Matthew Pronyshyn
Mr. Everitt
EAE3U
1 June 2014
The Fall of The Third Reich: How Hitler did Nazi it coming The Third Reich, (Nazi Germany) is the name given to Germany during the period of 1933 to 1945, under the reign of Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers’ Party (commonly known as the Nazi Party). The fall of Nazi Germany, because Hitler caused World War II for his desire to eagerly conquer Europe, also marked the end of the war on the 10th of May in 1945. During his 12-year reign, Hitler was seen by the German public as a legendary leader of war and is still seen in such a way by today’s Nazi supporters. Within his first few years as German Chancellor (in office since 1933), he had completely banished unemployment, thus ensuing Germany’s flourishing economy. Although Nazi Germany had seemed to be heading towards a golden future, it still came to a devastating end and this essay will define the many battle and reasons that played a part in the peril of the Third Reich and how they could have been avoided. Firstly, Hitler was said to have created a fantasy world in which he lived not too close to reality. Without consulting with actual military personnel, he had already devised certain plans in which he had planned to take over the Soviets, exterminate the Jews and much more. Hitler had greatly underestimated the zeal of the Allies because of how invested he was in the idea of Germany becoming the most powerful nation. Hitler had a policy of never retreating and because of his unrealistic view of how to world functioned, he believed that the soldiers would be honored with determination on the battlefield without giving much heed to reality. His soldiers were only commanded to move forward but to never retreat, just to keep reloading their weapons. For example: Friedrich Paulus, officer of the 6th Panzer Army, had proposed to Hitler the idea of retreating during the battle of Stalingrad and he had turned it down, resulting in the complete annihilation of its units (approx. 107,800 German soldiers). When the German forces were failing miserably, Hitler, thinking he had the power to fix anything, appointed himself as the Commander-in-Chief of the army. His mistrust for his soldiers grew so grave that he neglected all advice and thought he could plan better but ironically, he had immensely put Nazi Germany in danger resulting in its own demise. In conclusion, advice from many wise German officers and generals could have saved the German army. Undoubtedly, Hitler’s poor preparation and cancellation of the proper military equipment were terrible decisions that altered the Third Reich’s outcome in the Second World War. His main goal was to conquer Europe, mostly occupied by the Union of Soviet Socialists Republics (Soviet Union or USSR) and he failed to do so as we saw with Operation Barbarossa (named after Frederick Barbarossa, the medieval Holy Roman Emperor). On the 22th of June in 1941, Nazi Germany and its 6 Axis belligerents, (Italy, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Slovakia and Finland) set to conquer the Soviet Union and initially succeeding in doing so. “Over the course of the operation, about four million soldiers of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a 2,900 km (1,800 mi) front, the largest invasion in the history of warfare” (Glantz, 23). The whole operation was driven by Adolf Hitler’s persistent desire to take over the Soviet territories, marking the pivotal phase in deciding the victors of the war. Nearing the colder seasons, wear temperatures in the Soviet Union easily reach below -30 degrees Celsius, the Axis powers were very ill prepared for such weather conditions. If Hitler had not dismissed certain weapons, like the first ever assault rifle which would have been quite useful on such vast territories, he could have won the war against the Soviets. Unfortunately, the Axis powers were forced to retreat to the outskirts of the USSR, which went against one of Hitler’s policies, resulting in the