Comments by "The french are harlequins" (@thefrenchareharlequins2743) on "FALL BLAU 1942 - Examining the Disaster" video.

  1. That operation would just end up like Kursk because the Soviet could get to the southern flank via Astrakhan and you would've run out of oil by then.
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  2.  @andyz.5431  After sustaining over 250,000 casualties? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVo5I0xNRhg The Soviets could've done defence in depth in Ukraine like they did at Kursk.
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  3.  @andyz.5431  Given that according to Gregory Liedtke, the Germans had 1,500,000 men for Fall Blau and the Soviets had 1,700,000 men, I doubt it would make much of a difference. That, and Germany would still have to cover the southern flank of the salient that would be created. The link is dead.
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  4. ​ @andyz.5431  The table " Crude Oil Production in the Second World War (m. metric tons)" says that G. produced 7,600,000 metric tonnes of oil in 1943, and a fair deal of that was low octane fuel that was not good for aircraft and was very complicated to produce. You would still have to defend the 475 km salient that would come from attempting to just going straight for the city. At that point you might as well just try to take the oil cities.
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  5.  @andyz.5431  Ah, crude oil. You still had to refine the oil to get the fuel that is actually useful like kerosene.
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  6.  @andyz.5431  Yes, but you can refine it. And given the amount at Baku, you can refine a lot of kerosene.
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  7.  @andyz.5431  You can get around 45% of gasoline which is what a Tiger was powered with from a barrel of crude oil and about 9% kerosene which is what powered aircraft. Remember, the kind of fuel Germany was synthesising was low octane fuel which wasn't good for aircraft, and in this war, the air superiority is as important as good armour.
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  8.  @andyz.5431  The Luftwaffe wasn't doing too well even in 1941; they took 30%-40% losses.
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