Historiker
Posts: 4742
Joined: 7/4/2007 From: Deutschland Status: offline
|
quote:
ORIGINAL: Culiacan Mexico quote:
ORIGINAL: Historiker In Spring 44, we still had a powerful army and the Luftwaffe hit the Allied AFs still hard. In the East, we were still able to match the Red Air Force. The turning point came later, the war was not finally lost before mid of August 44... (1)The turning point came in September of 1939 when the policy of short limited wars fell apart, after this there was little chance of victory; and after June of 1941 defeat was inevitable. (2)In the spring of 1944 the Germany was incapable of holding off the Soviets alone; add the Western Allies and it wasn’t even close. (3)At least by the summer of 1943 if not earlier the Luftwaffe had lost its ability to maintain air superiority, the result was devastating to the combat ability of the infantry divisions. ad1 The first point can only come from a German With our tradition of selflaceration after the war, it is of course impossible that there has ever been any hope for Germany, there can't be anything good in Germany between this 12 years that dominate our history (for ourself) much more than all the other 1000 years... And of course, the war was so defenitly lost in June, that Stalin submitted peace offers, providing much of the intended "Lebensraum". ad2 and? who cares? It isn't necessary to hold all the ground. Especially on foreign ground, it is possible to use it for a manuever warfare. Have you ever heard of Erich von Manstein? And do you know what he did to the russians when he was allowed to retreat? Even Russia doesn't have endless abilitys. The casualties the Russians suffered through von Manstein where such horrible, that the abilities for offensives were in concrete danger. Of course, slowly retreating to the Cruzon-line doesn't make Germany to win the war, but if Manstein would have been in charge... It has a reason why I said "august 44". In August it was certain, that the allied troops will not be thrown back to the sea, wich was indeed possible in June 44. But much more important than this, while this point allone decides the war, in august 44 Operation Bagration had ended and the Heeresgruppe Mitte has collapsed, which took germanys power to fight back in the east. This two points, the loss of our tanks and of nearly 700.000 men together with the established second front (with even more massive losses) broke our neck. Before it was definitly not broken, yet! ad3 The loss of air superiority didn't affect the production, but with it's affect on the ground forces, you are right. While this is really annoying, it doesn't decide the war, if the allied attempt to establish a second front would have been repelled successfully. Without an allied front in the east, marching by night is a good possibility to avoid attacks. At the estern front local air superiority was established again and again even until 45.
< Message edited by Historiker -- 9/19/2007 3:00:30 AM >
_____________________________
Without any doubt: I am the spawn of evil - and the Bavarian Beer Monster (BBM)! There's only one bad word and that's taxes. If any other word is good enough for sailors; it's good enough for you. - Ron Swanson
|