Comments by "David Himmelsbach" (@davidhimmelsbach557) on "TIKhistory"
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@ Bond ... 1) The SS documented the hell out of their activities straight through the war. They even went so far as to radio into Berlin (Himmler) about their liquidation numbers -- day after day -- especially in the Pale of Russia.
2) My Uncle was on the burial detail at Dora. At Dora, the V-2 works, execution was by way of truncheon... truly up close and personal. By the time he made it to the SS 'hospital' (irony alert) he was down 50% in body weight.
3) Denialists commonly run the math on Auchwitz crematoria -- as in there was no way that the facilites could dispose of so many victims. However, they've never read "Bloodlands." ALL of the evidence points to most victims being gunned down in the field. Later, after the Kaytn massacre was exhumed, the SD realized that it was bad public relations -- for posterity -- to leave millions of corpses in the ground. So, with extreme urgency and secrecy, the SD went all over occupied lands exhuming the dead -- to cremated them. Their technique has been written down. It consisted of using 2nd hand rails -- hoisted above the ground about five feet to create an open-field burning platform -- with an air-draft coming up from below. The fattest victims -- always overweight women -- were laid down first -- like cord wood. Leaner victims were placed high in the pile. Then a blaze would be started from below -- until the dripping remains ignited and over the next hours, every victim was reduced to ashes. A single grid was able to cremate over a thousand bodies per roast. These pyramids of crime eventually reached the size of a major soccer pitch.
4) The Big Problem with 'The Holocaust' is that even Jews are semi-denialists. Namely, that Hitler didn't restrict himself to Jews. He compulsively murdered:
All opponents -- with a very loose definition of opponent;
All elite Roman Catholics -- FIRST on his death list, BTW;
All visibly wealthy non-Germans in Poland -- and elsewhere -- his Socialism kicked in;
Millions of -- so called -- Partisans, that is, anyone running for the hills and hiding from his tyranny;
Straggling Red Army soldiers -- if caught solo -- you're a 'Partisan';
Gypsies -- again with the racial purity obsession;
Roman Catholic clergy -- to number in the hundreds-of-thousands;
Orthodox clergy -- vast numbers -- by definition all Soviet clergy were NKVD operatives... which was actually true by dint of Stalin;
Homosexuals -- if and only if -- they were flamingly gay;
{ Hitler's own personal body guard was 100% gay -- at his insistence! Rohm & his buddies were as gay as could possibly be, BTW. The SS was HEAVY with gay troopers. When Himmler wanted his boys to reproduce -- his boys rebelled ! Yup. }
5) Then there is the super abundant film archival record. Most is so repulsive that it has NEVER been generally released. No-one would care to sit through it. Even editing it would be traumatic in the extreme. There was one time it was released for popular viewing: in Germany. My own Father had to stand at the door, returning Germans for a second and third sitting until the horror sunk in. You'd be surprised to know that the hardest core Nazis were always young, unmarried women. (!!!) The theater had to be hosed down as every showing produced more stomach content. Later that afternoon, every backyard in town featured their Sunday finest being burned. All vere so soiled from vomit that they were unwearable.
6) And then there are the surviving Germans and their Holocaust accessories that even now can give oral testimonies. One in particular sticks in my mind: a very young Latvian witnessed an SS officer gun down 50% of the Jews standing in the ranks... as in every other one. The back splatter was so extreme that my witness had to dispose of the uniform of the SS officer. This shooting took every bit of two and a half hours... while this witness had to stand at attention. I can assure you that he HATED that SS officer. You might ask how in hell he got into the Freicorps? The bolsheviks killed his parents, he was an orphan. The bolsheviks involved were Jewish -- imagine that !
The Holocaust didn't involve 6,000,000 Jews -- but rather -- at least 12,000,000 souls: Jews, Gypsies, clergy, Poles, professors, capitalists, -- and anyone running for the hills.
The twin tyrannies created an ocean of blood: pot meet kettle.
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Germans didn't have cigarettes -- they had ersatz cigarettes -- these were NOTHING like American cigarettes.
The Germans also didn't have access to bona fide coffee or tea, either.
It's a fact that GIs blowing cigarette smoke and coffee fumes were able to get German troops to surrender on that basis alone. Bradley reported -- in total disgust -- that one GI got over a hundred German soldiers to surrender via this gambit. He, the offender, was taken-out by a German sniper called up just to stop his action. Things were getting totally out of hand. He was bringing back yesterday's surrenders and getting them to call their buddies on over... speaking through K-rations... munch... munch... munch...
Clueless Bradley slammed this GI -- in his second autobiography of the war. What a dunce!
There is a fair amount of footage of surrendering Germans (1945) to the USA. They are extremely relaxed. It's a wholly different vibe than Germans taken captive by the Russians. In such cases, the strain is plain to see. The Germans are terrified, at their wit's end.
BTW, at the end, half of most German combat formations are runts just entering puberty. They can barely tote their sleeping gear. But for the war, it'd be a funny sight.
&&&
The big unknown: how much access did the trapped 6th Army have to horsemeat?
I've read that by the time of Uranus, most of the horses had been withdrawn to the rear. Hauling fodder up to Stalingrad was murder on their fuel supplies and truck repair. Further, there were no stables that would shield the draft animals from the horrific weather. By now, the Germans had figured out that you just about couldn't use horses in such weather. Any such attempt sickens or kills the beast. Further, their feed tab goes into orbit... just like the troops.
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@David Briggs
I don't comprehend your lack of comprehension.
8th USAAF destroyed the refineries that were in Germany (not Romania) and their adjacent tank farms where the Luftwaffe held its avgas reserve stocks. It was from these tank farms that the Luftwaffe passed on avgas to units across Nazi occupied Europe -- primarily Germany, itself, at this point in time.
This period was branded the "Big Week" by the USAAF -- and many a propaganda film// newsreel was released shortly after its success. The burning avgas, and more, took days to cook off. The smoke cloud was visible forever into the distance.
These stocks were refined fuels -- not crude oil -- which is what the US 9th AAF ( Tidal Wave, North Africa) and US 15th AAF (many raids, Foggia complex) hit around Ploiesti.
Yes, Ploiesti had some refining capability, but its real claim to fame was the production of crude oil. Wiki has everything all screwed up.
[The primary goal of Tidal Wave was the Tank Farm. ( Which was adjacent to the refinery complex.) It was obvious from the start, that a tank farm is self destructive once it's lit, and that once things really get rolling, the burning crude oil and refined products will spill out and ruin the nearby refinery.
They also made for a Fat Target whereas the refinery, itself, is actually a pretty tough target. ( It's always made out of high quality THICK steel, commonly thicker than tank armor!) The sensitive and touchy components would be TINY. ( valves and pumps ) The electrical controls in a refinery are always inside rigid steel pipe as no sparks from the power system can ever be permitted to ignite gases or fuels.]
Yes, other German refineries could still produce avgas, but they couldn't re-form crude feed stock up into higher octanes. The Luftwaffe had to settle for that natural fraction of crude oil and synthetic crude oil that distilled off as avgas. For most feedstocks this was a pathetically low fraction. Such a process is know as a distillery -- not a refinery.
[ In the oil business, a distillery is derisively termed a 'teapot.']
It was just enough avgas to let the Luftwaffe limp along. It became common for the Luftwaffe to just sit on the ground and let the Americans do their worst, as the Luftwaffe couldn't put up enough fighters to even mix it up with the escorts.
Shortly after the Big Week, Ike took personal command ( ie redirected Spaatz) ordering the 8th and 9th AAF to ignore German industry and to concentrate on the the transport grid. This went on for months. (March, April, May, June... Ike didn't release these air forces until the Cobra breakout, itself a massive heavy bomber tactical attack.)
It was at this time that Speer and Galland made a MAJOR plea with Adolf to use the respite to train a whole new batch of fighter pilots while the sky over Germany was clear of USAAF fighters. But they lost the 'debate.' Both of them later published their tale in Reader's Digest. ( 1946, IIRC ) [ Strange... as Speer was in the docket at the time.]
Their pitch was basic: this is the last time that the Luftwaffe has any shot at re-blooding the fighter arm, and that all bomber pilots have to be re-tasked away from bombing the enemy. The US 8th AAF is destroying Germany's war industries. This must be stopped at all costs, or the war will be lost for lack of production.
Also, during the respite, Speer threw every man at rebuilding crippled refineries -- and he even opened up fuel plants inside hollowed out mountains. ( These cavities were originally dug out for other critical war industries (IIRC, radio tubes) -- but were taken over for liquid fuel production. )
Fortunately for the Allies, Speer was largely unsuccessful.
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@averige
You're splitting dogmatic hairs.
Both of the tyrants wanted to run a despotic empire ... and run it on new-wave Socialist principles -- so scientific they would be.
Both rejected the idea of INTERNATIONAL Socialism/Bolshevism/Naziism/Hitlerism/Stalinism.
Both tyrants wanted total 'brand control.'
As for Marxism, no-one can really say what that is.
Out in the real world, it kept being re-defined by this or that tyrant: Lenin, Stalin, Mao, ... et. al.
In its essentials, Applied Marxism has always entailed massive coercion of the population. (totalitarianism) and centrally planned economies that opt for extreme militarism; usually directed internally at first, with it turned outwards the moment the correlation of forces are favorable.
Hitlerism was of this nature with a few personal twists. He was a Socialist that hated racially incorrect Socialists. Lest you not know, Hitler absorbed virtually EVERY Socialist in Germany into the Nazi Party. (They were given 72 hours to do so.) They didn't object. Other than a handful of fleeing Socialists, everyone signed on the line that was dotted. It was quite a sight to see. Today, this has largely dropped down Winston Smith's Memory Hole.
Conservatives fled the Nazi Party. They usually simply dropped out of politics. So long as they did, Hitler looked the other way. Many Weimar officials survived clean though the war, staying in retirement.
Many German Socialists rose to VERY high rank in the Nazi Party.
This is something that post-war German Socialists can't bear to admit, to see brought up with the younger generations.
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Margarine was never made from coal -- except as a pilot test. It was way, way, way too expensive.
Margarine was made from edible, but runny, vegetable oils: corn oil, cottonseed oil, safflower oil... you name it.
The process involves HYDROGENATION. The hydrogen used is, itself, created from water by electrolysis. This is expensive hydrogen. It's used because of its reagent grade (absolute) purity. One simply does not need much for the chemical reaction is to simply add hydrogen to a fatty oil.
When such a food is packaged and labeled it reads: "Hydrogenated Oils." Look for that term, or something very close to it.
The net result is that the oils become 'butters' -- ie thick as butter. For presentation, such butters are COLORED with dye.
During WWII, if and when the dyes were not available, the product would ship looking like LARD. But it would actually taste just like today's margarine.
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@averige
The scary thing is that Lenin had Stage IV syphilis by the time he gained power -- and died from it.
The Russians admitted this during Yeltsin's presidency. They coughed up Lenin's medical records. It's significant that Lenin's last personal physician was brought in because he was Russia's national expert on syphilis. He had a towering reputation based on his expertise with this killer.
The so-called stroke that Lenin had was nothing more than Lenin ranting and raving from the ravages of syphilis. These rantings continued until the day he died of syphilis.
As you might imagine, Stage IV syphilis is famed for triggering raving paranoia. Lenin was not only warning his Bolshevik pals about Stalin, he was warning Stalin about his Bolshevik pals.
By that hour, Lenin was paranoid about everyone and everything. His mind was collapsing.
By the end, the spirochetes just eat the brain alive, parasitically.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syphilis
MANY of Lenin's tyrannical decisions were obviously driven by his syphilis.
Other famous syphilitics:
Adolf Hitler -- with proof ( heart murmur ) in the American national archives + the testimony -- in writing -- of both of his last physicians. Like Lenin, Hitler sought out Germany's top expert in syphilis and made him his personal, attending, physician. (Dr. Morell ) Hitler not only went insane due to Stage IV syphilis -- he was addicted to meth ( speed ) courtesy of Dr. Morell. This addiction was totally out of hand during the summer of '42. Adolf's antics were so extreme that Himmler had his 'medicine' analysed by expert chemists. It was a frightful concoction. He was being poisoned. His addiction caused him to flip-flop his panzers all through Case Blue.
Napoleon Bonaparte -- with proof in the diary of his personal attending physician. This diary was kept hidden until late in the 20th Century. The sole and only reason that the French did not march on Waterloo, June 17, 1815 was because Napoleon's organ was on FIRE from a fresh syphilitic infection. It cost him everything. Later, he died from it on St. Helena. Penicillin hadn't been discovered yet.
Winston Churchill's father. He broke down from Stage IV syphilis right in front of Parliament. He was the Defence Minister at the time. No wonder Winnie had a life-long compulsion to become Defence Minister -- and Prime Minister. We tend to forget, but Winnie was his own Defence Minister. Of course, Winnies father died from the disease.
Just like Stalin -- who was his own Defense Minister, too.
And here I thought that the Spanish Flu was the big killer.
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Paulus was never going to break out. He was a deer-in-the-headlights kind of fella.
The ONLY shot that the Germans had was to cut the panzer corps loose right from the start, BEFORE the Soviets pocked them with the infantry. As necessary, the lesser valued panzers would've been left behind so that enough fuel was there for the best panzers to make it all the way to German supply heads near Rostov or west of the Don.
The Don bridgehead HAD to be priority. In the event, it wasn't. The Soviets even conned the repair troops there to advance forward into the Stalingrad pocket!
( German survivor's accounts.)
These repair troops were soon a priority to fly out of the pocket, being at the top of the list. They had to leave all of their tools behind, (weight)
Once the 16p,24p,29m etc were outside the pocket, they could immediately begin to rip the Soviet light infantry to pieces... totally frustrating the encirclement.
That the above was not done is a tribute to Paulus. He froze. Guderian, Hoth, Rommel, not one of them would've froze.
Panzers are useless on defense. Why Paulus let them stay with the infantry is a complete mystery. You would've expected Hube to be howling.
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@David
Because of telecommunications security, the Axis Allied armies were actually getting their orders via the German net -- namely that of 6th Army -- which was actually operating as an army group in its own right.
Even though the Romanians and Italians were organized as organic armies, complete, they still had to co-ordinate with 6th Army -- even if -- on paper -- they were directly subordinate to Army Group B.
As a practical matter, these Axis armies were hugely passive. The krauts were STEALING their heavy weapons on a systemic basis. This was the exact inverse of the American scheme.
{
The American supply system was so robust that entire Allied armies were supplied, off the cuff, based upon surplus// replacement heavy weapons. This is how the French 1st Army in the Rhone river valley came to be. It was originally intended to be just a corps of ex-territorial French troops ( read that to mean French led African colonial formations at the heart of de Gaulle's FFA ) As the American 7th Army drove up the Rhone, the local Frenchmen fell out to join their own reserve formations.
In this, the French entirely duplicated the Wehrkreis system -- which actually hails from Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden. (1620s -- Thirty-Years War) [ Regiment = raised for the king ]
The US Army simply handed over all of the necessary weapons so as to re-create southern French infantry divisions. It didn't hurt that the 81mm mortar and the 155mm howitzer were French designs cloned by the Americans.
}
The Ostheer systematically stole all of the PAK sent by Italy and Romania to their forces in the east. They KNEW that these armies had absolutely no defense against Soviet tanks.
THIS was the height of folly.
OKH knew all about all of this. The Axis armies had been bitching about weapons theft for just about forever.
OKH should've adopted the American system where everyone at the front is being given the same stuff. The Axis armies just didn't need that much stuff, either.
Absolutely no modern army replicates the folly of OKH.
BTW, because of the Wehrkreis system, the Stalingrad fiasco caused Hitler political troubles. He, essentially, promised that the divisions that had been destroyed in the kessel would not have to serve in the east again. They were re-raised and then sent down into Italy and Yugoslavia and even southern France. This is why the Italian occupation army looks like the Stalingrad kessel. (305,76,44, on over)
The 14p, 16p, ... et. al. also had a 'vacation' in Italy. ( Being posted to 10th Army was deemed a dream vacation from the war by German troops. ( It was common for German units to be posted way up the spine of Italy as reaction troops lest the British-Americans land more troops. Italian winters may be wet, but they're mild compared to Germany. )
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@Steven
Nope, Nazi Germany was already in a two front war -- had been since June 22, 1941
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Von Rundstedt was right, Rommel was right.
The Americans were impossible to stop at the beachhead;
the Americans were impossible to stop once they got inland.
Yup. They were both right: you're not going to stop the Americans.
Neither FM was concerned about the British.
Their army was just too small.
It was landing in France only because Big Brother, USA, was landing at the same time. Shortly after D-Day the British Army just started to fade away. London just couldn't // wouldn't provide replacements for losses. Everytime you turned around, another British infantry division was being broken up -- entirely.
In contrast, the Americans needed the entire front, from the sea to the Swiss border to get all of their troops into action. This was finally achieved, April 23, 1945. ( Handshake day.)
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@John Burns
The US armies NEVER had to divert supplies in the manner described. General LEE and IKE were totally in charge of such matters, NOT Bradley, not Patton.
That's why they had to sit on their azzes and watch MG while doing nothing. If they'd had any say at all, they'd have kept on going.
Ike TOTALLY SHUT THEM OFF with a phone call to Lee.
He issued orders to General Lee, who ran the supply echelon.
The American system was unlike that of any other army's. All supplies were brought up by non-combat troops that the generals at the front had no control over. They were delivered to the various army-level supply depots, whence 1st, 3rd and 9th picked them up to haul them the last miles to the front. That's how the system really worked.
When Bradley was desperate for soldiers, he requested that Lee's boys be diverted to combat. He was shot down in flames. He didn't get ANYBODY. General Lee, of course, had a FIT.
Ike was trying to mollify Monty, nothing more.
Official histories are nothing more than azz wiping for the record. When you've read enough of them, it becomes baffling why anyone in any army ever put a footstep wrong.
( In this regard, Halder's revisionism is epic by any standard. )
NO WAY is the American official history -- or any other official document -- going to put the blame on Monty -- or the British, more generally.
Grow up.
As for 'Maxwell' (Taylor) -- you're looking at parachute DOGMA. No way is the school for parachutists going to opine that the biggest drop of the war was all goofed up because Browning -- its godfather -- phu cked up. Instead, the official line had to be: it could've worked, yes it could.
Well, who can argue against could'ves?
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TIK is falling victim to the Fraz Halder effect.
1) Paulus was a Halder boy going all the way back. Paulus was selected by Halder Precisely BECAUSE he followed orders -- which were supposed to be Halder's orders.
Hitler thought better on the equation -- and dumped the Catholic. Zeitzler was brought in. ( The hero of Dieppe could run panzer armies on thin air.)
2) Halder -- and Von Manstein -- wrote for the 'ages' ( as did Bradley, Monty, et. al. No-one wanted to make their armies out to be baffoons. )
Yet if you REALLY look at the German response to Uranus -- Paulus looks like a total fool.
3) The REAL story WRT Uranus is STILL obscured.
3a) The Soviet heroics in bagging the German Signals detatchment sent up to the Hungarian Army is STILL suppressed. It was as war-turning as the British super-success at the First Battle of Tel el Isa.
( Fact chance of finding anything about it these days. What used to be a Google snap search is now buried way down into the bowels of the Internet. )
4) In both cases, the British and the Russians pulled off the coups of the century -- and refuse to give any publicity to their master strokes.
I still can't figure out how the NKVD EVER bagged the Germans during at total White Out.
Bet you never heard a word about that.
Bet you never heard that the Soviets WAITED for the White Out.
Bet you never heard that Uranus was weeks late -- 'cause STAVKA was waiting upon IDEAL conditions.
Bet you never heard that Mars was DELIBERATELY compromised by STAVKA so as to paralyze OKH... to stop it from returning the panzer corps promised to Paulus. You read that right, STAVKA compromised its own massive offensive in front of Moscow so that OKH would be freaked out.
Bet you never heard about OKH having an entire reserve panzer corps waiting on flat cars for the inevitable Red Army Winter Counter-Attack. ( patent pending ) Yeah. EVERY German saw it coming.
Starting with Zeitzler - Chief of Staff at OKH. ( September 24, 1942 )
TIK, your 'problem' is that you're using BS that was cranked out during the Cold War -- BS that made every attempt to hide what had actually transpired.
Neither the Victors nor the Vanquished were willing to go on the record.
So you've got DECADES of BS from all parties.
The crypto-war -- the need for the Ostheer to go to Five Rotors -- Suddenly -- like overnight -- goes without comment. ( Heh. heh. heh. heh.)
[ The German Navy ordered the 5-rotor machines because they became concerned. Von Manstein ordered out NAVAL Enigmas -- in a total panic -- once he doped out that the Reds were reacting to German (four-rotor) signals.
This reality was hinted at in von Mellenthin's Panzer Battles. Even he would not admit the obvious: the Soviets were reading German signals in real time. THAT'S the reason why the rescue attempt at the Chir and Don went totally sideways. Von Mellenthin dances around that reality.
THAT'S why von Manstein gave up on rescuing 6th Army.
What you must understand: von Manstein is gagging on the fact that a four-star German general made horrific gaffs usually associate with Inspector Clouseau.
We all remember him. He told his superior that the organ grinder couldn't be the look-out for the bank robbery gang - because he was blind. This was the same French inspector that was found arguing with a monkey.
The FACTS are plain: Paulus allowed the Reds to rope and dope him -- LONG before von Manstein was called in to bail him out.
1) Omitted in virtually ALL (Halder tellings) accounts Paulus WASTED his fuel reserve by sending his panzer regiments thither and fro BEFORE the ring was closed.
2) Omitted from virtually ALL accounts: the southern wing not only started days late, it couldn't bring ANY heavy weapons across the Volga. Yup.
3) Omitted from virtually all accounts: the Soviets couldn't dig in... not for DAYS.
Yes, you read that right. The Germans -- in panzers -- could just mow the Russians down. They had NO heavy weapons, NO fox-holes, and minimal reserves of food and ammo.
When the 29th Motorized division moved against the southern wing, it was a SLAUGHTER. Who could stop panzers with their pricks? It took STAVKA spoofing to stop this German counter-stroke. If left as intendened, the 29th would've totally ruined Uranus -- all by itself.
Paulus actually believed -- and operated upon -- totally absurd Soviet spoofs that should not have fooled at four-year old.
Once von Manstein dopes this all out, he is stunned. Even years afterward, he can't lay this out to the general public. ( Get it? )
Like virtually ALL WWII commanders, his accounts are deliberate lies designed to not embarrass his nation's army.
In the case of Bradley, I just about had the heaves. ( A Soldier's Story. Gag, gag. gag.)
&&&&&&&
TIK is wrong:
By the time von Manstein is involved it's TOO LATE.
The 6th Army was fated to suffer the slings of the French of 1812-1813.
Von Manstein could see that, could FEEL it, by just walking outside his HQ.
Lost Victories is a weird read, no doubt.
1) The dude was serving to extend the tyranny of a mad-man.
[ Stage IV syphilis, jacked up on meth// speed ]
2) Day by day, he saw EVERY asset being pulled away:
He lost a panzer corps -- before he even showed up.
He lost 11th Army -- it was piece-mealed to the Ostheer.
He couldn't even get panzers up out of Army Group A.
( 13th Panzer particularly burns in his mind, see Lost Victories. )
&&&
OKH// OKW// Adolf should've had their hair on fire. Panzer divisions ought to have been recalled from Army Group A. But the WEREN'T.
%%%
Lastly, Paulus was FIXATED upon removing his ENTIRE 6th Army -- which was an ARMY GROUP.
I"ve never read of a signal scheme to merely shift the 4th Panzer Army.
It's ALWAYS the ENTIRE army.
That could NEVER WORK.
It's no wonder that von Manstein nixed every flight to the west.
It, such an attempt, would have been a fiasco beyond any imagining.
For some crazy reason, Paulus was fixated upon retreating the ENTIRE infantry army -- even though the numbers said that it was a total impossibility. The German army NEVER had the transport to shift an army in the winter -- so far.
Paulus didn't even see the significance of his position in terms of the prosecution of the war.
Astride the Volga, 6th Army was in a WINNING POSITION. STAVKA had to move heaven and Earth to shif it away from the Volga,
Yet, he didn't see that. (!!!!)
Everybody else did. ( Zietzler. (
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Lucas and Clark BOTH deserve scorn. Clark ought to have jumped all over Lucas within the first day. Clark should never have even made it to Korea. Amazing.
BTW, Bradley send down no end of American generals after only one screw-up. They were not kept in Europe but sent back to the USA.
Alexander had a killer rep with the US Army. At his level of command, he can't ride heavy on Clark. This is the same dynamic between Ike and Monty.
BTW, Churchill delayed D-Day by taking// holding onto the LSTs. Their lack was used by Bradley to convince Monty to delay D-Day by five weeks. Both agreed that they ought to wait for more LSTs. Sadly, both Monty and Bradley were wrong. The blame lies mostly with Bradley.
BTW, both the USN and RN hated operating off of Anzio. It was just too close to Nazi air power. The Krauts had already sunk two Italian heavies with their first generation smart bombs. Indeed, that's why Anzio was selected as the limit.
Further both navies were gearing up for D-Day. They wanted their crews at 100% - and at first they expected to be off Normandy May 1, 1944. That was not a lot of time. As it proved out, the navies just got stuck in the Med. This was NOT where they wanted to be.
Once it was obvious what the trend was, Dragoon was pencilled in.
Now Churchill didn't want a landing! He expected another Anzio! Oh, my!
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@Mstislaw
BTW, EVERY army had penal battalions// formations.
In the US Army 'Graves and Registrations' was always a penal formation. It was a duty that absolutely no-one wanted.
Because every army needed troopers to staff out chit details -- like Graves and Registrations -- the infractions// crimes required to be sent down to a penal formation whipped all over the lot, by army, by nation and by recent history.
The film "The Dirty Dozen" , while highly fictional in every way, did touch on the fact that penal troops were routinely given Hell work.
One job out of many: clearing mines.
If captured German engineers could be found, they would certainly be pressed into such service. My own father stood guard over such details in Normandy. There are no end of photos showing this activity. Naturally, these photos are not now popularly reprinted.
If the enemy combat engineers could not be found, then ANY enemy trooper was set to the task. Indeed, they'd be thrown into the mix even if engineers were on hand.
Of note, German mines were designed to be lifted and re-set. The Heer was in no economic situation to leave mine fields behind that could be re-set all over again when the front shifted. Further, it was often the case that the Germans wanted to attack straight through their own existing mine fields. German engineers got to the point that they could lift mines at night.
Where it got tricky was when a German mine was set to be a booby trap. ( One atop the other. ) Boy was that exciting.
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Von Manstein and Guderian MADE France fall. (1940)
Von Manstein was the brain. Adolf never forgot his contribution.
Guderian was the executioner. Dittos.
With a minor assist from Rommel. ( MUCH more Adolf's style )
Guderian was not enough of a Nazi to become a Field Marshall. Merely conquering France was not enough. ( he disobeyed/ faked out Adolf, get it ? )
He created the 116th Panzer Division for the expressed purpose of civil war against the Nazis. Yes, it was stuffed to the brim with anti-Nazi Germans.
Guderian gave it two Panther battalions + a Mark IV battalion -- ultimately the 116th was a Panzer Corps in its own right. It had THAT much magic stuff.
Right through until the last, the 116th Panzer was kept 'in reserve.' This formation is usually a mystery in most military histories.
When the Mortain counter-offensive was commanded, the 116th became the primary panzer force. It was the only panzer force that had -- essentially -- escaped the Normandy campaign -- until then.
For most readers, the question pops up: where the Hell did this oddly numbered super-panzer division spring from?
BTW, it, the 116th Panzer, was presented by Guderian to Adolf as a BIRTHDAY GIFT. ( April 20, 1944 ) Yeah, he was happy as can be.
Heh.
The 116th Panzer Division was entirely equipped with that gear that was a surge of production. ie Gear that was not previously projected. The extra tanks -- and much else -- were a tribute to Guderian, himself. ( He was working in tandem with Minister Speer.)
Yes, Guderian pulled two battalions of Panthers out of his azz. He was already trying to stop the formation of Panther brigades.
Adolf thought that he could inject these puppies to bulk up virtually every infantry assault.
[ Something like this happened against Elsenborn Ridge (Bulge) ... but that King Tiger assault didn't quite pan out. Crazy amounts of Nazi armor were employed in that micro-campaign. ]
Guderian DID have a sense of humor.
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