Comments by "John Burns" (@johnburns4017) on "The Last Defeats of the Wehrmacht | Opinion by Heinz Guderian" video.

@ullinjodahmcstea6864 Taking Britain out of the war was totally beyond Germany. A largely landlocked country focused on its land army, with even its air force geared to support its army. Its surface navy was very small with most destroyed in the Norwegian campaign. Britain was the opposite. A small army with the world's largest navy and large air force.
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Once the British and Americans were in NW Europe it was over quickly.
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In North Africa one commander routinely outstripped his supplies and drove his troops to exhaustion, often squandering any positive gains that he had made and leaving him open to counterattack. That commander was be Rommel. Then we have one that joined later the in the campaign, built his forces, stock supplies, increase the level of inter-service operation, absorbed an attack at Alem Halfa that he had correctly anticipated and planned for, and then launched an effective counterattack that drove Rommel 1,500 miles to Tunisia, that ended in victory, all the while adjusting his strategy on the fly to maximum effectiveness. That commander was be Montgomery.
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@christineshotton824 Even so, they still would have lost under the sheer volume of allied materials. The Germans knew their economy could not hope to match the combined economies of the British, US and USSR. The Germans were gamblers. It paid off in France and Crete. Failed everywhere else. Their gambles failed in the battlefield and manufacturing. Their high tech made no difference. It was countered except for the V2, of which it was too late and not enough of them. Their planes were outdated to allied planes.
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@wolflarsen1900 11 months. It would have been six months if they left Monty in charge of ground troops. The same man who ran the Axis out of North Africa.
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No one missed him.
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@reginaldmcnab3265 wrote: "the British empire had a population of 500 million people." The Turkish ambassador to the UK stated that the UK can raise 40 million troops from its empire so it will win the war. This was noted by Franco who indirectly said to Hitler he would not win, fearing British occupation of Spanish islands and territory if Spain joined the war. Spain and Turkey stayed out of the war. The Turkish ambassador’s point was given credence when an army of 2.6 million was assembled in India that moved into Burma to wipe out the Japanese. From day one the Royal Navy formed a ring around the Axis positioning ships from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Arctic off Norway, blockading the international trade of the Axis. This deprived the Axis of vital human and animal food, oil, rubber, metals, and other vital resources. By 1941 the successful Royal Navy blockade had confined the Italian navy to port due to lack of oil. By the autumn of 1941 Germany's surface fleet was confined to harbour, by the British fleet and the chronic lack of fuel. A potential German invasion from the USSR in the north into the oil rich Middle East entailed expanded British troop deployment to keep the Germans away from the oil fields, until they were defeated at Stalingrad. Throughout 1942 British Commonwealth troops were fighting, or seriously expecting to be attacked, in: ♦ French North Africa; ♦ Libya; ♦ Egypt; ♦ Cyprus; ♦ Syria: where an airborne assault was expected, with preparations to reinforce Turkey if they were attacked; ♦ Madagascar: fighting the Vichy French to prevent them from inviting the Japanese in as they had done in Indochina; ♦ Iraq; ♦ Iran: the British & Soviets invaded Iran in August 1941. Those spread-out covering troops were more in combined numbers than were facing Japan and Rommel in North Africa. They were supplied by a massive merchant fleet, via the Cape. The equivalent of sailing halfway around the world. Those spread-out covering troops were more in combined numbers than were facing Japan and Rommel in North Africa. The British Commonwealth fielded over 100 divisions in 1942 alone, compared to the US total of 88 by the end of the war. The Americans and Soviets were Johnny-come-late in WW2, moreso the Americans. Before the USSR entered the conflict the Royal Navy’s blockade had reduced the Italian and German surface navies to the occasional sorties because of a lack of oil, with the British attacking the Germans and Italians in North Africa, also securing Syria, Iraq, the Levant and ridding the Italians from East Africa.
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@classicgalactica5879 The British didn't have it's full might facing Nazi Germany either. The British Indian army alone was 2.6 million strong.
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@permindersidhu1280 The outcome would have been the same. The USSR would have used horses like the Germans.
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But a picture that was too big for them. Throughout 1942 British Commonwealth troops were fighting, or seriously expecting to be attacked, in: ♦ French North Africa; ♦ Libya; ♦ Egypt; ♦ Cyprus; ♦ Syria: where an airborne assault was expected, with preparations to reinforce Turkey if they were attacked; ♦ Madagascar: fighting the Vichy French to prevent them from inviting the Japanese in as they had done in Indochina; ♦ Iraq; ♦ Iran: the British & Soviets invaded Iran in August 1941. Those spread-out covering troops were more in combined numbers than were facing Japan and Rommel in North Africa. They were supplied by a massive merchant fleet, via the Cape. The equivalent of sailing halfway around the world. The British Commonwealth fielded over 100 divisions in 1942 alone, compared to the US total of 88 by the end of the war.
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@mathswithgarry7104 Hitler never had the forces to take the Middle East.
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@mathswithgarry7104 In North Africa one commander routinely outstripped his supplies driving his troops to exhaustion, often squandering any positive gains that he had made and leaving himself open to counterattack. He also kept pushing his forces beyond the operational range of his air power. That commander was Rommel. Strangely a commander many regard as a brilliant general. Then we have one that joined later in North Africa that took his time to build his forces, stock supplies and increased the level of inter-service co-operation. He absorbed an attack in his first encounter with Rommel that he had correctly anticipated and planned for. He then launched an effective counterattack that kicked off the drive that ended in victory, all the while adjusting his strategy on the fly to maximum effectiveness. That commander was Montgomery. Wages of Destruction by Prof Adam Tooze, page 373: In retrospect, it suited neither the Allies nor the Germans to expose the amazingly haphazard course through which the Wehrmacht had arrived at its most brilliant military success. The myth of the Blitzkrieg suited the British and French because it provided an explanation other than military incompetence for their pitiful defeat. But whereas it suited the Allies to stress the alleged superiority of German equipment, Germany's own propaganda viewed the Blitzkrieg in less materialistic terms. The British did the same in North Africa. The British had some pitiful generals, so the explanation of the pitiful defeats in some battles was to say the Germans had a genius general and superior equipment, which was not the case on both counts.
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@mathswithgarry7104 Once the USSR was overcome, the Germans were aiming to move into the Middle East. The British were waiting. They were desperately short of oil. The RN blockade was highly effective. In May 1941, before the attack on the USSR, the Italian fleet could not put to sea due to oil shortages.
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@mathswithgarry7104 wrote: "Rommel grouses several times about the refusal to take Malta." The British would have a lot to say about that. The Axis could not even stop resupply of Malta.
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Allied fighters were superior to German.
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@asmodeus0454 Good riddance to him.
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Germany and its allies totalled 120 million people. The word to use is Axis.
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@mikedimarco3008 The imminent concern of Germany was to get resources to fend off the coming air war with Britain. Wages of Destruction. by Prof Adam Tooze: Planning for Barbarossa.. 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 German 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."
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@waynelittle646 In WW2 the winners were right.
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The Germans did not venture from their supply routes directly back to Germany. Only in North African did they venture afar but nearby Italy provided the transport.
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They lost because they took on the three largest economies in the world. A very silly thing to do.
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@pvught390 You do not know? Guess.
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@pvught390 I know. If you know anything about WW2 you will know. Read Wages of Destruction - The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy. That will put you right.
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Not in million years.
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You laud US forces. Despite what you wrote, US armies performed poorly in WW2. Their loss rate was horrendous for little gain.
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@highcountrydelatite That is one rather odd view.
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@highcountrydelatite Australia never had enough manpower to make a difference. Only 7 million population in 1945 - London has twice as many right now. It had virtually no industry of any volume. Their soldiers at times were appalling - look at the 8th Division in Singapore.
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@highcountrydelatite I like facts, wonderful things.
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@highcountrydelatite Good.
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"the US Army pushed back the German army in 1918 and ended WWI" They did? New to me.
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They have to defeat the British which they had no capability to do.
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