Strategy and the Second World War: How the War Was Won, and Lost by Jeremy Black

Author:Jeremy Black [Black, Jeremy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781472145109
Google: tG7uDwAAQBAJ
Amazon: 1472145100
Published: 2021-07-01T05:44:07+00:00

5

Axis Responses, 1943–5

On 18 February 1943, Josef Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda chief, delivered in Berlin’s large Sportpalast a statement of total war, one broadcast by radio across Germany. The statement came soon after German resistance had collapsed at Stalingrad without providing the heroic fight-to-the-last desired (for others) by Hitler. In practice, Goebbels’s statement was a call to action, rather than a description of already-existing means and results. Nevertheless, by 1943, the war had taken on an attritional character for Germany and Japan, as well as for their opponents.

At the same time, this attritional character did not preclude the dynamic of operational campaigning, with all the characteristics and skills involved, including generalship. The high tempo of campaigning used up troops and materiel. Nevertheless, the availability of massive resources enabled the Allies to attack on a number of fronts at once, and to return to the attack despite high casualty levels, particularly on the Eastern Front, and serious wear and tear. Moreover, the greatly superior nature of Allied air and naval power was of strategic significance in terms of ground operations and tactics. The Allies adopted a strategy of forcing unconditional surrender on their opponents, a decision announced by Roosevelt at the press conference after the Casablanca Conference of January 1943.

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