While the Allies did commit war crimes, these can in no way compare to the attempt of Nazi Germany to exterminate an entire race of people. However, The Holocaust means that World War Two can’t be seen in the same light. Most wars by their very nature tend to be morally ambiguous. Secondly, and in my opinion much more importantly, World War Two is perhaps the only war in history where there are clear good and bad guys. It was the last war to see large-scale fighting in Europe and while it ended over 70 years ago, it is still within living memory of a not insignificant portion of the population in a way that the Napoleonic Wars, US Civil War and World War One are not.

The first is rather obvious: World War Two was the largest and mostly costly war in all human history. I think there are two reasons why this is the case. Yet, it’s the prospect of a Nazi victory that fascinates (and horrifies) us. So what is it about the Germans winning World War Two in particular that holds such an extreme fascination for us today? Many other wars throughout history have had dramatic turning points that rival those of the Second World War. If not for their dogged determination and sacrifice in the face of odds uncounted, Hitler may well have been victorious. The citizens of the Soviet Union in particular were the ones who paid the heaviest price for Hitler’s ambitions and for the allies’ victory. Ultimately, it was only Hitler’s dual blunders of first invading the Soviet Union and then declaring war on the United States that led to his downfall. This will be followed by some historical speculation about whether or not Germany really could have won. Below we’ll look at a few fictional scenarios (with maps) where they do win and what that means for the rest of the world. This has led both novelists and historians to speculate about might have happened if Germany had won the war and how they might have done so. The map above shows just how close they came. What if Hitler and the Nazis had won World War II? This is perhaps the greatest historical ‘what if’ of all time. How close Nazi Germany came to dominating Europe.

Biggest tank battle after ww2