Friday, March 7, 2008

Hitler's mistake (again)

After class this week, I feel that the Axis could have won the war in the Mediterranean, which may have lead to their ultimate victory in the war. The reason for this is that Hitler failed to take Malta and to use the Italian navy. Malta proved to be the throne in Germany and Italy’s side and helped lead to their defeat in North Africa; however, they did not do anything and they easily could have taken the island. In addition, they did not supply the Italian navy with the oil they needed to fight the British for control of the Med. They allowed the British to sail the Mediterranean with little threat to their ships besides the Luftwaffe. If Hitler would have delayed his attack on Russia for at least one year (it was already delayed by a few months when he attacked) and used the resources to finish off the British in the Mediterranean theater the war would have had a different outcome. In addition, he still could have attacked Russia the next spring, had more resources, started sooner, and not had to worry about three fronts, which could have lead to a different outcome on the Eastern Front. Does anyone else have the same opinion?

2 comments:

luke said...

I agree with you but you have to think about the oil that Germany got by invading Russia and if they would have enough oil to do all of this. I do think it would have been a better plan to take care of the south first. It was weak and easy to take if given the right strategy. They should have taken the Meditterean Sea. Also the americans would not have been involved yetif they would have gone after the south earlier. So I think they should have taken care of that before attacking Russia.

Alex Fischer said...

Apparently, Hitler felt the need to circle and capture Russia rather than fight for the Mediterranean. He had the troops in Northern Africa to take control of the Mediterranean, but chose to go after the Russians instead, and ordered his troops to march towards Russia.