Germany mainly lost by losing the economics and resources games. A secondary factor was when Hitler started taking over strategic and tactical planning from the generals.
My take on the generals themselves is that they were at least not terrible.
Dont understand why you get downvoted, as I assume you mean that the generals wrwe not strategical and tactical terrible. Think most historians will agree that Hitlers direct involvement in the war was a growing issue in conducting the war. Also Hitler stayed in power by making sure that the levels below him were at each others throats and not able to challenge him directly. Nazi Germany was not technically on a war economy until Speer took over, and the amount of corruption was immens.
Think most historians will agree that Hitlers direct involvement in the war was a growing issue in conducting the war.
This part has been revisited in the decades since the end of the Cold War. The problem was that most western sources were either written by the Allies or were from German generals who survived. In a repudiation of “history is written by the victors” (a phrase that should be expunged in general), almost everything known about the eastern front came from the German side of the story.
Those generals tended to point fingers at Hitler. Everything would have been dandy if they were the ones in charge.
Then the Cold War ends, and there’s a flood of new information from the Russian side of things. Western historians start going over the new information, and some new conclusions start to come out. Hitler did fuck a lot of things up personally, but those German generals were full of shit in other ways.
Some generals tried this. Other generals just kind of tried to survive and fight for their country. Still other generals were ideologically Nazis and they fought for the cause.
Like anything in the real world, it’s a mixed bag.
Blitzkrieg was like the American football play of the same name. If you don’t win real fast, you tend to find out that your motorized units are beyond reach of your supply lines. Then they get cut off, and the whole thing can collapse rapidly.
The Ardennes offensive was pulled off in 72 hours by using the powers of methamphetamine. Seriously, the German army issued a lot of meth to the troops. Imagine what would happen to the combat effectiveness if they had to keep fighting at that pace for a while.
Yeah it hasn’t really seen use since because it relies a bit on surprise and can’t handle an opponent that knows how to counter it and is prepared to do so. You buy yourself time. All the time you can. And while you’re doing that you attack their supply lines. They’re sprinting, make the fight a marathon.
Part of why the blitz worked was that it went against all understood military doctrine. It is both literally and metaphorically the fighting strategy of a meth addict.
By then, the Battle of Moscow already had winter blizzards setting in, and Germany would be pushed back within a month and start losing from then on. The British had already tossed the Luftwaffe into a wood chipper through the Battle of Britain. The Bismark had been sunk, and that signaled that Plan Z, a plan for building a German surface fleet that could challenge the Royal Navy, was crumpled up and thrown in the toilet.
It may not have been obvious at the time, but in hindsight, Germany was already set to lose. The only question was how and when. Maybe Russia overruns all of Germany and then effectively controls France. Maybe there’s a negotiated peace before that happens. In any case, Germany was going to come out worse than it went in.
This was a serious mistake, yes. And Barbarossa was another serious mistake.
But I think that Germany was still destined to lose the war anyway, because they were running out of oil and getting out manufactured. And the United States was going to find a way to enter the European theater one way or another.
Germany mainly lost by losing the economics and resources games. A secondary factor was when Hitler started taking over strategic and tactical planning from the generals.
My take on the generals themselves is that they were at least not terrible.
Economic and resources problems are part in parcel with a despot with a desire for absolute loyalty.
Dont understand why you get downvoted, as I assume you mean that the generals wrwe not strategical and tactical terrible. Think most historians will agree that Hitlers direct involvement in the war was a growing issue in conducting the war. Also Hitler stayed in power by making sure that the levels below him were at each others throats and not able to challenge him directly. Nazi Germany was not technically on a war economy until Speer took over, and the amount of corruption was immens.
This part has been revisited in the decades since the end of the Cold War. The problem was that most western sources were either written by the Allies or were from German generals who survived. In a repudiation of “history is written by the victors” (a phrase that should be expunged in general), almost everything known about the eastern front came from the German side of the story.
Those generals tended to point fingers at Hitler. Everything would have been dandy if they were the ones in charge.
Then the Cold War ends, and there’s a flood of new information from the Russian side of things. Western historians start going over the new information, and some new conclusions start to come out. Hitler did fuck a lot of things up personally, but those German generals were full of shit in other ways.
Well they were probably too loyal to their idiot Fuhrer. Methinks it’s the loyalty part that Trump wants.
The generals tried to overthrow or assassinate him on multiple occasions. The most famous one is the plot for the movie “Valkyrie”.
Some generals tried this. Other generals just kind of tried to survive and fight for their country. Still other generals were ideologically Nazis and they fought for the cause.
Like anything in the real world, it’s a mixed bag.
Wasn’t Blitzkrieg like a brilliant strategy at the time that devastated their opponents?
Blitzkrieg was like the American football play of the same name. If you don’t win real fast, you tend to find out that your motorized units are beyond reach of your supply lines. Then they get cut off, and the whole thing can collapse rapidly.
The Ardennes offensive was pulled off in 72 hours by using the powers of methamphetamine. Seriously, the German army issued a lot of meth to the troops. Imagine what would happen to the combat effectiveness if they had to keep fighting at that pace for a while.
Yeah it hasn’t really seen use since because it relies a bit on surprise and can’t handle an opponent that knows how to counter it and is prepared to do so. You buy yourself time. All the time you can. And while you’re doing that you attack their supply lines. They’re sprinting, make the fight a marathon.
Part of why the blitz worked was that it went against all understood military doctrine. It is both literally and metaphorically the fighting strategy of a meth addict.
Germany lost by declaring war on the United States on December 11th 1941.
By then, the Battle of Moscow already had winter blizzards setting in, and Germany would be pushed back within a month and start losing from then on. The British had already tossed the Luftwaffe into a wood chipper through the Battle of Britain. The Bismark had been sunk, and that signaled that Plan Z, a plan for building a German surface fleet that could challenge the Royal Navy, was crumpled up and thrown in the toilet.
It may not have been obvious at the time, but in hindsight, Germany was already set to lose. The only question was how and when. Maybe Russia overruns all of Germany and then effectively controls France. Maybe there’s a negotiated peace before that happens. In any case, Germany was going to come out worse than it went in.
This was a serious mistake, yes. And Barbarossa was another serious mistake.
But I think that Germany was still destined to lose the war anyway, because they were running out of oil and getting out manufactured. And the United States was going to find a way to enter the European theater one way or another.
You mean the Red Army?