Comments by "John Burns" (@johnburns4017) on "Military History Visualized"
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Why Germany rushed to invade the USSR.
The coming air war:
Roosevelt promised 50,000 plane per year production in May 1940, of which a substantial amount would be in the RAF. Germany could not compete with the level of aircraft at the UKs disposal. Whether the planes had US and UK pilots or just UK pilots they were coming Germany's way. And the only way they could really get at each other was by air. Germany feared mass bombing, which came - the first 1,000 bomber raid on Germany by the RAF was a matter of weeks after the USA entered the war. The bomber in the late 1930s was perceived as a war winning weapon. The Germans knew the lead time for aircraft was 18 months from order to delivery. That meant in late 1941/early 1942, these planes would be starting to come in service in great numbers. Germany needed the resources of the east to compete. If the population was too big they would eliminate the population - the precedence was the American move to the west expanding the USA, taking lands from the natives population and Mexicans then eliminating the population.
Wages of Destruction by Prof Adam Tooze:
Page 422:
"At the Berghof on 31 July 1940, in conference with the military leadership. Hitler emphasized that the Soviet Union would have to be knocked out of the war, if Britain was to be brought to heel and America's support neutralized. 'Britain's hope lies in Russia and the United States. If Russia drops out of the picture, America, too, is lost for Britain, because elimination of Russia would tremendously increase Japan's power in the Far East.' Russia, according to Hitler, was the 'Far Eastern sword of Britain and the United States', a spearhead pointed at Japan. Attacking and decisively defeating the Soviet Union in 1941 would rob Britain of its 'dagger on the mainland' and unleash Japan. If Britain did choose to continue the war and if Japanese aggression provoked American entry, complete control of the Eurasian landmass would at least secure for Germany the resources it needed for a true trans-Atlantic confrontation. As Hitler put in on 9 January 1941, after the conquest of Lebensraum in the East, Germany would be ready for a 'war against continents'."
Tooze Page 454:
"Critical stores would be reserved above all for the main strike force of 33 tank and motorised infantry divisions. If the battle extended much beyond the first months of the attack, the fighting power of the rest of the German army would dwindle rapidly."
"Fundamentally the Wehrmacht was a "poor army". The fast striking motorised element of the Germans army in 1941 consisted of only 33 divisions of 130. Three-quarters of the German army continued to rely on more traditional means of traction: foot and horse. The German army in 1941 invaded the Soviet Union with somewhere between 600,000 and 740,000 horses. The horses were not for riding. They were for moving guns, ammunition and supplies."
"The vast majority of Germany's soldiers marched into Russia, as they had in France, on foot."
"But to imagine a fully motorised Wehrmacht, poised for an attack on the Soviet Union is a fantasy of the Cold War, not a realistic vision of the possibilities of 1941. To be more specific, it is an American fantasy. The Anglo-American invasion force of 1944 was the only military force in WW2 to fully conform to the modern model of a motorised army."
Page 455:
"the chronic shortage of fuel and rubber"
"the fuel shortage of 1941 was expected to be so severe that the Wehrmacht was seriously considering demotorisation as a way of reducing its dependency on scarce oil."
"Everything therefore depended on the assumption that the Red Army would crack under the impact of the first decisive blow."
Page 456:
"a new Soviet industrial base to the east of the Urals, which had the capacity to sustain a population of at least 40 million people."
"Soviet industrial capacity was clearly very substantial."
"Franz Halder recorded Hitler's ruminations about the Soviets' immense stock of tanks and aircraft."
Reading further Tooze gives the misgivings of the German generals of the invasion. All were negative.
Page 457:
"Halder noted in his diary: Barbarossa: purpose not clear, We do not hurt the English. Our economic base is not significantly improved."
At the top of page 459 Tooze emphasises that Hitler misinterpreted Backe's comments about the Ukraine grain. A region that had little surplus and had a substantial population increase from WW1.
Page 459:
"On 22 January 1941 Thomas had informed his boss, Keitel, that he was planning to submit a report urging caution with regard to the military-economic benefits of the invasion. Now he reversed directions. As it became clear that Hitler was justifying Barbarossa first and foremost as a campaign of economic conquest, Thomas began systematically working towards the Fuehrer."
Thomas was head of the OKW economic planning staff. He modified his reports from nagative to positive, presenting the Ukraine as an economic breadbasket. Thomas was an insider and it is assumed he had heard of the misinterpreted Backe's comments to Hitler.
Page 459:
"The OKW now claimed that in the first thrust the Wehrmacht would be able to seize control of at least 70% of the Soviet Union's industrial potential."
Page 460:
"As late as the Spring of 1941, the Foreign Ministry was still opposing the coming war, preferring to continue the alliance with the Soviet Union against the British Empire."
"If the shock of the initial assault does not destroy Stalin's regime, it was evident in February 1941 that the Third Reich would find itself facing a strategic disaster."
Page 452:
"the Germans had already conscripted virtually all their prime manpower. By contrast, the Red Army could call up millions of reservists."
Why did Germany invade the USSR in a rushed ill-conceived plan?
Page 431:
"the strongest arguments for rushing to conquer the Soviet Union in 1941 were precisely the growing shortage of grain and the need to knock Britain out of the war before it could pose a serious air threat."
"Meanwhile, the rest of the German military-industrialised complex began to gird itself for the aerial confrontation with Britain and America."
Germany rushed to invade the Soviet Union, with an ill-equipped army with no reserves in anticipation of a massive air war with Britain and the USA, hoping they could win the Soviet war within weeks.
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♦ The Churchill had amazing hill climbing ability. The Churchill could climb mountains as in Tunisia. Many times in Italy and Tunisia the Churchill’s would climb hills the Germans thought were tank proof. On one occasion a Colonel Koch of the Herman Goering regiment, transmitted this radio message: “… been attacked by a mad tank battalion which had scaled impossible heights and forced me to withdraw!”
♦ It could cross muddy ground and force through the forests of the Reichswald in 1944. No other tank could have managed the same conditions.
♦ There is a story of a large line of tanks waiting to cross a bridge over an anti-tank ditch. The Churchill's drove into and out of the ditch.
♦ The Churchill could keep going even if it had three wheels on the same side blown off.
♦ The Churchill was also used in Korea, with many American Units extremely glad of its amazing hill climbing ability getting to places Sherman and Pershing tanks could not.
♦ It had a flat engine, giving a lower centre of gravity.
♦ It was to be discontinued a few months after introduction, however performed well at El Alemein so was kept on.
♦ The Churchill was the basis of the Hobart 'Funnies'.
♦ It could turn on its own length because of the innovative Merrit-Brown transmission, which the Germans missed in their assessment.
♦ During trials the Australians found it a better tank for jungle warfare than even the Matilda II.
♦ In the fighting in late 1944 the Germans flooded areas so heavily that resupply could only be carried out by using DUKW’s. The roads were even impassable to trucks. The 6th Guards tank brigade's Churchill's, fought and continued the advance. Churchill’s even crossed an underwater bridge on the Dneiper river, operating without problems alongside T-34′s in swamps.
♦ It was well armoured, which was only penetrable except by the most powerful of German guns. It had initially 102mm in the front, which was then upgraded to 152mm for the later models - thicker than the Tiger I.
♦ It had a large chassis allowing it to be use larger turrets and guns. Churchill’s were adequately armed for the job they were meant to do.
♦ The Churchill was roomy by WW2 standards being popular with crews.
♦ The 4th Grenadier Guards in Churchill’s were the unit that set the record for fastest advance of any armoured unit in Europe.
♦ After WWII a study on all armoured units in 21st army group found that the 4th Grenadiers had the lowest casualty rate of all.
♦ In Italy a single Churchill was hit over 100 times by enemy AT weapons.
♦ The best all round tank of the war. As an army moves forward, tanks have to do a multitude of tasks. Tank v tank engagements were rare. No other tank accomplished the various tasks better and more comprehensively than the Churchill.
♦ It was heavily armoured could match most tanks in the 6pdr gun version and with APDS ammunition could penetrate a Tiger.
♦ At Dieppe it was the only tank in the world that could get off the pebble beaches. Half got over the high sea wall. Attributes that went un-noticed by the Germans.
♦ After Dieppe the Germans tested a Panzer IV on a beach, and got the following results. To quote David Fletcher:
“This showed that on beaches with a slope between 15 and 20 degrees the German tank could manage quite well but where the slope increased to between 30 and 40 degrees the tank started to slip then dug itself in until the tracks ceased to function.”
♦ Towed 6-pdrs in Tunisia took out two Tigers plus their supporting Pz III’s using standard AP (no APDS was around then) with penetrations starting at 800 yards to the turrets. Churchill tanks also took out four more Tigers in Tunisia, with no loss, 48 Royal Tank Regiment and Northern Irish Horse- two each, still only armed with 6-pdrs firing standard AP.
♦ Churchills got the first Panther kills by the western allies, 48 Royal Tank Regiment, with 6-pdr armed Churchills.
♦ The Churchill had the highest survivability in any tank of WW2.
A much ignored and underrated tank.
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+Pennywise Marhakesh
The tactic I think you think the Germans discovered was what the west called Blitzkrieg. First used by the British at Amiens in 1918.
Prof Adam Tooze, Wages of Destruction
Page 380
"because it involved such a concentrated use of force, Manstein's plan was a __one-shot affair._ If the initial assault had failed, and it could have failed in many ways, the Wehrmacht as an offensive force would have been spent. The gamble paid off. But contrary to appearances, the Germans had not discovered a patent recipe for military miracles. The overwhelming success of May 1940, resulting in the defeat of a major European military power in a matter of weeks, _was not a repeatable outcome."
The Germans tried it on the USSR and it failed, despite having superb advantages, of surprise, better organisation and battle proven forces.
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There is a myth that the Germans were way ahead of the British in jet engines and planes in WW2, when the opposite is true. The WW2 German jet engines were extremely unreliable and had low performances with very high fuel consumption. The German axial-flow turbojets never worked properly and were developed up to 1953 by the French to obtain a usable engine. The French lost a lot of time playing around with the German engines, instead of working with the British. The French and Soviets after WW2 tried to improve the German axial-flow engines and largely failed.
The British in order to get a usable and reliable jet engine, with the technology of the time, went for a centrifugal design rather than the troublesome axial-flow design. This design produced less thrust than an axial-flow but was quicker to develop and reliable. It took 5 months to develop, while the first reliable axial-flow engine was the 1950 Rolls Royce Avon, which took 5 years to get right.
In 1945 the French made and tested some German designed turbo jets made with quality steel unavailable to German industry in WW2. They ran for 25 hours instead 10 hours to the poor steel the Germans used. Not much better. The German axial-flow engines failed because of heavy design faults. The centrifugal compressor used by the first British Meteor plane was fine and much more reliable, but unable to reach high compression ratios. This limited performances. Centrifugal compressors were used up to the 1960s.
In 1945 the team from the French ATAR laboratory plus some BMW and Junkers engineers, were engaged by the French SNECMA research bureau, with the objective to built a new reliable and performing axial-flow turbojet. The BMW 003/Jumo004 was considered unusable. It was tested on the first French jet aircraft, the 1946 So6000 Triton, overheating and exploding. The plane only flew with a Rolls Royce Nene centrifugal turbojet.
The ATAR project took 6 years to produce the first acceptable axial-flow turbojet (ATAR 101 B1), produced in 1953. So 8 years research and developments by the French using the German jet engines as the base. It was installed on the first French jet fighter, the Dassault Ouragan.
The French lost a lot of time because the German jets had a poor efficiency and some concept fails. Essentially in the combustion chambers and fresh air circulation to reduce the external temperature of the engine. The BMW jet was know for overheat problems which precluded fuselage installation.
The question at the end of WW2 was what is the most efficient way to produce jet fighters. The answer is clearly not adopting the German design of engine and fuselage. The build costs for a jet engine were much higher than a piston engine, with the fuel consumption near 3x. The centrifugal compressor the British adopted in some planes was the best choice with 1944-45 technology, more compression pressure was not an advantage when the hot turbine was unable to resist higher temperatures. The German turbojets had big overheat problems as the engine would not work in an enclosed fuselage for single engined fighters. This defect was immediately noted by the French on the 1946 "SO 6000 Triton" prototype, and by the Soviets on the 1946 Mig 9. The Soviets quickly replaced the BMW 004B2 by the centrifugal Rolls Royce Nene which worked without problems, dismissing the BMW engine for fighter planes.
The Rolls Royce Nene was copied to the last nut by the USSR being installed in the Mig 15 being used effectively in the Korean war. About 10 years ago the USSR eventually paid royalties to Rolls Royce.
The Meteor was the first proper fully developed jet plane introduced. The 262 was slightly faster than the Meteor F3, but extremely unreliable. The British would never put into the sky such an undeveloped plane as the me262. The British could have had a jet fighter operational in 1941, but it would have been as bad as the me262. The Germans advanced R&D on jets after they interrogated captured British RAF men. They learned the British were advanced in jet technology and flying prototype planes. Until then the Germans had no intention of mass producing jet planes.
The rushed together Me262 started claiming kills on 26 July 1944, the Meteor claimed its first V1 kill on 4 August 1944. But the Meteor was a proper fully developed jet plane, not a thrown together desperate effort as the me262 was. The me262 fuselage was similar to a piston plane with the pilot over the wings obscuring downward vision, while the Meteor was a proper new design fuselage specifically for jet fighters with a forward of the wings pilot position with superior vision, as we see today. The sweptback wings of the me262 were to move the engines further back for better weight distribution, not for aerodynamic reasons as is thought the case.
Centrifugal compressors were not obsolete being used in turboprops. Between a turbo jet and a turboprop, the only difference is the turbine, not the compressor. The last centrifugal compressor jet engine still in service on a handful of commercial aircraft like the Fokker 27, is the Rolls Royce Dart turboprop. A very reliable engine made in 27 versions, but with high fuel consumption to modern engines. The Rolls Royce Dart Turboprop turbo jet engine was produced the longest, being a comparable design turbojet to the likes the Rolls Royce Nene. This rugged engine was produced from 1946 up to 1987.
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Ian Whittle, son of Frank Whittle, primary concern is to protect his father's memory from continued erosion. "It is now an accepted fact in America that my father did not invent the jet, but that he and von Ohain - who became an American citizen - co-invented it at the same time," he says. "Pretty soon, history will be rewritten to say that it was a German or American invention." Certainly, many engineering institutions now routinely describe von Ohain as one of the "inventors" of the jet. So would the Germans have flown that first jet in 1939 if they hadn't pinched young Whittle's plans?
"Certainly not. It was Frank's invention and they just copied him," says one of the greatest test pilots in aviation history, Captain Eric Brown, late of the Fleet Air Arm. He should know. Not only has he flown more planes than anyone - 487 different types - but he was sent to Germany straight after the war to get hold of all the Nazis' aviation technology. "I interrogated von Ohain, who was very ambivalent about where he had got his ideas," says Capt Brown. 'But his sidekick was utterly straight-forward about it. He said that Whittle's patent had been in every technical library in Germany even before the war.
"I have absolutely no hesitation in saying that Frank Whittle was the real inventor of the jet engine and that he could have produced a jet fighter by 1937 if the Establishment had been on his side."
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