10 Biggest Mistakes Germany Made In World War 2

9. Fighting A War On Two Fronts

Fiery young leader of the German fascist movement, Adolf Hitler, gives a Nazi salute during a field day in Brunswick, Germany, Oct. 27, 1931. The Nazi chief attacked the present government in an address that climaxed in a parade in which over 100,000 of H
Gdr at the English language Wikipedia / CC BY-SA (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)

It is generally accepted that fighting a war on two fronts is not a great plan. Indeed, anyone who has found themselves doing so has historically done it with the intent to finish one quickly so that they can focus all their attention in one place.

During the second World War, this was a stumbling block for the Axis as well. They knew that in order to have any chance, they could not be fighting on two sets of front lines at once and the plan to crush the resistance to the West failed to materialise, giving an early indication that the entire operation would not work.

The reason that this isn’t a good plan is obvious even to those of us with no military or logistical experience. Trying to do two things at once means your attention is divided and your resources are more stretched. Multiply this a hundred and a thousand-fold and instead of trying to cook dinner and keep an eye on an errant toddler, you’re now trying to organise food, munitions and men across hundreds of miles in many different directions. Add to this the fact that there was war ongoing in the African theatre as well and even pretending that they were just fighting on two fronts seems generous. It doesn’t become hard to see how it all fell apart.

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Matthew is a Marine Engineer to trade who writes sub-standard Scottish crime fiction in his spare time that can be found here:- https://mmacleodwriting.uk/ Originally brought up in the Western Isles of Scotland, he lived in Edinburgh for 18 years but now stay in Aberdeenshire with his partner, sons and dog.