Don Lewis wrote:And sure Germany did well enough for those years till the 40's. Then his all powerful achievements came to nothing, the economy was destroyed his country was fractured and Germany was a tool for US and Russian political games for the next fourty years. Totally worth 15 years of economic rise.
His only mistake was declaring war on the United States after Pearl Harbor, the Russians were doing terribly in the beginning, losing all their tanks and factories. Without the US shipping in tanks and arms and food then Russia would have fallen and the war would have gone on far longer.
lol, dont think for one second declaring war on the US caused hitlers downfall, its the russians that crippled him, who in no way needed any help from the US. Sure they lost tanks and factories, but as they fell further back into russia they literally moved their factories until a point where for every 1 tank destroyed they were pumping out 3 new ones.
Napoleon himself dubbed the mud of russia in the winter as the 5th element as it was impossible to traverse effectively. Hitler had the same problem, he couldnt get resources to the front fast enough and it inevitably collapsed. That was his one great tactical mistake as a ruler imo.
As for him being a good dictator, sure he was an awsome tactical, economical and political leader, its his morals that let him down.
Don.
Don't be foolish, the Russians didn't HAVE any factories deeper in. Take a look at a map of Russia do you see
any major cities that aren't clustered around the borders? I doubt you will. Most of Russia is an expanse that especially in World War 2 days barely had electricity, never mind factories.
"Aircraft.............................14,795
Tanks.................................7,056
Jeeps................................51,503
Trucks..............................375,883
Motorcycles..........................35,170
Tractors..............................8,071
Artillery..................................8,218
Machine guns........................131,633
Explosives..........................345,735 tons
Building equipment valued.......$10,910,000
Railroad freight cars................11,155
Locomotives...........................1,981
Cargo ships..............................90
Submarine hunters.......................105
Torpedo boats...........................197
Ship engines..........................7,784
Food supplies.....................4,478,000 tons
Machines and equipment.......$1,078,965,000
Noniron metals......................802,000 tons
Petroleum products................2,670,000 tons
Chemicals...........................842,000 tons
Cotton..........................106,893,000 tons
Leather..............................49,860 tons
Tires.............................3,786,000
Army boots.......................15,417,000 pairs"
that list is what the US delivered to the Russians, not including the massive amounts the UK also sent. That hardly says the Russians are doing fine when they need FIFTEEN MILLION pairs of boots. They eventually recovered their factories and did indeed begin pushing the germans back, but they could never have done it without American and British supplies. Not to say the russians didn't fight hard and show the world they were a force, it's just not all the story.
Hitler was in NO way a tactical genius, he invaded Russia, he attempted a PR damaging civilian bombing attacks on London which started the rumblings of Anti-German sentiment in the USA. He also bet heavily on the British being appeasers. After the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia France and Russia told Britain they were willing and ready to declare war on Germany and end the war there. The English refused, all luck on Hitlers part that he was able to advance as far as he did before the allies started fighting.
Political leader: He was alright until he started eliminating he best lieutenants for ridiculous reasons, becoming mad with power.
Economic Leader: His economic strategies were only good for a country almost totally on a war-time footing or preparing for a war-time footing focusing so heavily on manufacturing etc. The german economy would have collapsed again without a giant war causing demand for various equipment going up.
Napoleon failed in Russia mainly due to their strategy of scorched earth. However he still eliminated many more Russian troops percentage wise then he suffered. His main mistake was taking the wrong route with his army after being ambushed by Cossacks investigating the other path. If he had kept going on the path where he had been attacked he would have been able to get out of Russia with
FAR less casualties and been able to mount a defense in Germany.
](./images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
