German Wehrmacht - A Polical Army ?

Hi Doppleganger.


You say........
''He did that in the 1930's Ashes, before the full extent of the ambitions of his near neighbour were fully known. And without meaning to sound pedantic he didn't gut ALL of his officer corps, only most of them.''


The purges of the officer corps began in June '37 and lasted until 1938, just 12 months before the war started, I think Hitlers intentions were fairly obvious by then. The purging of the army saw about 35,000 military officers shot or imprisoned. The destruction of the officer corps, and in particular the execution of the brilliant chief-of-staff Marshal Tukhachevsky, is considered one of the major reasons for the spectacular Nazi successes in the early months of the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941.

Plus of course millions of other Soviet leaders, officials, and other citizens had been executed, imprisoned, or exiled.

As I said before, it was one of the many reasons that Russia could hardly defend itself, let alone plan any sort of invasion.


You say.....
''How do you know Stalin wouldn't have been willing to take the slightest risk?''


Well you can never be entirely sure about anything, but the reasons i've given in my previous posts, certainly would seem to indicate that he wasn't willing to.


You say....
''I don't think the principles of National Socialism are in principle any worse than those of Communism.''

Thats hardly a good recommendation of National Socialism though, do you think?


You say....
''Guderian mixed more with the top brass of the Nazi Party when he was Chief of the General Staff to OKH. I'm not saying, and never did say, that he had no idea about what was happening. I'm sure he had some idea because he was mixing in those circles but whether he knew the full extent it's impossible to say. He definitely was not in the inner circle of the Nazi Party with the likes of Boorman, Himmler, Goering and so on.''


Seeing that Manstein, among other Werhmacht commanders, endorsed the infamous "Reichenau Order" emphasizing the need for harsh treatment of "Jewish subhumanity" and Guderian still admired Hitler after the war, saying ''he just made a few mistakes'', you have to wonder just how much they knew of Hitlers plans, and how much they endorsed them. As you have said, ''I'm sure he [Guderian] had some idea because he was mixing in those circles''

Then could I ask you this, if Guderian and Manstien knew Hitlers plans for the ''final solution'' from it's inception [it's possible they may have had a good idea]] do you think they still would have gone along with him for the ''good'' of Germany, as well as personal glory, or not?

From the above, it seems like they were more than half way there at least.
 
Ashes said:
Hi Doppleganger.

Seeing that Manstein, among other Werhmacht commanders, endorsed the infamous "Reichenau Order" emphasizing the need for harsh treatment of "Jewish subhumanity" and Guderian still admired Hitler after the war, saying ''he just made a few mistakes'', you have to wonder just how much they knew of Hitlers plans, and how much they endorsed them. As you have said, ''I'm sure he [Guderian] had some idea because he was mixing in those circles''

Then could I ask you this, if Guderian and Manstien knew Hitlers plans for the ''final solution'' from it's inception [it's possible they may have had a good idea]] do you think they still would have gone along with him for the ''good'' of Germany, as well as personal glory, or not?

From the above, it seems like they were more than half way there at least.

Where did you read that Guderian still admired Hitler after the war? Anyone reading Guderian's own memoirs would find it hard put to believe that Guderian ever said that, or meant it. After all, Hitler was the man who had sacked him from active service and continually ignored his advice on how to conduct the war in the East when Guderian was 'on paper' in charge of the Ostfront after July 21st, 1944. There may have been some qualities about Hitler that Guderian still admired, but that is wholly different. After all, I admire some qualities about Hitler myself (his extraordinary willpower, his skill as an orator) but I would never ever say that I admired the man per see.

Hitler is the man who gave Guderian his dream of forming revolutionary, all-armoured formations used in lightning spearheads and Hitler had the vision to see what Guderian could do. From that perspective yes Guderian initially had a great deal of time for Hitler. But I think that evaporated rapidly from June 22nd 1941 onwards.

I honestly don't think either either Manstein or Guderian would have gone on had they known the full details of the 'Final Solution' from the start. That was a decision by a few very sick and misguided men. What I do know is that Germans are just ordinary people and what can happen to them can happen to anyone, despite what you may think.
 
Hi Doppleganger


Have you seen this site...... http://www.achtungpanzer.com/gen2.htm



You say....
''That was a decision by a few very sick and misguided men. What I do know is that Germans are just ordinary people and what can happen to them can happen to anyone, despite what you may think.''



Thats right, a decision by a few very sick and misguided men, but carried out by many thousands of other very sick and misguided men.

And as for the hypothetical, that it could happen to anyone, well, I did say i'd keep an open mind on it.
 
The German youth was brought up to believe that most races were inferior to the Germans, at their youth camps they were gradually harden to accept this and many other doctrines. Now things could have been so different if the Germans had taken a different attitude to the Russian people. At first many Russian welcomed the Germans thinking their lives might improve, but no they brought in a policy of driving these people out of their homes even in depths of winter to die from the cold. When the Germans were being driven back they destroyed every thing that they could find, factories, towns villages were all destroyed they even had a railway engine with a huge plough on the back to tear up every inch of railway line. I can for one understand the Russians troops anger and revenge after the Germans had killed some 20 million Russians.
 
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