What advantages did the axis powers have at the beginning of the war?

Answer 1

At the beginning of WW2 the axis (particularly Germany) was ahead of the U.S. in almost everything. Their navy was superior as well as the air force. The army received better training and some will argue to say that if Hitler had not cut the funding on the air force and had listened to his generals that the war would have lasted a lot longer. The only advantage I can see that the Japs would have was the element of surprise (Pearl Harbor) and the jet stream that was above Japan that made it difficult for allied precision bombing. Towards the end of the war the U.S. pulled out in front with key advancements such as the M1 Garrand, P-51 Mustang, B-29 Superfortress, and of course the atomic bomb.

Answer 2

The British had a number of advantages against the Germans. The Royal Navy was the largest in the world and easily outnumbered the Germans in surface vessels.

Because of this Germany would always have great difficulty in trying to invade British soil and was unable to prevent the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of troops from the French coast at Dunkirk.

The new British fighters of the RAF, the Hurricane and the Spitfire had been developed later than the German Messerschmitt 109. One of the advantages of the British delay in rearming was that these aircraft were completely state of the art. The Spitfire could outmanouver the Me109 in dogfighting leaving the Hurricane squadrons free to attack German bomber formations.

Britain had a huge Empire from which they could draw more resources than their small country could provide. Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa all joined the Allied cause as soon as war broke out and provided additional troops to be used in North Africa and Europe over the course of the war.

French and British tanks were superior to the Germans in terms of defensive capability and firepower but were not deployed effectively.

The French defenses on the German border was almost impregnable, the French were well prepared for a similar war to that of 1914-1918 but the German army simply outflanked their static defenses.

Answer 3

It seems as if the Axis powers had more advantages at the beginning of the war. Germany had a large and powerful army, and Japan had the largest and most powerful naval force at that time.