Agreed.
What decided WWII?
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I’d say the anti-semitism and “people without room” policy decided it.
Imagine: no jewish scientists have left for the US before the war.
The hope of the people of the soviet union to be “liberated” would not have been disappointed. That means: much less partisans, much more support, porbably much more volunteers for the german army. -
@TG:
I’m not so sure about that. It’s true that Rommel had no love for Hitler, but I don’t think he would sell his own country out. He would’ve of at least tried to work out a favorable peace with the Allies.
Yet Rommel was a member of the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler in East Prussia.
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Yet Rommel was a member of the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler in East Prussia.
But this was done after Rommel knew the war was lost and knew Hitler would never admit. I don’t think this equates to Rommel selling out to the Allies in the D-Day landings. If the D-Day landings were a failure, however, it would’ve given Rommel in a much stronger position for diplomacy.
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@TG:
I’m not so sure about that. It’s true that Rommel had no love for Hitler, but I don’t think he would sell his own country out. He would’ve of at least tried to work out a favorable peace with the Allies.
Yet Rommel was a member of the conspiracy to assassinate Hitler in East Prussia.
Ahem… The Assasinatioon plot involving Rommel was the 40th Known time that hitler dodged a bullet(or Bomb)…Most of them by his own countrymen… Hitler’s genereals repeatedly disobeyed him from winter of 1942-43 on… What about the secret Germans underground(including military) Like Detriech Bonhoffer that tried to overthrow hitler and allow open allied landing spots on the North coast if the Allies would drop the unconditional surrender demand…
Just some thoughts on hitlers popularity
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Ahem… The Assasinatioon plot involving Rommel was the 40th Known time that hitler dodged a bullet(or Bomb)…Most of them by his own countrymen… Hitler’s genereals repeatedly disobeyed him from winter of 1942-43 on… What about the secret Germans underground(including military) Like Detriech Bonhoffer that tried to overthrow hitler and allow open allied landing spots on the North coast if the Allies would drop the unconditional surrender demand…
Rommel wasn’t Detriech Bonhoffer. If that were the case, why would Rommel try to improve the shore defenses of the French coast to highest degree in the shortest amount of time possible (even predicting that the Allies would land in the lightly defended coast of Normandy)? As for Hitler’s generals, repeatly disobeying Hitler, that is true, but only to save the lives of their men and because it was the right thing militarily to do – unlike Hitler’s “Fight to the Last Man” orders
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If that were the case, why would Rommel try to improve the shore defenses of the French coast to highest degree in the shortest amount of time possible (even predicting that the Allies would land in the lightly defended coast of Normandy)?
Because of Unconditional Surrender which stated: Surrender of all units and political and militarial leaders to do with as the opposing factions states(including firing squads)…If the geanereals hadgiven them the open door to the mainland off with are heads…what would you do? now obviously I would think the “better” allies of Us and britian would have saved some heads but they couldn’t be sure… The Brutal Russians on the other hand was a different story they hated the germans to the point of brutality give to the Jews(who probably were ding only yards away anyway… The Russians killed about 250,000)…So would you give up europe for free (especially for your head lost)…
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I’d say the anti-semitism and “people without room” policy decided it.
No, that wasnt it.
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@TG:
Rommel wasn’t Detriech Bonhoffer. If that were the case, why would Rommel try to improve the shore defenses of the French coast to highest degree in the shortest amount of time possible (even predicting that the Allies would land in the lightly defended coast of Normandy)? As for Hitler’s generals, repeatly disobeying Hitler, that is true, but only to save the lives of their men and because it was the right thing militarily to do – unlike Hitler’s “Fight to the Last Man” orders
Yes he did predict Normandy, but there was another general in charge of repeling the upcoming D-Day invasion who predicted the attack would come farther north and suggested to Hitler to keep some of the German armor further inland as back up. Because Rommel and this other general (whose name I cannot remember) both made very good points, Hitler divided the forces between them, basically securing Allied victory in D-Day.
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Well there were actually two train of thoughts. One which stated that the Germans should crush the Allies on the beachhead outright. The other was to lure the Allies deep inside France and crush them in a decisive battle, where naval battle would not be an advantage. Hitler also split resources here, leading to his defeat.
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I’d say it was the restrictions and burden placed on Germany at the end of WWI. All the other points are icing on the pie…I mean cake.
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Rommel and other generals actually warned that the allies would come through normandy, but hitler in his wisdom decided that that was an allied plan of distraction. that why he didnt allow the germa army to use its tank forces against the normandy beaches.
Hitler also split up the comman structure in the west too much because he feared that under a unified command one individual would be too tempted to try to oust him or negotiate with the allies.
So there again, Hitler brought and cost Germany the war.
another thing on Rommel. I agree witht he people that suggest Rommel wasnt a traitor, but loyal to germany. i think he could best be compared to gerneral lee in the american civil war. especially in the later stages he was more and more disgusted by Hitler, but felt he had to do his duty for this country.
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@El:
I’d say it was the restrictions and burden placed on Germany at the end of WWI. All the other points are icing on the pie…I mean cake.
Yes… I agree whole heartedly… But that is just saying that the allies have as much fault in in starting WW2 than the Axis…
Not what decided it… -
The Battle of Britain decided the war. After that, the Western Allies would forever have air supremecy over Germany, pounding the damn place to the stoneage.
Of your choices, well the Economic Capacity of the United States was staggering. Also, the lack of key natural resources on the parts of the Germans and Japaneese played a huge part. Hitler would of lasted longer if he didn’t have a lack of oil. The Japaneese, even more so.
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Rommel and other generals actually warned that the allies would come through normandy, but hitler in his wisdom decided that that was an allied plan of distraction. that why he didnt allow the germa army to use its tank forces against the normandy beaches.
Well actually, the Allied plan of distraction involved creating a fake army commanded by Gen. Patton that was supposed to land at the Pas de Calais (i think). So in this case, Hitler could have been forgiven (or whatever) for his mistake.
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I think the big mistake was Germany deciding to attack the Soviet Union when they did. Maybe I don’t see something from the historical record, but opening a 2nd front before the UK was on the ropes was a bad choice in my opinion, and it led to the eventual allied victory.
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The Battle of Britain was significant, but not the cause. Like I already said earlier, there was no one cause. It was a contributing effort of many things, including the Battle of Britain. To some extend, any one event could have been changed, with the outcome of the war remaining the same. But in the same way, all the key events that have been pointed to as the cause were instead just major contributers.
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The poll is not clear as to whether it refers to starting or ending the war.
I would say the deciding factor ending the war was
that the Allies beat Italy, Germany and Japan! :wink:I just thought of a new A&A variant/house rule. Gotta post it…
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I don’t care how good your leaders are, you just can’t beat production numbers. Stalin was a horrible leader and a poor military strategist, yet how did he beat Hitler? Sheer numbers.
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Yea, those Russians. Everything they do is in mass numbers. Whenever they lose people, its in the millions of casualties. I guess it gets pretty cold up there. :wink:
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Americans too. Where do you think all of those 10 Shermans vs 1 Panzer fight came from? :)