Boog Hornst - Germany and the Second World War

Europe, the Atlantic, and MediterraneanAfrican Regions, 23 March 19416 December 1941

GERMANY AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR

VI
The Global War

Edited by the
Militrgeschichtliches Forschungsamt
(Research Institute for Military History)
Potsdam, Germany

VOLUME VI
The Global War
Widening of the Conflict into a World War
and the Shift of the Initiative 19411943

HORST BOOG
WERNER RAHN
REINHARD STUMPF
BERND WEGNER

Translated by
EWALD OSERS
JOHN BROWNJOHN
PATRICIA CRAMPTON
LOUISE WILLMOT

Translation editor
EWALD OSERS

Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP
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First published 2001

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Globale Krieg. English.
The global war / Horst Boog [et al.]; translated by Ewald Osers [et al.]
p. cm.(Germany and the Second World War; v. 6)
Includes Bibliographical references and index.
1. World War, 19391945Germany. 2. World War, 19391945. I. Boog, Horst,
1928II. Title. III. Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg. English; v. 6.
DD256.5.G55613 2000 [D757.D43413] 943.086 sdc21 [940.53] 00031362

ISBN 0198228880

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Typeset by John Wa, Oxford
Printed in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by
T. J. International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall

IT was during 19423the span covered by volume vi of the series Germany and the Second World Warthat the war unleashed on 1 September 1939 reached its climax.

Japans attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and her penetration into East and South-East Asia, as well as the subsequent German and Italian declaration of war on the United States of America, broadened what had been a European war into a world war proper. With theatres of operations in the east, in the Atlantic, and in the Mediterranean area in North Africa, the German operations reached their greatest geographical extent and, simultaneously, their culmination: the Blitzkrieg concept, successful against Poland, Scandinavia, France, and in the Balkans, had finally, with Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union, collapsed before Moscow in the late autumn of 1941. Similarly, German hopes that Japan would open a second front in the rear of the Soviet Union, thereby relieving Germany, were disappointed.

From the German point of view the war had reached a turning-point. Carl von Clausewitzs dictum that any strategic attack which did not immediately result in peace must end in defence was proved correct.

The discrepancy obvious to any realistic observer at any of the fronts between intention and means, between wish and ability, gave rise, for Hitler and the supreme military command, to the crucial question of the objective and of the manner in which the war should, or could, be continued. A decision had to be made about offensive or defensive action, about a peace of deadlock or negotiation, about victory or defeat.

These alternatives, however, did not exist for Hitler. With his ideological and power-political fixation on his programme, continuation of the war for all or nothing, for victory or ruin, was the only, and hence the inevitable, conclusion.

This mixture of ideological and racial motivations, along with the hubris of power-thinking, led Hitler to stake everything on a single card. The Casablanca Conference in January 1943, at which the Allieswithout the Soviet Unionagreed on the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers, enabled German propaganda to proclaim total war. This formulation of the war aims of Germanys opponents, moreover, was probably a major factor in keeping intact the bridge between Hitler and broad circles of Germanys elitesdespite some moral scruplesuntil 1945. After the summer offensive of 1942 it became clear at Stalingrad that the military operations in the principal theatre of war in the east, and also in the Atlantic and in Africa, had all passed their culmination-points. Beyondas Clausewitz had described this phenomenon of an attackcame a turn of events and reverse: the force of such a reverse is usually much greater than had been the force of the thrust.

This, then, outlines the spectrum of subjects and problems treated in the present volume.

In contrast to volumes v/1 and v/2, which, as cross-section volumes, concerned themselves with the war economy and occupation policy, the present volume focuses on politics, strategy, and operations of the belligerent powers. It links up with the strategic and operational topics discussed in volumes ii, iii, and iv of this series as far as early 1943. Volumes vii/1, vii/2, and viii will present the military operations (now globally extended) until the beginning of 1945. Volume ix will again deal with developments in state and society, administration and Wehrmacht. The final volume, volume x, will present a chronological and systematic account of the agony and collapse of the German Reich, draw a balance sheet of the Second World War, and reveal perspectives pointing beyond the end of hostilities.

Within the overall spectrum of the series Germany and the Second World War volume vi occupies a central position. Dealing as it does, on the one hand, with the extension of a European into a global war and, on the other, with Germanys loss of initiative to the Allies, it represents, both in content and in composition, the climax and turning-point of the war.

The authors have compiled an exceedingly multi-layered set of events for the scholarly reader, basing themselves on an extensive body of sources and published works, as well as presenting their findings in an accessible and convincing form for the interested lay reader. I would like to thank them for this.

The Research Institute for Military History and the authors regard it not only as a duty but as a genuine pleasure to express their gratitude to all the archives which have made available to them the items listed in the bibliography of archival sources. Thanks are due primarily to the archivists and the staff of the Federal Military Archives in Freiburg. Their gratitude extends equally to the libraries and librarians who have rendered indispensable assistance in providing the published sources. Work on the present volume, moreover, profited from advice and assistance from numerous quarters. Valuable perspectives were provided by Rainer Dirbach, Dr Gerhard Krebs, Professor Bernd Martin, Captain Hans Meckel, and Professor Jrgen Rohwer in the areas of the war in the Pacific and the war at sea generally, by Professor Alexander Fischer and Professor Hans-Ulrich Thamer with regard to the policy of the anti-Hitlerite coalition. Copious material on the history of the GermanSoviet war was contributed by Colonel (retd.) Hellmut Dittrich, Dr Jrgen Frster, and Colonel (Gen. Staff) Friedhelm Klein, MA. General (retd.) Johann A. Count Kielmansegg and Dr Heinz Nitschke made their extensive experience on the same subject freely available. To all of them the authors express their special thanks.