World War II. Need Help !!

I've got a pretty big paper to hand in on the mor "underhand factors that influenced the outcome of world war II, from both the allied and axis sides, and its stressing me out because all the websites search engines seem to pick up on is pearl harbor, i know about that, so ive got taht covered, but if anyone has got ANY other theories that have some info or a link to back them up it'll be greatly appreciated and of course i'll owe you one! p.s. mods, i wasn't sure where to put this so feel free to move it. not that you need permission but oh well

[edit on 5-9-2005 by John bull 1]

Oil in both theatres

I would also look at the US/UK's efforts at codebreaking at Blechley Park (search for codes and enigma) or FURPAC's efforts breaking the Japanese diplomatic code.

Manhattan Project had obvious influences and subtle ones as well

The assasination attempt on Hitler.

The Key factor often overlooked was the Oil. ALot of the UK's oil came from the US. A good book about the history of Oil and has a chapter or two devoted to WWII is called "The Prize" by David Yergin (I Think)



[edit on 9/5/05 by FredT]

Adolf Hitler denounces the disarmament clauses of the Versailles Treaty, and begins open re-armament and conscription of soldiers. They got tired of being broke and this gave rise to Hitler's new vision.

Lots of info here:
en.wikipedia.org...
en.wikipedia.org...

Codebreaking and the deception attempts before the Battle of Midway. I had a bunch of them on the top of my head, but I forgot them when I started typing. heh. I'll put them in later if I remember.

How about the Japanese deception leading into Pearl Harbor. China before the US involvement. Battan Death March.

[edit on 5-9-2005 by Zaphod58]

I think one of the biggest reasons that Germany lost WW2 was the failure of the Luftwaffe winning the Battle of Britain.

This in effect turned England into a giant aircraft carrier,and once Germany could not stop the Allies from bombing industrial targets/oil reserves ect.It was all over.

Another mistake that Germany made,(and you have to give alot of credit for the great deception plan) is durning the Normandy invasion,the failure of the OKW to believe that it was the 'main' attack,and not sending reinforcements asap to the coast.

As far as Japan goes,Midway was a huge blow to the Jap's navy.Also the US submarine campaign against the Japanese supply lines was very effective.Not to mention that the US troops were very motivated to fight the Japanese.

And let us not forget that italy (and therefore the Pope and the catholic church) supported hitler. i can see alot of 'shadyness' there worth researching.

You might want to consider the development of the atomic bomb, and the sabotage of German efforts to produce a nuclear weapon in Norway by British special forces...

All of the suggestions posted are excellent. I would also look into the failure of Stalin to heed Russian intelligence that forewarned of the impending Nazi invasion of Russia, Operation Barbarossa.

For something really underhanded, check out Operation Mincemeat. This was a top secret plan by the British to fool the German High Command into thinking that the Allies would be landing the bulk of their forces at Sardinia and the Balkans, rather than the actual target, Sicily. The Allies took a corpse, dressed it in an officer's uniform, chained a briefcase to its wrist with classified, false documents hinting at the false invasion points. Then, they placed the body in the sea where they knew it would be found and delivered to the Nazis. The plan worked a treat. The Nazis sent many of their best units to protect the fake invasion sites of Sardinia and Corsica. Hitler even diverted 2 crack panzer divisions away from the Eastern front to protect Greece.

In the end, Operation Mincemeat allowed for a successful invasion of Sicily, a foothold to be gained in Italy and gave the Russians more freedom to operate in the East.

Hope this helps.

Edit
You might also want to take a quick look at the efforts of the French Resistance. Although resistance movements were formed in many countries, the French movement is probably the most well known. I am sure the Nazis considered their disruption of supply lines and constant guerilla tactics to be very underhanded, but they were certainly effective.

Also consider the efforts of Juan Pujol Garcia. Juan, operating under the codename Garbo, was considered by the Germans to be one of their best spies. In reality, he was actually a double agent working for the Allies. In 1944 he convinced the Nazi leadership that the Allied landings at Normandy under the D-Day Operation Overlord were merely a diversion to make way for the main landing at Calais, further along the coast. The Nazis believed their trusted spy and the Allies were able to make the landing at Normandy with significantly less resistance then they would have met had it not been for Garbo's deceptive efforts. Amazingly, Garbo managed to fool the Nazis so completely that he was actually awarded their highest honour, the Iron Cross, for his efforts. Read about Juan, aka Garbo in this article by the BBC.

Again, I hope this helps you out.

[edit on 5/9/05 by Jeremiah25]

I reckon the most important is to do with Britain. The Lufftwaffe lost the Battle of the skies, which meant had Operation Sealion happened (German invasion of Britain) the German Army would have suffered sever casulties. This lead to Hitler's decision of invading Russia for some reason, which started well (Operation Barbarossa) until Stalingrad and Stalin's insane tactics of throwing men at the Germans and killing retreators. It worked and the German military suffered heavy defeats and they were short of troops to protect Normandy and Italy.

I have some video's some of you WW2 buffs would be interested in.

I have 15 episodes of "Die Deutsche Wochenschau" (various dates) and I just got a German sniper training video "German Snipers - Der deutsche Scharfschütze 1944 "

If any of you are interested,feel free to pm me.

Also to note,Hitler promised his Generals that the soonest they would go to war would be in '46 (I may be wrong about that year)And the Germans were working on some massive battleships,as well as several aircraft carriers.(look up Z-Plan)This could have also changed the course of the war dramaticly.
www.german-navy.de...

How about this senario.What if the Japanese would have 'lent' the Germans several aircraft carriers?

[edit on 5-9-2005 by Bootyac]

russia was a major mistake in defeating the nazis. you might want to look up the [fact] that hitler was using a book written 2000 years ago by a millitary instructor called sun tzi- the book is called 'the art of war' it is intresting reading.

dont forget north africa, and al-alemain.

and on the eastern front, do not forget that austraila only managed to stop the japs.

the rescuse of mussolini is a good yarn.

Originally posted by Bootyac
I have some video's some of you WW2 buffs would be interested in.

I have 15 episodes of "Die Deutsche Wochenschau" (various dates) and I just got a German sniper training video "German Snipers - Der deutsche Scharfschütze 1944 "

If any of you are interested,feel free to pm me.

be very much intrested!

Check your U2U blue sky