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Posted: 1/8/2005 5:03:33 PM EDT
God knows they created many more opportunities to lose than to win - but what was the primary reason?
1.) Declared war on U.S.? 2.) Italy as ally? 3.) Hitler distracted by idiotic pursuit of "Final Solution?" 4.) Attacking Russia before they were finished with Britain? 5.) Hitler was an asshat loser, so Germany never had a chance? 6.) M1 Garand? 7.) Eighth Air Force? 8.) Poor use of naval power? 9.) Dependence on slave labor? 10.) U.S. produces better "citizen-soldiers?" 11.) Underestimated American industrial output? 12.) Abnormally bad winter weather from 1942-1944? 13.) Made war against entire world, so bound to fail? |
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#4 is the immediate cause, but you can't discount the effects of the other reasons cited either.
They really spread themselve too thin. |
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Making the same mistake Napoleon made but with a much less competent, although carismatic, leader.
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They underestimated the strength and resolve of the United States.
Also, IMO, our industrial capabilities were a major factor. |
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God willed it so. They (Nazis) SHOULD have one.
Outside that, I would say freedom. Free men, and free nations possess a greater love of life, will to excel, and desire to do right. |
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I'm going to go with #1 and #11, although the rest do apply. Ben |
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that is why I said Hitler.... with a better 'leader' their generals would have kicked some more butt. don't know if they would have ultimatly won. For instance, Hilter was convinced that the Normandy invasion was only a ruse. He would not let the Panzer divisions to the North of Normandy to be committed to the battle until the Allies had a firm hold on their position. Had Hitler listened to almost all of his high command, it would have been MUCH harder on the allies in Normandy. |
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Not willpower.....MANpower. Russians invented the human battle wave. |
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and the T34 |
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Artillery. The Germans never respected the US GI, which is fine...Even as we took their f'ing country....But, they DID respect our artillery. Our FOs could bring down TOTs with regularity. Our artillery was one thing that struck fear in the Germans.
Main reason? Hitler The skinheads hate that he was a knucklehead..... What can ya do? |
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Hitler.
It was Hitler's decision to use the Luftwafe to finish off the English at Dunkirk. The Luftwafe failed, and the English army along with much of the French army was able to escape. It was Hitler's decision to begin the bombing of London just as the RAF was on it's last legs. The shift in the Luftwafe's focus allowed the RAF time to rebuild, and eliminated Germany's chances to invade England. It was Hilter's decision to open a second front in the East with Russia before Germany had succeeded in destroying England. This spread his forces too thin. If the full force of the German military had been able to focus on England, and THEN Russia BOTH nations would have fallen. Remove Hilter from any of these scenarios, and we might be living in a completely different world. Another huge factor was America's enterance into the war. If Hitler had pursuaded Japan to wait 6 months before attacking Pearl Harbor, Englad could have been destroied and America would have been standing alone DEFENDING ourselves on 2 fronts. |
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Quite frankly...they lacked the infrastructure. That was the primary point. Throw in the lack of long-range bombers, and the tomb was sealed.
At the end of the war (hell, at the beginning) they still had the horse and carriage as one of their primary modes of logistical transport. That didn't fly. They also didn't have any long-range bombers worthy of the name "bomber". Their bombing raids were carried out with light bombers at best, and fighter-bombers at worst. They didn't have the accuracy, range, or payload of any decent bomber worthy of the name. Had they had more simple trucks and ANY decent long-range bombers? There's a VERY good chance England would have German as a second language, and we'd be offering trade terms to some assclown with a Swastika on his sleeve. |
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Hitler underestimated the stoicism of the British.
Hitler underestimated the vengeance of the Russians. Hitler underestimated the resolve of the United States. |
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3,4, an 11. |
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Hitler and his henchmen.
Also the goon squads that turned the "liberated" Russians against the Germans by their atrocities of the locals. Had the Wermacht taken Moscow, it would have been all over for Russia. All Rail lines run thru Moscow, thus cutting off supplies particularly from the Urals to all of Western Russia. BTW, there is a similar thread in the History forum. |
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+1 Also an overeliance on Lights, Lasers and Optics attched to carbine length weapons |
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Economic factors, mostly, and internal German/Nazi politics didn't help either.
Everyone forgets that the US was never completely mobilized as a nation. |
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Strategic failure. Go read "How Hitler could have won WWII. by Bevin Alexander. Then apply the concept to our situation Iraq.
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A whole lot of speculation....but per what ive read, there was one major reason:
Invading Russia. The Russian campaign SEVERELY depleted the kraut divisions....the USA intervening only helped speed up the process of destroying their armies. Had the germans concentrated on a two front war, rather than three, they could have kept france for the duration, and would have easily repelled us off the normandy beachhead. As a matter of fact, Overlord would have never happened. The Russians fielded something like five divisions to every one american division, and had the manpower on hand to keep them at full strength. The german divisions we went up against from 1943 onward were usually at 50% of their standard operating size, or less. The "divisions" that surrounded the british 1st airborne army at Arnhem in Operation Market Garden weren't divisions at all, but "battlegroups" made up of understrength company sized units. Market garden should have been a cakewalk, but retarded british planning fucked that one up good...but I digress. Had the germans found the means to sway hitler away from an all out push into the eastern front, World War II would have run until we nuked Berlin.... I recommend reading a book written by Max Hastings called "Armageddon" about the war from 1944 onward. |
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+1 Hitler was a good speech giver and motivator but not a good War Planner. He didnt choose his battles strategically....if he did theres a good chance we would all be speaking German today. |
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Wow! so many intelligent responses! Just when I think the ARFCOM board is just one smartass after another, guys like you show me the truth!
Great analysis, guys. |
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Damn funny. |
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The major turning point had to be the battle for Stalingrad, longest siege in history I believe. Basically Von Paulus's Army fell into a trap by taking the city and having the tables turned on them by Zhukov's army with a counter attack.
Battle of Stalingrad Conflict World War II Date June 28, 1942 - February 2, 1943 Place Stalingrad, USSR Result Soviet victory Combatants USSR Germany; Romania; Hungary; Italy Soviet Casualties 1 million soldiers about 100,000 civilian Axis Casualties 500,000 (including 300,000 Germans) |
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That has to be the best answer I have ever seen! |
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Mailnly because we killed all their guys and blew up all their shit. |
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Waiting until they had Britain handled (and following up on the evac fiasco with a naval landing) before taking on Russia the next year would have won them the war.
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+1 Watch "Enemy at The Gates"...it gives you a small idea, |
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Hitler is the scapegoat here, but it really was not his decision. It was that of his field commanders. The armor had been pushed too hard to fast. If they had pushed harder they would still be repairing the tanks.
This started by accident. It was that "fat Bastard" Goering that came up with the plan that it would work if kept up.
Highly debateable at best. There never really was anything resembling a plan to invade England
Germany had no idea that Japan was going to attack the U.S., as for England, see above. |
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Stalingrad was:
A) Not a siege, the city was taken. B) Not a turning point in the war. C) Not a trap. It was stupidity on the part of the German High command. They knew the exact date, place and time of the counter attack, they simply did nothing about it. |
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Germany could never have won a war on two fronts. They simply didn't have the logistical trains for it. Hitler should never have declared war on the USSR before finishing off Europe.
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No, because it would be a false comparison. |
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I thought Germany was on the defensive on the eastern front after that. |
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For every one division the germans had on the western front, there were 3 deployed on the Eastern. After the battle of Kursk in July 1943 (the turning point in that front IMHO) - between July and September, the German military lost 215,000 men KIA, and 627,000 missing or captured...
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+1 |
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They were in some areas at some times, but were able to go on the offensive when and where they needed to. They were able to do serious damage to the Soviet armies in the following year. Not until after Kursk in 1943 were the Germans on the defensive for good. |
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Russia was ripe for liberation from Stalin and his purges but Hitler & the SS misplayed it. Imagine if Stalin sued for peace, Germany gets the area west of Moscow and German built T-34 Panzers crush Shermans at Kasserine Pass. |
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turned on Russia
Hitler got too involved in the weapon and vehicle design (ie ordering the Me262 to be used as a bomber instead of bomber interceptor) There were some days before d-day decisions he made that were pretty dumb too but I can't remember the details |
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To bad Hitler didn't die in 1938, there wouldn't be a war and Germany would still have E. Prussia, Austria and Czech territories.
What a different world this would be. |
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