👉👉Do you want to support the channel? You just have to watch another video. This will help You Tube to recommend them more to new users. ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🔴📣Other videos of interest: - ✅The Volksgrenadiers Divisions of the Wehrmacht | The Last Hope of the Third Reich: th-cam.com/video/innPSZBaQrk/w-d-xo.html
War lost because the German Army did not like the mustache guy from the beginning, the former corporal. So, A LOT OF GENERALS AND OFFICERS tried to kill him since 1943. Thousands of Nazi officers participated in the Operation Valkyrie, and then 4,980 were executed for treason? Probably it could have been that Majority of Nazis wanted him gone. During the war? Lor of them Generals? Hung to death for Treason during the war? That nation was finished well before the operation was executed on July 20, 1944.
The artificial speech is absolutely horrible, just as others have pointed out. It is especially bad when pronouncing German words and names. Luftwaffe is not pronounced Looftwaff, but Looftvaffeh (even this admittedly approximate phonetic rendering is miles ahead of what one hears).
It took most of the world almost six years to defeat Germany. Germany lost the war, but they were the most professional military of the war. But, they had one big weakness, and that was logistics. The Germans weren't so much out fought as out produced. Germanys enemies simply had more of everything. More tanks, more trucks, more munitions. And above all, oil.
My grandfather met Guderian. My Opa was in the 8th Panzer Division. He was working on his vehicle. He had a long handed wrench and was trying to break a bolt loose. He heard a voice behind him saying “May I give you a hand?” He turned and it was Guderian. He helped my Opa. He asked him questions and listened to him. Opa absolutely respected him. One day his unit, 43rd Panzerjager was firing in a position he looked over and Guderian was standing on the hood of his kubel looking through his binos. Without a question he was a soldier’s General.
@@waracademy128 in the 70s I did an interview with him for my school history project. At first he declined, but when my Oma told him it was for my school grade he said yes. There are some interesting stories he shared
Well if you want to share them with me, maybe I can make a video on the subject if you want. You can send them to my email. Do not comment here because I may not see it because I already lost among the hundreds of comments. My email is viajeshistoriasbelicas@gmail.com
My grandfather died in Stalingrad. He was wounded 7 times in war. Refused the desk job they offered him. According to my grandmother and mother he was addicted to war. Last thing he said at the train station in Vienna was: "Don't wait for me. This is a one way ticket. I won't come back."
@@intermilan9731 Germany was trying to ally with Britain since before the war started so they could team up against Russia (communism). It's the British that were fools tbh cus they lost their Empire as a result of going to war with them. Germany was still trying to sue for peace even at 1942. There'd probably be a lot more ethnic cleansing going on in the world today if Germany and UK had joined forces though so it's probably for the best it didn't happen.
@@chickenmadness1732 No there wouldn't be. Your latter part is just decades of Zionist propaganda machine mouthing off. Hitler intentions were never global domination. I would wager the world would have been in a way better state now, economically and culturally, if America didn't win. Clearly, looking at our world today, the wrong evil side won.
@@intermilan9731 My dad still has pictures of the mountains of bodies from the concentration camps though. His dad was a conscripted soldier for the nazis in Poland and took pictures. It's not really propaganda when there are still people alive who saw it all happenning. It wasn't that long ago. In comparison the pows in UK were treated well and ended up geting citizenship eventually (where my grandparents ended up).
@@intermilan9731 Hitler double crossed everyone but Russia survived thanks to their blood and allied material and other support and then they got even with him. It was a fight to the death. Stalin was not one to cross and he has Zhukov who won the war. He is totally underrated. Operation Bagration was a masterpiece the equivalent of Austerlitz but again because its Russia its not even mentioned much. Really when Hitler unilaterally war on the US the war was lost but it took a while to see this. We immediately went into North Africa NOT the pacific and within a year the Africa corp was no more. Germany never recovered from the loss of the Africa Corp and Stalingrad. It was all over after that. They simply could not make good their losses in Men and Materiel.
I know Guderian's grandson. Lots of great stories about him and his accomplishments. Allied officers respected him. His armored tactics are still used to this very day.
There was a tendency to coverup their real disdain for Hitler which was he was from a lower class background and the generals were born into aristocracy. To coverup their own mistakes, they lied about Hitler's military decisions, except for the end after Manstein successfully repelled the Soviets at the Third Battle of Kharkov in February and March of 1943.
@@Channel-sp3fpwell,yes most of the officers and generals were from aristocratic upbringing,some of them are devoted nazis from common people,a good example would be walther model,who isn't from a noble class but still became a field marshal in german army
I wish Guderian had not been fired at the end of 1941, although he might have made some bad decisions in the winter he was the core that got the Panzer divisions created. Guderian should have been there in 1942 as the Germans dashed to Stalingrad and the Caucasus, he might have been a credit to them.
Guderian got at least some if his tactics from Charles de Gaulle, whose book about tank-tactics he read with great interest. The french army rejected deGaulles ideas. Ironically the french army was defeated with those very tactics - mastered by Guderian.
Germany had to win a quick war against the Soviets, or none at all. When they failed to capture Moscow in 1941, defeat was only a matter of time. Also, the brutalities wrought on by the occupying and political authorities of the SS/SD, directly impeded the war movement, and what the military was trying to accomplish. They would've been better off getting the citizens to rally to their cause and support the overthrow of the Soviet regime. This was not possible with the brutal treatment of the civilian populations in the occupied territories. It had totally, the opposite effect.
@@johnschuh8616 but it ran totally against what they were trying accomplish, militarily. If you can't win the "hearts and minds" of the people, the result had the very opposite effect. This is why the partisans became such a huge problem for the Germans.
At the end of day, nothing would've mattered. Even capturing Moscow, which was practically impossible due to its size and stretched supply lines of the Germans, would not have been a "quick war". All industrial production and Stavka already moved out of Moscow by another 600 miles. What made Germans lose before they started was industrialization of USSR. It was capable of outproducing Germany 8 to 1. There was no victory there. And, if you think about it, your point about winning "hearts and minds" is also impossible. The entire point of HItler's invasion was to destroy that population and open those lands for German colonization. How do you turn people to your side when you want to enslave and annihilate them? It's impossible. Had there been no racial drive behind this, then there would no invasion to begin with, making it a logical dead-end.
@@MD21037 You forget that Hitler was quite logical. Who thought in 1938 that he would execute his threats totally to purge Europe of Jewish influence? Unlike Stalin he largely spared ordinary Germans of the excesses of tyranny. With his enemies, of whatever race, he was ruthless. With the racially impure, this ruthlessness was carried to inhuman excesses,
@@johnschuh8616 Another thing about Hitler; he thought he was a military genius, when in actuality he was not even close. His constant meddling in military matters, had terrible outcomes and cost the German army young mens' precious lives, that could not be replaced. Hitler's belief that he was a great military strategist, played straight in to the allies' hands. A man who couldn't even, make the rank of Sergeant had free reign over the mightiest army in the world, which was a recipe for disaster. The chapter in Erich Von Manstein's, "Lost Victories" about Hitler as Supreme Commander was very-well written, and explained in-depth, the kind of military leader he was
Germany lost the war on December 11, 1941. Churchill has written that as soon as he heard of Germany's declaring war on the US he knew it would be a victory, simply by the application of far greater resources, and that is basically what happened.
@@oneeyedman99 Against Finland they were also the invading force, not even close to fully mobilized and fought in some of the harshest terrain in the world when it comes to waging wars (extremely dense forest, densest lake area in the world and extremely harsh winters) coupled with 1940 being in the middle of the reconstruction process of the red army. It really doeasn't say much of anything in the context of Nazi Germany.
Hitler attacked the USA although the German Wehrmacht failed to coquer Moscow and was beaten the frist time by the Red Soviet Army in November 10941, because he hoped, that the Japanese would attack the USSR from East too. Unfortunately Japon did not break it`s treaty with Stalin from 1940, never to attack another. The USSR broke this treaty in August 1945 after the USA had dopped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki one weak before Japan surrendered unconditionally! Therefore Stalin could take the units of the Red Army from the Chinese and Mongolian border to the west towards Moscow and Stalingrad.
Hitler was no Napoleon, he relied on his German Generals to do his conquering, Adolf Hitler did not lead troops into battle the way Napoleon did, he his in his bunker in Berlin, the same as Putin is doing now in Moscow. Napoleon was the real deal, he was an actual general!
@@jimrich4192 everything had to go right for Hitler in order to put him in a position of power so he could do wrong. It's hard sometimes to believe in God, but the Devil certainly was protecting Adolf until he wasn't.
To be fair I'm sure there was at least one brain in all of the Reich that would have been a better fit for the job. That being said, the deck was stacked against them even more than they could have imagined at the time, and is still mind-blowing to this day. They would have never been allowed to win, as suggested by the 26 offers of peace that the allies rejected from Germany.
As my German Opa said. It was a simple math formula. It was lost when we stepped into Russia. We just didn’t know it at that time. After his unit heard about Stalingrad he knew his job was to survive and make it home alive. They spoke very quietly among themselves about how the war will turn out. He made it home.
Germany could have made a formidable superpower if only it had more patience and did not try to conquer the whole world within Adolf Hitler's lifetime!
When I study the history books 4-5 big reasons for Nazi Germany's downfall come to mind. First & foremost stupid war planning objectives for example planning to invade Britain, take out the RAF but not have adequate Kreisgmarine warships to support (heer ) army on beach landings of the UK even if the Luftwaffe took out the RAF. After the failure of not taking out the RAF in 1940, why didn't Hitler invade Spain/Portugal and secure the Mediterranean/Strait of Gibraltar. Then the 2nd stupid big one of invading Stalins territory. No#2, Hitler did not put the Reich on a full time 24/7 industrial production schedule until 1943. That's enough from me !
Now, WHY was it lost when they stepped into Russia? You DO understand that the Soviets were preparing at that moment to invade all of Europe, right? Why do you think they wanted Poland? It was the only country that bordered Europe.
@@nationalistcanuck7800 The myth was that every German soldier was positive at a victory in Russia. This was not the case. I think in hindsight my Opa was saying it was over when it started. He did realize after Stalingrad that it was over. Many men quietly talked about getting home alive and not taking risk. Opas best friend was his CO and after Stalingrad he said . Now it’s our mission to make it home alive. These are the words from the guy who was there.
This one was particularly sad because of what was lost and taken from us as a result, as well as being largely unnecessary and avoidable had the involvement of so many countries that had no business in it stayed out. @@georgesouthwick7000
Rommel actually had the best defence strategy for Normandy and wanted the panzers to be fully mobilized and ready to attack any landing by the allies but Runstedt wanted to hold them back from the frontline which proved a disaster, also Rommel should get credit for being the one who fully built up the defences of the Atlantic wall since it had been neglected by all the other generals before he took command of it.
@@jamesricker3997 Panzers hitting the infantry wherever it landed would have been a real thorn for the allies and battleships can only bombard a sector and not accurately target armor, it would have been a much better scenario than having them stay back and then having to deal with the consequences of an invasion as history shows.
The problem of this is allied Air Superiority, yes if the germans had some panzers at landing points would make allies invasion even harder, maybe Omaha would fail but air attacks were able to destroy armored formations since 1943.
@@alexandre2able The impact on tank formations by air attacks wasn't that great in WW2. But they had a devastating effect on the supply lines. A tank without enough fuel, ammo and spare parts is likely to be destroyed by it's own crew when you are on defence just because it is very unlikely the tank will make it back to a friendly base for refill and maintenance.
@@alexandre2able There is no denying that, the allied air superiority probably allowed them to win the war in the west by 1 year faster, so many desperately needed fully equipped panzers where wiped out by bombing before even having a chance to engage the enemy.
This whole thesis is bunkum. Stalin summarised the German effort best by pointing out that if they had driven into South West Russia and seized the oil fields, they would have knocked the Soviet Union out of the war. What did Guderian do? He ignored orders and went hell for leather for Moscow and failed miserably. This is where the war was lost for the Germans. Get your facts right please, watching a fantasy movie about someone who refused to carry out orders is hopeless waste of time.
When I was a kid I wanted to be an Army officer in the tank Corps (When I was a child I had childish thoughts!). Later I got interested in submarines and became a junior officer on a USN SSBN. When I was 12 I sent a letter to the Budeswehr asking for Guderian’s autograph. He had died in 1954, but someone forwarded the letter to his son, who was a West German General. He sent me a picture of his father and a nice letter.
Correct. It was a lack of oil that destroyed their military AND the fact the Soviets were a far, far larger, more-powerful military, a military built in secret. No one was aware of the sheer size of the Soviet military until the moment they changed the war.
Germany did not have the oil because the German generals did not follow the strategy of Hitler which was to seize the Caucasus for the oil, until it was too late.. Instead, they insisted on driving towards Moscow. Even if that goal had been reached, it would not have defeated Russia, which had moved its productive capacities to the Urals.
@@karlheinzvonkroemann2217 How do you stop an enemy from taking your oilfields? You attack them first. Yes, before. Since the start of the war, fuel for their war machine was always an issue. Germany was energy poor.
Guderian had a plan to launch a limited offensive on the eastern front in late 1944, coupled with the creation of a strong line of defensive fortifications and fortresses. He also wanted to create a small mobile reserve with which to launch a "backhand" counteroffensive similar to what Manstein did in Ukraine in 1943, albeit on a smaller scale. If he had gotten everything he wanted from Hitler, perhaps the plan could have succeeded and not only delayed the Soviet offensive that was launched in January '45, but even regained a limited amount of territory to anchor German positions on defendable rivers further east. But to what end? Such a gambit could be done only once. It would have only delayed the inevitable Soviet victory absent peace in the west. And that was never going to happen.
Germany was literally pulled in all directions by Hitler in ww2. Failing to defeat Britain in 1940 lead to the Kriegsmarine having to fight a five year long slug match against the largest navy on the planet. Failing to defeat the Soviet Union in 1941 lead to the heer having to fight a four year long meat grinder campaign against the largest army on the planet. At the same time the Luftwaffe was expected to keep fighting the ever growing RAF in western Europe and the Mediterranean while also deploying sufficient forces to the east to subdue the massive red air force. Add to this Hitler's declaration of war against the USA and already having to complete with the British and soviets German industry was now also up against the largest economic power on the planet
They did try their hand in Romania (op. Spring Awakening). It's just at this point the material difference is too great and the Soviets revised tactics since.
They simultaneously decided to fight the biggest industrial power in the world, the largest Empire the World has ever known and the largest and most ruthless country in the world. What did they think was going to happen?
@@pomodorostudyclub They absolutely had a choice in who they fought and WHEN they fought them. They initiated War against Russia, USA, and Great Britain without any realistic plan to supply the amount of Soldiers, Machinery, Material, Logistics etc to wage War and Win. They lost battles on the Eastern Front due to them having supply trains 1000km+ long and not having enough horses at one point. If they were the geniuses at that so many say they were they would know they never had a chance in the war the way they went about it. Germany was doomed by the end of 1941.
@@suavifyu8937 Actually Germany didn't have a choice. The economic policy of Autarky was causing permanent and growing food and coal shortages in Germany. Even before 1939, Germany was having crops rotting in the fields because of inept management of the economy by the drug-added idiot Goering (Interior Minister). The only escape for Germany under the National Socialists had was to invade the East, kill everyone, and steal everything they owned. The systematic looting of eastern Europe started the day the German army advanced in June 1941 for Operation Barbarossa. They had insufficient food to feed the Wehrmacht, so exterminating the local peasants was required by the plan. But you are entirely correct about why they lost. Germany was a disaster in its inability to manage logistics in any coherent way, for both the state and the army.
One wonders... After Hitler saw he could not conquer the UK, which at the time was less powerful than Germany, he decides to attack Russia which had at least twice the military power of Germany. But of course, he was just a corporal (and painter of postcards) with no education.
The kind of Prussian military thought, which the German army is a product of, is so damn impressive. The combined arms they executed was so much ahead of their time and tech. Hitler probably didn't deserve to inherit such a masterpiece of a military machine. For any other country to replicate that thought or tactics would require some serious ground work of decades in building a robust military culture.
@@sixgunsymphony7408 You have no idea what was really in Germany at the time before Hitler came to power and what when he ruled. Your knowledge is based on Hollywood movies, i.e. stupid things.
@@sixgunsymphony7408 Rubbish. Germany would still have lost the war. They were doomed with their failure to secure sufficient supplies of food and oil.
Thank you for the correct title and the factuality of this video; it is about Guderian's "opinion" based on the knowledge on the German side. Like other Wehrmacht generals, Guderian tried to attribute the military failures to Hitler and the successes to the generals. Hitler was in fact a military amateur, albeit with good military understanding. What none of the German generals could ever explain was , why they, as professionals, followed an amateur.
Answer. these men where soldiers to the core they where trained to make war not question there orders if you want to learn more research these generals early years
It's an understatement. Allied air power by 1944 was awesome. or I should say more specifically, American and English. The German army still had strength but with the kind of air power they faced, they had no chance
In the history of human conflict the Wehrmacht stands alone. The pivotal point of the war came as early as December 1941. The defeat at the gates of Moscow confirmed that Germany would not win the war. Also America with its industrial might entered the war and joined the Allies at the same time. That Germany continued to fight for another four and a half years against the collective might of America, The British and Soviet empires is astounding and beyond belief
@@wolflarsen1900 11 months. It would have been six months if they left Monty in charge of ground troops. The same man who ran the Axis out of North Africa.
@@johnburns4017 oh yes of course, and it never would have happened in the first place if hitler would have given his local commanders the possibility to order reinforcements without the approval of the highcommand. all the losses at d day was comitted totally by the underequpted garnison of the beaches without a single person of reinforcement. such a stupid claim. Its was totally up to the american inferiority. america let 55 different nations do the job, exspecially the sovjets, which burned 15 million soldiers to beat germany, than they came with their unexperiened troops as the job allready was done and still needed a year to beat germany. america can be happy that russia did all of the job, i think you dont want to know how this would have gone for america without the estern war xd millions of experienced soldiers fought in the easts but mid 44 in the west america only had to fight against a few unequipted reserve troops, and young freshly recruited boys. At the beach for example most of the garnison troops wasnt even germans, most of them where bulgarians, ukrainians or prior wounded germans. One of the few "real" germans at omaha beach was Heinrich severloh, i think you guys know who that is/was.. I found it The commentator is correct it is asthounding how long germany was able to carry on the fight and how much trouble america had against a handfull of left soldiers. its funny america always only show up when the game is actually over since a long time. in ww1 it was the same. america never experienced a "real" war, expect for maybe the american civil war
There are so many battles that could have gone either way that effected the final outcome of WW2 at the Eastern Front and in the West. The mental toughness of the Allie’s leadership, all 3 of them, was as important as their weapons and tactics. Great video . A little gold nugget to add to my complete understanding. Thanks
Disagree, it only could have gone one way. It comes down to basic economics. Germany would still have lost even without Normandy although it probably shortened the war by 2 years. Of course many people live in a western focused reality where they believe the world revolves around them, i.e. the question of why the Germans lost, not what made the soviets win. We still do this today talking about NATOs actions with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict when in reality it has nothing to do with NATO. The soviets did have poor quality equipment compared to the west, but on purpose. They looked at their tanks and said what part will fail first and then decided to build every other part to match the life span of the lowest quality part. Why waste resources? This is in stark contrast to the Germans boasting 300,000 man hours for one Tiger tank. A different engineering philosophy. The soviet philosophy was correct here and could not be overcome by the Germans.
@@Ziggletoothif Italy won in egypt in 1940 and it was so close, Badoglio was a traitor, Axis would have reach Iraq and Iran that were close to axis, but occupied by Allied, england would have left Mediteranneum sea and lost oil of middle east. Axis would have more resources. Over that italy was defeated for traitors, its difficult to fight in italy for geography, so they could have created a state in italy east france austria south germany and Jugoslavia, Greec that would have fought for 10 years like Vietnam.
Back in that time, Germany had the world's greatest collection of war genarals; and as the war progressed, Hitler lost confidence in them ridiculously enough, took away their job for himself, continue to make a series of bad military decisions, and lost the war for Germany. It was total madness of him to have invaded the Soviet Union and then declared war on the USA.
That 'greatest collection of war generals' was busily losing the war as fast as they could. They were disobeying direct orders, and that's why they were gotten rid of. Halder's blunders and treachery in 1941 and 42 should have earned him a court martial and execution.
@@colinhunt4057 Look man! When Hitler ridiculously invaded the Soviet Union and then amazingly declared war on the U.S. it was the height of his stark madness. Everything went downhill and became progressively difficult for Nazi Germany and its war generals. 75% of the German army was tied-up in the East (from a Historian) fighting a losing battle against the Soviets. By the way, what would you have done if you had a loser boss like Hitler?!
@@VineyardGaden I would not have joined the religious cult which was National Socialism. You seem blind to the notion that invading Russia was what National Socialism was all about. That was always the deliberate intent ever since the early 1920s: invade the lands of the east, kill them all and steal all they possessed. It's the same thing as Communism. The only difference is the target group to be murdered and robbed.
@@VineyardGadenn a handful of occasions Hitler made the right call but was disobeyed. The US had already technically joined the war by actively funding and providing vehicles/weapons to Germany’s foes. It’s thanks to the US that Russia had any mobility and is arguably what furloughed Russia to win in the long run. Hitler I’m sure made the gesture saying (yeah well we’re already at war with them) and he was right until 1943. For the first two years nothing changed. Only in Africa/Italy and more importantly Normandy did the US actually land soldiers. Everything else from tanks to jeeps to weapons were already given to the British and to the Russians.
Knowing what your enemy is doing . The British code brakers from 1942 onwards we new all their plans. Except the battle of the bulge. They used radio silence. Britain was not ready for war or the USA IN 1939 . Had to play catch up . But I think the number 1 reason in the long run was USA production supplying UK & USSR
Those who fought against the Third Reich knew everything from the very beginning and no attack was a surprise to them. Hitler's entourage was full of traitors, in addition, important information obtained by the intelligence service was hidden from Hitler (thanks to Canaris, among others). Stalin knew well about the attack on the USSR, ...the plans for the Battle of Kursk were well known to the minute as everything was planned ... At the time of the invasion (which was expected) somehow all the most important officers are absent ... Romel is going to visit his wife... traitors everywhere...
@@robinhood4911 yes agree especially Canaris . I do believe the British & others gave Russia fair warning about Germany’s plan to invade . But Stalin stalled thinking it was a ploy to get them in the war . The Russian sacrifice should also be remembered. Thanks for your reply . I’m the son of a RAF Veteran Greetings from Canada 👍🇨🇦
Heinz Guderian was a Maverick General. He has the Courage to Argue with Adolf Hitler the War Monger Fanatic. Guderian was a Brilliant General. He published the book Achtung! Panzer.
Germany lost the war because it bit off more than it could chew. By taking on Britian, Russia, and the United States at the same time Hitler doomed himself to inevitable defeat.
True. Hitler probably should have set his goals to be the restoration of the German empire's pre-world war 1 boundaries and maybe the absorption of the Austrian Empire. Firstly, that could have been accomplished in a year before the allies could have reacted and organized. Secondly, it would have been an acquisition of mostly Germanic speaking regions with quite recent historical connections to Germany, this would have made the general population of the West...France, Britain, the Commonwealth more ambivalent to the idea of another war. Thirdly, he could have easily pivoted and turned Germany into a buffer against Communism. The West would have likely allowed German to retain their acquisitions and formed an alliance against Russia which quickly became the main threat.
They based operation barbarossa on the assumption that England would have made a peace treaty with them as the war went on leading to a imminent victory against the ussr. Which is kind ironic, considering they already had a peace treaty with the soviets and could focus all their resources against England alone.
@@antonioalessandro2488 -- i wonder if Germany would have declared war on the U.S. if it had not had a treaty obligation with Japan. A lot of Americans did not want to fight Germany, but instead wanted the Nazis and Soviets to destroy each other.
I am glad to see 👀 your next videos... Thanks...l see your introduced was interesting, magnificence explaining about what general Guderian told the Americans...good luck for war academy channel...and yours
Perhaps the biggest piece Guderian did not have was that the Soviets had access at very high level, perhaps Hilters war meetings. In 41, Stalin ordered reckless piece meal counter-attacks (I presume Zhukov finally reined in Stalin to hold off on the Siberian divisions until typhoon finally exhausted). In the 42 campaign season (after spring thaw, and ground drying out), the Soviets opened with offensives in 3 locations, Leningrad, Kharkov and Crimea, all failing. In 43, the Soviets were strangely quiet, waiting patiently for Zitadelle, which was delayed several times. It is curious. The Germans had sufficient information to know that the big victories of 41 were not cake walks, but involved difficult battles, with some Soviet units fighting very well, and that ultimate victory only came after sufficient Soviet mistakes made the positions untenable. The winter Moscow battle was a correct counter-offensive in waiting until the Germans had committed all units. The pattern from then all was that the Soviets had reasonably correct concepts in pincer operations, but could not execute well due to over-reliance on orders from above. Contrast, the Germans had good officers through the chain to allow tactical decisions when opportunity presented. What this meant was Manstein Schwert und Schild idea was probably best - but Hilter did not want to give ground. A big mistake was not building fortifications on the Dnieper when there was time, because that would have conceded inevitability of withdrawing. The cliffs on the right bank probably made the best defensive line
In my opinion, Hitler was definitely a better strategist than his generals and the facts (little known) indicate that. He had a memory like a computer, he read all the books dealing with matters related to war and armaments (in his library of these books there were 7,000 and his entire library had 35,000), he knew all the ships (including the enemy) what equipment they had, caliber of guns, their range... He could think of many aspects when it came to capturing or leaving conquered territories (like what resources were there and what they were used for) while his generals were ignorant of these aspects. I recommend the book "Hitler and His Generals: Military Conferences 1942-1945" by Helmut Heiberg, these are exact records of what Hitler said during the conference with the generals. The book "Hitler's Private Library: The Books That Shaped His Life" by Timothy W. Ryback is written about his library. His extraordinary memory is always mentioned in every serious book by those who knew him. He read a book or two a day (Leon Degrelle, among others, confirms this)... An interesting position is also "Hitler vs. Stalin: The Eastern Front, 1941-1945" by John Mosier
If my memory is correct, the Siberian divisions were not brought to the German invasion until it was clear that the Japanese armed forces did not intend to invade Eastern Russia. This gave Stalin a free hand to transfer his Siberian troops to fight the Germans. I think there were 40 eastern Russian divisions who were sent west.
When you pronounce German words, you gotta say the whole word. Luft-waffa. Example Kreigsmarine (German Navy) I like being challenged when I see a German word & it's long. OberSturmbannfuhrer.
Many higher ranking German officers after the war wrote briefing summaries, at the behest of their American captors. These summaries detailed their personal experiences on the Eastern front. Most of these are still available online to be downloaded. These summaries became books & were used by the Americans as guidelines to train their troops to fight the Russians in the event the two sides ever went to war. Some of these books are extremely interesting as historical studies. One of the titles is called, 'Small Unit Actions During the German Campaign in Russia'. It details company & platoon level incidents between German & Red Army troops.
Problem is that most of dairies and memomoirs are quite misleading. Reading them makes you think the Germans faces endless Soviet hordes and such wich just isnt true..
Horses did not rely on petroleum and I suspect towards the end of the war, this was a bonus for the generals. Though I am a horse lover and am glad horses are no longer used in combat (at least in the Western armies)
Utterly fascinating I would like to see a more comprehensive video of these interviews with all of the surviving generals analyses of their strengths and weaknesses
I used to be rather surprised at the less than stellar opinion many German Generals had in regards to Rommel growing up. But after college and studying WW2 I’m far less surprised. Good video thanks for posting.
Bizarrely Rommel was portrayed as a hero by the british. As spectaculer as was his north african campaingn there is a couple of very basic thing he failed to understand, First of all, it was almost useless to keep pushing in the direction of Egypt if Malta was not taken. Secondly keep puhsing in the direction of Egypt after the taking of Tobruq was as dumb as possible. His chance od success to achieve his goal was very limited and by doing so he overextend his logistical chain and by doing so he was force to a costly retreat as soon as it was clear that the offensive was a failure. Instead he should have wiated for the british and let them overextend themself as it happen so much in this campaign.
@@kimwit1307 We speculate here. I am not sure that Rommel fully understood the importance of taking Malta before everything else. This is something a guy like Kesselring understood better. The last push at el alamein was dumb as possible. and this is Rommels responsability.
There is an element of myth making as well. The allies tell you Romell was the greatest German military genius. Then how good must Monty and Patton be if the were able yo be him lol
@@angeurbain6129 you are right about the strategic failure of not taking Malta. Rommel was right though in trying to extend further east. Real problem was Hitler did not believe North Africa Campaign to be a worth wile effort.
Retired armourded corps soldier here. In the Army we were taught the ten principles of warfare. One, Concentration of force, could not be achieved with two fronts. Pick one objective and focus your forces on that one objective. WW1 showed this Germany with two fronts. With just pure luck that the Communists in Russia pulled out of that war leaving Germany to focus on the Western Front in France and Belgium.
@@mirquellasantos2716 Lame comment. Guderian won spectacular tank battles against france and during the initial stages of operation Barbarossa. Poor planning from the German high command, coupled with impossible supply logistics and the russian winter resulted in Guderien's defeat. If not for the winter and Hitler's order to divert south to the oil fields temporarily, Guderien would've taken moscow
@@anirprasadd Germans were defeated not once but twice- the best losers ever. Guderian was a loser who lost and lost badly. Besides is never a good idea to take tips from the loser party.
@@mirquellasantos2716 You have a poor comprehension of the difference between battles and wars. There's so much that you are overlooking, it's not possible to explain or elaborate. Guderian's tactics are studied in military academies and even appreciated by military tacticians and military historians today. He pioneered assault tactics and methods in armored warfare
Not only Germany, any nation would have been defeated considering the total might of Allied Invasion. But Germany did commit mistakes of opening all fronts and hence allowing US and Russia to join forces against it..
@@pvught390 I know. If you know anything about WW2 you will know. Read _Wages of Destruction - The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy._ That will put you right.
The simple answer in a nutshell is the pure determination of Germans, its discipline and superior creative engineering talent. And that’s why it took everything in their mother to defeat them.
But Hitler did not lead his troops into battle, unlike Napoleon and Robert E. Lee, Hitler was a coward that hid in his bunker as the Russians closed in!
It has not hurt the man's reputation that he was one of the greatest self-promoters who ever lived, but of the Ali-sort: "it ain't bragging if you can back it up.". Churchill was similarly versatile.
The captured generals much preferred being in American/British custody over the Soviets. They would ingrate themselves by praising their captors. They had common cause in opposing the USSR. Finally they wanted to minimize their relationship with Hitler and nazism
Blaming Hitler for their defeats was in a way like the German generals after WW1 claiming they were stabbed in the back by Jews and Socialists at home. You are right about the Germans (not just the generals) ingratiating themselves with the Western allies in the post-war period. The old saying about them: "At your feet or at your throat"! has a certain amount of truth to it.
@@bernarddavis1050 …. Without the British & American millions of Germans would have starved to death. Plus suffered more under the Red Army. So the conquerers quickly became the saviors
@@Idahoguy10157 The Germans never paid the full price for their atrocities in WW2. Very soon after 1945, all of them were being enlisted in the developing Cold War, on one side or the other. Their talents were in demand, one might say. Speaking of people being starved to death, I presume you are aware of the fate of the 80,000 Soviet prisoners of war taken at Smolensk in 1941. I think the Red Army showed commendable forbearance, in the circumstances.
Well who else is to blame? Waited to the last second to allow strategic withdraws. Threw his last good tank armies up against a wall. He didn't intervene in France or Poland
@@khann844 german generals actually had more autonomy than generals had in many other armies.. at least up to 45. For example halder decided pretty much against hitlers wishes to focus on moscow instead of the south. If they didn't hold at stalingrad, army group south would have been lost as the red army would have easily made it to rostov amidst the chaos. Dönitz pretty much decided alone to evacuate the kurland pocket.. just ti name a few examples.. But I agree that ardennes offensive was a hopeless endeavour.
@@khann844 If you are one of these morons who thinks Hitler didn't listen to his generals and advisors you are sadly wrong. We're getting more evidence of it all the time
I believe it was AH who suspected that the Allies would land in Normandy and insisted it be built up. He also thought the Allies were decoding their radio traffic but was assured by experts it was impossible. AH wasn't always wrong. He ordered total radio silence before the Battle of the Bulge and caught us by surprise.
@@presidenteden6498 If you want to know, why Adolf Hitler attacked the USSR although he got a friedship contract with Stalin, you should read his book "Mein Kampf Band 1"!
Guderain was wrong about Rommel. The only reason Rommel lost in Africa is because he was overwhelmed by a shortage of resources and reinforcements. Or else he would've secured that front. I think I read somewhere that there was rivalry between Guderian and Rommel
Rommel's tactics required a lot of resources. He was a brilliant commander but he knew from the beginning that the supply situation wasn't good. He should have altered his tactics to be more fitting to germany's war economy
@@pyllywaltteri May not be. Rommel had a normal amount of resources at his disposal. It's just that America's entry brought an insane amount of resources to the allied side. It has been well-established that Germany was more of out-produced rather than out-fought. America's industrial capacity was more than all axis powers combined. Actually, you could throw in the industrial capabilities of uk and france too, and still it wouldn't match America's. Then there was oil and iron ore. German supplies for both were cut off shortly after America's entry. So Rommel did win awesome victories, but his resources were dwindling. That led to his defeat
As the old saying goes, The amateur talks tactics, the professional talks logistics. Or as one American general of the American civil war said, ‘Get there the firstest with the mostest’
@@pyllywaltteri I agree, he should have adjusted his tactics to win with his 20 tanks with no gas against 200 tanks with gasoline. How could he miss the opportunity!!
@Mario Arguello I know that the alternative wasn't better either. But that just shows that even as early as the African campaign, the war was already pretty much unwinnable for the germans.
Operation Eisenhammer/Aktion Russland would have helped the Germans keep the soviets at bay. Keeping Italy in the war would have slowed the Wallies a lot.
Belo trabalho. Me inscrevi e peço que continue trazendo a opinião de Guderian pois acho que ele foi um dos melhores generais da segunda guerra. Agradecido.
This is Guderian’s views about the end of the war. By the time he was commenting on, the axis was already doomed. The mistakes he mentioned only hastened the end. What would be more interesting to ask about would be the early part of the war in Europe, and the tactics rather than the strategy. Unfortunately, he tried later on to curry favor with the west by claiming that he drew inspiration for his tactics from BH Liddle Hart, but his notebooks from the time indicate that this wasn’t true.
Dunkirk began the downfall of Germany. The failure to take out the British and French expeditionary forces in 1940 and allowing them to evacuate to fight another day was a big tactical mistake. Germany had the opportunity to basically remove the British and French from the European theater altogether and concentrate the bulk of their forces against the Soviets. US entry was still more than a year away. Once Hitler declared war on the US after Pearl Harbor, the German fate was sealed.
The declaration of war against the US was only formal because practically the US was involved in the fight against the 3rd Reich from the very beginning. In addition, a long time before the war started in 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his gang did everything to make it happen.
They did concentrate all available forces against the Soviets. It was insufficient. Germany was incapable of feeding its army which it sent into the USSR. Which is why the Wehrmacht was getting their food in 1941 by massacring the civilians and taking all their food. As to Hitler declaring war, Hitler's view was that the United States was already at war with Germany in all practical ways, so there was nothing to be gained by not hitting back at them.
@@colinhunt4057 You wrote:"Germany was incapable of feeding its army which it sent into the USSR. Which is why the Wehrmacht was getting their food in 1941 by massacring the civilians and taking all their food." This is false wartime propaganda. Read more in reliable sources, then you will find out that the Wehrmacht had to provide food to civilians at that time, because the Soviets, withdrawing, took away all the food, and what they could not take away, they destroyed it (for example, by pouring petrol into the grain). The Soviets destroyed everything they could as they retreated. In one of the German newsreels, they showed a town where all the buildings were burned, except for the synagogue, which was commented on by the Germans.
@@colinhunt4057 80% of people don't understand what they read, I have a feeling that maybe you are in that 80%. Re-read what I wrote before and try to understand its content, if you have a problem with it, ask someone else for help.
Why? A major issue among others was the lack of German diplomacy in the USA in the 1930s. Hitler never understood the importance of American public opinion in keeping The USA neutral in a European conflict. He allowed Churchill to present the conflict to Americans through British eyes.and thus the Germans became ( rightly so) the ‘bad guys’.
I have a book titled "The German Generals Talk" by B.H Liddell Hart, where various German Generals, including Guderian, Rundstedt and other talk about why various campaigns failed. An interesting read and your video reflects some of it.
I read it. Long time ago but I remember one reference that the planning of OBarbarossa had a STRICT understanding of a limited supply of fuel. Obviously the topic has been brought up 'ad nauseam' but the fact is a senior officer in ANY military position ultimately is no more relevant than a private when it comes to.. taking orders. From the start the German general staff was adamant, and AH☠ CONCURRED, that a 'two front' scenario was a impossible undertaking! ANY talk of a "diplomatic" solution was LOST in 1940. So Gudarian and all the rest of the OKW were just pathetic programmed robots..
@Emil Fontanot true but as long as one understands this is about losers talking about why they lost, to maintain their reputation, it still makes for a good read.
THE USA would have been lucky if all the tanks were at the beach, in the Pacific the Japs found out REAL Quick what naval bombardments did to the in your face approach, imagine that 10 times over and a couple of thousand airplanes looking for a target.
@emilfontanot5477 Quite right. What they all wanted to do was to blame "madman" Hitler for their mistakes. Easy to do because he wasn't around to contradict them or point out their self-serving lies. Few of the German generals contributed as largely to Germany's ultimate defeat as Halder.
Hitler was a fool to think he could take on the Brits, the Americans, and the Russians all at once and come out on top. He underestimated the Russians and the Americans from the start and continued to do so throughout the war, which cost him and Germany gravely.
Isn't it amazing how hindsight is always 20/20? Thanks to his, and other officers' insight, America finally learned how to fight a ground war. Of course, it took until the 1960s to implement them, especially concerning small-unit tactics. When I attended the Army OCS course in 1968, I felt like I was in the German WW2 equivalent of our OCS.
Well I think we all know now why the Allies, particularly the Americans, made off with as many German Army Staff Officers as they could get away with!! WITHOUT having to hang them first that is!! 💀
Remember, America LED the way on two major fronts: air support and mass transport across oceans.. two areas that Germany struggled with (Germany biased themselves towards dive rather than strategic bombing, for various reasons)
Finally learned how to fight a ground war. Yeah, right. The results in the Battle of the Bulge alone prove that we already knew how to fight a ground war. That said, there is always room for improvement.
Guderian was the successful mixture of unconventional ideas and military discipline, that is occasionally found among German Officers after the time of Clausewitz and Gneisenau. Such flexibility always collides with narrow-minded superiors. He should have known that his greatest opponents were not the enemy generals but A H.
Spot on. Guderian was the spear in the offensive that took over France and the father of the blitzkrieg (at the beginning of the war). However, there were many generals who were critical of Hitler's decisions. After HItler's decision to declare war against the US, it is rumored one general asked (facetiously) when he (Hitler) planned to attack New York. It was clear that Germany had no ability to attack the US mainland and that the decision to declare war against the US played directly into the interests of Great Britain. That was the death nail to any successful end of the ware for Germany.
For all practical purposes, the United States was already at war with Germany long before Dec 7, 1941. Lend Lease was the big one, accompanied by giving Britain warships (50 destroyers for bases in Bermuda and Newfoundland), and, much more serious, repairing British capital ships in the United States. The US Atlantic fleet was at sea in Spring 1941 with orders to engage and sink any German ships it encountered, such as the Bismarck. The United States was already attacking and sinking German U-Boats in international waters in the Atlantic. The United States financial system was building British arms facilities in Canada to evade German bombing. So, from Hitler's perspective, he was already being attacked by the US.
" I look at these mean children , and I understand why Germans started so many wars . And then I look at these teachers , and I see why they lost them all "
@@presidenteden6498 Sure . Keeping "Mein Kampf" under the pillow, aren't you ? Trying to sell your hypocritical, arrogant, laughable version to dummies ? "And I understand why German started so many wars ..."
Among many other things: the "Kampfgruppe" concept was quite successful. A top officer was given an operative task and then he could say "I need 30 tanks, 10 guns, 20 bombers with 10 escort fighters, 2000 infantry etc...". Could be relatively small, or big, it would be ad hoc put together and named after the commander "Kampfgruppe Officername". Once the task was done, it either got readjusted for another task or perhaps it was disbanded. AFAIK the only units that needed absolute top approval were the SS units, simply because those usually remained under some top leader's command (i.e. Hitler, Himmler etc.) or sometimes assigned to some commander in the field as needed.
I agree with him about Rommel, very good divisional commander but dreadful General. What he did in nth Africa was borderline criminal. Instead of getting the best out of his Italian troops he got the worst which led to Italy leaving the war and taking their 60 divisions with them. There was genuine concern that the Italian military would assinate Rommel that's how bad the situation became !
The Axis Powers had no other options but quick victories and calculated negotiations. They never stood a chance against the industrial might of the Allied Forces. Germanic pride and Bushido spirit ain't enough to win a war. It's all about materials and logistics.
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🔴📣Other videos of interest:
- ✅The Volksgrenadiers Divisions of the Wehrmacht | The Last Hope of the Third Reich:
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Poor lip syncing between sound and picture when you speak is off putting. Other than that great video.
War lost because the German Army did not like the mustache guy from the beginning, the former corporal.
So, A LOT OF GENERALS AND OFFICERS tried to kill him since 1943.
Thousands of Nazi officers participated in the Operation Valkyrie, and then 4,980 were executed for treason?
Probably it could have been that Majority of Nazis wanted him gone.
During the war?
Lor of them Generals?
Hung to death for Treason during the war?
That nation was finished well before the operation was executed on July 20, 1944.
The artificial speech is bad and needs to go. Narrate yourself or hire one.
The artificial speech is absolutely horrible, just as others have pointed out. It is especially bad when pronouncing German words and names. Luftwaffe is not pronounced Looftwaff, but Looftvaffeh (even this admittedly approximate phonetic rendering is miles ahead of what one hears).
Bullshit.
It took most of the world almost six years to defeat Germany. Germany lost the war, but they were the most professional military of the war. But, they had one big weakness, and that was logistics. The Germans weren't so much out fought as out produced. Germanys enemies simply had more of everything. More tanks, more trucks, more munitions. And above all, oil.
Absolutely spot on.
The magnificent Germans were well-trained, and the men were amazing fighters.
Look what it took to stop them
Glory to Germany
And populations as well
America Soviet Union and UK (without other allies) had a population of 270 million Germany had 80
Dont forget men, to fight.
@@waynelittle646 i
and we had a crazy dictator who thought he cant do anything wrong and wasted our troops.
My grandfather met Guderian. My Opa was in the 8th Panzer Division. He was working on his vehicle. He had a long handed wrench and was trying to break a bolt loose. He heard a voice behind him saying “May I give you a hand?” He turned and it was Guderian. He helped my Opa. He asked him questions and listened to him. Opa absolutely respected him. One day his unit, 43rd Panzerjager was firing in a position he looked over and Guderian was standing on the hood of his kubel looking through his binos. Without a question he was a soldier’s General.
Great history Ty
@@waracademy128 in the 70s I did an interview with him for my school history project. At first he declined, but when my Oma told him it was for my school grade he said yes. There are some interesting stories he shared
Can you share some more of them?
Well if you want to share them with me, maybe I can make a video on the subject if you want. You can send them to my email. Do not comment here because I may not see it because I already lost among the hundreds of comments.
My email is viajeshistoriasbelicas@gmail.com
@@waracademy128 I’ll can send you photos also.
My grandfather died in Stalingrad. He was wounded 7 times in war. Refused the desk job they offered him. According to my grandmother and mother he was addicted to war. Last thing he said at the train station in Vienna was: "Don't wait for me. This is a one way ticket. I won't come back."
🏍️ Your grandpa stories are a bit better than mine.
That's what a soldier is
I respect your grand dad and you ,and all the fallen .
Died for the jewish bankers who we now fight today.
wow.....
The allies won by British intelligence, American factories, and Russian blood.
Heh. If Germany had kept Russian alliance and manipulated them to fight the allies, our world would be different today. Hitler was a total fool.
@@intermilan9731 Germany was trying to ally with Britain since before the war started so they could team up against Russia (communism). It's the British that were fools tbh cus they lost their Empire as a result of going to war with them. Germany was still trying to sue for peace even at 1942.
There'd probably be a lot more ethnic cleansing going on in the world today if Germany and UK had joined forces though so it's probably for the best it didn't happen.
@@chickenmadness1732 No there wouldn't be. Your latter part is just decades of Zionist propaganda machine mouthing off. Hitler intentions were never global domination. I would wager the world would have been in a way better state now, economically and culturally, if America didn't win. Clearly, looking at our world today, the wrong evil side won.
@@intermilan9731 My dad still has pictures of the mountains of bodies from the concentration camps though. His dad was a conscripted soldier for the nazis in Poland and took pictures.
It's not really propaganda when there are still people alive who saw it all happenning. It wasn't that long ago.
In comparison the pows in UK were treated well and ended up geting citizenship eventually (where my grandparents ended up).
@@intermilan9731 Hitler double crossed everyone but Russia survived thanks to their blood and allied material and other support and then they got even with him. It was a fight to the death. Stalin was not one to cross and he has Zhukov who won the war. He is totally underrated. Operation Bagration was a masterpiece the equivalent of Austerlitz but again because its Russia its not even mentioned much. Really when Hitler unilaterally war on the US the war was lost but it took a while to see this. We immediately went into North Africa NOT the pacific and within a year the Africa corp was no more. Germany never recovered from the loss of the Africa Corp and Stalingrad. It was all over after that. They simply could not make good their losses in Men and Materiel.
I know Guderian's grandson. Lots of great stories about him and his accomplishments.
Allied officers respected him. His armored tactics are still used to this very day.
There was a tendency to coverup their real disdain for Hitler which was he was from a lower class background and the generals were born into aristocracy. To coverup their own mistakes, they lied about Hitler's military decisions, except for the end after Manstein successfully repelled the Soviets at the Third Battle of Kharkov in February and March of 1943.
@@Channel-sp3fpwell,yes most of the officers and generals were from aristocratic upbringing,some of them are devoted nazis from common people,a good example would be walther model,who isn't from a noble class but still became a field marshal in german army
I wish Guderian had not been fired at the end of 1941, although he might have made some bad decisions in the winter he was the core that got the Panzer divisions created. Guderian should have been there in 1942 as the Germans dashed to Stalingrad and the Caucasus, he might have been a credit to them.
Guderian got at least some if his tactics from Charles de Gaulle, whose book about tank-tactics he read with great interest. The french army rejected deGaulles ideas. Ironically the french army was defeated with those very tactics - mastered by Guderian.
Gudherian should be there"@@jrus690 for what? To nazis win the war?
Germany had to win a quick war against the Soviets, or none at all. When they failed to capture Moscow in 1941, defeat was only a matter of time. Also, the brutalities wrought on by the occupying and political authorities of the SS/SD, directly impeded the war movement, and what the military was trying to accomplish. They would've been better off getting the citizens to rally to their cause and support the overthrow of the Soviet regime. This was not possible with the brutal treatment of the civilian populations in the occupied territories. It had totally, the opposite effect.
Hitler’s aim was to racially “purify” the east. and by importing labor from abroad to lessen the labor burdens on the German people.
@@johnschuh8616 but it ran totally against what they were trying accomplish, militarily. If you can't win the "hearts and minds" of the people, the result had the very opposite effect. This is why the partisans became such a huge problem for the Germans.
At the end of day, nothing would've mattered. Even capturing Moscow, which was practically impossible due to its size and stretched supply lines of the Germans, would not have been a "quick war". All industrial production and Stavka already moved out of Moscow by another 600 miles. What made Germans lose before they started was industrialization of USSR. It was capable of outproducing Germany 8 to 1. There was no victory there. And, if you think about it, your point about winning "hearts and minds" is also impossible. The entire point of HItler's invasion was to destroy that population and open those lands for German colonization. How do you turn people to your side when you want to enslave and annihilate them? It's impossible. Had there been no racial drive behind this, then there would no invasion to begin with, making it a logical dead-end.
@@MD21037 You forget that Hitler was quite logical. Who thought in 1938 that he would execute his threats totally to purge Europe of Jewish influence? Unlike Stalin he largely spared ordinary Germans of the excesses of tyranny. With his enemies, of whatever race, he was ruthless. With the racially impure, this ruthlessness was carried to inhuman excesses,
@@johnschuh8616 Another thing about Hitler; he thought he was a military genius, when in actuality he was not even close. His constant meddling in military matters, had terrible outcomes and cost the German army young mens' precious lives, that could not be replaced. Hitler's belief that he was a great military strategist, played straight in to the allies' hands. A man who couldn't even, make the rank of Sergeant had free reign over the mightiest army in the world, which was a recipe for disaster.
The chapter in Erich Von Manstein's, "Lost Victories" about Hitler as Supreme Commander was very-well written, and explained in-depth, the kind of military leader he was
Yes, more Guderian videos please.
Muy,bueno
Sensacional
a very niche genere haha
Germany lost the war on December 11, 1941. Churchill has written that as soon as he heard of Germany's declaring war on the US he knew it would be a victory, simply by the application of far greater resources, and that is basically what happened.
US role in WW2 is overly glorified…Nazi Germany lost war due to stupid mistakes during Russian invasion…!
They lost the war June 22, 1941 when they decided to invade the Soviet Union.
@@VG_164 Maybe, maybe not. Given how difficult it was for the Soviets to defeat Finland, that hardly seems like a certainty.
@@oneeyedman99 Against Finland they were also the invading force, not even close to fully mobilized and fought in some of the harshest terrain in the world when it comes to waging wars (extremely dense forest, densest lake area in the world and extremely harsh winters) coupled with 1940 being in the middle of the reconstruction process of the red army. It really doeasn't say much of anything in the context of Nazi Germany.
Hitler attacked the USA although the German Wehrmacht failed to coquer Moscow and was beaten the frist time by the Red Soviet Army in November 10941, because he hoped, that the Japanese would attack the USSR from East too. Unfortunately Japon did not break it`s treaty with Stalin from 1940, never to attack another. The USSR broke this treaty in August 1945 after the USA had dopped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki one weak before Japan surrendered unconditionally! Therefore Stalin could take the units of the Red Army from the Chinese and Mongolian border to the west towards Moscow and Stalingrad.
Every german general after the war; "If only Hitler had let us do "
Right!? I believe Halder was king of blaming his incompetence on others. Yeah, very helpful when the "other guy" ain't around to defend their self.
Hitler was no Napoleon, he relied on his German Generals to do his conquering, Adolf Hitler did not lead troops into battle the way Napoleon did, he his in his bunker in Berlin, the same as Putin is doing now in Moscow. Napoleon was the real deal, he was an actual general!
Japan had the same problem with their INSANE leadership.
@@jimrich4192 everything had to go right for Hitler in order to put him in a position of power so he could do wrong. It's hard sometimes to believe in God, but the Devil certainly was protecting Adolf until he wasn't.
To be fair I'm sure there was at least one brain in all of the Reich that would have been a better fit for the job. That being said, the deck was stacked against them even more than they could have imagined at the time, and is still mind-blowing to this day. They would have never been allowed to win, as suggested by the 26 offers of peace that the allies rejected from Germany.
As my German Opa said. It was a simple math formula. It was lost when we stepped into Russia. We just didn’t know it at that time. After his unit heard about Stalingrad he knew his job was to survive and make it home alive. They spoke very quietly among themselves about how the war will turn out. He made it home.
Germany could have made a formidable superpower if only it had more patience and did not try to conquer the whole world within Adolf Hitler's lifetime!
@@thomaskalbfus2005 coulda woulda shoulda. world is grateful to russia for defeating this german nazi filth
When I study the history books 4-5 big reasons for Nazi Germany's downfall come to mind. First & foremost stupid war planning objectives for example planning to invade Britain, take out the RAF but not have adequate Kreisgmarine warships to support (heer ) army on beach landings of the UK even if the Luftwaffe took out the RAF. After the failure of not taking out the RAF in 1940, why didn't Hitler invade Spain/Portugal and secure the Mediterranean/Strait of Gibraltar. Then the 2nd stupid big one of invading Stalins territory.
No#2, Hitler did not put the Reich on a full time 24/7 industrial production schedule until 1943. That's enough from me !
Now, WHY was it lost when they stepped into Russia? You DO understand that the Soviets were preparing at that moment to invade all of Europe, right? Why do you think they wanted Poland? It was the only country that bordered Europe.
@@nationalistcanuck7800 The myth was that every German soldier was positive at a victory in Russia. This was not the case. I think in hindsight my Opa was saying it was over when it started. He did realize after Stalingrad that it was over. Many men quietly talked about getting home alive and not taking risk. Opas best friend was his CO and after Stalingrad he said . Now it’s our mission to make it home alive. These are the words from the guy who was there.
Very sad war. Thank you for covering this topic!
Ty
As opposed to a “happy war”? Never heard of one.
This one was particularly sad because of what was lost and taken from us as a result, as well as being largely unnecessary and avoidable had the involvement of so many countries that had no business in it stayed out. @@georgesouthwick7000
First time viewer and serious history buff. I am very impressed.
Rommel actually had the best defence strategy for Normandy and wanted the panzers to be fully mobilized and ready to attack any landing by the allies but Runstedt wanted to hold them back from the frontline which proved a disaster, also Rommel should get credit for being the one who fully built up the defences of the Atlantic wall since it had been neglected by all the other generals before he took command of it.
Doing an armored thrust into the landing areas within range of battleship guns would not have ended well
@@jamesricker3997 Panzers hitting the infantry wherever it landed would have been a real thorn for the allies and battleships can only bombard a sector and not accurately target armor, it would have been a much better scenario than having them stay back and then having to deal with the consequences of an invasion as history shows.
The problem of this is allied Air Superiority, yes if the germans had some panzers at landing points would make allies invasion even harder, maybe Omaha would fail but air attacks were able to destroy armored formations since 1943.
@@alexandre2able
The impact on tank formations by air attacks wasn't that great in WW2. But they had a devastating effect on the supply lines. A tank without enough fuel, ammo and spare parts is likely to be destroyed by it's own crew when you are on defence just because it is very unlikely the tank will make it back to a friendly base for refill and maintenance.
@@alexandre2able There is no denying that, the allied air superiority probably allowed them to win the war in the west by 1 year faster, so many desperately needed fully equipped panzers where wiped out by bombing before even having a chance to engage the enemy.
No doubt, one of the most significant, influential, capable man in Wermacht.
Manstein was a very very capable man too
Also a liar 🤷🏻♂️
@@greg_4201 sorry, unfutunately I also have to lie to survive ...
@@robertmastnak581 oh yeah? try being a man and standing for the truth instead of grovelling for life on someone else's terms 🤷🏻♂️
This whole thesis is bunkum. Stalin summarised the German effort best by pointing out that if they had driven into South West Russia and seized the oil fields, they would have knocked the Soviet Union out of the war. What did Guderian do? He ignored orders and went hell for leather for Moscow and failed miserably. This is where the war was lost for the Germans. Get your facts right please, watching a fantasy movie about someone who refused to carry out orders is hopeless waste of time.
When I was a kid I wanted to be an Army officer in the tank Corps (When I was a child I had childish thoughts!). Later I got interested in submarines and became a junior officer on a USN SSBN. When I was 12 I sent a letter to the Budeswehr asking for Guderian’s autograph. He had died in 1954, but someone forwarded the letter to his son, who was a West German General. He sent me a picture of his father and a nice letter.
so armor is for kids, subs are for grown ups?
@@andersbjrnsen7203 Ha! :)
If you've seen the masterpiece of war cinema "Das Boot," you would think so too. 😉
Very rare commentary with depth of knowledge . Thank you
Germany had basically ran out of oil to support the Blitz type warfare. They had more tanks in 43 then in 41 but fuel was a very significant issue.
Correct. It was a lack of oil that destroyed their military AND the fact the Soviets were a far, far larger, more-powerful military, a military built in secret. No one was aware of the sheer size of the Soviet military until the moment they changed the war.
Germany did not have the oil because the German generals did not follow the strategy of Hitler which was to seize the Caucasus for the oil, until it was too late.. Instead, they insisted on driving towards Moscow. Even if that goal had been reached, it would not have defeated Russia, which had moved its productive capacities to the Urals.
Only after they lost the Ploesti Oilfields was that true, not before.
@@karlheinzvonkroemann2217 How do you stop an enemy from taking your oilfields? You attack them first. Yes, before. Since the start of the war, fuel for their war machine was always an issue. Germany was energy poor.
@@alvin8391 Germany did launch offensives and tried to advance toward the caucasus but failed. Their supply became over stretched.
I have Guderian's book, Panzer Leader and these are his exact words, loving your channel!
Very interesting!
Thank you for this video.
Guderian had a plan to launch a limited offensive on the eastern front in late 1944, coupled with the creation of a strong line of defensive fortifications and fortresses. He also wanted to create a small mobile reserve with which to launch a "backhand" counteroffensive similar to what Manstein did in Ukraine in 1943, albeit on a smaller scale. If he had gotten everything he wanted from Hitler, perhaps the plan could have succeeded and not only delayed the Soviet offensive that was launched in January '45, but even regained a limited amount of territory to anchor German positions on defendable rivers further east. But to what end? Such a gambit could be done only once. It would have only delayed the inevitable Soviet victory absent peace in the west. And that was never going to happen.
Germany was literally pulled in all directions by Hitler in ww2. Failing to defeat Britain in 1940 lead to the Kriegsmarine having to fight a five year long slug match against the largest navy on the planet. Failing to defeat the Soviet Union in 1941 lead to the heer having to fight a four year long meat grinder campaign against the largest army on the planet. At the same time the Luftwaffe was expected to keep fighting the ever growing RAF in western Europe and the Mediterranean while also deploying sufficient forces to the east to subdue the massive red air force. Add to this Hitler's declaration of war against the USA and already having to complete with the British and soviets German industry was now also up against the largest economic power on the planet
Not enough manpower left in Germany, no fuel for the army by early 44, for such a plan.
It would have just meant an atomic bomb on Berlin.
Fortunately they fucked up and allies defeated nazi krauts, the murderers
They did try their hand in Romania (op. Spring Awakening). It's just at this point the material difference is too great and the Soviets revised tactics since.
They simultaneously decided to fight the biggest industrial power in the world, the largest Empire the World has ever known and the largest and most ruthless country in the world. What did they think was going to happen?
They had no choice. The big guy say what would happen if communism won, and decided to make a last stand for the future of Europe.
@@pomodorostudyclub Sure worked out for him and Europe, didn't it? Most of Europe is now so far left old time communists would feel right at home.
@@pomodorostudyclub They absolutely had a choice in who they fought and WHEN they fought them. They initiated War against Russia, USA, and Great Britain without any realistic plan to supply the amount of Soldiers, Machinery, Material, Logistics etc to wage War and Win. They lost battles on the Eastern Front due to them having supply trains 1000km+ long and not having enough horses at one point. If they were the geniuses at that so many say they were they would know they never had a chance in the war the way they went about it. Germany was doomed by the end of 1941.
@@suavifyu8937 Actually Germany didn't have a choice. The economic policy of Autarky was causing permanent and growing food and coal shortages in Germany. Even before 1939, Germany was having crops rotting in the fields because of inept management of the economy by the drug-added idiot Goering (Interior Minister).
The only escape for Germany under the National Socialists had was to invade the East, kill everyone, and steal everything they owned. The systematic looting of eastern Europe started the day the German army advanced in June 1941 for Operation Barbarossa. They had insufficient food to feed the Wehrmacht, so exterminating the local peasants was required by the plan.
But you are entirely correct about why they lost. Germany was a disaster in its inability to manage logistics in any coherent way, for both the state and the army.
One wonders... After Hitler saw he could not conquer the UK, which at the time was less powerful than Germany, he decides to attack Russia which had at least twice the military power of Germany. But of course, he was just a corporal (and painter of postcards) with no education.
It's a great video.
Keep them coming. Thanks
The kind of Prussian military thought, which the German army is a product of, is so damn impressive. The combined arms they executed was so much ahead of their time and tech.
Hitler probably didn't deserve to inherit such a masterpiece of a military machine.
For any other country to replicate that thought or tactics would require some serious ground work of decades in building a robust military culture.
The generals should have had a marksman eliminate Hitler when he was riding around in his open top convertable staff car.
@@sixgunsymphony7408 You have no idea what was really in Germany at the time before Hitler came to power and what when he ruled. Your knowledge is based on Hollywood movies, i.e. stupid things.
@@sixgunsymphony7408 Rubbish. Germany would still have lost the war. They were doomed with their failure to secure sufficient supplies of food and oil.
@@williamclarke4510 This was done for PBS, don't expect to get the truth from such sources.
Hitler probably didn’t deserve 😂
What is this? Nazi sympathizers.
Thank you for the correct title and the factuality of this video; it is about Guderian's "opinion" based on the knowledge on the German side. Like other Wehrmacht generals, Guderian tried to attribute the military failures to Hitler and the successes to the generals. Hitler was in fact a military amateur, albeit with good military understanding. What none of the German generals could ever explain was , why they, as professionals, followed an amateur.
Answer. these men where soldiers to the core they where trained to make war not question there orders if you want to learn more research these generals early years
super taff comme toujours merci a vous War Academy
It's an understatement. Allied air power by 1944 was awesome. or I should say more specifically, American and English. The German army still had strength but with the kind of air power they faced, they had no chance
What was it 90% of Germany soft skinned vehicles were destroyed by the end of 1944.
British not English.
When Germany lost air supremacy, their military became mediocre.
Thank you for your video i grew up in the rubble of WW2. Im old now unlike many victims.
It's easy to put much of the blame on people who are dead
Especially when they have EARNED that blame
My thought too. Blame someone else...someone dead.
@emilfontanot5477 Explain?
@emilfontanot5477 Now I know you're lying like a cheap watch
@emilfontanot5477 Come off it
In the history of human conflict the Wehrmacht stands alone. The pivotal point of the war came as early as December 1941. The defeat at the gates of Moscow confirmed that Germany would not win the war. Also America with its industrial might entered the war and joined the Allies at the same time. That Germany continued to fight for another four and a half years against the collective might of America, The British and Soviet empires is astounding and beyond belief
Japan, Romania, Hungary, Italy, collaborators from occupied countries?
Once the British and Americans were in NW Europe it was over quickly.
@@johnburns4017 ha ha its not very suprising if you come mid 44 where all work allready is done. and still you needed an entire year xd
@@wolflarsen1900
11 months. It would have been six months if they left Monty in charge of ground troops. The same man who ran the Axis out of North Africa.
@@johnburns4017 oh yes of course, and it never would have happened in the first place if hitler would have given his local commanders the possibility to order reinforcements without the approval of the highcommand. all the losses at d day was comitted totally by the underequpted garnison of the beaches without a single person of reinforcement. such a stupid claim. Its was totally up to the american inferiority. america let 55 different nations do the job, exspecially the sovjets, which burned 15 million soldiers to beat germany, than they came with their unexperiened troops as the job allready was done and still needed a year to beat germany. america can be happy that russia did all of the job, i think you dont want to know how this would have gone for america without the estern war xd millions of experienced soldiers fought in the easts but mid 44 in the west america only had to fight against a few unequipted reserve troops, and young freshly recruited boys. At the beach for example most of the garnison troops wasnt even germans, most of them where bulgarians, ukrainians or prior wounded germans. One of the few "real" germans at omaha beach was Heinrich severloh, i think you guys know who that is/was.. I found it The commentator is correct it is asthounding how long germany was able to carry on the fight and how much trouble america had against a handfull of left soldiers. its funny america always only show up when the game is actually over since a long time. in ww1 it was the same. america never experienced a "real" war, expect for maybe the american civil war
There are so many battles that could have gone either way that effected the final outcome of WW2 at the Eastern Front and in the West. The mental toughness of the Allie’s leadership, all 3 of them, was as important as their weapons and tactics. Great video . A little gold nugget to add to my complete understanding. Thanks
Disagree, it only could have gone one way. It comes down to basic economics. Germany would still have lost even without Normandy although it probably shortened the war by 2 years. Of course many people live in a western focused reality where they believe the world revolves around them, i.e. the question of why the Germans lost, not what made the soviets win. We still do this today talking about NATOs actions with the Russian-Ukrainian conflict when in reality it has nothing to do with NATO.
The soviets did have poor quality equipment compared to the west, but on purpose. They looked at their tanks and said what part will fail first and then decided to build every other part to match the life span of the lowest quality part. Why waste resources? This is in stark contrast to the Germans boasting 300,000 man hours for one Tiger tank. A different engineering philosophy. The soviet philosophy was correct here and could not be overcome by the Germans.
@@Ziggletoothif Italy won in egypt in 1940 and it was so close, Badoglio was a traitor, Axis would have reach Iraq and Iran that were close to axis, but occupied by Allied, england would have left Mediteranneum sea and lost oil of middle east. Axis would have more resources.
Over that italy was defeated for traitors, its difficult to fight in italy for geography, so they could have created a state in italy east france austria south germany and Jugoslavia, Greec that would have fought for 10 years like Vietnam.
Very interesting topic!
STOP DOING AI VOICEOVERS!!!
Do AI voiceovers using Heinz Guderian’s voice
Man, at this point I already hate AI.
@@joaquimneto5773
Shhhh! Don't say that or they will come for you. AI is everywhere. 😆
Yeah its painful, i cant watch these any more. Great info shit effort!!!
Thank you for making this in english.
Ty
To quote Commander Sinclair from Babylon5 : Because we where outmaned and outgunned,we never had a chance.
A little bit simplified but true
_Outmanned_ is spelled thus.
Back in that time, Germany had the world's greatest collection of war genarals; and as the war progressed, Hitler lost confidence in them ridiculously enough, took away their job for himself, continue to make a series of bad military decisions, and lost the war for Germany. It was total madness of him to have invaded the Soviet Union and then declared war on the USA.
That 'greatest collection of war generals' was busily losing the war as fast as they could. They were disobeying direct orders, and that's why they were gotten rid of. Halder's blunders and treachery in 1941 and 42 should have earned him a court martial and execution.
@@colinhunt4057 Look man! When Hitler ridiculously invaded the Soviet Union and then amazingly declared war on the U.S. it was the height of his stark madness. Everything went downhill and became progressively difficult for Nazi Germany and its war generals. 75% of the German army was tied-up in the East (from a Historian) fighting a losing battle against the Soviets. By the way, what would you have done if you had a loser boss like Hitler?!
@@VineyardGaden I would not have joined the religious cult which was National Socialism. You seem blind to the notion that invading Russia was what National Socialism was all about. That was always the deliberate intent ever since the early 1920s: invade the lands of the east, kill them all and steal all they possessed. It's the same thing as Communism. The only difference is the target group to be murdered and robbed.
@@VineyardGadenn a handful of occasions Hitler made the right call but was disobeyed. The US had already technically joined the war by actively funding and providing vehicles/weapons to Germany’s foes. It’s thanks to the US that Russia had any mobility and is arguably what furloughed Russia to win in the long run. Hitler I’m sure made the gesture saying (yeah well we’re already at war with them) and he was right until 1943. For the first two years nothing changed. Only in Africa/Italy and more importantly Normandy did the US actually land soldiers. Everything else from tanks to jeeps to weapons were already given to the British and to the Russians.
I wonder if the US would have fought Germany if Hitler had not declared war in the US.
It's a shame that you are using AI voices instead of humans. It really reduces the impact. I have nothing against AI - it's just not quite there yet.
can we have a booing emoji for AI, please? lost credibility with me when Luftwaffe was terribly mispronounced. Otherwise well constructed.
@@davidborkovec3516 To be fair, any American ever also mispronounces every german word, so no change there 😆
Thanks for more additional insights from German general like Guderian why German defeats in world War 11 was inevitable
Done after 43
Knowing what your enemy is doing . The British code brakers from 1942 onwards we new all their plans. Except the battle of the bulge. They used radio silence. Britain was not ready for war or the USA IN 1939 . Had to play catch up . But I think the number 1 reason in the long run was USA production supplying UK & USSR
Those who fought against the Third Reich knew everything from the very beginning and no attack was a surprise to them. Hitler's entourage was full of traitors, in addition, important information obtained by the intelligence service was hidden from Hitler (thanks to Canaris, among others). Stalin knew well about the attack on the USSR, ...the plans for the Battle of Kursk were well known to the minute as everything was planned ... At the time of the invasion (which was expected) somehow all the most important officers are absent ... Romel is going to visit his wife... traitors everywhere...
Hitler's INSANITY! Just like the Japanese leadership.
@@robinhood4911 yes agree especially Canaris . I do believe the British & others gave Russia fair warning about Germany’s plan to invade . But Stalin stalled thinking it was a ploy to get them in the war . The Russian sacrifice should also be remembered. Thanks for your reply . I’m the son of a RAF Veteran Greetings from Canada 👍🇨🇦
Unlike Germany which was preparing for war for six years.
Heinz Guderian was a Maverick General. He has the Courage to Argue with Adolf Hitler the War Monger Fanatic. Guderian was a Brilliant General. He published the book Achtung! Panzer.
Germany lost the war because it bit off more than it could chew. By taking on Britian, Russia, and the United States at the same time Hitler doomed himself to inevitable defeat.
True. Hitler probably should have set his goals to be the restoration of the German empire's pre-world war 1 boundaries and maybe the absorption of the Austrian Empire. Firstly, that could have been accomplished in a year before the allies could have reacted and organized. Secondly, it would have been an acquisition of mostly Germanic speaking regions with quite recent historical connections to Germany, this would have made the general population of the West...France, Britain, the Commonwealth more ambivalent to the idea of another war. Thirdly, he could have easily pivoted and turned Germany into a buffer against Communism. The West would have likely allowed German to retain their acquisitions and formed an alliance against Russia which quickly became the main threat.
They based operation barbarossa on the assumption that England would have made a peace treaty with them as the war went on leading to a imminent victory against the ussr. Which is kind ironic, considering they already had a peace treaty with the soviets and could focus all their resources against England alone.
@@antonioalessandro2488 -- i wonder if Germany would have declared war on the U.S. if it had not had a treaty obligation with Japan. A lot of Americans did not want to fight Germany, but instead wanted the Nazis and Soviets to destroy each other.
How does someone bite off more than they can chew by simply trying to defend themselves when attacked? 😂
Who declared war on who, jackass?
@@greg_4201 -- on 11 December 1941 Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. In response the U.S. declared war on both those countries.
You,re the reason why Iam one of Guderians Fan boys.
Thank you
I know guderians grandgrandson, he goes into my class^^
A very interesting video.
I am glad to see 👀 your next videos... Thanks...l see your introduced was interesting, magnificence explaining about what general Guderian told the Americans...good luck for war academy channel...and yours
Perhaps the biggest piece Guderian did not have was that the Soviets had access at very high level, perhaps Hilters war meetings. In 41, Stalin ordered reckless piece meal counter-attacks (I presume Zhukov finally reined in Stalin to hold off on the Siberian divisions until typhoon finally exhausted). In the 42 campaign season (after spring thaw, and ground drying out), the Soviets opened with offensives in 3 locations, Leningrad, Kharkov and Crimea, all failing. In 43, the Soviets were strangely quiet, waiting patiently for Zitadelle, which was delayed several times.
It is curious. The Germans had sufficient information to know that the big victories of 41 were not cake walks, but involved difficult battles, with some Soviet units fighting very well, and that ultimate victory only came after sufficient Soviet mistakes made the positions untenable. The winter Moscow battle was a correct counter-offensive in waiting until the Germans had committed all units. The pattern from then all was that the Soviets had reasonably correct concepts in pincer operations, but could not execute well due to over-reliance on orders from above. Contrast, the Germans had good officers through the chain to allow tactical decisions when opportunity presented.
What this meant was Manstein Schwert und Schild idea was probably best - but Hilter did not want to give ground. A big mistake was not building fortifications on the Dnieper when there was time, because that would have conceded inevitability of withdrawing. The cliffs on the right bank probably made the best defensive line
In my opinion, Hitler was definitely a better strategist than his generals and the facts (little known) indicate that. He had a memory like a computer, he read all the books dealing with matters related to war and armaments (in his library of these books there were 7,000 and his entire library had 35,000), he knew all the ships (including the enemy) what equipment they had, caliber of guns, their range... He could think of many aspects when it came to capturing or leaving conquered territories (like what resources were there and what they were used for) while his generals were ignorant of these aspects.
I recommend the book "Hitler and His Generals: Military Conferences 1942-1945" by Helmut Heiberg, these are exact records of what Hitler said during the conference with the generals.
The book "Hitler's Private Library: The Books That Shaped His Life" by Timothy W. Ryback is written about his library.
His extraordinary memory is always mentioned in every serious book by those who knew him. He read a book or two a day (Leon Degrelle, among others, confirms this)...
An interesting position is also "Hitler vs. Stalin: The Eastern Front, 1941-1945" by John Mosier
Funny how history repeats itself. Good stuff.
If my memory is correct, the Siberian divisions were not brought to the German invasion until it was clear that the Japanese armed forces did not intend to invade Eastern Russia. This gave Stalin a free hand to transfer his Siberian troops to fight the Germans. I think there were 40 eastern Russian divisions who were sent west.
Germany does not ''loose'' wars...they simply fall back and try again.
Sore loser 😂
I love "the Luft Waff". Seriously he's narrating a video about WW2 and he's NEVER heard how it's pronounced? 😂😂
I think that it is a computer.
When you pronounce German words, you gotta say the whole word. Luft-waffa. Example Kreigsmarine (German Navy) I like being challenged when I see a German word & it's long. OberSturmbannfuhrer.
I have a feeling the person who makes these videos is a non-native English speaker and prefers the computerised narration to their own voice.
Create a WW2 theme channel and do it better.
@@antonioalessandro2488 tough to do that this channel is good. If I had a thick accent I would use the AI too.
Many higher ranking German officers after the war wrote briefing summaries, at the behest of their American captors. These summaries detailed their personal experiences on the Eastern front. Most of these are still available online to be downloaded. These summaries became books & were used by the Americans as guidelines to train their troops to fight the Russians in the event the two sides ever went to war. Some of these books are extremely interesting as historical studies. One of the titles is called, 'Small Unit Actions During the German Campaign in Russia'. It details company & platoon level incidents between German & Red Army troops.
So Americans are taking tips from the losers, Germans. We are doomed.
I thought von Mellenthin's was very readable. Not a top front commander, more of a staff general, but he gives a lively account of his service.
Russians will defeat Americans if they try and Americans should be ashamed for not trying and jailing this war criminal.
Problem is that most of dairies and memomoirs are quite misleading. Reading them makes you think the Germans faces endless Soviet hordes and such wich just isnt true..
The books were self serving PR.
As Webster said in Band of Brothers, “You had horses! What were you thinking?”
Horses did not rely on petroleum and I suspect towards the end of the war, this was a bonus for the generals. Though I am a horse lover and am glad horses are no longer used in combat (at least in the Western armies)
Wunderbar!
Utterly fascinating I would like to see a more comprehensive video of these interviews with all of the surviving generals analyses of their strengths and weaknesses
Most of them consist of covering their asses, blaming everyone and everything else for losses other than their command decisions.
read the german generals talk by liddel hart
I used to be rather surprised at the less than stellar opinion many German Generals had in regards to Rommel growing up. But after college and studying WW2 I’m far less surprised. Good video thanks for posting.
Bizarrely Rommel was portrayed as a hero by the british. As spectaculer as was his north african campaingn there is a couple of very basic thing he failed to understand, First of all, it was almost useless to keep pushing in the direction of Egypt if Malta was not taken. Secondly keep puhsing in the direction of Egypt after the taking of Tobruq was as dumb as possible. His chance od success to achieve his goal was very limited and by doing so he overextend his logistical chain and by doing so he was force to a costly retreat as soon as it was clear that the offensive was a failure. Instead he should have wiated for the british and let them overextend themself as it happen so much in this campaign.
@@angeurbain6129 I don't think Hitler gave him the option to be so sensible.
@@kimwit1307 We speculate here. I am not sure that Rommel fully understood the importance of taking Malta before everything else. This is something a guy like Kesselring understood better. The last push at el alamein was dumb as possible. and this is Rommels responsability.
There is an element of myth making as well. The allies tell you Romell was the greatest German military genius. Then how good must Monty and Patton be if the were able yo be him lol
@@angeurbain6129 you are right about the strategic failure of not taking Malta. Rommel was right though in trying to extend further east. Real problem was Hitler did not believe North Africa Campaign to be a worth wile effort.
Real German brilliant talents of WWII : Heinz Guderian and Erich von Manstein.
Great job, Obviously we can all monday morning this considering we have 75 plus years of data to go on.
Monday? But the Americans didn't arrive until Hitler declared war on them & that was Thursday.😉
If you plan to take on 5 Foes , try and get them 1 at a time .
Hitler was Fighting On three fronts, after 1942.....No Chance, and not enough natural Resources, and eventually .MEN
Reminds me of the old saying "Never insult seven men when all you're packing is a six shooter".
Retired armourded corps soldier here. In the Army we were taught the ten principles of warfare. One, Concentration of force, could not be achieved with two fronts. Pick one objective and focus your forces on that one objective. WW1 showed this Germany with two fronts. With just pure luck that the Communists in Russia pulled out of that war leaving Germany to focus on the Western Front in France and Belgium.
Guderien was one of the best generals in modern mechanized warfare
He was such a good general that he lost. So now the losers are the winners.......
Such a stupid comment...they only lost because every German had to face 5 enemies
@@mirquellasantos2716 Lame comment.
Guderian won spectacular tank battles against france and during the initial stages of operation Barbarossa. Poor planning from the German high command, coupled with impossible supply logistics and the russian winter resulted in Guderien's defeat.
If not for the winter and Hitler's order to divert south to the oil fields temporarily, Guderien would've taken moscow
@@anirprasadd Germans were defeated not once but twice- the best losers ever. Guderian was a loser who lost and lost badly. Besides is never a good idea to take tips from the loser party.
@@mirquellasantos2716 You have a poor comprehension of the difference between battles and wars. There's so much that you are overlooking, it's not possible to explain or elaborate.
Guderian's tactics are studied in military academies and even appreciated by military tacticians and military historians today. He pioneered assault tactics and methods in armored warfare
Not only Germany, any nation would have been defeated considering the total might of Allied Invasion.
But Germany did commit mistakes of opening all fronts and hence allowing US and Russia to join forces against it..
The Germans lost the war because they had to fight on several fronts at the same time.
They lost because they took on the three largest economies in the world. A very silly thing to do.
@@johnburns4017
Then tell me which three largest economies they were ?
@@pvught390
You do not know? Guess.
@@johnburns4017
If you know, why do I have to guess? Or are you afraid to say it because you don't know yourself.
@@pvught390
I know. If you know anything about WW2 you will know. Read _Wages of Destruction - The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy._ That will put you right.
The simple answer in a nutshell is the pure determination of Germans, its discipline and superior creative engineering talent. And that’s why it took everything in their mother to defeat them.
Are you on drugs? Germans were such losers that they didn't even lost 1 war but 2.
And if there weren't so many traitors around Hitler, they would have won the war.
But Hitler did not lead his troops into battle, unlike Napoleon and Robert E. Lee, Hitler was a coward that hid in his bunker as the Russians closed in!
They fought against civilian population mostly. Shameful. Executed women and children.
If there would be hell Nazis would be in it.
Dude was a genius, invented blitzkrieg and heavily influenced modern tank warfare.
It has not hurt the man's reputation that he was one of the greatest self-promoters who ever lived, but of the Ali-sort: "it ain't bragging if you can back it up.". Churchill was similarly versatile.
The captured generals much preferred being in American/British custody over the Soviets. They would ingrate themselves by praising their captors. They had common cause in opposing the USSR. Finally they wanted to minimize their relationship with Hitler and nazism
Blaming Hitler for their defeats was in a way like the German generals after WW1 claiming they were stabbed in the back by Jews and Socialists at home. You are right about the Germans (not just the generals) ingratiating themselves with the Western allies in the post-war period. The old saying about them: "At your feet or at your throat"! has a certain amount of truth to it.
@@bernarddavis1050 …. Without the British & American millions of Germans would have starved to death. Plus suffered more under the Red Army. So the conquerers quickly became the saviors
@@Idahoguy10157 The Germans never paid the full price for their atrocities in WW2. Very soon after 1945, all of them were being enlisted in the developing Cold War, on one side or the other. Their talents were in demand, one might say. Speaking of people being starved to death, I presume you are aware of the fate of the 80,000 Soviet prisoners of war taken at Smolensk in 1941. I think the Red Army showed commendable forbearance, in the circumstances.
Germany should thank the Soviets for not butchering them all after what they did to the Soviet people. Remember: 27 million dead.
My uncle was stationed in Germany after WW2 and he said they were the most military minded people in the world.
Guderian is infamous for blaming Moustache man for everything that went wrong
Him and many other German generals
Well who else is to blame? Waited to the last second to allow strategic withdraws. Threw his last good tank armies up against a wall. He didn't intervene in France or Poland
@@khann844 german generals actually had more autonomy than generals had in many other armies.. at least up to 45. For example halder decided pretty much against hitlers wishes to focus on moscow instead of the south.
If they didn't hold at stalingrad, army group south would have been lost as the red army would have easily made it to rostov amidst the chaos. Dönitz pretty much decided alone to evacuate the kurland pocket.. just ti name a few examples..
But I agree that ardennes offensive was a hopeless endeavour.
@@khann844
If you are one of these morons who thinks Hitler didn't listen to his generals and advisors you are sadly wrong. We're getting more evidence of it all the time
I believe it was AH who suspected that the Allies would land in Normandy and insisted it be built up. He also thought the Allies were decoding their radio traffic but was assured by experts it was impossible. AH wasn't always wrong. He ordered total radio silence before the Battle of the Bulge and caught us by surprise.
From all my travels within Germany, I never met one person who said "WE Lost the war."
One of them told me that they cannot wait to enter Moscow and put German flag up like Russians did in Bundestag.
You only asked stupid and radical German Nazis and not other and normal Germans!
@@presidenteden6498 If you want to know, why Adolf Hitler attacked the USSR although he got a friedship contract with Stalin, you should read his book "Mein Kampf Band 1"!
Why would they?
Sore losers like Trump!!!
Awesome 😊😊😊
Guderain was wrong about Rommel. The only reason Rommel lost in Africa is because he was overwhelmed by a shortage of resources and reinforcements. Or else he would've secured that front. I think I read somewhere that there was rivalry between Guderian and Rommel
Rommel's tactics required a lot of resources. He was a brilliant commander but he knew from the beginning that the supply situation wasn't good. He should have altered his tactics to be more fitting to germany's war economy
@@pyllywaltteri May not be.
Rommel had a normal amount of resources at his disposal. It's just that America's entry brought an insane amount of resources to the allied side. It has been well-established that Germany was more of out-produced rather than out-fought.
America's industrial capacity was more than all axis powers combined. Actually, you could throw in the industrial capabilities of uk and france too, and still it wouldn't match America's. Then there was oil and iron ore. German supplies for both were cut off shortly after America's entry.
So Rommel did win awesome victories, but his resources were dwindling. That led to his defeat
As the old saying goes, The amateur talks tactics, the professional talks logistics. Or as one American general of the American civil war said, ‘Get there the firstest with the mostest’
@@pyllywaltteri I agree, he should have adjusted his tactics to win with his 20 tanks with no gas against 200 tanks with gasoline. How could he miss the opportunity!!
@Mario Arguello I know that the alternative wasn't better either. But that just shows that even as early as the African campaign, the war was already pretty much unwinnable for the germans.
Operation Eisenhammer/Aktion Russland would have helped the Germans keep the soviets at bay. Keeping Italy in the war would have slowed the Wallies a lot.
TY 🙏🙏
Had Barbarossa been done for the libeeration of the Russian people, it could have succeeded - but not by using Russia as "Lebensraum" for Germans.
Good point. Hitler's extreme racism was a major part of his destruction.
If winter of 1941 was as warm as 2022-23, the world would be completely different.
Is the video about the Army or is it about the entire Wehrmacht? Confusing title and description.
Belo trabalho. Me inscrevi e peço que continue trazendo a opinião de Guderian pois acho que ele foi um dos melhores generais da segunda guerra. Agradecido.
I wonder what Guderian had said about Model?
Everything I have read indicates that Model was an outstanding tactician. But other generals complained that he didn't have a good strategic outlook.
This is Guderian’s views about the end of the war. By the time he was commenting on, the axis was already doomed. The mistakes he mentioned only hastened the end. What would be more interesting to ask about would be the early part of the war in Europe, and the tactics rather than the strategy. Unfortunately, he tried later on to curry favor with the west by claiming that he drew inspiration for his tactics from BH Liddle Hart, but his notebooks from the time indicate that this wasn’t true.
Dunkirk began the downfall of Germany. The failure to take out the British and French expeditionary forces in 1940 and allowing them to evacuate to fight another day was a big tactical mistake. Germany had the opportunity to basically remove the British and French from the European theater altogether and concentrate the bulk of their forces against the Soviets. US entry was still more than a year away. Once Hitler declared war on the US after Pearl Harbor, the German fate was sealed.
The declaration of war against the US was only formal because practically the US was involved in the fight against the 3rd Reich from the very beginning. In addition, a long time before the war started in 1939, Franklin D. Roosevelt and his gang did everything to make it happen.
They did concentrate all available forces against the Soviets. It was insufficient. Germany was incapable of feeding its army which it sent into the USSR. Which is why the Wehrmacht was getting their food in 1941 by massacring the civilians and taking all their food. As to Hitler declaring war, Hitler's view was that the United States was already at war with Germany in all practical ways, so there was nothing to be gained by not hitting back at them.
@@colinhunt4057 You wrote:"Germany was incapable of feeding its army which it sent into the USSR. Which is why the Wehrmacht was getting their food in 1941 by massacring the civilians and taking all their food."
This is false wartime propaganda. Read more in reliable sources, then you will find out that the Wehrmacht had to provide food to civilians at that time, because the Soviets, withdrawing, took away all the food, and what they could not take away, they destroyed it (for example, by pouring petrol into the grain). The Soviets destroyed everything they could as they retreated. In one of the German newsreels, they showed a town where all the buildings were burned, except for the synagogue, which was commented on by the Germans.
@@robinhood4911 Another Wehraboo. Goebbels himself comments extensively on Germany's massive food shortage in his diary.
@@colinhunt4057 80% of people don't understand what they read, I have a feeling that maybe you are in that 80%.
Re-read what I wrote before and try to understand its content, if you have a problem with it, ask someone else for help.
I think Rundstedt was probably one of Germany’s best generals, despite being almost too old for the office.
Why? A major issue among others was the lack of German diplomacy in the USA in the 1930s. Hitler never understood the importance of American public opinion in keeping The USA neutral in a European conflict. He allowed Churchill to present the conflict to Americans through British eyes.and thus the Germans became ( rightly so) the ‘bad guys’.
I have a book titled "The German Generals Talk" by B.H Liddell Hart, where various German Generals, including Guderian, Rundstedt and other talk about why various campaigns failed. An interesting read and your video reflects some of it.
I hate these machine voices that butcher what should be common German pronunciations for WW2 buffs!
I read it. Long time ago but I remember one reference that the planning of OBarbarossa had a STRICT understanding of a limited supply of fuel. Obviously the topic has been brought up 'ad nauseam' but the fact is a senior officer in ANY military position ultimately is no more relevant than a private when it comes to.. taking orders. From the start the German general staff was adamant, and AH☠ CONCURRED, that a 'two front' scenario was a impossible undertaking! ANY talk of a "diplomatic" solution was LOST in 1940. So Gudarian and all the rest of the OKW were just pathetic programmed robots..
@Emil Fontanot true but as long as one understands this is about losers talking about why they lost, to maintain their reputation, it still makes for a good read.
THE USA would have been lucky if all the tanks were at the beach, in the Pacific the Japs found out REAL Quick what naval bombardments did to the in your face approach, imagine that 10 times over and a couple of thousand airplanes looking for a target.
@emilfontanot5477 Quite right. What they all wanted to do was to blame "madman" Hitler for their mistakes. Easy to do because he wasn't around to contradict them or point out their self-serving lies. Few of the German generals contributed as largely to Germany's ultimate defeat as Halder.
I am very interested in that book! I assume that these are comments from the interrogations and not from Panzer Leader?
Hitler was a fool to think he could take on the Brits, the Americans, and the Russians all at once and come out on top. He underestimated the Russians and the Americans from the start and continued to do so throughout the war, which cost him and Germany gravely.
Isn't it amazing how hindsight is always 20/20? Thanks to his, and other officers' insight, America finally learned how to fight a ground war. Of course, it took until the 1960s to implement them, especially concerning small-unit tactics. When I attended the Army OCS course in 1968, I felt like I was in the German WW2 equivalent of our OCS.
Well I think we all know now why the Allies, particularly the Americans, made off with as many German Army Staff Officers as they could get away with!!
WITHOUT having to hang them first that is!! 💀
And didn't it show in the 60s.
Remember, America LED the way on two major fronts: air support and mass transport across oceans.. two areas that Germany struggled with (Germany biased themselves towards dive rather than strategic bombing, for various reasons)
Speed speed speed
Finally learned how to fight a ground war. Yeah, right. The results in the Battle of the Bulge alone prove that we already knew
how to fight a ground war. That said, there is always room for improvement.
Guderian was the successful mixture of unconventional ideas and military discipline, that is occasionally found among German Officers after the time of Clausewitz and Gneisenau. Such flexibility always collides with narrow-minded superiors. He should have known that his greatest opponents were not the enemy generals but A H.
Very good programing 8:08
Ty
I would like to go back in time to 1939 with a WWII history book and give it to the Germans.
If a German soldier surrendered his family was persecuted or sent to a Concentration camp. So they fought on regardless.
Outstanding video
Produce more content like this.
Spot on. Guderian was the spear in the offensive that took over France and the father of the blitzkrieg (at the beginning of the war). However, there were many generals who were critical of Hitler's decisions. After HItler's decision to declare war against the US, it is rumored one general asked (facetiously) when he (Hitler) planned to attack New York. It was clear that Germany had no ability to attack the US mainland and that the decision to declare war against the US played directly into the interests of Great Britain. That was the death nail to any successful end of the ware for Germany.
For all practical purposes, the United States was already at war with Germany long before Dec 7, 1941. Lend Lease was the big one, accompanied by giving Britain warships (50 destroyers for bases in Bermuda and Newfoundland), and, much more serious, repairing British capital ships in the United States. The US Atlantic fleet was at sea in Spring 1941 with orders to engage and sink any German ships it encountered, such as the Bismarck. The United States was already attacking and sinking German U-Boats in international waters in the Atlantic. The United States financial system was building British arms facilities in Canada to evade German bombing.
So, from Hitler's perspective, he was already being attacked by the US.
It seemed nuts to me that Hitler declared war on USA. This gave the US the moral right to get involved in the European war.
General Guderian was Germany’s best general he was known as Hurrying Heinz!
Hard words from hard men. That's an understatement.
Soft words from a soft staff officer who drew lines on a map.
@Bro Hawk Fought in WW1 on the front but ya sure he is soft. You must know from your extensive experience.
@@lanetomkow6885 LOL read a book. Guderian was a signals and then a staff officer in WW1.
" I look at these mean children , and I understand why Germans started so many wars . And then I look at these teachers , and I see why they lost them all "
@@presidenteden6498
Sure . Keeping "Mein Kampf" under the pillow, aren't you ? Trying to sell your hypocritical, arrogant, laughable version to dummies ?
"And I understand why German started so many wars ..."
Among many other things: the "Kampfgruppe" concept was quite successful. A top officer was given an operative task and then he could say "I need 30 tanks, 10 guns, 20 bombers with 10 escort fighters, 2000 infantry etc...". Could be relatively small, or big, it would be ad hoc put together and named after the commander "Kampfgruppe Officername". Once the task was done, it either got readjusted for another task or perhaps it was disbanded. AFAIK the only units that needed absolute top approval were the SS units, simply because those usually remained under some top leader's command (i.e. Hitler, Himmler etc.) or sometimes assigned to some commander in the field as needed.
Just for the sake of clarity: it's pronounced LuFT-waffE not Lufwaf.
I agree with him about Rommel, very good divisional commander but dreadful General. What he did in nth Africa was borderline criminal. Instead of getting the best out of his Italian troops he got the worst which led to Italy leaving the war and taking their 60 divisions with them. There was genuine concern that the Italian military would assinate Rommel that's how bad the situation became !
Commentary off sync towards end? Seems so in others also
Attacks on various fronts was downfall, because production of submarines reduced number of planes or tanks which could be used in eastern front.
Seems the whole surface Kreigsmarine was not used to any strategic use for the Reich yet Germany was still building large ships.
Yes more Guderian
Read "Panzer Leader" by Heinz Guderian, & also, if possible "Achtung - Panzer!"
The Axis Powers had no other options but quick victories and calculated negotiations. They never stood a chance against the industrial might of the Allied Forces. Germanic pride and Bushido spirit ain't enough to win a war. It's all about materials and logistics.
And were the allies set in stone? Nope!
After the war they dissolved quickly.
@@boerekable Sure, the Cold War started... but the main point remains- the Allies won WW2 and the Axis had no chance lol!