As with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, once more, what seems foolhardy to Americans in the 21st century may not have seemed so to Nazi Germany.
True, the Germans each month were receiving generously priced Soviet products, many on credit; but Hitler (wrongly) felt that he could nevertheless steal food, fuel and raw materials from the east more cheaply than buying them. And while the Germans were paranoid about opening a two-front war – like the one that had plagued them between late 1914 and 1917 – Hitler argued that the western front was all but somnolent. British strategic bombing in 1941, remember, was still mostly erratic and ineffective.
In any case, Hitler was more paranoid about a British embargo and blockade that might cut off fuel and food in the manner of 1918; with the acquisition of the great natural reserves of the Soviet Union, especially its Caucasian oil, the Nazis believed they would become immune from the effects of a maritime blockade.
More @ WND
Here is the part the author missed: The OKW (German Hi Command) didn't want to launch the war until 1943 to 1945. Hitler held an unshakeable belief that he would die before 1947, his 60th birthday. He started the war in Europe , Invaded Russia and declared war on the United States in the belief that that was the ONLY way he would "see the end of the war" He repeated this when the Navy told him that they wouldn't be ready until 1946. He repeated it when the OKW told him the new Panzers wouldn't be ready until 1941. Had Germany waited until its military was ready for war thing today would be VERY different. The army's of all of the "Great Powers" in Europe were obsolete in 1938. Only the limitless industrial might of the USA saved them. We forget today that between 1940 and 1944 the US produced more weapons , ships, aircraft ,ammunition , uniforms , shoes, oil and every other implement of war than the rest of the world COMBINED by factors of tens. Without the factories ,ships , workers, oil and WILL of the American people Russia and Great Britton would be a footnote in the history of the world. Even with a superstitious idiot like Adolf Hitler at the helm , Russia and Britton WOULD have lost that war without us.---Ray
ReplyDeleteAgreed and we would have lost a war on the continent if only we and Germany were pitted against each other, I believe.
DeleteVery well stated Ray. I have believed for a long time that Hitler knew very early on that he had Parkinson's and because of this he thought his life would be significantly curtailed. Thus, the "rush" to war. Also, Hitler believed the war could be won with tanks, planes, submarines, infantry, artillery, etc. (and with more than adequate numbers, rightly so). When he came to power the Germans were just on the verge of making gigantic technological advances. Had he waited until the magic number of U-boats had been produced as Doneitz requested, the war would have ended very differently. This fact alone would have changed the course of the war significantly by blockading England and decimating convoys headed for Russia. Even though the allies had "cracked" the Enigma code, the overwhelming advantage at sea would have been catastrophic for Briton and Russia. Had the Germans waited until 1946 they more than likely would have had in their arsenal many ICBM's (some would probably have been coupled with BOOMERS that could launch off the coast of the U.S.), remote controlled (cruise) missiles, long range jet bombers, overwhelming radar capabilities, etc, I am not going to say the "atom bomb" (even though very probable), because the Germans, were behind the curve in the mid 40's. This is one variable that could turn the tides of war (to either side). Since we are playing "what if's", we should ask the question "would the U.S. have used a nuke if they had of possessed one on European soil considering the background of American ancestry? Of course, the "allies" would have more than likely made technological advances as well, but still Europe would have been a tough nut to crack considering the might of the German war machine. One last though is if Hitler had been assassinated in early 1941, there would probably be statues of him today from the English Channel to Moscow and from the Mediterranean to the Baltic. Along those lines, check out the book 1945 by William Forstchen. It is a thought provoking "alternative history"where Germany launches a raid on the top secret atomic research facility at Oak Ridge, TN.
DeleteFor a peek at some of their uber cool military hardware check out;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lV68D5Nkb_E
Turn down the sound if you don't like heavy metal! :)
IMO: No we would have won, Here's why. By 1945 all the European army's were used up. All of them were putting old men and boys into combat ,and in the case of Germany with "hand me down" uniforms, little food and no fuel. As the Battle of the bulge showed , the best tank is worthless without gas. Britton had no reserves of manpower left to draw on in the UK, and little could be further demanded of "The British Commonwealth of Nations" by 1943. By 1944 the Soviet Union had 25 million dead , wounded, or MIA . Most of the country west of Moscow was a depopulated wasteland that wouldn't recover for 50 years (it must be remembered that the Soviet Union had 40-50 million people killed between 1914 and 1945 almost all in western Russia and Ukraine) . The US on the other hand still had entire Army Groups in reserve that had never seen combat by 1945. Americas war industry had not even begun to reach peak production (The war production boards started SCALING BACK and slowing down military production in the spring of 1944) despite the fact that the USA was arming, in whole or in part, EVERY allied military and transporting that gear world wide. Had the will existed in 1944 IMO the US could not only have taken Europe by its self , but Japan as well by mid 1946, and done so without the Nuke's in ether theater. The war in Europe started in 1939. The war in the east (Japan) started ten years earlier. The AXIS had reached its practical production limit by 1943 and its manpower limit by 1944. America came into the war in 1942 never even got close to its limit .-- P.S. ----IMO Had America wanted to over run the USSR in 1945 the USSR would have folded in 10 weeks. They(the USSR) simply had nothing left to fight with after Berlin. They put the "strategic reserve" in the field in 1943. Only the ruthlessness of Stalin kept them on the attack until 1945. Even Stalin admitted in 1950 that had the war dragged on into 1946, or America decided to take Russia, the USSR would have been in grave danger. Russia had been at war in both Finland and the far east since the mid thirties and had "nothing left in the pot" after her losses in WW-2 (Stalin to Zoukov(Spl?) 1948)----Ray
ReplyDeleteI didn't express myself correctly. I was thinking of the two powers facing each other at the beginning of the war, say 1941. Certainly by the end, Germany had nothing left.
DeleteWhat is crazy is the fact that most of Germany's war material production actually increased in the last months of the war. Of course they were suffering severely from an an acute loss of manpower and petroleum shortages. It is difficult to say what the outcome would have been without the Russians hammering away from the east, even in the final stages. Soviet estimates name total casualties at app. 300,000 in the battle for Berlin alone. In truth there were more than double that number with some estimates as high as a million!
DeleteSoviet estimates name total casualties at app. 300,000 in the battle for Berlin alone.
DeleteAn example: Battle of Tannenberg Line or Battle of the European SS.
http://freenorthcarolina.blogspot.com/2011/02/harald-nugiseks.html
The German force of 22,250 men held off the Soviet advance of 136,830 troops. As the Soviet forces were constantly reinforced, the casualties of the battle were 150,000–200,000 wounded and dead Soviet troops and 157–164 Soviet tanks."
This is a re-occurring theme in many different wars. Especially, when the Heimat (motherland, fatherland, Dixie, or whatever one chooses to call their Homeland) is at stake. Read:
DeleteGotterdammerung 1945: Germany's Last Stand in the East Hardcover – February 8, 1999
by Russ Schneider (Author)
Gotterdammerung 1945: Germany's Last Stand in the East
DeleteThe title rings a bell. Thanks. Oh, here's a brilliant comment concerning the dead author:
"this guys writing style gives me a headache, hes hard to read. i dont know if his writing is just bad or im not intellect enough to follow his thoughts. anyhow, i wont buy anything written by him again. his writing doesnt make sense to me."