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Originally Posted by Del Boy HOWEVER, we have to remember that their early progress in Russia was against a high count, but complete disorganisation. They failed to take Leningrad, wherever they passed, the SD motivated local populations to fight harder. The Russians drew them into the same old mud -pit. And by the time the signifant battle was on, the Russian forces were no longer superior in numbers. But still the German forces failed to take Moscow.
Failure on top of failure. Defeat snatched from the jaws of victory.
Bad strategy, and the only point I am making is 'No Miracles'. |
Actually, by the time of Operation Typhoon and the Moscow counterattack, the Red Army was superior in numbers to the Wehrmacht. More importantly, many of the Soviet divisions were at almost full strength, well supplied, protected against winter and had the advantage of shortened supply lines. By contrast, the Wehrmacht was basically the opposite. Their units were way below their original starting strengths, their soldiers were exhausted, starving, freezing, low on ammunition and fuel and demoralized. Indeed, it was a minor miracle that Army Group Centre did not rout in the coldest winter for 140 years and was able to form a new defensive line, albeit almost 200 miles back.
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Originally Posted by Del Boy Perhaps you CAN remember this, militarily, again the great German fighting machine lost, they lost on every front. They lost right back into Berlin, depite their thousands of unmanned rockets hurled at London. Lost.
That's what I call great military strategy. |
The BIG problem with Germany in WW2, and indeed virtually all of their campaigns, is that they did not pay the same attention to grand strategy as they did to the operational and tactical level. They also failed to pay heed to the fact that military, economic and political aims must all be tackled and developed in any nation's grand strategy. Consider that in December 1941 the German economy was still basically operating under peacetime conditions.
The German Army in WW2, tactically and operationally, for 3 years was the finest army in the world and possibly the finest army seen in the modern era. Strategically though it was misused and often aimless, due to the way that Germany military thinking had developed since the creation of the General Staff in the 19th Century. The German way of war is/was a short, sharp, shock, ultimately expressed by the Panzerwaffe of WW2. Where this doesn't work, vs the Soviet Union for example, the German tactical and operational brilliance becomes overwhelmed by the need to conduct warfare on a national level. The Germans didn't even start doing this until 1942-43 and by then it was too late.
There's a good article online that has some more info on this, well worth a read.
http://books.google.com/books?id=9eh...OxONE#PPA76,M1