The fall of Hitler

One of the main causes of Hitler’s downfall was his failed invasion of the USSR. According to National Interest, Hitler wanted Russia as a colony for Germany. He saw it as a powerhouse to expand his army, gain more territory and most importantly, obtain natural resources.

In August 1939, the German-Soviet Pact was developed. According to Holocaust Encyclopedia, this was a peace agreement between the USSR and Hitler, promising that Hitler would not invade Russia if Stalin didn’t invade Germany. But in actuality, this was a plan to give Hitler more time to prepare his forces to take on Russia.

Once Hitler was ready, he attacked head on, targeting the civilians, specifically the Jews. Hitler initially attacked USSR in the summer, but the fighting dragged on, and eventually, it got cold in Russia. According to History.com, Hitler would not let his men retreat at the Battle of Stalingrad even if the winter was slowing down his invasion.

Stalin and his generals made their counterattack. Knowing that Hitler’s forces were not suited to battle in the winter, Stalin crushed the Germans, defeating them with Hitler’s own encirclement tactics. Hitler still did not force his troops to retreat even with the cold weather and the severe losses of men. Because of this, Hitler lost the invasion of Russia and a good portion of his armies, weakening him.

Hitler also made unnecessary decisions that led to his downfall, one of them being his decision in declaring war on the US. According to History.com, Hitler decided to declare war on the U.S. even though he didn’t have to. The US was neutral in the war until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941. The U.S. soon declared war on Japan. Hitler declared war on the US shortly after, but Hitler did not have to do this because Japan was not the defender, but the offender.

The Tripartite Pact, which is an alliance promising that Japan, Germany and Italy would come to aid whenever one of them was being attacked, directly says that one of the forces has to declare war, if and only if they were being invaded. Hitler’s decision to declare war on the U.S. gave the U.S. full permission to join the war in stopping Hitler in Europe as well.

America was the biggest game-changer in the war. It was the most advanced in technology at the time. According to National WWII Museum, one game-changing technology the U.S. had was radar. This could track an opposing side’s army, navy and air force, using radio signals. Another innovation that the Americans developed to stop the Germans was breaking the enigma code.

According to Science Hook, Alan Turning and his men broke the German enigma code. This was a way to decode messages that were being sent from the Germans. And eventually, the Manhattan Project started its development for the atomic bomb, a bomb that was so powerful, that it could wipe a country out of existence. 

But the biggest reason why Hitler truly lost was that he fought a war on multiple fronts, in other words, fighting the UK, France, America, Canada, USSR and other opposing sides towards the Nazis. He was surrounded. Hitler could not handle the allied forces towering over him.

Knowing all hope was lost when all the allies were working together, Hitler shot himself. This was the true downfall of the Nazi empire. Hitler made too many enemies, and in the end, got surrounded and got absolutely demolished.