What do you all think was the biggest waste by Germany during WW2?
Things like:
Atlantic Wall
Bismarch & Tirpitz
V1 & V2
Maybe something else, I am not including. Would also be a possiblity.
I can't remember the secondary source (a documentary) but the primary source was a long-lost audio-recording of Hitler on a train with ....I think...Norwegian or Finnish or Swedish....or some other nationality's officials... and Hitler in an unusually unguarded display of pessimism was saying his Intelligence had grossly underestimated Russia's manufacturing capacity especially its ability to mass produce tanks and its missile technology (Stalins organs) and that had he known this he would never had attacked the Soviet Union (but he added he felt he had to because Russia in diplomatic communiques were making threats or bullying Germany over access to oil - according to Hitler).
So I think the opening of a second front in Europe and taking on the might of the Soviet Union (which took awhile to reach full strength) was the greatest waste of human and military industrial materiel for Germany's war effort.
In fact, slightly off topic, I believe if Germany had not declared war on USSR, Germany would have either won WW2 or forced an agreeable armistice (agreeable to Germany that is), or at the very least would have meant Germany could have kept on fighting well into 1946 and as some might know, she may then have been the first to have jet fighters in mass production, and possibly developed the A-bomb and with such weapons won the war or forced a peace on its terms (keeping Poland, maybe most of France and eastern European states).
I agree with what you have said. Declaring war on the US was also
a major mistake. After Pearl Harbor, the focus of the US was on Japan, not Germany. Had a little more common sense been used on the Eastern
Front, breaking up conquests into more into smaller more diagestable chucks, some sort of uneasy peace or armistice, might have occured
or been forced on Great Britain.
If they hadn't attacked the Russians I don't think The US & UK would have had much chance of sucsessfully invading the Continent, if we keep the A-Bombs out of the mix.I can't remember the secondary source (a documentary) but the primary source was a long-lost audio-recording of Hitler on a train with ....I think...Norwegian or Finnish or Swedish....or some other nationality's officials... and Hitler in an unusually unguarded display of pessimism was saying his Intelligence had grossly underestimated Russia's manufacturing capacity especially its ability to mass produce tanks and its missile technology (Stalins organs) and that had he known this he would never had attacked the Soviet Union (but he added he felt he had to because Russia in diplomatic communiques were making threats or bullying Germany over access to oil - according to Hitler).
So I think the opening of a second front in Europe and taking on the might of the Soviet Union (which took awhile to reach full strength) was the greatest waste of human and military industrial materiel for Germany's war effort.
In fact, slightly off topic, I believe if Germany had not declared war on USSR, Germany would have either won WW2 or forced an agreeable armistice (agreeable to Germany that is), or at the very least would have meant Germany could have kept on fighting well into 1946 and as some might know, she may then have been the first to have jet fighters in mass production, and possibly developed the A-bomb and with such weapons won the war or forced a peace on its terms (keeping Poland, maybe most of France and eastern European states).
Bismarck and Tirpitz for all their lack of success still tied up a lot of allied resources so I am not sure they can be considered a waste of resources.
Maybe, but the war started prematurly for the plans of the Navy to bear fruit. The Navy didn't expect War untill '45-50. Had the War started in '48 the Navy would have had 6 Type H , 4 Gneisenau/Bismarck Battleships, 3 Deutschland Armored Ships, 12 Type P Battle Cruisers, 8 Aircraft Carriers, 5 CA, 24 CL & 36 Scout Cruisers, & 70 DD, 78 Torpedo Boats & 249 subs.I would still argue it was still a waste of resources. It was originally created because Hitler wanted a big battleship. Then he realised that the British would sink them easily and so obviously went back to the U-Boat, but not before he wasted lots of precious resources protecting the ships that would pretty much do nothing. The fact that the British kept searching for it was an unforeseen consequence. Arguably it even helped the British in that during, what I call, the 'Quiet Era' of 1941 to 1944 it could give it's special force's experience in assaulting the ports where these ships were held. So that probably outweighed the run around the British did. It was a classic example of where Hitler wanted to show the world that he appeared strong but just made himself weaker in the process.Just imagine where the resources of those ships and those of guarding them could have actually gone?
Epic comment mate.They pretty much squandered their humanity.
This is ,I am sorry,totally wrong :the number of Jews was less than 1 %:some 600.000,with a very great part of elderly:thus ,250.000 Jews in the Wehrmacht is out of the question .
150.000 Mischlinge was possible,that would be ONE percent of all men who served inthe Wehrmacht .You very well may be right as far as the numbers go. Martin Rigg in his very interesting book, ' Hitler's Jewish Soldiers' mentions a little more than 150,000 Mishlinge in service with the Reich. The number 250,000 comes up as a possibility. The explanation is those who hid their Jewish blood and of course those who had no idea, they had Jewish blood in the first place. Whatever the number it is, the whole phenomena of soldiers in the Wehrmact who had Jewish blood is very, very interesting.
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