The Allied Powers ultimately defeated Germany and Japan in World War II,
but that victory was far from assured. What would happen if the Third Reich
had won the war in Europe? Would Germany have control of Africa? Keep watching to find out.
It's a well-known fact that the Nazis killed 6 million European Jews as part
of the so-called Final Solution, as well as large swaths of other vulnerable populations.
The genocide ended with the Allied invasions of Germany and Poland at the end of the war,
as part of the German defeat. Had Adolf Hitler and the Germans never lost,
the program of organized death would likely have continued apace,
presumably on track to kill off much more of the Jewish population on the continent.
Horrific as the legacy of the Holocaust has been, could it have been even worse? The Holocaust
Encyclopedia, published by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, puts the total Jewish population
of Europe at about 9.5 million. By these figures, another 3.5 million people could have eventually
been killed, adding even more souls to the already grim tally. The real figure may have
been slightly lower, though. The 9.5 million cited included the Jews of the Soviet Union,
tens of thousands of whom lived in the Autonomous Jewish Oblast on Russia's Chinese frontier.
These peoples lived far from Nazi territorial ambition.
Nine to 9.5 million people seems like an inevitable, if truly bleak, toll.
Adolf Hitler was serious about establishing a new German land empire. By 1942,
Hitler ruled most of the European continent and huge sections of the Soviet Union as well,
all the way to the Caspian Sea.
"And then he's going to turn his attention to the east,
which he sees is the natural field for German expansion."
Contrary to popular belief, though, Adolf Hitler didn't aim to conquer the world.
He planned for Russia's Ural Mountains to form the eastern perimeter of the Third
Reich. It's unclear, though, what Hitler wanted to do with the U.K.
The Nazis had planned "Operation Sea Lion" to occupy the British Isles, but Hitler seemed to
go back and forth on whether England belonged in the Third Reich in the cultural sense.
"Operation Sea Lion" would have been a bloodbath if it had ever been launched. But its corollary,
Operation Green, the plan to invade Ireland, would likely have gone much more smoothly for
the Germans. The Irish Times reported that the Irish army was seriously outgunned, with many of
its divisions relying on bicycles, earning them the sneering nickname of "Peddling Panzers."
But as in England's case, it's not clear that the Celtic island was Third Reich material.
We can imagine that after its occupation, and the extermination of its Jews and other vulnerable
peoples, Ireland might have been permitted nominal independence and a docile, pro-German dictator.
So what about the fate of the United States? Hitler had no plans for invading the USA.
He underestimated America's fighting capability, refusing to believe that a nation of "mongrels"
could defeat his Aryan empire. The logistics, too, would have been more than daunting.
With the Wehrmacht already stretched thin across Europe and Africa,
occupying another large continent would have been impossible. Canada, a British subject,
might have fared worse, with Hitler as its head of state instead of King George VI.
This means, however, that the United States could potentially keep fighting. Another atom
bomb might have ended up being dropped on Berlin or another European city, decimating them like
Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In 1941, the U.S. Air Force began work on the Convair B-36 bomber,
which could reach Berlin from a Canadian airbase without refueling. The B-36 would not be ready
for mass production until 1948, the year America's atom bomb arsenal reached 50 warheads. That's 50
cities' worth of carnage, enough, perhaps, to bring the worldwide Third Reich to its knees.
It was not guaranteed that Japan would win its war against the Allies if Germany won
its own. But a German victory would mean the subjugation of the British Empire,
including Australia, as well as the Soviet Union and possibly the United States.
"But our greatest days. They lie ahead. Sig Heil."
With its enemies out of commission, Japan's brutal expansion would theoretically meet
almost no opposition. Japan would be the master of the Pacific, from the western shores of North
America to the border of India. It would have been the biggest sovereign power in the world.
Once Hitler had seized the oil and rich farmland west of the Urals, he planned to hand the rest
of the defunct Soviet Union to Japan. The Empire of the Rising Sun would certainly have swallowed
more of mainland China. They would have also taken the American territories in the Pacific,
like Hawaii and Guam, all of Southeast Asia, and, possibly, Alaska. Japan had already taken British
colonies like Singapore, many of which are major economic forces today. If Japan had enforced its
insulated economic policies on these islands, the 21st-century economic landscape would be
completely different. Without Asian trade and manufacturing, there would be no globalization.
Germany, too, had Pacific colonies directly in the Japanese Empire's path.
It's unclear whether Hitler would have had to concede Germany's former Pacific
colonies to his Asian allies, or if he would fight to reclaim them.
Germany lost its colonies, including all outside the borders of Europe, in the
Treaty of Versailles, which effectively ended World War I. These included the aforementioned
islands in the Pacific, but more importantly a significant number of African territories as well.
These included regions like Cameroon and Togo in the west of Africa, Tanganyika,
now known as Tanzania, and Burundi in the east of Africa, and Namibia in Africa's southwest.
Hitler was determined to restore German control of these countries.
He also planned to seize the colonies of his defeated European rivals,
most notably France and Britain. Most of Africa, besides the Italian, Vichy French,
and the Spanish enclaves, would likely be speaking German and flying a swastika banner.
The Nazis enjoyed a fair amount of support among some of South Africa's Afrikaner population,
which had historically opposed British rule and was quite experienced in creating and
dominating a racial underclass. Some South Africans even formed pro-Nazi
militias in anticipation of their unification with the Third Reich.
It's not hard to imagine an African managerial caste, reporting to Berlin and
manned by Afrikaners, enforcing some version of apartheid from the Sahara to Madagascar.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Grunge videos about World War II
are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.