OT - History Baws WW2 question

Europe has a bunch of small countries that don't have the manpower or resources to deal with all out war with a country like Germany

The only ones who did were England, France, and Russia

England was essentially bankrupt during the in between years and had no real way to fight a prolonged conflict. They also did nothing to stop Hitler as he was gaining power, and then, because of their poor preparation for war, could do nothing to him even after they declared war on Germany after their invasion of Poland

France on the other hand had a huge military and could have conceivably defeated him in 1940. But france was a political mess. There were clashes with communism and you routinely had changes in government. Then, when war did break out, they thought it would be like ww1 so they hunkered down and waited for a defensive war behind the partially complete maginot line

Germany's main advantage over her enemies, at least for the first couple of years of WW2, was the blitzkrieg. The creation of highly mobile armored divisions for the purpose of penetrating enemy lines and disrupting their rear areas is what allowed them to defeat France so easily and enjoy such stunning successes in Russia during 1941-42. It also didn't hurt that the Soviets had just finished a massive purge of the military in the years just prior to the start of the war.

German technological superiority during the war is overrated. The best German tanks during the early war years were actually Czech, and they were outclassed by the better French tanks, and especially by the Soviet T-34. Later models of the Pzkfw IV were excellent, but were fairly closely matched by the Soviet T-34/85. The Pzkfw V and VI (the Panther and Tiger tank respectively) were better than almost anything the Allies could field, but didn't arrive in any kind of significant numbers until it was far too late.

The one area where the Germans were markedly superior was optics. German tanks could fire accurately on the move. Soviet tanks had to stop if they wanted to hit anything.

Edited to fix a stupid grammatical error.

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thought it would be like ww1 so they hunkered down and waited for a defensive war behind the partially complete maginot line

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Watch a cool history documentary on 1914 Christmas truce

Trench warfare not fun

Makes sense guess bliztgrieg made them look extremely successful too

Even the blitz was a continuation and evolution of tactics used at the end of WW1.


Look at the Stormtroopers. Those troops became the basic model for your blitzkrieg troops in WW2


You take Prussian martial spirit and give it cutting edge technology and an ideology to drive it and you have a potent force

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The Nazis were slightly ahead of the rest of Europe because of decades of having the finest science culture in the world.

Ironically, the Nazi party also drove away all of those brilliant scientists. Germany's military superiority is overstated often. No battle was easy for Germany and the battles/campaigns that they did win can be marked up to complete failure by their counterparts instead of Germany being superior. 1941 showed that Germany was on par with everyone else or weaker.

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I have a very hard time believing you are a chick

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Why were the Nazi's so ahead of the rest of Europe that they needed USA and Russia to put them down?

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They weren't. The French had numerical superiority and superior armor platforms. The new German mastery of combined arms mobile warfare while the other powers had yet to embrace the efficacy of this style of warfare is what allowed Germany to defeat superior numbers and weapons systems early in the war.

The French and British were outmaneuvered in the Battle of France, not bludgeoned to death in a head on fight. The French deployed their superior tanks in support of infantry and defensive positions rather than in mass as the Germans did. This allowed massed German armor offensives, in conjunction with artillery and dive bomber support, to dispatch with the spread out French tanks and drive deep into the enemy's rear, circumventing strong points and trapping large pockets of enemy forces. This is why Germany was able to defeat two of the world's preeminent armies in 6 weeks on the continent. When the Germans reached the French coast they had avoided a head on slugfest with large entrenched French forces in the eastern portion of the country and had completely trapped the French and British armies in Belgium, leading to the Dunkirk evacuation and complete defeat in France.

German aircraft and tanks early in the war did not have a great technological advantage, but rather their daring and innovative conduct of warfare is what made the difference.

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Why were the Nazi's so ahead of the rest of Europe that they needed USA and Russia to put them down?

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Because of their economics. They were in terrible shape being exploited in Weimar Germany. Nazis threw out the globalist controls and central banking and their GDP shot up like a rocket. It was the greatest economic turnaround in recorded history. Their GDP started to crush other countries like Britain. Their superior economics were going to make Germany the world power without having to fight a real war. The banking cartel could not stand for this or have it shown how great your country can be without them.

Germany and Soviet Union both took over Poland. Soviet Union already had a reputation for killing needlessly. But Germany was declared war on and Soviet Union was made an ally. That is all you really need to know.

Also saw Bormann might have spied for Russia and escaped there post war

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Germany never had the economy to sustain a prolonged war and it was one of the main reasons for their decline in the midst of the war.

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Was depression worse for Germany? Always thought they had rougher rebuild