Some people believe that if Germany had made different decisions during the Second World War, they could have achieved victories. Here are some examples of said decisions and why they would never work

Germany should have taken Moscow:

People argue that if Moscow was taken, the Soviets would have been surrendered to the Germans. However, even if Germany was able to take Moscow, the Soviet Union would most likely not have surrendered. This is because people tend to assume that the Soviet campaign was the same as the French and Polish Campaign, where once you took the Capital, the nation would surrender. However, the mindset of the USSR was very different from the mindset of France. The general French mood of France during the interwar years and into WW2 was that France was an empire in decline. When the Germans took over, the French were more “accepting” of their fate. This is not to ignore the Frenchmen who fought the Germans as Maquis but overall, the French had more defeatist attitudes. Meanwhile in Russia, Stalin was not going to surrender to the Germans at all and would have fought to the bitter end. Hitlers speeches that called for the end of the Soviets were not ignored by him and Stalin knew full well what would happen to him if the USSR surrendered: execution. Now while losing Moscow would have been a political and logistical defeat since the rail networks were centered around Moscow, Stalin would not simply “give up” after losing it.

Germany should have made more stuff

Germany production lines were not exactly as efficient as they could be, and people argue that this is what led to their defeat. Instead of wasting resources on unnecessary objects like heavy tanks and jet fighters, they should have focused on making one type of tank, one type of fighter plane, and etc. This doesn’t work for two main reasons: the Allies would have outproduced them either way, and they didn’t have the resources to crew every vehicle. Germany was able to produce 50 thousand tanks in the second world war. Assuming that by focusing production onto one type of tank, say the Panzer 4, they were able to magically double that number, making 100 thousand tanks. This would almost be on par with the Soviets, who made 102 thousand tanks. If we throw in American tank production, which was at 86 thousand production, Germany is still far behind. Now admittedly, tanks aren’t the only thing you need to win a war, but even if they had unlimited stockpiles of every tank and rifle and plane they would still run into another problem: Logistics. Germany lacked 2 things throughout WW2: oil and Manpower. By 1942 the Wehrmacht, the main army of Nazi Germany, was suffering manpower shortages. Even before then, in 1941, during Operation Barbarossa, the German Panzer Divisions were running out of fuel as they ran across Russia. Germany simply doesn’t have the manpower and oil to be able to support an army that is large enough to defeat the 3 Superpowers of the time.

Germany should have coordinated more with Japan

When people talk about this, they generally refer to how Germany and Japan should have both invaded the Soviet Union together. When they say this, they may have a point. The Battle of Moscow was tipped to the Soviet side by the arrival of Siberian divisions, which would not have been available had Japan invaded the USSR. However, this really wasn’t going to happen. Japan was very cautious around the USSR after the Imperial Army was badly bruised by the Red Army in the battle of Khalkhin Gol. They took every effort to maintain the non aggression pact between them and the USSR. Japan and Germany were also in an alliance, but it was by circumstance, not by desire, that Germany sent weapons and advisors to China during the second Sino-Japanese war. Overall, they didn’t desire to coordinate more than was necessary and would not coordinate more than necessary. 

Wonder Weapons

During WW2 the Germans made many technological advances, such as the development of missiles and jet aircraft. These technologies, along with other items were called Wonder Weapons by Nazi Germany’s propaganda ministry,  because they would turn the tide of WW2. This propaganda has somehow persisted to this day and has led some people to believe that if Germany was able to field more of these wonder weapons, they would have won. This is not true for a number of reasons. First, pretty much all of the Wunderwaffe, as the Germans called it back then, had many issues. The Maus tank, which on paper could easily take out any allied tank, would have quickly run out of fuel and become target practice for Allied bombers. The Me-262, the world’s first operational jet fighter, couldn’t be produced in enough numbers to stop the allies. German nuclear weapons, while interesting to think about, were simply not attainable. Due to the depth in which the US had infiltrated Axis spy networks, they would have been immediately able to find and sabotage any German efforts to build nuclear weapons, as they did with the bombing of Germany’s heavy water plant. Furthermore, most of Germany’s top scientists, including Albert Einstein, had left Germany because they were Jewish, which crippled their atomic program.