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gradenko_2000 posted:Most games seem to depict them as being elite units no matter what , but it was a claim that I felt was really dubious, which is why I asked My understanding is that at least for a significant portion of the war, SS units were more likely to get better equipment than their Wehrmacht counterparts and were generally regarded as more trustworthy/reliable by the Nazi leadership. Which makes some sense, given the differences in composition. That said, results varied widely, especially the longer the war went on. Seven Hundred Bee posted:One of my favorite anecdotes from WWII involves Italian incompetence: I've read about this as well- forget where, but maybe in one of Beevor's books. They basically came up with a whole slew of racial definitions that included the Latin race, which was possibly distinct from or a subset of the Mediterranean race. They had real trouble figuring out why the Hellenic/Roman world of antiquity was able to achieve so much until they decided that clearly, all the classical heroes were just Nordic Aryans who happened to wander down to the Mediterranean. The level of self-justifying bullshit at work in the Nazi regime is astounding.
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May 15, 2014 17:23
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gradenko_2000 posted:
Yeah, that's pretty nuts. I'd be interested to hear more about military procurement from re-armament up through the war. Between this and the stuff I've read about Goring trying to create his own little Reich's Luftwaffe's Army it sounds pretty strange- a weird hybrid of older and more modern practices.
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May 15, 2014 19:58
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The "your particular section of the army needs to be cushy with the arms manufacturers if you want to get guns" is a gently caress-up of the Nazi regime's particular brand of capitalism, isn't it?
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Frostwerks posted:Which were? I know I've read something about the specifics of the internal propaganda on the topic, but I can't remember where. The Wikipedia article on the "Master Race" concept gets at the fact that the Nazis distinguished beyond "Aryan" vs. "Jew" and had a sort of hierarchy of races.
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May 18, 2014 04:13
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Low content personal anecdote: William Patrick Hitler (Stuart-Houston) was a neighbor and friend of my grandparents and his sons went to high school with my mom and her siblings. Stuart-Houston's business basically did all of the bloodwork for local physicians. Apparently they were really nice folks and no one really knew the full story, at least not while my mother was growing up (50s and 60s). My mom said that the first HS reunion she went to ('78 or so?) it was the big topic of conversation. Years after he died(mid to late 90s), his widow came to my parents' house to visit with my grandmother- I was probably 10 or 11 and basically had to be restrained by my parents from asking all of the Hitler related questions my young WW2 addled mind could come up with.
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Jun 18, 2014 21:30
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 Yeah, this guy seems legit. Actual Nazi history question- is there any evidence that Nazi officials feared a repeat performance of the Night of the Long Knives? Was there ever any public discussion of it after the fact?
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Dec 8, 2014 15:57
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Cyrano4747 posted:It was a strictly one-off thing that has to be understood as part of the 1933-1934 consolidation of power. Ok, so would it be fair to say that once done, there wasn't ever really the need for that sort of violent house cleaning again? Was there any backlash from rank & file party members? Seems like it was broadly a welcomed move, but the wikipedia article seems to be focused on viewpoints from outside the party.
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Dec 8, 2014 16:27
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I've been catching up on the general MilHist thread and was just reading some posts from a few months back about how ineffective the Nazis' foreign intelligence operations were. Anyone able to add to the commonly discussed Garbo/XX stuff, or recommend good books on the topic?
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Dec 10, 2014 18:56
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Nintendo Kid posted:It is widely believed that first their chemical and biological agents are heavily decayed or sold off to shady groups over time to raise money for the regime's luxuries, and secondly that their delivery systems would in event of real war fail spectacularly, especially as real chemical and biological weaponry can't just be left ready in artillery to be shot into Seoul, it has to be properly mixed and stored and only deployed right before you want to use it. Sure, but even if only a very small number of agents are delivered successfully it would be a nightmare for the South (and the world at large) to deal with on just about every level.
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May 15, 2015 17:05
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Nintendo Kid posted:No, not really. Please bear in mind that current estimates is that the North Koreans could only reliably hit the outer northern suburbs of Seoul, and then a bunch of mostly not that populated farmland across from the rest of the DMZ. Like I said, it's akin to the Nazi wunderwaffe in terms of effectiveness. I don't disagree that the absolute number of casualties and the military effectiveness of any sort of chemical or biological attack by the DPRK will probably be equivalent to the wunderwaffe, but that's not really the point, is it? The political cost of letting such an attack happen- or worse, being seen to provoke such an attack- factors into any sort of decision making about the North.
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May 15, 2015 17:20
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Nintendo Kid posted:No, really, most decision making going on is about the absolutely massive problems that come after their inevitable defeat, not about the relatively short amount of time they'd be able to fight. It's inevitable, and it's going to be one of the hugest humanitarian problems ever, including how to, essentially, restore a nation of 20 million plus people that's essentially already in ruins. Not saying that the cleanup isn't not the major driving factor, but it's pretty clear that the North Korean WMD capability is a factor in thinking about collapse- and the post collapse rebuilding. I'm thinking particularly of sources like: http://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/research_reports/RR300/RR331/RAND_RR331.pdf. Anyway, time to get back to Nazi's. Here's a major blank spot in my WW2 knowledge- what was the Reich's diplomatic corps like? I know Switzerland became a hub for back channel talks between the belligerents, but can anyone provide a decent summary?
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May 15, 2015 18:11
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