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Originally Posted by perseus Doppleganger So are you saying that their deployment wasn't delayed by the inability to obtain Hitler's permission (whether he was asleep or not) and Rommel's remoteness from the action at the crucial time? |
I'm not saying that, just that there were several factors involved in their deployment. I touched upon Rommel's ulterior motives and the remoteness of Rommel from the action was down to several factors, not all of them military ones. By 1944, the German upper level chain of command was effectively paralyzed by Hitler, both due to his insistence at micromanaging both Eastern and Western fronts and his onset of Parkinson's Disease. Under the circumstances, and factoring in what I posted before, I don't think the panzers could have been deployed much quicker than they were. Remember too that:
- their deployment was all over the place, due to Hitler trying to keep both Rommel and Rundstedt happy
- Rommel had deployed several formations in lieu of a successful military coup
- allied air power would have blunted any major deployment of German armour, assuming the weather held up (it didn't always of course)
@ Lee Enfield - the Germans did not have to physically control the whole of Russia, just the parts up the AA Line, essentially European Russia. For that they had more than enough men. The Nazi's had big, rather nasty, plans for Russia and there might not have been too many ethnic Russian peoples around if the Nazis had gotten their way.