GuyFawkes:

I concur Monty was hugely overrated, the Battle of El Alamein was basically won by superiority in numbers of men. Trust the british folks to tout Monty as a great general, he wasn't even made a field marshal. Market garden was catastrophic and made no sense to start with.

Missy89:
Fun fact

Some US tank crews have pictures of Heinz Guderian in their tanks during the Iraq war.

Guderian is usually regarded as the grand father of motorized tactics and was a Generaloberst in the German army during world war 2

Missy89:
Fun fact

Some US tank crews have pictures of Heinz Guderian in their tanks during the Iraq war.

Guderian is usually regarded as the grand father of motorized tactics and was a Generaloberst in the German army during world war 2

donestk:
Exploits of the afrika korps during the North African campaign.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPl3Y-Wgv3Y

abiolert:
will you agree @ OP that Neville chambalains theory of appeasement was responsible for the outbreak of the 2nd world war?

abiolert:

yea I know it had but could it be said that appeasement was the major cause?

Defaramade:
Stalingrad; hugging the enemy tactics propounded by Lt General Vasily Chuikov. Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest (some say it's the bloodiest) battles in history with total casualties on both sides (soviet and german) close to 2 million. Fierce combat raged on relentlessly for the Mamaev Kurgan Hill and the stalingrad train station, the hill changed hands 16 times in the first few days of the battle. The soviets fought bravely and stubbornly against the German assault on stalingrad with heavy casualties on both sides. The soviets lead by Zhukov counterattacked against the Germans and sprung a double envelopment that trapped the german soldiers in the city. Fierce fighting raged on and the commander of the 6th army General Paulus requested permission from Hitler to break our of the encirclement but Hitler refused arguing that the 6th army would never leave Stalingrad and that they would be supplied from the air. The attempt to supply the 6th army from the air ultimately fails, and a rescue attempt by Von Manstein was brushed aside by the Red Army. The 6th army's fate is sealed but the soldiers still fight on while Paulus request to surrender is rejected by Hitler. Hitler then promotes General Paulus to Field Marshall noting that no german field Marshall had ever surrendered before, expecting Paulus to commit suicide. Paulus who was Roman Catholic refused to commit suicide saying "I'm not killing myself for that Bohemian corporal". With the soviets closing in on his headquarters, Paulus' chief of staff went to negotiate surrender terms with the red army. The red army breaks into Paulus' headquarters and inform Paulus that he is now their captive, left with no other choice Paulus submits himself to the Soviets and enters into captivity with the 91,000 remnants of the 6th Army.

donestk:
"During the battle of Stalingrad the average life expectancy of a Soviet soldier was 24 hours"

aaronson:
Yippie, I like talking about the Nazi, both World wars, Alexander conquest to form Rome and Napoleon battle of waterloo, because these wars change the cause of history.

*WW1- uprising of globalization which failed, forming allies, Building of machinery and artilleries and testing them during the war.
Basically WW1 was a battle of supremacy which badly affect Germany.

How?

After the end of ww1, The allied force made Germany take responsibility for the break out of WW1 and instructed them to pay a huge amount of money, which inturned plunder Germany economy. The thing cum vex Hitler gon.

Hitler, then a younging was infuriated by the level of menace and how impoverish his country has turned prior to decision taken by the allied forces turned Capitalist. Thus, Nazi came onboard and also got Hitler onboard to serve his people. Then WW2 broke out.

* WW2- Oga Hitler, How far? R.I.P bros.
Hitler came onboard and brought about Germany economy reform, He took from the rich and gave the poor, At some point, He turned the idealogy into Facism, meaning, No rich, No poor, The state property is your property, everybody is entitled to equal right, The people welfare was Hitler's top most priority instead of amassing wealth. Hitler believed his people are his priceless asset and could die for them. (Great guy), but something went wrong. Hitler noticed the Jews were prosperous set of people/race among the Germans, Keep in mind, the Jews were scattered and still scattered round the world today. But Hitler was biased saying the Jews was the reason behind their misfortune prior to their loss in WW1 and so that was how he developed his anti-semitic hatred on the Jews, Another reason was, Most of the Jews opposed Hitler Fascist ideology and pushed forward for Capitalism thereby liasing with the capitalist which happens to be the allied forces. That got Hitler pissed and hated the Jews more.

He felt the Jews are fake race and need to be exterminated from Earth. Now, Hitler has that about the Jews same time, push forward to extend his facist ideology through Europe starting from Poland.... ..... .... ....

Can't type much in that regard, read that up. Alas, he succeeded till he took France and strategizing to take over Britain before the Allied forces struck back.

Let me stop there.
Hitler remains a hero for many reasons except one, His ideal of anti-semitism towards the Jews.

donestk:
Footage of the battle of the bulge


http://m.warhistoryonline.com/whotube-2/stunning-color-footage-of-the-battle_of-thebulge-x-copy.html

donestk:
Is Rommel overhyped?

Despite the fact that he lost North Africa, he's still being celebrated by both countrymen and adversaries. Some authors believe that he's the most overrated commander of World War II.

Share your opinion.

Defaramade:
No I don't think so, considering the fact that he was constantly outnumbered by the allies who had more tanks and other war materiel. He was nicknamed the desert fox for the clever tactics he used to defeat the allied army in the early campaigns in north africa. We shouldn't also forget that he lead some spearhead tank attacks that contributed to the defeat of the French army during the battle of France. ln fact he was so good at his job that the allies tried to eliminate him in his headquarters in North Africa. He eventually lost North Africa but it was a matter of time, as I said earlier the allies outnumbered him and had better logistics so they could absorb the earlier defeats rommel inflicted on them without crumbling. He was celebrated by his adversaries and countrymen because apart from being a capable field commander and tactician he also refused to commit war crimes, treated captured POWs well deliberately disobeying Hitler's commando order that allied commandos should be executed when captured and also because he refused to participate in the Holocaust. He was one of the most senior werhmacht officers implicated in the plot to kill Hitler. But because he was very popular with the people the nazis offered him two choices; commit suicide and be buried with full military honours or stand trial and his family be persecuted. He chose to commit suicide to save his family and the nazis announced that he was killed by allied strafing warplanes. It was after the war that the real cause of his death was disclosed to the people making him to be celebrated as one of those people who stood up to Adolf Hitler.

Defaramade:
The axis powers occupied North Africa because of huge oil reserves present in the North African countries (Egypt, Libya especially). They needed oil to fuel their tanks, trucks and warplanes. They also wanted to control the Mediterranean sea shipping.

donestk:
Between Rommel and Manstein, who was more of a genius?

donestk:
Prior to the Battle of the Bulge, a line, 88 miles long, was drawn by Allied officers throughout the Ardennes region. The Ardennes lies in Belgium but also runs through Luxembourg, France, and Germany.

It is very strategically placed and so its history is littered with battles and wars.

Because this area consists of uneven terrain that includes forests, hills, and ravines the Germans had to come up with ways to traverse the region safely and quickly. They managed to find a way to do this and arrived at France to attack Paris in May 1940.

The fighting began at the Normandy landings in June 1944 and did not stop throughout the next months.

By November the decision was made to send hundreds of Allied soldiers to re-equip and rest; leaving inexperienced soldiers to defend the front.

Little did they know what was to come next: 25 German divisions, armed with heavy artillery, as well as two Panzer tank divisions had grouped in the cover of the forests in the Eifel region. It was an area in which it was easy to blend in and hide in plain sight.

Here were a group of 20-30,000 Germans ready to overcome the Allies and push through to Antwerp, Belgium.

Battle of the bulge

The Germans plan of action was to divide the American and British forces in half. This way the Germans could then surround and defeat the Allied armies – forcing the Allies to sign a peace treaty that would favor the Germans terms.

Adolf Hitler believed that once that was complete then the German troops could focus their attention on the Eastern side of the War.

Watch this footage, shown in color, to see the German troops attack via the Ardennes.

Rossikki:
Donald Trump is the new Hitler. He is using the very same tactics Hitler used to gain popularity - scapegoating minorities, expressing a wish to make the country great "again", and vowing to deal with foreign enemies by war. Like Hitler, he will garner millions of supporters, many of whom will perish in the flames of his madness and megalomania. Like Hitler roped in decent men like Erwin Rommel into his bloodlust, so will Trump incorporate the likes of "mad dog" Mathis, the defence secretary. But these sane characters will bow to the madman's whims, and will be overshadowed by the new Goebbels, Himmler, and Goering, to our tragedy. God help us.

panafrican:
Why didn' t Hitler invade the UK and why did the German army let the British escape at Dunkirk in 1940?
Any idea?

Defaramade:
Germany was victorious against the western European powers (except Britain) but Hitler made the same mistake that Napoleon Bonaparte made almost a century before him; invading Russia

Defaramade:
Exactly

nigeriancritic1:

WHAT DO YOU MEAN? IS THAT A JOKE. I CAN ONLY RATE ZHUKOV AHEAD OF ROMMEL. AS PER THAT WAR.

Missy89:



The most over hyped general was Monty

donestk:
Rommel's initial success got into his head.... I mean the desert fox thingy after he pushed the allies to as far as Egypt with his overwhelming firepower.

Monty carefully studied Rommel's strategy and countered him. Rommel had the respect of everyone cos he was a humane officer....

Defaramade:
Sir, I wouldn't be too sure if I were you, Rommel fought in the western front and in North Africa which I can say that the Germans had it easier in the western front than in the eastern front; The Soviets were far tougher enemies and proved more than a handful to the Germans. The campaign that made me respect Manstein was Operation Mars which was launched by the Soviets after the battle of Stalingrad. Manstein inflicted heavy defeats on the Soviet Army led by Zhukov and captured hundreds of thousands of Soviet prisoners. In fact Operation Mars has been acknowledged by most historians as the only defeat of General Zhukov. Furthermore it was Manstein's army that had some success against the Soviets during operation Citadel only to be hampered by Hitler's command for the Army to withdraw from the battle.

nigeriancritic1:

BRITAIN IS ALWAYS OVERHYPED. YOU MEAN GEN. MONTGOMERY?

waxxydude:
Wehrmahct was a highly formidable army. Germany lost the war due to Hitler's unneccesary and risky gamble that didnt payoff in the end.

Bleep, why didn't he allow his "precious" Panzers swipe off the remnant of over 320thousand BEF army after successful France occupation?

He waged wars at different fronts with a hand full of U-boats? Which later turnout to be one "noisy" silent acheiver!

Underestimating USSR; there have been so many theories as to why german lost in USSR, of which many attributing to it's weather. Yes, but something lead to this: Hitlers arrogance, and some stupid political meaning to Stalingrad over a stragic Moscow invasion.

Waging war on the U.S that has a total production 5x more than your annual output in A WEEK!. Though this was practically unavoidable.

German role in WW2 made me a bigtime Hitler, Gommel, Zukhov and Heinz Guderian fan. They were all driven by passion.

Hitler/Heinz masterly Blitzkrieg formation could've swept the whole of Europe, but in the end the were just men.

Rossikk:
The main reason Germany lost was Hitler's incompetence as a military leader. He only had limited military expertise, being an ex colonel, yet he was the one directing the Germany army on important things like when to withdraw from battlefields if things got too rough etc. In almost all instances, he insisted the troops remain fighting to the last man, even against all odds, and against the advice of seasoned generals and field marshals. This led to catastrophic losses for the Germans. The battle of Stalingrad was the last straw. He grossly underestimated the Russians, and his army paid a terrible price.