Sorry if I **** someone off, but I seriously doubt it:
http://www.lenshaw.com/pages/warconclusion.html
LOL ROFL :lmfao::lmfao::lmfao::lmfao::lmfao::lmfao::lmfao:
But on side note:
We all know why we did win and massive thanks to the brave men and women :worship::worship::worship: who gave or willing to give up there lives to save Europe and possibly the world by kicking the s*** outta hell's tyrant aka Hitler.
Nice find.
I remember reading a fascinating book about WW2. I think it was called Fortress Europe. The basic premise was that Hilter signed six specific orders that were his undoing, just six crucial mistakes that doomed him. I remember one being that he forbade the army from planning to break off their offensive against Russia during the winter and from shipping in winter gear. He refused to accept they would not completely defeat the Soviets as quickly as they had the French. I'm not sure how true the idea that Hitler threw away the second world war rather than we won it, but it a fascinating idea. Assume he had sacked his fat drug addled Air Marshal and employed a proper leader for the Luftwaffe. They win the Battle of Britain, Germany invades Britain. America has nowhere to launch D-Day from and abandons Europe. Hitler moves most of his army east. He plans for a longer war in the Soviet Union, defeats them and develops the atom bomb. America looses any presence in Europe or North Africa and Hitler is free to support and supply Japan. America does not dare use 'the bomb' against Japan as Germany could retaliate against the US. The Pacific War dags on and Japan finally wins as the US public loose their taste for conflict. America sits isolated as Germany and Japan consolidate their power, Japan becomes littel more than a puppet of Germany, as it does not have nuclear weapons of its own. The German empire covers most of the globe. It turns it's eye to that last communist country China and begins to plan it's invasion. What sort of world then? Shudder...
Heh, that's funny :D
@Smilodon
Haven't read that particular book.
What I have read that Germany was quite close to win the battle of Britain, but then Hitler got the 'smart' idea to bomb cities. I guess the bombed civilians might not agree this but, it was a lucky change. After that the German bombing raids didn't cause much any damage to war fighting capabilites. Before that Germans had bomberd radars, airfields, factories etc and even they suffered losses, they were at least doing some harm with the bombings. What is interesting the Brits wanted to repeat the mistake themselves in Germany 3-4 years later. I think the reason was that bombig at daylight caused too much losses and at night they couldn't hit anything smaller than a city. Imho bombing civilians on purpose is an outright warcrime and it didn't even help anything. Just increased the anger against the bombing side in the population.
About Japan. The strategic resources Japan had were quite limited. Especially in things like oil. Japanese knew this I think it was Yamamoto who said that if the war is going to last longer than a year they are lost. That's why they tryed to end it fast with a quick sneak attack to Pearl Harbour. As the war progressed the US industry and available resources really turned the table to US favour by a huge margin. Only Japanese fanatic resistance kept to war going still many years. It would have been a huge task for Germany to supply Japan in a way that it had same sort resources.
One thing which has puzzled me is the thinking of the western allied leaders. During the 30s and 40s Europe had two complete nut cases. Firstly Hitler and then Stalin who was equally out of mind as the corporal A.H. Britain guaranteed Poland's safety against German invasion. When Germany invaded Poland, Britain declared war against Germany. Few days later Soviet Union attacked Poland too, but now it seemed to be ok. Nothing, nada when they splitted Poland together.
The same autumn Soviet Union was threatening the Baltic states and Finland. What did they get? Some warm hand and kind words (and a handful of arms). The baltic states were too small to oppose Soviet invasion by force. Finland didn't accept and put up a good fight for 105 days. After that we had to sign for peace which Stalin was ready to do also as they had lost many times more men than Finland and got only the south western part. We are truly greateful for those foreigners who volunteered to serve and help Finland then (like many Swedes). But officially Finland and Baltic states didn't get same sort of guarantees as Poland.
After Germany invaded Soviet Union, Britain and later USA were very friendly with Stalin whos hands were equally in blood as Hitler. I guess if it serves your cause, you are ready to marry even the satan himself. Newer example is US backing Iraq against Iran in the '80s. Often they remind about the war crimes Germans did and how they fought with Soviets against the tyranny. Nobody comes to ask the people who had to live under the Soviet threat what they did, Things like civilians sent to Siberia and labour camps were you had only grass to eat until you died for hunger. Or the patrols to remote villages in enemy territory were all the people were murdered. Or shooting prisoners of war after they surrendered. Or the atrocities they did the women in Germany at the end of the war. Or the total lack of any respect to cemeteries. Or... Still in many games today you see Soviets presented as 100% good people and Germans 100% bad. If they want to put political or moral messages to them they should at least do some research first. Better if they dealt everybody equally and neutrally e.g so that you might some day play SP campaign as German in WWII ...maybe in CoD 35 earliest.
I know there were several senior Allied generals who were very serious about not stopping at Berlin. They argued that this was their one opportunity to take down Stalin and the Soviet Union. They could clearly see that Stalin was a lunatic on a scale with Hitler (and I think he went on to kill even more civilians that the Nazis? 20,000,000 or something?) The Soviets were in very bad shape, had suffered huge losses and were about as weak as they would ever be. So now was the time to strike. The Allied forces were strong, battle fit and highly motivated. They also by now had or almost had a working nuclear bomb. They could have ended the cold war before it even began and liberated all of Europe, not just the western bit.
Guess we'll never know how things might have turned out but it's fun to speculate.
I lol'd
Quote from: smilodon;238759Nice find.
I remember reading a fascinating book about WW2. I think it was called Fortress Europe.
Could you check? I'm allways interested in WW2-books.
Quote from: smilodon;238789Guess we'll never know how things might have turned out but it's fun to speculate.
True, but better to speculate about what may be rather than what may have been.
Quote from: DuVeL;238794I lol'd
Could you check? I'm allways interested in WW2-books.
I sadly don't remember. I checked Amazon and it's not listed so i probably got the name wrong. Sorry. It was a pretty comprehensive book about WW2 in Europe from the height of the Germans power after Dunkirk and the fall of Berlin. I charted the slow decline of Germany's fortunes from European Superpower to defeated nation. If I can remember the name I will certainly post it.