Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire German Combat strength/effectiveness 41'-42' (prior to Stalingrad and Case Blue)

The Nazis would have lost whenever they attacked Soviet Russia. As Victor Davis Hanson said, Hitler was successful in small border wars against his neighbors and never realized that war against Russia was a different game. When he did invade Russia, his supply lines became too long and his short-range attack strategy could not destroy Soviet manufacturing far behind the lines. Later in the war, Russian forces were more mobile than German forces which relied heavily on horses. The Russians had all those American lend-lease trucks.

One of the greatest "what ifs" of all time.

And once they determined there would be no attack from the Japanese an could bring the Far Eastern divisions to bear on Germany, it was all over for Hitler.

By '42 Stalins' forces, some four million men had been wiped out and they had to start all over again with new troops! And when German forces began closing in upon Russian manufacturing, the entire manufacturing forces, including all railroad equipment was moved 1800 miles eastward!!

Western populations have often wondered why Russia is so rabid concerning defense and when one considers that they lost 20 million people...the answer becomes quite clear!!

Hindsight is always better than foresight, and that's applied equally across the board, so it's easy for us to sit here in 2020 and speculate as to what "could" have happened 80 years ago. But, I have always believed that had Hitler had some sense, the world today might be a lot different than what it is now. After the fall of France, and the ease at which it happened, he got a sense of superiority, and got greedy. Of course, there are many different paths Germany could have took, but the bottom line is that the one they did led to their defeat.

Bottom line for Germany was invade Russia or be invaded by Russia. Stalin was preparing to invade Germany when Germany invaded Russia. I don’t think Germany could have succeeded in defeating Russia but Germany probably saved all of Western Europe from Soviet socialism. If the Soviets had invaded on their timeline and terms I think the Soviets would have swept across all of Western Europe and imposed soul crushing Bolshevik socialism.
The use of the atomic bombs on the Japanese was more a demonstration and message to Stalin than a means to defeat Japan. The Japanese had already sent word that they were willing to surrender under the terms that they ultimately surrendered under before the bombs were dropped. We demanded total surrender and refused to accept terms that allowed for the continuation of the Japanese Emperor. After we dropped the bombs we accepted surrender of the Japanese with the continuation of the Emperor.

I have often wondered what would have happened if Germany had been able to conquer England.........and they came very close to doing so. With the British out of the way, they wouldn't have needed troops in either France, North Africa, or the Mediterranean. Those troops, along with the Luftwaffe, might very well have provided the boost that was needed to defeat the Soviets. Also, I seem to remember reading somewhere that Hitler was against Japan starting a war with the US, because he wanted to keep us neutral as long as he could.

There are so many scenarios that could have played out in WW2, and one can spend a lifetime speculating about what could have happened.

Versailles, Versailles, Versailles. 😊😊😊

The war was a setup from the outset. Germany didn't pull itself up by its bootstraps. It was Jewish bankers that funded the rebuilding of Germany, and I am sure that it was Jewish bankers who were calling the shots, Just like it was Jewish bankers calling the shots in WW1. The war was meant to decimate another generation of European youths, just as WW1 did. The winners were the Jews.

That the Soviet Union was going to attack in '41 is an alternate history, eg BS. But there had been tensions between Prussia (then Germany) and the Russian Empire for a long time. German expansion into the east had been going on for centuries. There wasn't anything new there. Germany had won the WW1 war against the Russian Empire in 1917. So they thought they could do it again, look how easy 1940 was in the west compared to 1914-1918. Seems pretty logical doesn't it.

If Germany has not attacked the Soviet Union, Colonel Klink couldn't have threatened sending Sargent Shultz to the Russian front.

had

Again, the Jews would have ensured that the Soviets attacked Germany. Wars are ALL about who is fronting the money, and why. If you don't realize that, you won't ever see reality in "history".

Frederick II was lucky he was presented in the middle of the fight with a Prussian friendly new regime in St. Petersburg. Potsdam, Brandenburg, San Souci and all were spared. Then it was on to Leuthen and a route of the Austrians, Maria Theresa, and all her allies!

Lets also not forget Hohenfriedberg

Hitler said if he knew the Russians had the T-34 he wouldn’t have attacked.
T-34 kicked panzer butt

No, it wasn’t. The Soviet’s had already attacked Europe in 1922 and it was the OFFICIAL policy of the Soviet Union to spread communist revolution worldwide by military means.

I have to find more STUPID Awards....Now it is the "Jewish Bankers" who called the shots for Hitler.

Germany made a number of mistakes that prevented them from defeating Russia. They kept changing the focus of each spring campaign. First was Moscow, then they switched to Stalingrad. They would have been more successful if they had surrounded Moscow by attacking 50 to 100 miles away from Moscow and surrounding it while destroying the railroad lines connecting the USSR.

Theres also the fact the Fins held off the Soviet
invasion of 1939, with few tanks and aircraft
(to the humiliation of the Soviets) .. Hitler would be
thinking?.. well what chance have Soviets got against
my 3.8 million men, thousands of tanks and aircraft.

Yet even Poland was not a pushover and presented
some challenges for Hitler, he was just fortunate
that Poland finally capitulated like France.