What did Hitler's allies do in the war and why they constantly lost

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

When Nazi Germany attacked the USSR, together with the Nazis on Soviet territory, they considered it appropriate to invade the armies of other states. In the summer of 1942, at the height of the allied efforts of the pro-German satellites, their total number at the front exceeded half a million people. A noteworthy figure even in the context of a world war. Another thing is that the quality of the training of the troops was not always worthy. For this reason, they were used, at least in half of the cases, for the occupation service.

1. Indecisive combat-ready ally

To ensure the prospect of a second Far Eastern front, Germany intended to involve Japan in anti-Soviet campaigns, which at that time was already fighting in China. In such circumstances, the Japanese waited, making their participation in the war against the USSR dependent on Hitler's success. But Tokyo's uncompromising defeat in the Pacific clash with the United States in June 1942 put the Japanese in a defensive position before the military finale.

Immediately after Pearl Harbor, in December 1941, Hitler declared war on the Americans. Despite the illogicality of such a step, when the course of the Moscow battle was predetermined by the failed blitzkrieg, the Fuhrer had an adjacent goal. He counted on a retaliatory move from Tokyo in the context of declaring war on the Soviet Union and taking on diversionary actions in the Far East. But the huge territorial distancing of Germany and Japan limited their military cooperation. As a result, ideological allies fought each for themselves and surrendered separately.

2. Indulge in fascism Mussolini

Italy declared war on the Soviet Union in sync with Germany. The Italian corps, set against the Russians, numbered about 60 thousand fighters at first, and exceeded the 200 thousand mark by the fall of 1942. Italian fascists took the Soviet Donbass, after which they occupied the Odessa region of today's Ukraine.

The losses of these allies in wounded, killed and missing amounted to about 15 thousand soldiers. Determined in his intentions, Mussolini increased the force, sending seven more divisions to help three divisions. In addition, the Italian personnel were reinforced with a large batch of weapons, tanks, self-propelled guns and hundreds of aircraft. But it so happened that by the end of 1942, the offensive Soviet operation "Little Saturn" completely destroyed 6 divisions from Rome, and the next month the Alpine corps also fell. The absolute losses of the fascist aggressor exceeded 90 thousand people. The demoralized remnants of the Italian formations went home, and the heroic contribution of Italy to the war against the USSR was limited.

3. The price of Romanian vindictiveness

According to the original Barbarossa plan, Hitler hoped to crush the USSR at lightning speed with the involvement of only a couple of allies in the flank positions - Finland and Romania. The Romanian dictator Antonescu had an army of 700 thousand people, solid weapons, military aircraft, a fleet on the Black Sea and a Danube river flotilla. On the very first day of the USSR's declaration of war, Romanian troops crossed the Soviet border, and in July they took Chisinau, occupying Bessarabia and Bukovina. In an attempt to secure the occupied territories, Romania expanded its cooperation with Hitler in every possible way. The Romanians took part in the seizure of Sevastopol, Odessa, Kharkov, Novorossiysk, Donbass, fought for the Germans in the Caucasus.

Antonescu's intentions were obvious: the return of Bessarabia to his jurisdiction along with the northern Black Sea region. The total number of Romanian troops, divided into 2 armies, consisted of hundreds of thousands of people. Under the guise of an auxiliary force, Romania was deployed in the Crimea, on the Don, near Stalingrad. Romanian gendarmes spotted in the Holocaust. Soviet troops reached the Romanian borders with the implementation of the Jassy-Kishinev operation in the summer of 1944. After the arrest and execution of Antonescu, the new government of the country declared war against Germany. Romania's losses reached half a million people.

4. Failures of the Hungarian battalions

By the end of the 30s, Hungary, suppressed by the Entente, embarked on a course of rapprochement with Germany, intending to revive the great country. The Hungarians declared war on the USSR a week later than Hitler after the bombing raid on Kosice. Modern historians, for the most part, see this as a German provocation. About 50,000 Hungarian troops went to help Hitler enslave the Soviet Union. With the first battles on Ukrainian territory, they suffered serious losses and were returned home with almost all of the survivors. This position did not suit Germany, and an ultimatum was put forward to Budapest demanding to increase its contribution to the common cause.

In the spring of 1942, 200 thousand people went to the front. Getting bogged down in positional battles on the Don, the Hungarians were completely defeated. The subsequent attempt at a counter-offensive by a tank division in the Carpathian region in 1944, according to tradition, also ended in failure for the Hungarians. This time Hitler did not allow the Romanian scenario. The peaceful Soviet citizens who survived the occupation testified en masse that the Hungarians, against the background of the same Germans, allowed themselves much more cruel behavior. Hungary remained with the Third Reich to the end, resisting Soviet troops and outside the Union - in Transylvania and Eastern Hungary.

In general, the USSR was very kind with its satellites. Soviet general secretaries made them very generous diplomatic tributes.