Soon after assuming complete control of Germany, Adolf Hitler launched scores of arms development and building programs, to increase and enhance Germany’s industrial production, and rebuild the once powerful German armed forces. Hitler used his new state-of-the-art military to militarize the Rhineland, annex Austria and Czechoslovakia, and eventually conquer both Poland and France. It should be noted that while Hitler’s aggression began in 1936, with the

After defeat in Stalingrad, and the ensuing Soviet counter-attack, the German command saw an Allied invasion of Europe as inevitable. In order to secure Western Europe, Hitler allocated ten Panzer divisions to be used by Erwin Rommel and Heinz Guderian. The largest point of conflict between the two commanders was where the divisions should be stationed. Rommel advocated stationing the divisions along the coast, while Guderian was a proponent of having a few of the divisions guard the coast, while the majority of the divisions would remain approximately 20 miles inland, as to make them as mobile as possible. Eventually Hitler sided with Rommel, and the Panzer divisions were placed along the French coast, which proved to be a huge mistake. While Rommel correctly asserted that if the Allied forces obtained a foothold in Europe, it would be the end of the Third Reich, his plan of defense was not conducive to his philosophy. The ten divisions were not nearly enough to strongly fortify the coast, but by putting them all on the coast, the German armor was spread out far too thin. Thus, any breach in the German defense would allow the Allies to easily establish a foothold in France. Had divisions been left back inland, the units on the coast could have aided the armored units inland, and the Germans could have consolidated their armor in one major counter-offensive against the Allied invasion, and thus made it more difficult for the Allied forces to establish a foothold in France.

In reality, the Allies had no intention of launching a frontal invasion of Pas De Calais. First and foremost, it was far too heavily fortified, and an attempt to launch an invasion there was doomed to fail. Second, Dwight Eisenhower had no intention of making Patton anything more than a commander of troops in the invasion because of an incident in which Patton slapped an enlisted man in Italy. Eventually, Eisenhower made Patton the commander of the fictitious invasion force that was supposed to invade Pas De Calais, which further convinced the Germans that the invasion was coming at Pas De Calais. Finally, in the weeks before the invasion of France, the Allied forces made numerous bombing runs in France to weaken the German railways and supply lines. However, the Allied command took this opportunity to bomb many targets in Pas De Calais, making it seem as if they were weakening its defenses before an invasion. Through the use of misinformation and bombings, the Allies were successful in convincing the Germans that the Allied invasion of Europe would occur at Pas De Calais.

Soviet air force. The Luftwaffe destroyed the largest air force in the world in only two days.

While these factors would make it seem as though Operation Barbarossa was doomed from the start, such was not the case. The Luftwaffe played key roles, including the destruction of the

By 1940, Hitler controlled most of Europe and North Africa. However, Hitler felt, with good reason, that in order to completely secure his new empire, it was essential to remove destroy Britain, at the time the only Allied power left (the United States had not yet joined the war), and the only immediate threat to the Nazi war machine. On July 16, 1940, Hitler announced to his top military commanders his intentions to launch “Operation Sea Lion,” the invasion and conquest of mainland Britain. The plan, straightforward and efficient, was completely dependent on one crucial element, the Luftwaffe’s (German Air Force) ability to control the skies over the English Channel and England’s easternmost coast. Herman Goering, head of the Luftwaffe, assured Hitler as well as the commanders of the naval and invasion forces, which he would be able to obtain control over any area requested of him because of the superiority of the Luftwaffe over the British Royal Air Force (RAF), both in terms of quality and quantity. While Goering correctly asserted the German’s advantage in terms of

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