Germany and the Second World War, Volume 6: The Global War PDF
Preview Germany and the Second World War, Volume 6: The Global War
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Other German-occupied territories Soviet Union Italy/Albania Neutral states State frontiers Italian colonies State frontiers changed after 1 Sept. 1939 Hood Italian-occupied territories 24.5.41 Demarcation line or administrative Allies of the Axis powers boundary in occupied territories Greer German exclusion zone 4.9.41 from 23 Mar. 1939 Territories occupied by Germany’s allies GGGeeerrrmmmaaannn eeexxxcclluussiioonn zzoonnee ffrroomm 2233 MMaarr.. 11994411 Boundary of western hemisphere uuunnnrrreeessstttrrriiicccttteeeddd uussee ooff wweeaappoonnss aaggaaiinnsstt from 15 July 1941 aaallllll mmmeeerrrccchhhaaannntt mmeenn aanndd wwaarrsshhiippss Unoccupied France Front line on 6 Dec. 1941 French colonies and protected territories US base 26° west 56° north Great Britain German–US incident German battleship (position and British colonies, mandated and protected date of sinking) Texas territories, and Dominions British battleship (position and 20.6.41 Reuben Ja date of sinking) 31.10.41 Territories under British protection Engagements 18 Nov.–4 Dec. 1941 Territories occupied by the western Allies 0 500 1000 1500 km 0 500 1000 sea miles BBBooossstttooonnn NNNeeewww YYYooorrrkkk WWWaaassshhhiiinnngggtttooonnn AAAzzzooorrreeesss(Port.) 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FTTTraaa.nnn gggMiiieeeSSSorrrpppRRRr...aaaoMMMbbbGGGcoooaaaiiicrrrbbbtttoooorrrcccaaacccllltttoooaaarrr (((BBBrrriiittt...))) AAAlllgggiiieeerrrsss TTTTuuuunisnnniaiiisss rTTTrrrriiipppoooalllMMMiiiaaalllntttaaa(Berit.)a n S eTTToooCCCbbbrrreeerrruuuattteeekkkEEElll AAAlllaaammmeeeiiinnn CCCyyyppprrruuusss Pal.TjoBBBrraeeeAAAdnSSSiiiammmrrrsyyynuuu-rrrmmmtttiiiaaaaaannn IRAQ CCCaaaiiirrrooo CCCaaannnaaarrryyy IIIsss...(Span.) Ifni Algeria S A U D I Sp. LLLiiibbbyyyaaa EEE GGG YYY PPP TTT A R A B I A West- Sahara Re d S e a Nile t.) KKKhhhaaarrrtttooouuummm F r . W e s t A f r i c a Gambia Niger Fr. A n g l o - E g y p t i a n Port. Guinea Equatorial S u d a n Nigeria IIItttaaallliiiaaannn FFFrrreeeeeetttooowwwnnn SLeieornrae Gold Africa AAAddddddiiisss AAAbbbaaabbbaaa R Coast EEEaaasssttt AAAfffrrriiicccaaa MMMooonnnrrrooovvviiiaaaLIBERIA AAAccccccrrraaa LLLaaagggooosss Congo 41 GERMANY AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR VI TheGlobalWar This page intentionally left blank Germany and the Second World War Edited by the Milita•rgeschichtliches 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 1941–1943 HORST BOOG WERNER RAHN REINHARD STUMPF BERND WEGNER Translatedby EWALD OSERS JOHN BROWNJOHN PATRICIA CRAMPTON LOUISE WILLMOT Translationeditor EWALD OSERS CLARENDON PRESS · OXFORD (cid:2) GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Athens Auckland Bangkok Bogota‹ BuenosAires CapeTown Chennai DaresSalaam Delhi Florence HongKong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Mumbai Nairobi Paris Sa~oPaulo Shanghai Singapore Taipei Tokyo Toronto Warsaw withassociatedcompaniesin Berlin Ibadan OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork ãDeutscheVerlags-AnstaltGmbH,Stuttgart,2001Inc. Firstpublished2001 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData GlobaleKrieg.English. Theglobalwar/HorstBoog...[etal.];translated byEwaldOsers...[etal.] p.cm.—(GermanyandtheSecondWorldWar;v.6) IncludesBibliographicalreferencesandindex. 1.WorldWar,1939–1945—Germany.2.WorldWar,1939–1945.I.Boog,Horst, 1928–II.Title.III.DeutscheReichundderZweiteWeltkrieg.English;v.6. DD256.5.G556132000 [D757.D43413] 943.086s—dc21 [940.53] 00–031362 ISBN0–19–822888–0 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 TypesetbyJohnWas‹,Oxford PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby T.J.InternationalLtd.,Padstow,Cornwall Preface It wasduring1942–3—thespancoveredbyvolumevioftheseriesGermany and the Second World War—that the war unleashed on 1 September 1939 reacheditsclimax. Japan’sattackonPearlHarborinDecember1941andherpenetrationinto EastandSouth-EastAsia,as well asthe subsequentGermanandItalian de- clarationofwarontheUnitedStatesofAmerica,broadenedwhathadbeena Europeanwarintoaworldwarproper.Withtheatresofoperationsintheeast, in the Atlantic, and in the Mediterranean area in North Africa, the German operationsreachedtheirgreatestgeographicalextentand,simultaneously,their culmination: the Blitzkrieg concept, successful against Poland, Scandinavia, France,andintheBalkans,hadfinally,withOperationBarbarossaagainstthe SovietUnion,collapsedbeforeMoscowinthelateautumnof1941.Similarly, GermanhopesthatJapanwouldopenasecondfrontintherearoftheSoviet Union,therebyrelievingGermany,weredisappointed. FromtheGermanpointofviewthewarhadreachedaturning-point.Carl vonClausewitz’s dictumthat anystrategicattackwhich didnotimmediately resultinpeacemustendindefencewasprovedcorrect. The discrepancyobvious to any realistic observerat any of the fronts be- tweenintentionandmeans,betweenwishandability,gaverise,forHitlerand thesuprememilitarycommand,tothecrucialquestionoftheobjectiveandof themannerin whichthe war should,orcould,be continued.A decisionhad to be made abouto·ensive or defensive action, about a peace of deadlockor negotiation,aboutvictoryordefeat. 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 ‘victoryor ruin’, was the only, and hence the inevitable, conclusion. Thismixtureofideologicalandracialmotivations,alongwiththehubrisof power-thinking,ledHitlertostakeeverythingonasinglecard.TheCasablanca ConferenceinJanuary1943,atwhichtheAllies—withouttheSovietUnion— agreed on the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers, enabled Ger- man propaganda to proclaim ‘total war’. This formulation of the war aims of Germany’s opponents, moreover, was probably a major factor in keep- ingintact the bridgebetween Hitler and broadcircles of Germany’s e‹lites— despitesomemoralscruples—until1945.Afterthesummero·ensiveof1942 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. Beyond—as Clausewitz had described this vi Preface phenomenon of an attack—came 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 presentvolume. Incontrasttovolumesv/1andv/2,which,as‘cross-sectionvolumes’,con- cerned themselves with the war economy and occupation policy,the present volumefocusesonpolitics,strategy,andoperationsofthebelligerentpowers. It links up with the strategic and operationaltopics discussedin volumes ii, iii, andivof thisseriesasfarasearly 1943.Volumesvii/1,vii/2, andviii 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 chronologicalandsystematicaccountoftheagonyandcollapseoftheGerman Reich,drawabalancesheetoftheSecondWorldWar,andrevealperspectives pointingbeyondtheendofhostilities. Within the overall spectrum of the series Germany and the Second World Warvolumevioccupiesacentralposition.Dealingasitdoes,ontheonehand, with the extension of a European into a global war and, on the other, with Germany’slossofinitiativetotheAllies,itrepresents,bothincontentandin composition,theclimaxandturning-pointofthewar. The authorshave compiled an exceedingly multi-layered set of events for the scholarly reader, basing themselves on an extensive body of sources and publishedworks,aswellaspresentingtheirfindingsinanaccessibleandcon- vincing form for the interested lay reader. I would like to thank them for this. The Research Institute for Military Historyand the authorsregard it not only as a duty but as a genuine pleasure to express their gratitude to all the archiveswhichhavemadeavailabletothemtheitemslistedinthebibliography ofarchivalsources.Thanksaredueprimarilytothearchivistsandthesta·of theFederalMilitaryArchivesinFreiburg.Theirgratitudeextendsequallyto thelibrariesandlibrarianswhohaverenderedindispensableassistanceinpro- vidingthepublishedsources.Workonthepresentvolume,moreover,profited from advice and assistance from numerous quarters. Valuable perspectives wereprovidedbyRainerDirbach,DrGerhardKrebs,ProfessorBerndMar- tin, Captain Hans Meckel, and Professor Ju•rgenRohwer in the areas of the warinthePacificandthewaratseagenerally,byProfessorAlexanderFischer and Professor Hans-Ulrich Thamer with regard to the policy of the anti- Hitleritecoalition.CopiousmaterialonthehistoryoftheGerman–Sovietwar was contributedbyColonel(retd.)Hellmut Dittrich,DrJu•rgenFo•rster,and Colonel(Gen.Sta·)FriedhelmKlein,MA.General(retd.)JohannA.Count KielmanseggandDrHeinzNitschkemadetheirextensiveexperienceonthe Preface vii samesubjectfreelyavailable.Toallofthemtheauthorsexpresstheirspecial thanks. Dr Gu(cid:2)nter Roth BrigadierGeneral,Director, ResearchInstituteforMilitaryHistory (1985–95)
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