Assess the extent to which military defeats contributed towards the collapse of Nazism by 1945.
The military defeats experienced by the Nazi's contributed greatly to the downfall of the Nazi regime. In the beginning of the war, Germany was on a roll, with many countries under their control within the first year. But as the war came to an end Germany began to come the terms with their impending loss.
Germany used Blitzkrieg attacks to invade France. On the 21 May, French and British troops were surrounded in Belgium (top of France). This was too much pressure from the German forces and in early June 330,000 men were evacuated from Dunkirk back to England. A week after the evacuation at Dunkirk, 14 June, German forces enters Paris and on the 22 June France surrenders to Germany. "Hitler accepted the French surrender in the same railway carriage in the forest of Compiegne that the French had used to accept the German surrender in 1918.
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«Berlin-Tempelhof .» dispatch-hall-façade of H...
Ernst Jünger in between David Lloyd George and Ad...In this symbolic act Hitler had avenged the German defeat of the First World War and finally erased the insult of the Treaty of Versailles." (3) This triumphant moment would have contributed to the final defeat of Germany. Hitler 'rubbing' the French defeat in their faces would have increased his ego and fortified his determination to continue his effort and strengthened the allies resolve.
At this point Hitler had achieved a significant amount in a short amount of time. Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Luxemburg and France were all defeated and under German control. Britain was left alone to face the enemy. This multitude of attainment I fell was accomplished to swiftly and was one of the main contributors to the eventual downfall of Hitler, as well as his giant ego and belief that he could achieve...