perseus

OK lets have 3 conversations at once and see how it goes!

Mighty MacBeth

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What I mean is, what motivated(caused) the German military leaders to try on conquering Britain? What made them begin raids etc

Fear of an hostile base on the doorstep, particularily for bombing. They hoped to force Britain into a political settlement, perhaps hoping for the overthrow of Churchill caused by the loss of morale, due to the air raids. Of course the impact of bombing at that stage was overestimated and it didn’t work. Later it was because of retaliation for British bombing raids, and the belief Germany could cut of Britain’s supplies by sinking her merchant fleet.

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-Then, why or what were the causes that made the Germans fail in getting Britain and what they hoped for. I am not talking about the whole war, but just specifically in the beginning years when Germany tried to take Britain.

I have already expressed my views regarding the Battle of Britain at the end of this thread.
http://www.military-quotes.com/forum/navy-won-batle-britain-t24483.html

Failure for Germany at sea was due to lack of investment in a modern navy with aircraft carriers and suitable aircraft. Think what the impact of the German battleships and pocket battleships would have been in the Atlantic if this steel had been made into 12 medium 20 000 tonne sized carriers with bases off France. U-boat building was too scarce in the early stages, by the time they had sufficient numbers Britain had developed short range radar and America had supplied escort carriers which rendered them useless. Reading their codes via Ultra didn’t help either.

Ollie

What are your views regarding A J P Taylor’s book The Origins of the Second World War? It’s a long time since I read it but I think his view was similar to yours regarding the Versailles treaty at least, i.e. the Versailles settlement of 1919 was an artificial absurdity that was bound to unravel. This unraveling could have been done rationally, as in the early stages of British and French appeasement over the Rhineland, Germany's anschluss with Austria, and so on; but after Munich, in 1938, it was increasingly bungled. Having appeased Berlin over more-contestable territorial issues, the British changed their stance and decided to fight over Danzig and the Polish Corridor, where the German case for revision was stronger. The result, Taylor maintained, was a war in Europe that nobody wanted and that personally dismayed Hitler. World War II was simply an accident: Hitler never imagined that the democracies would actually go to war over Poland, especially because London and Paris could do almost nothing to defend the Poles. Great Britain and France had in the past vacillated between policies of appeasement and resistance.

http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/history/historian/A_J_P_Taylor.html
Taylor's initially 'outrageous' revisionism was increasingly, but not fully, accepted by British historians and by a majority amongst the rising generation of German historians.


Taylor's own statements such as "in principle and doctrine, Hitler was no more wicked and unscrupulous than many a contemporary statesman" were highly controversial. Perhaps only someone of his standing could get away with that sort of statement without getting into serious trouble. I think what spoils this thesis was the blatant attack on the Soviet Union, it’s difficult to imagine anything as selfish and ruthless.


Monty

Yes perhaps I have gone a bit too far,

Perhaps Britain did influence the result of the war, but only because the war was finely balanced in the Soviet Union. Without Arctic convoys, the diversions of resources and manpower I spoke about, and the lack of bombing (I don’t think it was totally insignificant) it may have tipped the balance. Perhaps this would have been the hinge factor at a critical time. However, I was attempting to place Britain’s military strength, particularly on land, in perspective for Mighty MacBeth.

The issue of invading the Soviet Union from the south is an interesting one. Do you think this would have been practical in view of the Caucasus Mountain barrier and the long supply line? Perhaps if Turkey came into the war it would have helped Germany regarding these issues.

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Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country. Herman Goering