We Are The Mighty: Hitler had no idea the Soviets were so strong before invading
By the time Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, they were already at war with the British Empire, Yugoslavia, and Greece. Poland, France, and much of Western Europe had already fallen, but governments in exile joined the Allied effort against the Axis powers. So, the natural thing to do would be invade the world's largest country, right?
If you're Hitler, obviously, your answer is yes.
But Hitler just secured dominance of Continental Europe and was risking it by going up against a major world power with whom he had a treaty of nonaggression. Hitler's lebensraum theory aside, the reason he launched the 1941 attack on the Soviet Union is that he just didn't know how strong the Soviet Union actually was.
Intel and all that.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: What is amazing is that this is the only audio recording of Adolph Hitler speaking in a conversational voice. As for underestimating the military capability of the Soviet Union .... he is not the only one .... Napoleon's retreat from Moscow was just as bad.
11 comments:
Hitler's actions are not so amazing, when you read his various biographies.
All, they say is how stupid & mundane he was and humanity is. He was not special.
Predictable, tawdry, and mundane.
Iv'e heard this recording before.. There is, of course, no proof that it is Hitler talking. As a WW2 nerd if find it interesting nonetheless.
You can add the generals to Hitler's decision to invade the "house of cards".
More damning was the warning from the supply folks who pointed out the limits of the army's logistical capabilities. Good for a few hundred miles east then Nelly bar the door.
Interesting to say the least. Hitler rationally explaining his situation was weaker than any history I’ve read. I’ve also never read a history about Russian demands in the run up to Barbarossa as so extreme that Hilter concluded they would soon attack him.
Was The Corporal wrong about Stalin/USRR?
Seems as though the Russkis were busy, busy boys. Nao eh?
1) On September 24, 1939, warships of the Red Navy appeared off Latvia's northern neighbour, Estonian ports, Soviet bombers began a threatening patrol over Tallinn and the nearby countryside.[25] USSR then violated the air space of all three Baltic states, flying massive intelligence gathering operations on September 25. Moscow demanded that Baltic countries allow the USSR to establish military bases and station troops on their soil for the duration of the European war
2) The Winter War] was a military conflict between the Soviet Union (USSR) and Finland. It began with a Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939
3) In summer 1940 a series of territorial disputes were diplomatically resolved unfavorably to Romania
"More damning was the warning from the supply folks who pointed out the limits of the army's logistical capabilities"
The Russian logistics capabilities was fixed by Lend Lease and the Americans and British.
If that had not happened and Hitler had been a little more focused?
I agree, so many things could have swayed this hitlers way.
I concur. It took nearly all of US/England/France/Russia and other nations and on top even the many saboteurs / anti-regime/anti-Nazi Germans to bring this all down. Hitler Germany knew how to fight and probably was man for man better than Russians. quite sure actually as Russians were not only having the weather advantage, the home terrain advantage, the shorter supply lines (as the war was fought on their territory), and number superiority. ..Plus I remember the Russians were quite afraid of fighting Germans, so they had to shoot their own soldiers in the back to face the Germans. But they had all advantages on their side. And, given the brutal weather conditions, many Germans just died as the supplies were needed on the east front fighting England and USA etc. .and in the south the Africa line. I think what brought Germany down was 1) numbers game - too many wars at once and too many fronts open. Towards the end of the war the US military industrial complex was spitting out fighter jets faster than they could be shot down .their steel production far outweighed germanny's
2) Hitler was crazy, and a mad man. A failed painter from Austria (he became German later so to speak) and completely inexperienced in military battles from a strategy perspective until he himself became a soldier, but not stellar track record. More like a note bringer boy, not a general or educated strategist.
3) internal struggles. Not all Germans were "on board" with these wars and the killing of Jews. Many assassination attempts on Hitler are testimony to that. And of course many German scientists didn't want to have anything to do with it and fled to Germany. So you had a lot of German and German speaking resistance who could work on all kinds of sabotage acts. I think that's what ultimately will stop any brutal dictatorship and evil empire... Hitler was almost killed by some high ranking soldiers/generals close to him because he was so despised - the bomb even went off but because they changed places for the meeting, it was less effective and he survived and the famous general was killed.
So yeah. I think the recording is fake. If at all only at the very end Hitler would have admitted any errors and by then he sounded differently. He was a fanatic who literally believed in superpowers and all kinds of superhuman stuff, was involved in the weirdest sectarian / ritual stuff..
I think what Hitler underestimated was the Soviet’s willingness to expend tens of millions of their own military-age males to achieve a devestating victory.
Hitler was crazy, and a mad man. A failed painter from Austria (he became German later so to speak) and completely inexperienced in military battles from a strategy perspective until he himself became a soldier, but not stellar track record. More like a note bringer boy, not a general or educated strategist.
Hitler was not crazy or mad. He was a man of his times, which says a lot about Germans, Europeans of the time and people in general. Nothing good mind you.
Hitler did know some tactics. But he was never promoted probably, because he was a a nancy boy and not especially courageous although he did display in WW1 more courage than most people have to do in a lifetime.
In some respects when it comes to strategy, his no retreat dogma and his IQ, he is absolutely no different than Merkel with her "We can do this" or Macron's obstinacy with Global Warming taxation schemes,
Was a Hitler a general? Knox was not one either. He was self-educated. During WW1 the Germans rated their division on a scale of 1 to 4 whether they were regular or reserve. Regular duty did not necessarily make for great staff officers, men, or divisions. Hitler certainly effed things up strategically or operationally for Germany in Russia. Still he was not a total noob.
What, serious, kmon mn ... if it wanst for the weather you were right now speaking now French or German .... Russia army were in both time a fk disaster, only the weather saved the russians
And in WW2 also the US and the UK saved the Russians with loads and loads of cargo.
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