| Sorry Perseus,
Some of your assumptions are a bit on the mythical side, although you demonstrate solid logic and a good level of knowledge -- typical for you. I want to focus on one of your comments, namely that Speer had to reorganize German production while the country was "being bombed to bits". I will only make two comments:
(1) German Production: This area, as I have written a million times before, is easy to cover. The bombing does NOT reduce German industrial capacities. Please refer to Abelshauser. German capital goods production increases 20 percent during the war. That simply means that potential German output increases. In fact, German output does increase. No surprise. British and American bombing hits civilians...nothing more, nothing less.
(2) Soviet Union: I have also written enough on this area. The Sovs were by themselves never a real threat to German arms. Overy (KCL) himself argued that the Sovs were basically defeated in 1941...only a barbaric fall into terrorism and the weather saved the Sovs. But regardless, the Germans used the Soviets as great targets -- achieving kill ratios the likes of which the world has never seen. Of the original 20,000 Soviet tanks, built for the defense of the Soviet Union (Ollie laughs), over 19,000 were destroyed during the original German campaign. Even during the final days of the Reich, the Germans were able to slaughter the Russians (such as the Seelower Hoehen) on an incredible and almost Hollywood scale. The Soviets were nothing...just "Germans are incredible soldiers statistics". The war in the east was the greatest example of an enlightened military ethos fighting pure barbarism -- Sparta against Persia, the 300, the glorious, the superior.
On that note, I would like to add something. Under Putin, the Russians think that they have become something again. I can only ask...what? More targets for me and my Volk? The current German military ain't that which it was, but they could still deal with any Russian "threat". I can only say: Bring it on! |