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Who started both World Wars?

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He was one of the "Alte Kämpfer", the ones going back to the Beer Hall Putsch, wasn't he? And he was still popular from his reputation as a flying ace in WW1. And IIRC, didn't do bad (from Nazi perspective) as Minister of Interior of Prussia. That's, BTW, a masterstroke of Hitler that is often overlooked: with that, the Nazis controlled the police in 2/3 of Germany. But as head of the Luftwaffe, Göring continually made promises to Hitler that were not realistic and could not be realized.

I think Göring and L. Ron Hubbard were separated at birth.
 
Oh really? Then you have an explanation for the fatal design flaw of thsi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elefant#Combat_history

Or the time spent on the Maus. Could use the bridges, couldn't cross the streams. Rather like Christopher Lee in those Hammer films.

How about the stupid idea of using the ME-262 as a BOMBER?

Oh, and the P.I.A.T. Stupidest thing in the history of warfare.

Oops, that last one's British. My bad.
 
Or the time spent on the Maus. Could use the bridges, couldn't cross the streams. Rather like Christopher Lee in those Hammer films.

How about the stupid idea of using the ME-262 as a BOMBER?

Oh, and the P.I.A.T. Stupidest thing in the history of warfare.

Oops, that last one's British. My bad.

How about the Sherman Tank? Rolling caskets, they called them.

On the plus side, there were a whoooole lot of them.
 
How about the Sherman Tank? Rolling caskets, they called them.

On the plus side, there were a whoooole lot of them.

One of the funniest I can recall was a 37mm German anti tank gun that they called the coffin knocker. All it did was tell the Russians were to fire lol
 
You support the hypothesis that Hitler invaded Russia by choice. In that context the invasion was an ill-prepared matter. A stupidity so-to-speak.

There is an alternative hypothesis, namely that the invasion was not a war by choice but forced upon Hitler, just like he was forced to invade Western Europe, after Britain started to prepare the invasion of Norway. This Icebreaker theory says that Stalin was on the verge of invading Europe. Therefore Hitler was forced to act with the means het had at his disposal, even if ill prepared.


'Forced' to invade? You do realize how long it took to assemble the forces the Germans used, don't you? You don't put into position 150 divisions over a weekend.

Besides, you seem to have overlooked the one universal truth in military matters: defence is easier than offence. With the right defences, you can sit back and let the enemy come to you and chew them up quite effectively. Look no further than Dieppe or Omaha Beach for examples where the defenders made the most of their built-in advantage and made the attackers pay dearly.

The rule-of-thumb is that the attacker needs a three-to-one superiority in force to stand a good chance of winning.

The Germans could have simply fortified their eastern frontier with the appropriate defences and let the Russians bleed themselves dry attacking it. The German military was quite adept in conducting defensive battles, as the Western Allies learned in the Normandy campaign.

But rather than do this, the Germans rushed into an ill-prepared, insufficiently supported assault with inadequate forces. Congratulations, your theory makes them even more stupid than in my original assertion.
 
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Herr Meyer was boasting, and he knew - or should have known - that the Luftwaffe was in no way capable of supplied the encircled 6th Army.

No enemy bomber can reach the Ruhr. If one reaches the Ruhr, my name is not Goering. You may call me Meyer.


There's another famous incident involving Göring told by Adolph Galland. In September, 1943, several U.S. fighters were shot down near Aachen, an indication that the U.S. was extending the range of its escort fighters. Galland reported this to Göring, who dismissed it as fantasy. Galland repeated the facts. Göring again denied it, and said that what must have happened was that the U.S. fighters had been shot down at high altitude further to the west and then glided the long distance to their final crash positions. Galland pointed out that oddity of an Allied pilot gliding towards the east and towards the enemy, rather than gliding towards the west and his own side. Göring snapped and said it was his order that no U.S. fighters had been shot down near Aachen, and that is what would be reported to the Führer.

This is the quality of leadership that was found at the top levels of the Reich.


Or the time spent on the Maus. Could use the bridges, couldn't cross the streams. Rather like Christopher Lee in those Hammer films.

How about the stupid idea of using the ME-262 as a BOMBER?


Or the Me 163, He 162, V-1, and V-2. Indeed, the latter two programs consumed a huge amount of resources for weapons which were militarily useless.
 
Oh yes, it's clear that Stalin knew war with Germany was inevitable. But he didn't expect it before 1942.

What do you mean with this cryptic remark? Are you saying that Stalin expected to be ready by 1942 to realize his communist world revolution? If that is the case then you are a Suvorovian yourself. World revolution was the core mission of communism, in sharp contrast to Hitler, who was essentially an extreme nationalist. He wanted Germany for Germans remember, van vreemde smetten vrij. This does not fit at all with conquering endless territory filled with inferior 'undesirables'. I am still open for the idea that Hitler wanted some territory in the East for permanent German settlement (parts of the Ukraine, Baltics), but he was basically lacking enough precious Germans to fill new territory with. The idea the ethnically cleans all lands between Berlin and the Urals is ridiculous.


Is there any evidence either way if Stalin considered a pre-emptive attack? The selling of raw materials is one of those ironies of history where sworn enemies actually help each other with trading needed commodities. The deliveries continued right up until 22 June...

Not only did the soldiers have no winter outfit, the tanks weren't even designed for operating in the Russian winter.

Simple explanation: they invaded although they were not prepared and knew it. The Germans gambled on the surprise element.

http://www.richardsorge.com/literature/books/suvorov_navrozov_review.pdf

Here is a good short review written by a Russian. He confirms that Anglos and Russians were complicit in maintaining there self-serving BS story that Germany had planned Barbarossa all along. It was Stalin who was the world revolutionary, aspiring a communist NWO, not nationalist Germany, who merely wanted to reverse Versailles, and maybe a 'colony or two' in the east.

Unexpectedly for Stalin, and sensing that he had fallen into Stalin’s trap, Hitler attacked Russia on June 22, 1941 – without accurate intelligence, without adequate transport, without antifreeze, without warm clothing for his troops, and in the possession of only 3,350 tanks of all types combined as compared to Stalin’s 4,000 amphibious tanks out of a total of some 20,000. The element of surprise would enable Hitler to prolong his nation’s agony for another four years, but in Suvorov’s analysis Operation Barbarossa was the desperate act of a congenital suicide – or that of a war
hero, which is what Hitler had been for his comrades-in-arms in World War I. Its indubitable achievement, however, lies in the fact that only in the wake of Barbarossa was the West able to regroup and in the end save at least half of Europe, including Britain, from Stalin’s liberating clutches.
 
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How about the Sherman Tank? Rolling caskets, they called them.

On the plus side, there were a whoooole lot of them.

The decision was made to out-produce the Germans in the panzer category. The gasoline engines were used because a farm-boy from Kansas could fix it, same principles as the T-model he drove on dates in 1940. And there were 50,000 of them. The King Tigers never reached 1,000 production models, IIRC.
 
What do you mean with this cryptic remark? Are you saying that Stalin expected to be ready by 1942 to realize his communist world revolution?

No, to have it out with Germany one way or another

If that is the case then you are a Suvorovian yourself. World revolution was the core mission of communism,

Not in Stalins Soviet Union. This very question was the source of a major schism in the Communist party in the 20' between Stalin supporters and the Troskyites. And that was a lucky thing for Hitler otherwise Germany would have been a communist state by 1929 at the latest

I am still open for the idea that Hitler wanted some territory in the East for permanent German settlement (parts of the Ukraine, Baltics), but he was basically lacking enough precious Germans to fill new territory with. The idea the ethnically cleans all lands between Berlin and the Urals is ridiculous.

So why did he create these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einsatzgruppen
 
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What do you mean with this cryptic remark? Are you saying that Stalin expected to be ready by 1942 to realize his communist world revolution?
Exactly what I say. And your remark shows ignorance of what perspired at the 5th Soviet Congress in 1927. Trotzky was the one advocating a communist world revolution.

World revolution was the core mission of communism,
Not necessarily. It was a theory which transcended national or religious differences, but that does not mean communism had to be established at a world scale.

in sharp contrast to Hitler, who was essentially an extreme nationalist. He wanted Germany for Germans remember, van vreemde smetten vrij. This does not fit at all with conquering endless territory filled with inferior 'undesirables'. I am still open for the idea that Hitler wanted some territory in the East for permanent German settlement (parts of the Ukraine, Baltics), but he was basically lacking enough precious Germans to fill new territory with. The idea the ethnically cleans all lands between Berlin and the Urals is ridiculous.
But those Untermenschen had to serve the Aryans. See what Hitler did with the General-Government, which was to be a sort of reservation for the Poles, ruled by Germans.

Simple explanation: they invaded although they were not prepared and knew it. The Germans gambled on the surprise element.
They were overconfident that Barbarossa would be over as quickly as Fall Gelb. So they didn't prepare for the winter. Here's what US Army Command researcher Allen F. Chew wrote in 1981:
Hitler's overconfidence immeasurably compounded the inevitable hardships of a winter campaign in Russia. Expecting victory by autumn, he had intended to withdraw two-thirds of his divisions from Russia and to leave the remainder as an occupation army. Winter clothing, procured on the basis of the occupation force, arrived very late because of the breakdown in transportation.
The latter idea is ludicrous as well. 50 divisions to occupy hostile territory from Brest-Litovsk in the west to Moscow in the east, Leningrad in the north to Rostov-on-Don in the south? How many divisions had the Wehrmacht in occupied France? How many divisions had the US Army in Iraq after 2003? Then do the math.

And the German army had paid little attention to the lessons of earlier winter campaigns, e.g. the Allied invasion around Arkhangelsk in 1918-1919:
The Germans paid an exorbitant price for ignoring the lessons of those, and other, earlier winter campaigns. General Dr. Waldemar Erfurth noted that before 1941 the German General Staff had never been interested in the history of wars in northern and eastern Europe. No accounts of the wars of Russia against the Swedes, Finns, and Poles had been published in German.


Suvurov's Icebreaker theory has been thoroughly debunked.

Another simple fact - of which you're undoubtedly ignorant too - that defies this theory is that Barbarossa initially was planned for 1-2 months earlier. However, Italy's failed invasion of Greece threw a spanner in the works and Hitler had to divert resources to conquering Yugoslavia and Greece, instead of building up the resources to attack the USSR. Why didn't Stalin attack in the meantime? That would have been the most logical time, to attack while over 1 million Axis troops were on the Balkan front.
 
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Shermans were very good tanks.
Shermans were reliable, rugged and available in large numbers. They were produced in several variants with cast and welded hulls and several engine packages. This meant they could be produced by a large number of contractors depending on heir skills and expertise.
One of the problems with Tanks in the 1930s was the horsepower of engines and cooling them in the confines of a tank hull, high power means lots of heat. Diesels of the time were relatively low powered for example the Sherman M4A2 had a pair of V8 diesels as did the British Matilda. This was the version used by the US marines so it could use the same fual as the Landing Craft and also supplied to the USSR.
Sherman M4 and M1A1 the original variants were the same tank but produced with both cast and welded hulls, they had an air cooled Radial Engine, M1A4 was the main version supplied to the UK, it had 5 x 6 Cylinder engines on a common gearbox. It was harder to service but had the highest power of all varsions and had redundency.

M4A3 was the most widely produced version, it had an engine designed for tank use.
Suspension, Armour, Turret and Guns were all upgraded as the war went on.
it never had the thickness and firepower of the later german Tanks but it's usual opponent was the PzIV rather than a Tiger or a Panther.
Later German Designs from Tiger 1 onwards had impressive armour and guns but were it was over-engineered, expensive and time-consuming to produce. Only 1,347 Tiger 1s were produced before it was replaced with the even more unreliable Tiger 2.
panthers had the same reliablility problems. Increased complexity and unreliability meant that the Germans were never able to come close to the production of the allies and the increased size and firepower of the smaller number of tanks was negateed by the unreliablity and increased weight. Shermans could never match a panther 1 for 1 (apart from the British Firefly variant) but they could run for many hundreds of miles on their tracks between services and could be serviced quickly. Engines were in the form of 'Powerpacks' that could be changed in the field and all but engine spares were common. In practice the difference in engine spares wasn't important as versions weren't mixed in the same unit.
Germany would have been better off building a lot more of the PzIV and a simplified Tiger 1.
British Tannks for most of the war were a disaster until the Cromwell, this had the same gun as the Sherman and a derated version of the Merlin engine.
Where the main differences between german and Allied tanks came in was with the Tactics. At the start of the war the Germans like the Allies had Infantry Support tanks and seperate Battle Tanks. British Forces had Infantry Support Tanks and what were known as 'Cruiser' tanks. In the US Army there was the Tank force that were supposed to exploit any Infantry breakthroughs and provide support and a seperate 'tank Destroyer Force'
It can't be guarenteed that you will have the right vehicle in the right location when they have different functions. Germany was the first to switch to a 'universal' Tank using one force to do both jobs. They did however produce a whole seperate fore of dedicated Infantry Support guns which were effectively turretless tanks.

By the end of the war the USA was introducing the Pershing and the British the Comet and not quite in time for action the Centurion, these were the equal and even the superior of any german tank in the field. In fact Centurion is still in service in some parts of the world.

As an Irony When the French produced the 'Super Sherman' package for Israel in the 60s as well as a diesel engine upgrade they installed a 75mm gun that was a copy of the weapon fitted to WW2 Panthers and used for many years as the French standard tank weapon.

For the definative history of the Sherman see Hunnicutt : Sherman: A History of the American Medium Tank Unfortunately they go fo about £160 to £200 now, I got mine new back in the 90s for £30 :)

For the history of British Armour in WW2 see David Fletcher. The Great Tank Scandal: British Armour in WW2 part 1 and The Universal Tank: British Armour in WW2 part 2
For background on British Armour in WW2 see david Fletchers Book Mechanised Force British Armour between the Wars.
 
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Here a description of the latest version of the Suvorov 'Stalin did it' book "Überfall auf Europa: Plante die Sowjetunion 1941 einen Angriffskrieg?", from the German amazon.de and google translation:

Dieses Buch ist eine wirkliche Sensation! Da bisher die Vertreter der Präventivschlagthese vor allem Deutsche (Prof. Werner Maser, Dr. Joachim Hoffmann, Dr. Walter Post, Dr. Heinz Magenheimer) und mit Viktor Suworow ein zu Sowjetzeiten in den Westen übergelaufener Russe waren, könnte man bei den Deutschen das Motiv unterstellen, die Schuld des Deutschen Reiches kleinreden zu wollen und bei Suworow den Drang nach "Abrechnung" mit dem verhaßten Sowjetsystem. Jetzt aber melden sich gleich neun Historiker russischer Sprache zu Wort, um die zentrale These Suworows zu unterstützen: "Es ist wahr, Stalin plante im Sommer 1941 einen Angriffskrieg gegen den Westen, in dessen Verlauf er zunächst ganz Europa besetzen wollte, um von dieser Bastion aus die Weltrevolution durchzusetzen." In Rußland findet im Gegensatz zu Deutschland ein freier wissenschaftlicher Dialog zu diesem Thema statt, und was bei uns als Außenseitermeinung diskriminiert wird, hat sich in der russischen Historikerzunft längst durchgesetzt. Die Herausgeber haben für dieses Buch neun Beiträge ausgewählt, die unzählige im Westen bisher unbekannte Fakten enthalten; denn in den neunziger Jahren gab es einen ungehinderten Zugang zu russischen Politik- und Militärarchiven, der von den Autoren dieses Sammelbandes genutzt wurde.


This book is a real sensation! Since so far the representative of the Präventivschlagthese especially German (Prof. Werner Maser, Dr. Joachim Hoffmann, Dr. Walter Post, Dr. Heinz Heimer stomach) and Viktor Suvorov, a Soviet times were in the West overflown Russian, could the Germans the to impute motive to belittle the guilt of the German Reich to Suvorov and the urge for 'settlement' with the hated Soviet system. Now, however, reporting that nine historian of Russian language to speak to the central thesis to support Suvorov: "It is true that Stalin was planning the summer of 1941 a war of aggression against the West, during which he initially wanted to completely occupy Europe to this bastion of the world revolution to enforce. " In Russia, unlike Germany, is a free scientific dialogue on this issue instead, and what is being discriminated against at us as outsiders, has prevailed in the Russian historian guild long ago. The editors have chosen for this book, nine articles that contain numerous facts previously unknown in the West, for in the nineties there was an unimpeded access to Russian political and military archives, which was used by the authors of this volume.

Suvorov is no longer an exotic singularity, a host of German and more important 9 Russian historians now support his thesis in this book: the German invasion was preventive.

The history of WW2 needs a total overhaul, everything was different then we were led to believe:

- WW1 was an attempt to destroy/curtail the new most powerful state in Europe, Germany.
- Versailles was designed to make Germany impotent.
- Versailles was the reason for the rise of Hitler, as Lloyd George correctly predicted; the defense against 'Jewish Bolshevism' was the 2nd reason.
- Hitler identified correctly the Jews as the ferment behind Bolshevism, hence the deportations, which was a dum move, the Anne Franks are harmless; instead he should have limited himself to the elite just as the Soviets did with the Polish elite, and send them to Madagaskar. Or he should have copied the behavior of Putin when he put the predators where they belong.
- The anti-Jewish measures by the Nazis had mobilized international Jewry everywhere at an early stage; war between Germany and the US had been planned soon after the rise of Hitler by Roosevelt and his Jewish advisors.
- Schultz-Rohnhof had shown us that Roosevelt did nothing to prevent to partion of Poland although he could have warned the Poles.
- There were serious negotiations going on between Berlin and London about the Danzig issue that failed in the end. Main reason for failure was that because of the backing by Britain and the US the Poles had no incentive whatsoever to give in to reasonable German demands.
- Hitler was forced to attack the USSR, otherwise he had been attacked by the USSR, thus having the advantage of surprise and first strike.
- The war with Japan was provoked via the oil-embargo followed by impossible conditions from the side of the Americans; the Japanse had to face the choice: either completely abandon their empire or attack PH.
- Pearl Harbour was a LIHOP pur sang. As a result Roosevelt and his Jewish gang got the war as desired and in addition the main prize, war with Germany. And while Europe was destroying itself in a war, the US (and hence the Jews) could rise to world prominence on the cheap.
- After the war a new power structure arose around the USA/USSR dualism; the role of the Jews in the USSR gradually diminished since the thirties and after the war antisemitism grew stronger causing most Russian Jews to emigrate to Israel or the US.
- The USSR collapsed leaving the USA as the sole super power, fully under control of the Jews
- 9/11 was the next step in an attempt to transform superpower USA in global hegemon. This attempt is in the process of failing.
- Thanks to the rise of the internet the role of the Jews is now declining as it circumvents Jewish media power.
- There will be no Jewish led NWO, instead we are going to see a multi-polar world of 8 blocks as described by Samuel Huntington. The US is going to collapse and fall apart much the same way as the USSR did earlier, due to imperial overstretch.
 
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Not in Stalins Soviet Union. This very question was the source of a major schism in the Communist party in the 20' between Stalin supporters and the Troskyites. And that was a lucky thing for Hitler otherwise Germany would have been a communist state by 1929 at the latest
This is a bit of a derail, but I don't think there was a real chance for Germany to turn communist/socialist after the failed 1918/1919 revolution. The aftermath of the 1920 Kapp Putsch is a good example in point: the SPD part of the government called for a general strike, which incapacitated the putschists, and when the strikers in the Ruhr area wanted more than restoration of the government, the government happily sent the troops who had just insurrected against it to defeat the workers. Kapp and his conspirators never were sentenced. Throughout the Weimar era, the social-democratic SPD was the largest and best-organized force on the left, and it consistently sided with the anti-democratic forces on the right against the communists.
 
Here a description of the latest version of the Suvorov book "Überfall auf Europa: Plante die Sowjetunion 1941 einen Angriffskrieg?", from the German amazon.de and google translation:
Ah yes, in your eyes the description the publisher makes determines its value. Let's see - the publisher is "Pour le Merite". From the German wiki page on Dietmar Munier:
Heute ist Dietmar Munier Geschäftsführer und Mitinhaber der Lesen & Schenken Verlagsauslieferung und Versandgesellschaft mbH[6], zu der unter anderem die Verlage ARNDT, Orion-Heimreiter, Bonus und Pour le Merite gehören. Die Verlagsgruppe veröffentlicht jährlich etwa 50 Bücher, Kalender, Poster, CDs und DVDs.
So, Mr. Munier owns 4 publishing houses which, together, publish ca. 50 books, posters, CDs and DVDs. Furthermore, he was a member of the youth organization of the NPD and 1991, he founded a group which wanted Germans to settle in the Kaliningrad Oblast. Someone yearns for Lebensraum, it seems. :rolleyes:

Suvorov is no longer a exotic singularity, a host of German and more important 9 Russian historians now support his thesis: the German invasion was preventive.
For the preventive war thesis, you need to prove three things:
1) the USSR actually deployed its troops in an offensive fashion and prepared for attack;
2) Nazi Germany actually knew of (1);
3) knowledge of (2) was a driver in German planning.

Suvorov's thesis has been debunked. Can you cite one single primary source from which offensive deploymend would follow?

Moreover, Suvorov only claims (1). You additionally need to prove (2) and (3). Can you cite a single German intelligence report which attests (2)? And can you cite a single German document which ties that to German planning?
 
This is a bit of a derail, but I don't think there was a real chance for Germany to turn communist/socialist after the failed 1918/1919 revolution. The aftermath of the 1920 Kapp Putsch is a good example in point: the SPD part of the government called for a general strike, which incapacitated the putschists, and when the strikers in the Ruhr area wanted more than restoration of the government, the government happily sent the troops who had just insurrected against it to defeat the workers. Kapp and his conspirators never were sentenced. Throughout the Weimar era, the social-democratic SPD was the largest and best-organized force on the left, and it consistently sided with the anti-democratic forces on the right against the communists.


I'll stand corrected for now - I am trying to find a book I read in the early 90's that went into the German elections between the wars. The book made a point about Stalins influence on the German Communist party lead to a catastrophic split in the party

When you look at Wiki, the election results posted there are different to what I recall in the book (possibly the book was using polling data as well, I just dont recall)

So if I find anything I will gladly respond.
 
Ah yes, in your eyes the description the publisher makes determines its value. Let's see - the publisher is "Pour le Merite". From the German wiki page on Dietmar Munier:

So, Mr. Munier owns 4 publishing houses which, together, publish ca. 50 books, posters, CDs and DVDs. Furthermore, he was a member of the youth organization of the NPD and 1991, he founded a group which wanted Germans to settle in the Kaliningrad Oblast. Someone yearns for Lebensraum, it seems.

Utterly irrelevant argumentation. Ddt does not like publisher, hence statements made in books in publishers portfolio can't be true. I am sure my skeptic friends here have a name for this kind of defective argumentation.

For the preventive war thesis, you need to prove three things:
1) the USSR actually deployed its troops in an offensive fashion and prepared for attack;
2) Nazi Germany actually knew of (1);
3) knowledge of (2) was a driver in German planning.

One of the plausible scenario's, indeed. I have the 'old icebreaker' on my shelve, never found time to read it. Maybe I will. Will start with the IHR articles.

Suvorov's thesis has been debunked. Can you cite one single primary source from which offensive deploymend would follow?

So has 9/11. :D

Moreover, Suvorov only claims (1). You additionally need to prove (2) and (3). Can you cite a single German intelligence report which attests (2)? And can you cite a single German document which ties that to German planning?

I am not endorsing Suvorov yet. We will see.
 
Utterly irrelevant argumentation. Ddt does not like publisher, hence statements made in books in publishers portfolio can't be true. I am sure my skeptic friends here have a name for this kind of defective argumentation.

It is a very relevant argument - The publisher of a book can tell you a lot about the quality of the document being produced
 
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