MN-Ghost posted:

I have a question. Why did Hitler break the non-aggression pact with Russia and invade them before securing the western front by forcing Britain into surrender? I was taught that being forced to fight on two front between France and Russia was one of the biggest reason Germany lost WWI. So given that Hitler should have already learned this lesson, this always seemed to me to be a monumentally dumb move.

Devour posted:

Because Hitler really would've won those two fronts if the U.S. didn't get involved in both theatres of WW2 after Japan attacked pearl harbor. At the time Hitler launched Barbarossa, Britain was literally a sitting duck that could barely do anything. Yes, the Germans had the problems with the winters on the eastern front, but they still would've crushed the Soviet Union if the U.S. wasn't invading from the west & the south.

Barbarossa was launched in 1941, the U.S. got involved in 1941. Simply put, if Japan didn't attack the U.S., U.S. involvement would have been too late in the europeon theatre and by that time there would just be no way the allies/U.S. could strategically invade Nazi-held europe effectively thus enabling Hitler winning ww2.

Devour posted:

No it's not a joke. Without the U.S. in the Europeon theatre, it was basically Britain & the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany and its allies. Again, Britain did not have the resources nor the manpower to invade Nazi-occupied france/the Atlantic wall without the support of the U.S. militarily or economically.

quote:

Meanwhile, Nazi Germany has already conquered Europe & North Africa, effectively taking control of the resources/raw minerals in these occupied territories.

quote:

So you are going to tell me, that if Nazi Germany did not have to split up it's armed forces even more to try and reinforce the southern (Africa) and western fronts (Atlantic Wall) from the U.S., that the Soviet Union would have defeated Nazi Germany on its own? I'm not even getting into the specifics of how badly trained/equipped the Red Army was, or how stupid Stalin was with his generals.

Mans posted:

For content, what was the position of Sweden during the war? It's interesting how the managed their neutrality even though they were pressure on all sides to act on their behalf.

The same question can be asked about Turkey.

Cast_No_Shadow posted:

Its a question I'm geniunly interested in. Clearly the Nazi's got really lucky and war wise were at the top end of the 'wow things really turned out your way there' spectrum. Hitler was a drat charismatic man and excellent public speaker, but was that it? Can you really take over an entire state like Germany and take over half of Europe, for a limited time, because you're a bit lucky and a charismatic?

Cast_No_Shadow posted:

I have a question, I keep seeing the phrase, "they could have done things differently, but if they did well they wouldn't have been the Nazis". Which seems to make sense on the surface. The racist principles of the Nazi movement were a fundamental part of their ideology. However, I wonder about two points.

The first is rather pedantic, surely the same can be said of any person or movement. Could Julius Caesar have decided to not declare himself Dictator for life and thus maybe not have got himself stabbed to death, sure he could but if he did he wouldn't have been Julius Caesar, his decision to do what he did, like those of the Nazis was the culmination of everything that went before it.

The second is more of an actual question, the war in the east was in no uncertain terms an absolute war, to the end, of extinction. But beyond the logistics of feeding a 3 million man army, was there any reason it absolutely had to include the extermination of undesirable peoples right at the same time? Lets take it as written that the elimination of the Salvic\Russian population was something that, according to the Nazis absolutely had to happen. I don't see any reason, beyond bad judgement and zeal, that it had to be done right this second. If the Nazis were victorious in the war they could have removed them at their leisure. Nothing says you cannot use their help to fight the Soviets and then get rid of them after the war is won. Once you accept that line of reasoning, then looking for other options when it comes to logistics gains validity. It seems to me that, putting moral arguments aside, from a purely strategic perspective it is a mistake that the Nazis made that Stalin did not.

Shimrra Jamaane posted:

David Irving was literally proved in a court of law to be a lying piece of poo poo. So yeah.

Ensign Expendable posted:

The Red Army was still unpurged, and various forward thinking officers were still around.

Chupe Raho Aurat posted:

I don't want to turn this into a "hitler would have won if he had just.." thread, but what do you think of the following:

Hitler tells Mussolini to deal with it, and launches Barbarossa on time, so he has 6 - 8 extra weeks of summer and all the troops he originally planned to use.

quote:

Barbarossa is planned as a TWO year operation so troops are issued winter equipment and dig in once winter arrives. Which would more likely as not have been after or at least inside Moscow.

quote:

Hitler puts off the Russian genocide till the Soviet Union is dealt with, he actively spreads the word he is here to free the Russian people from communism. He no longer has to "guard the rear" or use troops to massacre the population, god knows how many "freed" Russians join him.

maev posted:

I'll have you know company of heroes 2 uses them a lot

Seven Hundred Bee posted:

a fascist leader could have easily emerged in France

quote:

Sanjurjo died in Estoril in a plane crash on July 20, 1936, when he tried to fly back to Spain. He chose to fly in a small airplane piloted by Juan Antonio Ansaldo. One of the main reasons for the crash was the heavy luggage that Sanjurjo insisted on bringing. Ansaldo warned him that the load was too heavy, but Sanjurjo answered him:

"I need to wear proper clothes as the new caudillo of Spain."

Ironically, Sanjurjo chose to fly in Ansaldo's plane rather than a much larger and more suitable airplane that was available. It was an 8-passenger de Havilland Dragon Rapide, the same one which had transported Franco from the Canary Islands to Morocco. Sanjurjo apparently preferred the drama of flying with a "daring aviator".[citation needed] (Ansaldo survived the crash.)

Mr. Sunshine posted:

Frau Müller has worked at the post office for almost 40 years now. The trams have stopped running, so the last few weeks she has been walking to work. Life is difficult. There's a shortage of of even basic foodstuffs, and there's air raids almost every day. But frau Müller goes to work, like she did during the last war, like she did under the Kaiser and under the Weimar republic. As she nears the post office, the wail of the air raid sirens fill the air. 15000 feet above her, a stressed and tired crewman on a Lancaster bomber misidentifies his target, and releases his payload early. Frau Müller never even makes it across the street.
In his mother's basement, meat sweats makes another mark on the wall. One more cog in the Nazi machine dead. He sighs with satisfaction.

gradenko_2000 posted:

Were there any foreign nationals, from the Allies or otherwise, that were still in Germany when the war broke out? What happened to them? Does the regime let you stay in whatever hotel or house you're already in, do you ride out the war in your nation's embassy, or was there a ship or planes that could cross combatant borders?

Azathoth posted:

Read his posts in this thread. He was working his way towards holocaust denial/neonazism/antisemitism, he was just not being straightforward about it, so the thread was getting shitted up with his act. It was a good probation.

Lumpy the Cook posted:

JaucheCharly posted:

I don't understand what you mean.

Baron Porkface posted:

How legit is My Tank Is Fight?