Comments by "Dennis Weidner" (@dennisweidner288) on "TIKhistory" channel.

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  13. Very well done. Thank you for an informed, honest report on the Dresden bombing. It was of course horrendous, but it is interesting how much misinformation circulates to paint the bombing as a war crime. If it was there would be no need to lie about it. You accurately dismiss the biggest lie--that Munich did not have arms industries. This is of course absurd to anyone who has the slightest knowledge of the War. There was no city in Germany that was not contributing to the war effort and continuing to kill the few surviving Jews. You lay out the details of what happened very well. There is one matter you did not mention--the idea that the War was already won and thus the Allies needed to reduce their effort. The fact is that both the Western Allies and especially the Soviets were still taking very serious casualties from German resistance.. To me, the overriding point here is that we all wish that the bombing had not taken place. But the Germans started and supported the War. Britain and America did everything they could to stay out of the War. But forced into the war and facing a remorseless enemy committing the greatest crimes in human history, the Allies were forced to fight it and mobilize their vast industrial strength. It is unrealistic to think that the engine of war they need to build up could be turned off on a dime. The Germans started the War, The Germans began bombing civilians, and 90, percent of the European civilians killed in the War were killed by the Germans. Harris said it best, ""The Nazis entered this war under the rather childish delusion that they were going to bomb everyone else, and nobody was going to bomb them. At Rotterdam, London, Warsaw, and half a hundred other places, they put their rather naive theory into operation. They sowed the wind, and now they are going to reap the whirlwind." Another interesting point is that the critics of the bombing today do not come primarily from the Germans. It comes from the political left which is doing its best to delegitimize the Allied victory in the war, desperate to prove that Britain and America did not save Western civilization.
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  23.  @johnwolf2829  John, I did mo mean to suggest that is not an important topic. I think that it definitely is. There is a great deal I would like to hear more about. I have all sorts of questions. 1. How much of the BEF equipment left at Dunkirk was left in useable condition and what use was made of it. 2,. How was all the french equipment used? An issue here was spare parts and the very complicated German logistics system. Also, equipment that was viable in 1940 was much less useful in 1942., 3. The Germans used Czech tanks in their WesternCampaign (1940), but with less success in Barbarissa (1941). By 1942 they were hopelessly out of date. 4. It is not clear to me that the Germans were all that interested in modernizing their Allied armies (except the Finns). Remember they were holding back radar and other technologies from the Japanese until late in the War. Also, remember that 80 percent of the Ostheer was unmotorized infantry. Is it likely that the Germans were going to share what fuel they had with their Axis allies? 5. The German logistical system was seriously stressed. I suspect shipping heavy weaponry including captured equipment) east along with the needed ammunition and spare parts was not a high priority. 6. A good example of priorities was the Spanish Blue Division. Rather than transport them by rail to the front line. They were required to move on foot most of he was to their position around Leningrad. 7. It is also unclear to me how much of the Soviet Barbrossa equipment was useable. Much of the tanks were junk. And using the trucks was complicated by lack of spare parts adding a whole other range of complications to Ostheer motor pools attempting to service a dizzying number of models from various countries--few of which were up to the rigors of Soviet roads. 8. My general impression is that the Axis allies were used primarily to occupy areas taken by German combat troops or to cover unthreatened flanks as they did at Stalingrad. They also were used to deal with pockets cut off by the Germans who pressed east. I would be interested in hearing about major offensive operations that you know of.
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