Germany is a relativity small country - 80 million population. Yet, it took almost the entire rest of the world, as well as luck, to defeat them. Germany could have (maybe even should have) won the war. How did they do it?
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They had a system that got the best of the best in every department "survival of the fittest" unlike the allies bureaukrati systems. And because of this ideology they had the best people in everything from strategists to technicians. The greatest army the world has ever seen
shareThe greatest army the world has ever seen
ever seen totally destroyed? yes, absolutely.
holding out against the entire civilised " and uncivilised slavic world" for years. Yes it was the best army that have ever existed. None of allied countries could have won against germany without the help fom eachother. Russia would have been completely destoyed without the supplies of the allies
Superiority.
shareRead William Shirer's The Rise And Fall Of The Third Reich and Albert Speer's Inside The Third Reich. These two books will tell you everything you need to know about this complex topic.
shareSpeer's book is a fascinating read, but he does have a bit of a selective memory and it should not be read without also reading Gitta Sereny's 'Albert Speer: His Battle with the Truth' where she addresses these inaccuracies.
shareThis is often stated, repeated and in the end: wrong.
Germany's population in 1939 was 80,600,000+ according to every reliable source I could find during a quick search.
It takes a lot more than population numbers to win a battle and ultimately a war. The seriously outnumbered and barely trained pilots of the Battle of Britain is one example. Location, supplies, weather, timing, morale, the willing cooperation of allies and most of all, appointment of capable individuals to lead, are just a few of the criteria to be considered. Germany ruled by brutal force and blind obedience. Their allies were mostly forced into submission. Some of the most capable people in Europe whose brains and skills could have helped Germany were being disenfranchised and interned in concentration camps; whereas, appointments of command and directorships went to the party loyalists. The factories were run by forced labor. Although they strong and adequately supplied at the beginning, by the end of the war Germany no longer had unlimited supplies of oil, food was scarce, manufacturing was down and they were up against countries which had all of these. Their biggest mistake was to bite off more than they could chew. Occupying Europe by force and keeping order by brutality was not the way to win the willing cooperation of the occupied countries. Time and time again from the time of the Romans we have seen smaller and less well equipped nations defeat large organized armies. The Romans lost in Britain, the USA lost in VietNam. The Soviet Union lost in Afghanistan, and Britain has never really won in Ireland.