3 great documentaries about the Eastern Front

Good topic, Zooey.

Traditionally the German economy has been structured as follows:

Germany imports food –> foreign currency flows out of Germany
Germany imports raw materials for its factories --> foreign currency flows out of Germany
Germany exports manufactured goods --> foreign currency flows into Germany

Note that without the third item on the list, it would be impossible for Germany to pay for the first two items. Paying for those first two items became considerably more difficult due to the massive reparations payments required by the Versailles Treaty. The burden of that treaty was (temporarily) eased by large loans from the American government. On the other hand, most of the reparations payments went to Britain and France, which meant that the combination of U.S. + Germany was helping fund France’s + Britain’s appetite for money.

In the late ‘20s, the U.S. government was able to convince Britain and France to cease requiring further reparations payments from Germany. In exchange, Britain and France demanded (and received) American forgiveness of those nations’ remaining debts from WWI. But by this point, Germany owed vast sums of money to the American government. Interest payments alone were a very difficult burden for it to bear.

During the '20s, Britain and France closed themselves and their empires to German imports. The United States later followed suit, with the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act. With much of the world refusing to accept German imports, Germany could not export enough manufactured goods to even out its balance of payments. The result was an economic collapse which began in Germany, and which quickly spread throughout the Western world. The politically moderate Weimar government lost credibility because it was no longer able to feed the German people. (They didn’t have the currency necessary to pay for food imports.)

Hitler inherited an economic disaster, and immediately began taking ruthless measures to improve the situation. He stated that if any nation refused to accept German imports, Germany would default on 100% of its debt to that nation. In particular, Germany defaulted on all its debt to the United States. On the other hand, if a particular nation agreed to accept German imports, Germany would repay a large percentage of the money owed to that nation. A number of nations which had formerly refused German imports began accepting them.

These measures were ugly, and many Western politicians found them offensive. They also worked. By 1937, Germany’s economy was booming. The unemployment rate had plummeted, real wages had significantly increased, working conditions improved, the work week had been reduced to 40 hours, and workers had been given extensive vacation time. Improved clean air and clean water standards were enacted. Profits for German companies rose considerably.

I think there are at least two lessons to be learned from all this. 1) A nation should not accept narcissistic, one-sided economic/trade arrangements from other nations. The Weimar Republic allowed itself to be economically exploited by the Allies (especially Britain and France). Ending that economic exploitation was an absolutely essential part of Germany’s subsequent economic boom. In the modern world, China is engaged in currency manipulation. That currency manipulation makes it too easy for Chinese firms to export their products inexpensively; too difficult for other countries to import into China. Ending that currency manipulation would significantly improve the economies of the United States and of China’s other trading partners.

If a large, modern government commits itself to achieving a particular economic objective, and if that government knows what it’s doing, that objective can often be achieved. But at least in the United States, running for office is very expensive. Politicians must therefore accept large sums of money from large corporations, public sector unions, wealthy individuals, and other lobbyists and special interest groups. It is necessary for these politicians to act in the best interests of those who fund their campaigns. That goal is often incompatible with the objective of growing the economy as a whole. American politicians are far more likely to be former lawyers than former economists; which means that most of them probably don’t understand the economic damage their policies create. Even if they did understand it, they might not have any choice but to inflict it anyway. There is a tendency for politicians who aren’t willing to “play the game” to get weeded out. Large media corporations have a very, very strong vested interest in preserving the importance of money in politics. If any politician attempts to reform the existing system, the media will either a) kill him with silence, or b) give him only negative press coverage.

I voted advantage Axis. As others have explained, the Allies didn’t have very good methods of detecting u-boats–at least not after the first year of the war. However, that changed as the war progressed. The Germans did not anticipate the Allies miniaturizing radar to the point where it could be equipped on board an aircraft. (Even though they later duplicated that feat.) When the British began using such aircraft against u-boats, it fundamentally altered the equation in the Atlantic.

During the last year of the war, the Germans were taking steps to reclaim the edge in the war of the Atlantic.

One of those steps involved torpedoes. A standard-issue WWII era torpedo involved a diesel engine, as well as fuel and compressed air so that the engine could work. The compressed air took up plenty of space. Early in the war, Germany’s torpedoes were based on this model. But there are problems with diesel-powered torpedoes. They are noisy, and can be detected by enemy ships. As they burn diesel fuel, they leave a telltale trail of bubbles in the water. If this trail is observed from the air, it alerts the target ship a torpedo is coming, and guides planes back to the sub which launched the torpedo in the first place. Something better was needed–or at least desired.

The Japanese dealt with these problems by providing their torpedoes with compressed oxygen, not compressed air. Separating the oxygen out from the rest of the air was very difficult, and the Japanese closely guarded their secret of how to do it. A diesel engine requires only 1/5 as much compressed oxygen to burn a given quantity of diesel fuel as it would compressed air. Due to the enormous space savings gained by using compressed oxygen, Japanese “Long Lance” torpedoes had about triple the range of anyone else’s. Also, the air bubble trail they left was much less pronounced than typical for a WWII-era torpedo. This was particularly important for the South Pacific at night, because the presence of luminescent algae meant that those bubble trails glowed in the dark!

The Germans dealt with the torpedo problem in a different way. As the war progressed, they began making use of battery-powered electric torpedoes. At first these torpedoes represented a very serious trade-off. Their range was much shorter than a standard-issue diesel torpedo’s. On the other hand, the electric torpedoes left no bubble trail, and were very, very quiet. They were therefore a mixed blessing–at least until the Germans began to improve their range. Later in the war, Germany’s electric torpedoes had about the same range as standard-issue diesel torpedoes. (Japan’s torpedoes, of course, had a much longer range than anyone else’s.)

Good torpedoes were useful, but not alone enough to swing the Battle of the Atlantic back in Germany’s favor. What it needed was a submarine much harder for the British to detect than the submarines it had. In addition, the submarine in question needed a long range, and it needed to be mass produceable in large quantities. The Type XXI u-boat was all these things and more.

The Type XXI was fast. Its hydrodynamic shape allowed it to actually travel faster underwater than it could on the surface. It had a very advanced (for the time) electronics suite and sonar system. Its electric torpedoes had a range comparable to most diesel-powered torpedoes of the era. Its hull was coated in a layer of rubber, making it very difficult to detect via radar or sonar. It had a very large complement of batteries–batteries which allowed it to remain submersed for 2 - 3 days at a time. When it did finally have to emerge, it didn’t need to come all the way to the surface. Instead, it would go most of the way to the surface, then raise its snorkel. With the snorkel above the surface it could run its diesel engines. (Necessary to recharge its batteries.) This submarine was much, much quieter than almost any other sub of WWII. The Type XXI u-boat and associated models were by far the most advanced submarines of the war. In many ways they had more in common with nuclear submarines of the postwar era than with their WWII contemporaries.

Albert Speer began producing this type of submarine in large quantities in 1944. These subs were built in sections to make them easier to mass produce. However, there were some initial glitches in the production process, slowing things down. Also, a submarine this sophisticated required a relatively long working up period. No Type XXIs saw action before the war ended. Had the war lasted another six months, the story would have been very different. :o

A sister ship–the Type XXIII–was put into service, in limited numbers, before the war ended. The Type XXIII was very similar to the Type XXI in most ways, except much smaller and with a shorter range. The Type XXIII could hold only two torpedoes (compared to twelve for the XXI). The Type XXIII was intended for use in coastal waters. Type XXIIIs sank or damaged five Allied ships; and the Allies did not sink or damage any Type XXIIIs. The rather one-sided track record of the Type XXIII reinforces the suspicion that it would have been very, very difficult for the Allies to detect or destroy the Type XXIs.

From the OP: please explain what you do at this time if you are the Axis or Allies?

Am I allowed to use 20/20 hindsight? If I am, my choice would be to accelerate the development and production of the Type XXI as quickly as possible. Had the Type XXI appeared in the Atlantic in large numbers in 1943, it could have decisively tipped the Battle of the Atlantic in Germany’s favor.

The “just sit and wait for the Phony War to end in April 1940” option is a bit perplexing as an answer to “You are the German High Command!  What is your next Combat Movement?” because it seems to imply that the Phony War was operating on a fixed timetable, and that this timetable was in someone else’s hands.  The lack of action on land on the Western Front is certainly due in part to inaction by France and Britain (whose strategy was basically to sit around for a couple of years to built up their strength for a showdown, while simultaneously hoping that the Nazi regime would be overthrown by a coup), but it was also very much a deliberate choice by Germany.  The Wehrmacht needed to analyze the Polish Campaign, fix the tactical and operational elements that hadn’t worked as well as expected, plan the upcoming campaign against France and the Low Countries, rest and replenish its forces, give them more training, provide them with additional equipment, and redeploy them to the west.  Doing this properly took time, but Germany could afford to take the time to do the job right because of the lack of Anglo-French pressure on the western front. ( In other words, by sitting on their collective hindquarters France and Britain surrendered the strategic initiative to Germany, which gave the Wehrmacht the luxury of attacking at the time and place of its own choosing.)  Moreover, the time period during which these activities took place were the fall of 1939 and the winter of 1939-1940, which was conveniently timed because this meant that the Wehrmacht wouldn’t have to fight in the fall (manageable, but rainy and muddy) or in the winter (far less harsh in the West than in Russia, but still potentially nasty as veterans of the Battle of the Bulge will recall).  The late spring / early summer period chosen for the offensive in the West was much more congenial for military operations.

Totally AWESOME!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2083964/Keith-Little-One-final-Navajo-Code-Talkers-dies.html

Keith Little passes away

It can be everybody against everybody, unless you form alliances only to renig on a treaty and attack. one molment your in an allience with a country and then they are your enemy

thanks

@Adlertag:

@Captain:

The recreation of Poland as a state was welcomed by the people living there, and they fought pretty darned hard against the German occupation.

I dont want to be negative, and are just curious more than anything, butt since you are a history teacher from New Zealand, did the Maori’s fight hard against the British occupation, or did they welcome the brits as liberators ? And how about the Aborigins in Australia, or the Zulu’s in South Africa, or the Indians in North America, or the black slaves from Africa that was sailed on british ships to their new home in U$A’s cotton fields and mines. Did all this natives fight against British exploitement, or did they recognize the brits as great liberators ? As I said, just curious. And I wont pull the string and ask if the Polish was happy to be liberated by allies in 1945. My country too was liberated by the Red Army, so of course we all are very greatful to comrade Stalin, our belowed hero.

Ok?

What point are you trying to make here?

Race Relations in New Zealand, the Treaty of Waitangi, the Kingitangi movement, Musket Wars and New Zealand wars are very complex issues. Some Maori did fight against the Europeans, but NZ was never invaded as such. It was brought into the empire with a treaty that recognized the unique status of Maori as native peoples. There have been really bad moments in NZ’s history, but work is being done to redress some of the grievances the Tangita whenua have endured in an effort to restore things that were illegally seized from Iwi in NZ. Becuase the government here recognizes the Treaty of Waitangi, Maori goups (Iwi) have legal grounds to make claims against actions that went on.

NZ is not perfect, but i fail to see what this has to do with the invasion of Poland.

Comparing those other colonial incidents above to NZ history is misguided, comparing them to the invasion of Poland is just sad.