The Super Summary of World History (68 page)

Leningrad
was within the reach of the northern German thrust, but
Hitler
ordered
a
stop
and that gave the Russians time to reinforce the city. When the German drive resumed they failed to make good headway. Hitler then ordered a siege, because fighting in a city was not his army’s prowess (he said in 1941—how soon he would forget). Leningrad would hold, although Soviet soldiers and civilians endured a 900 day siege producing inestimable famine and suffering. Hitler again, for reason unknown, threw away a key opportunity for victory.

General
Guenther Blumentritt
was convinced that the
German Army
could have taken
Leningrad
in 1941. He stated,

“Leningrad
could
have
been
taken,
probably
with
little
difficulty.
But
after
his
experience
at
Warsaw
in
1939
Hitler
was
always
nervous
about
taking
big
cities,
because
of
the
losses
he
had
suffered
there.
The
tanks
had
already
started
on
the
last
lap
of
the
advance
when
Hitler
ordered
them
to
stop—as
he
had
done
at
Dunkirk
in
1940.
So
no
genuine
attack
on
Leningrad
was
attempted
in
1941,
contrary
to
appearances—although
all
preparations
had
been
completed,
including
the
mounting
of
long-range
artillery
that
had
been
brought
from
France.”

As the Wehrmacht advanced, special killing squads (Einsatzgruppen) advanced behind the front killing Jews, Gypsies, and Slavs just for breathing. These roaming death squads murdered perhaps hundreds of thousands of civilians, but the numbers are uncertain. People initially welcoming the Germans as liberators, and eager to help overthrow Stalin, turned against the invaders and began resisting in every way possible. War is brutal in any event, but this war became more brutal by the hour. This was modern total war, a war of annihilation, devoid of mercy. No civilians and no soldiers, in the classical sense, existed any longer—only the living and the dead. And the living were in the business of creating many more dead.

Stalin allowed 2 million people to leave Moscow as the Germans drew close, but he stayed. Everyone who could walk assisted in building defenses for the communist capital. The world held its breath as the fascist slogged toward victory . . .
then
it
began
to
snow
. The temperature dropped like a stone, and the German advance froze—literally. With few winter clothes (poor logistical planning again), little shelter, and the wrong oil for their vehicles and guns, German troops froze to death as their equipment failed. Tank engines refused to run, machine guns jammed, and freezing, dog-tired men huddled in trenches trying to survive. Horses, the mainstay of the German supply system, died by the thousands.
The
Wehrmacht
was
finished
.
Not even Hitler’s towering rage could get freezing, worn out men to move in these conditions, especially after months of constant warfare.

German
logistics
experts predicted the greatest extent of the German advance. Before the invasion started, and not knowing the specifics of the various plans, they accurately predicted how far the Wehrmacht could progress before a long halt would be necessary.
[248]
Calculating the Russian railroads were a different gauge than Western European railroads (necessitating building new railroads from the Russian border on), the supplies available, fuel resources, amount of fodder required for the horses, the number of tires, the maintenance requirements, and so on, the logistic experts got it right. It was predictable. Hitler’s plan should have considered these estimates, but it did not. Modern military leaders know that
amateurs
study
strategy
and
tactics,
professionals
study
logistics
. Hitler was an obvious amateur, and he made the fundamental error of downplaying logistics and ignoring the professionals. As in World War I, Germany now faced a long two-front war without sufficient resources, and military experts knew it. Hitler directed Germany to its doom, but it would take time for the ax to fall. Nonetheless, it was falling. Hitler had lost.
[249]

As if to put an exclamation point on the fact, the Soviets launched an offensive in December of 1941 with fresh armies of Siberian troops who were quite used to winter conditions. Hitler issued his customary “no retreat!” order. The German forces fell back two hundred miles in spite of the order, but the Soviet offensive finally stalled. German losses were great, but they had held. The great professionalism of the German Army came through during the Siberian offensive. Freezing, starving men, operating near frozen equipment, shot the Soviet Siberian armies to pieces. Superior German tactics and field leadership accomplished a miracle. However, the German Army was clearly diminished by the ordeal.
Never
again
would
the
German
Army
be
the
force
it
was
in
June
of
1941
. Its equipment improved, but the men were gone. Irreplaceable men, who successfully fought from Poland to Norway, France to the Balkans, and then to Moscow’s gates were gone forever, and with them the unbeatable Wehrmacht.

No
Retreat

A controversy has arisen over Hitler’s “no retreat” order given as the Siberian Army’s offensive began. Many great historians (Shier,
The
Rise
and
Fall
of
the
Third
Reich
, for one) argue this order saved the German Army. They believe that without this order the German Army would have disintegrated and suffered a butchering, just as Napoleon’s army retreating from Moscow had in 1812. I do not agree. The German Army of 1941 was not Napoleon’s army. The Wehrmacht would have prevailed because of its impressive leadership and discipline. In fact, a general retreat might have saved more men and equipment.
[250]
We can never know what may have occurred without the order. Hitler did give the order, and no rout occurred; that much we know. Nevertheless, why did no rout occur? Was it the order, or was it the men carrying it out? The men were the key, not the order.

Thus, the German Army faltered against terrific odds and it lost significant combat power. The Wehrmacht captured a large part of the Soviet Union in 1941, and should have gone over to the defense. Most postwar generals, and the German generals in 1941, think that would have been the wise move. Germany’s Army would be on the defense, and using its superior mobility with reserves still available could have imposed significant additional casualties on the attacking Soviets. It could take years, but a moderately successful defense might have pried peace overtures out of the Soviet Union. Hitler—ever the blockhead—demanded the outright conquest of the USSR and threw away this defensive advantage.

Moving
Soviet
Factories
to
the
Urals

The Soviets accomplished numerous miracles in WWII; however, the movement of their heavy industry to the Ural Mountains stands out. When it became apparent the Germans would overrun large parts of the western USSR, the Soviets dismantled their heavy factories and moved them east, well past Moscow, to the Ural Mountains. The Soviets accomplished this feat of innovation in record time, quickly putting the factories back in production. The loss of these manufacturing facilities would have extensively harmed Soviet logistics capabilities. While moving their aircraft factories, they retooled them to produce up-to-date aircraft superior to their Nazi counterparts. This was another foundational decision extensively contributing to the Soviet victory over Germany.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, WWII was taking another turn for the worst against the Axis, but for over a year it did not look that way.

Japan
Enters
the
War
December 7,
1941

Background

Japan had planned for a war against the United States since at least 1905
[251]
(the date of the Russo-Japanese War), and by 1930 America was the inevitable enemy. After 1930, militarist factions took over Japan’s government and began urging the conquest of the Far East. Even when the civilian government in Tokyo firmly opposed expansion the military did what it wanted. With Tokyo’s blessing, Korea was “annexed” as the diplomats would say at the League of Nations, and operated as a fiefdom of what was now Imperial Japan.

In
September
1931,
the
Japanese
military
invaded
Manchuria
, winning control in six months. Many date this invasion as the true start of the Second World War because it was brutal fascist aggression that set the stage for future events. The Japanese formed a puppet state and requested its recognition by the League of Nations. The League refused, and Japan walked out. Japanese overseas troops were staging “incidents” to incite short but victorious conflicts with China, which Japan would settle after China granted Japan’s territorial demands. After conquering Manchuria, the Japanese triggered another “incident” at the Marco Polo Bridge which lead to another armed conflict with China. This time China refused Japan’s demands for territory and repatriations. By August of 1937 an all-out war raged in northern China, and the war was spreading. In November of 1937, Japanese troops occupied
Nanking
[252]
and began a remorseless orgy of murder, rape, and plunder. Reports of these savage acts went by without real protest, and no action from the League of Nations and the Western Democracies.

In December of 1934 Japan allowed the Washington Naval Treaty (an arms limitation agreement) to expire. September of 1940 saw the Japanese government sign the
Tripartite
Pact
with Hitler. It was a protective treaty with each guaranteeing to support the other in case of war. For Japan, the treaty’s main purpose was threatening the Soviet Union with a two front war if it attacked Japan. It was not a real military alliance in the normal sense of the word, but it took America by surprise and heightened the sense of confrontation with Japan.

A significant but little discussed event took place on the northern border of
Manchuria
in
July
1938
when the Soviets and Japanese clashed at the
Battle
of
Lake
Hassan.
The USSR, under
Zhukov
, beat the Japanese easily, and inflicted high casualties. In 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War, Japan had quickly defeated Russia (pre-communist) on land and sea causing a stir in Europe. Thirty-three years later the Soviets handed the Japanese their heads in this one-sided land engagement. The Soviets expertly used numerous tanks and stunning new combined arms tactics, easily outclassing the Japanese in every phase of the battle. Soviet tanks made the Japanese equipment look like junk. Japanese antitank weapons proved useless against Soviet armor (wonder how the Germans missed this?).