Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Nazi's, What is the appeal?

I disagree. My source said Eisehhower left the final decision to Patton. Mid 1944 was plenty of time to get production up to anticipated needed levels. Shermans didn't face just Tigers and 88s.

only the losers get tried for war crimes.

The late father of a friend who landed in the first wave at Normandy might beg to differ with you. The Germans did not seem to lack ammo and a lot of Americans would question how difficult it was to be hit!

Yes the German army was resilient, I agree that they could take a pounding and counter attack. They were well lead, and their tactics on occasion were better, but I don't believe that they were the end all, be all supermen that some claim. From a tactical stand point, look at the battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle the world has ever known, they were beaten by superior tactics, not technology. Yes, I agree that the did have early sucesses in the battle of the Atlantic, but damn near winning is still losing. What did the German submariners call the time from late 1943 on, it was not "The Happy Time" By mid 1944 the battle of the Atlantic was lost. After mid 1944 goin out to sea for a German sub was a death sentence.
My mother is Polish and lived under German occupation as a little girl. My father was also Polish and spent WW2 in a Siberia labor camp as a little boy. His older teenage sisters had cut lumber in the Siberian forests. I understand very well what it meant to be Polish in WW2.

"Nazi's, What is the appeal?"

I always thought it was because they had the coolest looking uniforms...

You haven't seen I guess that agency of the U.S. Government encharged with protecting government property. They LOOK like storm troopers.

not so. they held unto a belief that was later overcome.

i'm not a Nazi simplifier, but i do know they were strong belivers, much like the xtrians of this day and age. they believe they are right. and they could be, but they lost the war.

now, we're trying to make sense of where we are, and what are the common interests of all Humans.

Germans held 10 of the 58 major fortifications of the line at the Armistice.

Ok, so Patton entered the war in mid-1944? What was he supposed to use before that? In North Africa the Sherman was superior. The decision to delay production was done by General Lesley McNair. Belton blames Patton, but there is little evidence that this is true.

Actually, the French strategy regarding the Maginot fortifications was a complete success. The goal was to prevent the Germans from advancing quickly across favorable terrain, and seizing the coal and industrial areas in eastern France. It envisioned forcing any invasion to come through Belgium & the Ardennes. The Germans considered offensive operations against the CORF fortifications pointless, and when they finally tried, they were unsuccessful (despite the absence of supporting artillery and interval troops). Every major Maginot fort was still operational, under French control, at the armistice.

Keep in mind that the forts were largely paid for from pre-1935 budgets. Had that money been spent on tanks or planes, it would have been a waste; well obsolete by the time war broke out. The fortifications were a simple solution to difficult problem: France has a far smaller population; has a far lower birthrate, a situation compounded by the proportionately higher casualties taken by the French Army in WW1 than by the Germans. The Maginot Line allowed the the defense of a large portion of the French frontier, with a fraction of the manpower that would have otherwise been required. On the downside, it did result in a boatload of highly technically trained soldiers being pinned down, and contributed the sluggish development of offensive planning in the French Army. On the other hand, that distaste for offensive operations was also a result of the French trying to reclaim ground in WW1.

The end problem was that the French Army wasn't properly organized, or positioned (and had an obsolete infantry doctrine, although DeGaulle and others were changing that) when the Maginot Line did what it was supposed to: channel the Germans elsewhere.