In 1938 the Western European countries now dominated by Germany had been a formidable economic force, with a combined GDP greater than that of Britain. The combined effect of the British blockade and the German occupation was to reduce them to a shadow of their former selves.99 Whilst output in both Germany and Britain increased substantially over the course of the war and whilst output in the United States rocketed, Germany’s European empire was a basket case. Despite the voracious demands of the German war effort, no Western European country occupied in 1940 experienced any economic growth
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