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Politics : World Affairs Discussion -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (3336)	1/16/2004 7:24:16 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Respond to of 3959

1943 was indeed a pivotal year, wasn't it? Judge by yourself: Of course 1943 was a pivotal year as the defeat at Kursk completely removed any perception that Germany might win, or win a stalemate on the Eastern front.. But again.. there was nothing that resembled a Bolshevik Revolution brewing in Germany.. AND THAT WAS WHAT YOU ASSERTED.. (no matter how hard you try and deflect attention from that statement via your extraneous military history lesons... Though it's good that you're trying to play catch up and learn something).. As for pivotal years for Germany, most people would claim that 1942 was the pivotal year for Germany.. For it was in 1942 that Hitler foolishly chose to make bludgeon his way into Stalingrad, rather than bypassing and surrounding the city. It was in 1942 that Panzer Group South, by way of Hoth's 4th Panzer Armee, made the farthest advance of the war towards the Caucasus oil fields.. But even then, IMO, they should advanced and captured Astrakhan where they would have cut off Russia's oil supplies from the region... Destroy the enemy's ability to wage war and the territory will eventually follow. Let's see what else occurred in 1942 that was pivotal in WWII.. The Battle of El Alamein, of course, which marked the end of Rommel's threat against Egypt and the Suez Canal. We had the US invasion of North Africa in November, 1942, which eventually led to the surrender of 250,000 Germans in May, 1943 (on top of the 250,000 lost at Stalingrad).. And it was the surrender of those 1/2 million+ men that made it painfully obvious to the Germans that it was likely they were going to lose the war. It was merely a matter of time... There was simply no way Hitler could cover up those defeats since so many German families had lost loved ones in those battles. The best they could hope for was a stalemate or delaying the inevitable until Hitler's "wonder weapons" came into fruition.. I will say.. that if certain events had transpired in Germany's favor such a a failure of the Normandy invasion, success in the Battle of the Bulge (such as capturing the fuel depot at Stavelot and driving to the Meuse), Germany might have been able to create that stalemate.. Some of these "wonder" weapons systems were just beginning to come into production in 1944, and 1945, such as advanced jet fighters and underground synth fuel refineries. I still opine that Hitler's decision to delay the ME-262 production in hopes of turning it into a fighter bomber, was probably one of the biggest blunders of the war. With that weapon in production in 1943, as originally planned, it could have literally altered the outcome of the war, creating the stalemate (or breathing space) that might have permitted additional weapons to come into production... That might, just might, have changed the outcome of the war. But then again, some opine that Hitler's decision in August, 1941, to divert Army Group Centre towards capturing 700,000 Russian soldiers near Kiev, and failing to capture Moscow as a result, was the truly major error that prevented Hitler from defeating Russia (and winning the war). Hawk