Military co-operation between the Axis powers of WW2

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

WW2 isn't a particular strongpoint of mine and at the moment my class is working on coaliton warfare and i'm being bored out my mind with WW1 and WW2 with anything i am interested in e.g Ancient, Medieval etc being ignored.

Anyway, i have to do part of a presentation with a few fellas from my class of Coalition warfare with my part in the proceedings based on the military side of the Axis powers based mainly on military co-operation , planning, campaigns etc.

Anything would be great apart from the "Italians were crap..." which we all know anyway

[Rodion Romanovich]

There was cooperation on most fronts:
- Fall Gelb - after the allied front had broken the Italians attempted a supporting offensive through the alps, but failed to achieve any break-through
- Eastern front - there were Italian and Romanian troops covering one of the critical areas at the flank of the Stalingrad pocket during Soviet operation Uranus, but it probably wasn't their fault though that they couldn't hold the massive USSR offensive. There were Romanian and Italian troops in other parts of the eastern front too.
- The German invasion of Greece that postponed Operation Barbarossa was due to the Italians failing there.
- The most successful cooperation between the axis was perhaps Rommels Afrika Korps consisting of both Germans and Italians. Again, Rommel moved in because the Italians failed. There was some successful cooperation between the Italian fleet and Luftwaffe in the Mediterranean.

...those are all examples I could think of right now...

[Kagemusha]

One would be the Military cooperation with German and Finnish troops in Lappland and Northern Finnland on Operation Barbarossa from the start of the operaton untill Finland made peace with Soviet Union and started Operations to drive away the German Army out of Lappland on 15.9.1944.
Germans Had the 20th Mountain Army and 5th Air Army in Lappland that was assigned under the German army in Norway,at the peak it consisted of over 200 000 German and Austrian troops.Finnish 3rd Army(2 divisions),was assigned under the German Mountain army. The Goal was to capture the main port of Russia on Ice Sea,Murmansk and also cut the railroad connection to South from Murmansk near Kiestinki.
Both Operations failed becouse the German troops were highly motorized and the lack of Roads and strange enviroment restricted their movement also The Oppsing Russian forces were mostly Elite border guard divisions and brigades. The attack on Murmansk halted completely after very little advancing from the Finno/Soviet border.And after the stop they grouped on defence where they stayed until 1944.
At Kiestinki area the Germans and the Finnish troops attacked together to cutt of the Murmansk railroad.There the Finnish troops succeeded on cutting it by moving through the forests but the Motorized troops of Germans couldnt follow becouse Soviets stopped their attacks through the roads.
After some fighting the Finnish troops retreated back also under the secret orders from Finnish Commander in Chief Marshall Mannerheim.
Becouse in the Fall 1941,Germans had failed to meet Finnish troops at Aunus Peninsula in order to cut of the area of Leningrad completely,the Finnish Command decided to stop further attacks before that object would be fullfilled.In which the Germans failed to fullfill on the rest of the war.

[The Blind King of Bohemia]

Cheers boys that info is great. Really helpful many thanks

[ShadesPanther]

The Hungarians were also at Stalingrad. The Italians were placed in between the Romanians and Hungarians so they didn't start to fight each other.

I do know that the Romanians captured Odessa almost completely by themselves . There was alot of cooperation in Army Group south as many of the troops there were allies.

[King Kurt]

Perhaps the more interesting would be what didn't happen. There was little or no cooperation between Germany and Japan. For example - why didn't Japan declare war against Russia? What about a load of U Boats going to Japan to operate against the Americans There didn't even seem to be technology transfer - I am sure the Japs would have liked the MG 42 and the Germans the long lance torpedo. I suppose it was difficult to communicate or move goods, but it does make you wonder.

[Kraxis]

- The most successful cooperation between the axis was perhaps Rommels Afrika Korps consisting of both Germans and Italians. Again, Rommel moved in because the Italians failed.

No going to say you are wrong or anything, but your point could be percieved as the Italians couldn't do anything. But the fact is that the majority of the Axis forces in Africa were Italians, and without them Rommel would never have stood a chance.
It is interesting to note that they fought very well after he assumed command (though he was still officially under the command of some Italian marshall). Clearly the Italians were not wholly inefficient on the battlefield. My guess it has to do with motivation, which they lacked when their commanders stuffed their heads with delicacies while they ate very bad stuff and a whole lot of other things. Things that Rommel at least didn't continue visibly.

Also, the Italians did have one branch that did quite well. Their intelligence services. They often supplied Germany with correct intelligence, which was then disregarded because it came from the incomptetent Italians. This wasn't done by the Abwehr though, they were professionals and worked on all they were supplied with (though they might not agree with the conclusions the Italians had made), but when presenting the info for the leaders... well you can guess what happened.

Japan did buy a Tiger E tank, but not surprisingly it never got shipped over.
A Japanese freighter filled with all kinds of goodies landed in Mogadishu at just the right time to have save the Italians, but I can't remember what happened afterwards...
A few Japanese and German submarines did visit each other. The Germans even having a few Type IX boats patrolling the Indian Ocean from Burma for a while.
And there is of course the infamous U-boat that was supposed to ship some 200+kg of Uranium to Japan as well as a lot of other interesting stuff. It surrendered at VE-day and the Uranium was used in the atomic bombs dropped in Japan. So you could argue the shipment arrived eventually, just not the way the Japanese had hoped.

[Alexanderofmacedon]

The main thing is that, the allies supported each other with supplies for the most part of the war. Finally, they joined ranks together to fight against the Germans. I think the biggest thing was the transfering of supplies. Just my opinion though...