Topic and Tentative Title:
German Strategy during the beginning of WWII. A case study in assessing German Strategy from 1939-
1942.
Research Question: This paper will seek to answer the primary research question: How effective were
the Germans at applying specific aspects of the MILS514 analytic framework to strategy-making during
their blitzkrieg warfare and invasion of central Europe from 1939 – 1941.
Hypothesis: The Germans use of the Nine Variables -Elements of Strategy aided them with great success
at the beginning of the war from 1939 – 1941, and the failure to accurately access (and implement) the
Nine Constants – Five Criteria of Effectiveness of the MILS514 analytic framework to their strategymaking process from 1942 on, which produced a series of failures that led to their defeat by Allied
forces in 1945. This defeat would indicate that incorporating the Nine Constants – Five Criteria of
Effectiveness with the Nine Variables – Elements of Strategy is essential to the strategy-making process.
Concise Description: During the first part of WWII, Germany aimed to secure German territory and
increase German influence, much like their ambitions that led to WW I in 1914. How Germany was going
to accomplish this was to initiate a military tactic known as blitzkrieg. This Blitzkrieg strategy gave them
the ability to overwhelm and defeat most of Europe from 1939 to the beginning of 1940. Their means
was to utilize their military to execute this blitzkrieg attack that gave them much success in conquering
most of Central Europe. However, Germany’s ambitions to defeat Great Britain in the West and Russia in
the East proved more feasible academically than physically. With their extended lines in the Russian
front, Britain’s naval superiority, and the United States adding to the war effort in Europe, this placed
Germany in a prolonged war that they could not sustain. Had the Germans balanced the elements of
their blitzkrieg strategy with criteria that would measure its effectiveness, World War II would have had
a different outcome.