ABSTRACT
Facing enemies (Soviet Union, United States, Great Britain) with substantial superiority in men and materiel, Germany desperately needed significant allies to have a realistic chance to win World War II. It needed to counterbalance the qualitative Anglo-American material superiority and quantitative Russian superiority. It needed much from its potential allies—Spanish help to close Gibraltar and the Mediterranean from British naval dominance. It needed Japanese help to invade the Soviet Union and create a viable second front, to close Vladivostok to American Lend Lease aid and to invade India and the Middle East from the east. Germany needed Italian help in gaining control of the Mediterranean and French help in gaining control of the British overseas empire. And, most of all, it desperately needed access to the extensive human resources of such allies in order to double or triple the size of the German led armies and their equipment in the field.
