Comments by "Big Blue" (@bigblue6917) on "TIKhistory" channel.

  1. A. J. P. Taylor had long argued Hitler was not a mad man for the same reasons you have said. If Hitler had been captured and put on trial his lawyers could have pleaded the Mad Man defence claiming he was not responsible for his actions.
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  2. I long realised that Hitler would not want the return of the Kaiser. Last thing he needed was a rival.
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  3. Some years ago I read the autobiography of an RAF officer who was a radar operator in a nightfighter. While flying over Germany they came across a German nightfighter flying around a beacon some miles from where the RAF's bombers were attacking. They could not understand why the fighter was there miles from the bomber and came to the conclusion the pilot was a coward and was hiding from the bombers. There are a couple of reasons why this German was where he was. Firstly, he was flying in his designated box. Secondly, that he had been sent there by the British. The RAF was using people who spoke fluent German and were broadcasting on the same radio frequency and telling the pilots that the British were trying to trick them and not to listen to the other person. The other person being the real German. So German pilots were being told by German speaking RAF personnel to fly to a point away from where they should have been. This caused sufficient confusion amongst the German pilots that many would follow the instruction of the RAF personnel rather then their own people. One night the Germans did try and catch the RAF out. The German controllers were I believe all male, it has been some time since I read this so I may be wrong as to whether they were all male or all female. The Germans suddenly changing all their personnel to all female, or male, believing this would catch the British out. The British seem to have been aware of this, or at least the anticipated the possibility that this may happen, as they suddenly changed their personnel as well. So now the German pilots are having to deal with the added confusion of both sides suddenly changing their people and the same old arguments as to who was genuine and who was not. You get the feelimg they longed to be back on the Eastern Front.
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  4. When you get to the point when you dare not tilt your head in case your brains start dribbling out of your ears then that is a good moment to take some R&R
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  5. The German navy had not faired too well with the invasion of Norway loosing a number of ships, including the heavy cruiser the Blucher which blew up taking up to 1000 sailors and soldier with her.
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  6. During a prewar meeting between Sweden and Germany in Sweden the Swedes bragged about having removed all Jews from running businesses before the Germans had done. Sounds like they were sharing Nazi Germany's ideology.
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  7. Thanks for the video. It does shed an interesting, and different, light on events. I wonder how much this helps explain Paulus fatalism towards the end. A feeling that he had been let down by others.
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  8. It is ironic that Eisenhower was an excellent supply officer.
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  9. THe people who should bear most responsibility for the fall of France is the French Government. The Chieftain did a video on the Battle of France and he points out that one of the problems the French military faced was political interference. The politicians feared a military coup so the required that officers needed a copy of their orders before the could act. This meant that orders given by radio could not be acted on until a copy of that order had been received. This meant that a senior French officer fighting the Germans on the frontline had to send a dispatch rider on motorbike all the way to the head quarters which was outside of Paris with the message telling the armed forces commander what was happening. Orders for the senior officer in the field had to then be sent back to the frontline. This took three days by which time everything had changed. So it was not a case of not calling up the French airforce but more a case of the order would not reach the airforce in time. So the way of sending orders in 1940 was not different that of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Except the riders rode motorbikes instead of horses. And the French lost that war as well. The reason the armed forces commander did not use a radio was twofold. One was, as already explained, that any orders had to be written down and given by hand. The second was that in the Polish campaign the Germans would triangulate on any radio signals and attack that point with Stukas. So either way the French could not use radios. Churchill wanted to send more aircraft to France but to do so would have stripped away squadrons which were needed to defend Britain, something Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding had to remind Churchill of. I believe Dowding even threatened to resign if Churchill did send more aircraft. Churchill had to inform the French Prime Minister that no more squadrons would be sent which left the French PM feeling betrayed. After the fall of France Montgomery was put in charge of troops in southern England where he met Churchill.
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  10. The best tanks in the German army in 1940 were the Czech tanks, the 35(t) and the 38 (t). The reason Britain carried on making 2 pounder gun is because after the fall of France they needed to rearm quickly and to include the 6 pounder gun would have delayed production while everything was set up for the 6 pounder to be made. When it was finally brought into use the 6 pounder was a very good gun. They even had a version later in the war which used armour piercing discarding sabot rounds which was quite capable of penetrating most German armour. But it lacked the range of the 75 mm and 17 pounder guns which were either in service or coming into service. Without Germany in WW2 there would have been a war between Japan, America and Britain. In fact before Germany became a threat Britain was looking to fight in the Pacific. Britain only started to refocus the Royal Navy on the Atlantic and the Mediterranean because of Germany. One of the upsides to this was that Britain had armoured decks to their carriers because there was more likelihood of them facing land based aircraft which would have a aircraft which would carry a heavier bombload that carrier based aircraft. The results of this can be seen by the amount of damage sustained by US carriers against that of their British counterparts. One British carriers which had a kamikaze aircraft hit its deck just put the fire out, pushed the wreckage overboard and carried on fighting, much to the surprise of the US Navy officer onboard.
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  11. These are the thoughts of Himmler. The failed chicken farmer.
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