs on your head, tactical skill is almost meaningless. For example, Hitler’s stupid effort to take Antwerp in December 1944, the so called “Battle of the Bulge”, failed in large part due to the raw power of the Allies.

The Germans were finally defeated during this offensive from lack of fuel and air cover. The entire assault depended on bad weather keeping allied airplanes out of the sky. Once the weather cleared and the P-47’s took to the air, the Germans were doomed. And there was also the fuel problem. One of the Panzer’s objectives was to capture fuel depots since their support groups could not supply enough to keep the big tanks moving.

That is truly desperate and of course it failed. As long as they had fuel and could maneuver without fear of attack from the air, they were running wild. Granted, many factors went in to their ultimate defeat such as Patton's brilliant response with 3rd Army and the 101st Airborne’ s stubborn defense of Bastogne, but it was air power and lack of fuel that ultimately destroyed the German attack.

2- The Great military mistakes :

There are many paths to go down answering this question, but without major changes to the overall vision and theatre strategies Hitler had, here are the bigger ones:

Having (or creating) no plan re Britain after the amazing execution of the Manstein plan and early conquering of France. Hitler didn’t want to fight England and his uncharacteristic indecisiveness (Churchill was stronger than Hitler thought, and IMO the most important allied person of WWII) cost Germany a lot.

He should have of course driven the army to pressure and eventually capture Dunkirk weeks earlier instead of feeding Goering’s ego, which would have stopped most of England’s best troops from escaping. Then, he immediately should have gone full bore after England with the intent of invading (not easy, but plausible), or not engage in an air superiority war over enemy territory and not have the army doing virtually nothing for many months (probably the better choice). The direct cost and the opportunity cost here was high.

Invade the USSR six weeks earlier. being a contributing factor, the delay of operation Barbarossa by six weeks may have saved the USSR from ultimate defeat, but certainly saved it from far more losses in terms of men, material and territory.

There are several ways this could have been handled better that would have given the Germans weeks more good weather before the rains stalled the advance.

lf they had attacked six weeks earlier, and If Moscow had fallen, the USSR may not have been able to effectively wage war since the north south rail hub in Moscow was critically important.

Not taking out Malta early in the African campaign. Rommel lost primarily due to him being resource starved during the summer of 1941 and secondarily due to the considerable aircraft involved in suppressing Malta and escorting convoys from Italy to Libya due from Maltese aircraft.

Hitler micromanaging the greatest generals of WWII. There are too many examples to list, but the big ones are:

a. Firing Guderian for tactically retreating during late 1941.

b. Forbidding retreat from Stalingrad by Paulus, which either early or during Manstein’s relief attempt, would have likely saved the 6th army.

Countless times Hitler forbade tactical retreat that would have permitted the mobility of the German army to be exploited and instead let the Soviet strength of mass assault be employed fully.