Three World War II questions

[Archivist]

As to Question #2: The French Maginot Line was actually a well-built defensive line. Contrary to what was said in an earlier post, the majority of the guns did have a 360 degree potation and so could fire to the rear. The Germans made several efforts to penetrate the line in 1940 but were unsuccessful. The defect of the Maginot Line was that it ended at the Ardennes because when it was being built Marshal Petain said that tanks would not be able to pass through the rough terrain of that region. The Germans simply went around the line.

The French Army actually had more tanks than the Germans in 1940 and they were, by and large, better tanks. However, most of them were divided among the French infantry divisions. France only had four armored division in 1940 because, as Polycarp1 said in his post, Gamelin was an idiot who didn't recognize the threat posed by the German armored divisions. The French 4th armored division commanded by de Gaulle actually performed well in battle aginst the Germans, but it was a case of "too little too late."

 

[oldrooster]

The French really never had a chance, their morale was so bad that leadership or equipment really did not matter. The Germans just had the high ground in everything and they trounced the west.

 

[Archivist]

Oldrooster: With some notable exceptions I would agree with you regarding French morale. The division commanded by de Gaulle was apparently known for having very high morale--proof that a great leader can have a strong effect on his command. This is probably why they were the only French division to actually score a localized success against the Germans. The greatly outnumbered French mountain troops who held off the Italian army on the eastern border were also known for their great discipline and high morale.

Unfortunately a few well-disciplined units could not overcome the low morale and poor-quality, unimaginative leadership that pervaded the rest of the French army in 1940.

 

[oldrooster]

It really boiled down to the Germans wanting war again, and the rest of Europe wanting no part of it. Italians are worthless on the battlefield, they have not had any value in recent history. Hitler had no respect for them, neither did the allies.

 

[Archivist]

The Italians were worthless in World War II. The outnumbered Greeks were kicking their butt in Albania before Hitler bailed them out. It wasn't just their army, either. They were also of little value at sea--despite being outnumbered by the Italian fleet, which had several new and modernizied battleships, the British never lost control of the Mediteranean.

 

[oldrooster]

They should stick to cooking, they just have no heart for war.

 

[Oliver]

Which is not a bad thing in itself, IMHO.

 

[Agrippa]

The Italians got an undeserved bad rep from the Second World War. The Italians didn't want a war, especially a war where America would be on the other side, since many Italians had relatives in the US. Italian equipment was poor since a great deal of it had been given to Nationalist Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Then most of the generals, particularly Mussolini's cronies, had little military experience or training. The general who commanded the attack on Greece spent most of his time composing music rather than planning the invasion.

Here's a story that displays my point which I find hilarious. After the fall of Yugoslavia, the Germans created a puppet nation of Croatia. They decided to make it a monarchy and, thus, needed a king. To improve their support among the Italians, they decided to crown an Italian duke king. So the Germans tried to tell him, but couldn't find him. They contacted the Italian government, who in turn tried to find him, but they couldn't either. A few days went by and the two governments managed to track him down in Milan. Some German officers were dispatched to tell him about the news and congratulate him on his new kingdom. The Germans arrived in Milan and found the duke in bar. The duke was completely drunk. Not only that, he was standing on a table...nearly naked...singing 'I'm the king of Croatia, I'm the king of Croatia'. Did I mention the duke was one of the highest ranking generals in the Italian army?

Blame the generals for Italy's poor performance in the Second World War. Blame Mussolini for bringing them into a war the people didn't want.

 

[oldrooster]

Also they had huge losses in WW1, from battles that went nowhere.

 

[Roman Soldier]

Were did Germany get its fuel supply from? None of the territories they conquered had much oil.

I'm going to watch Tora! Tora! Tora! in a couple of days, and I've been wondering how a G-rated movie could have battle scenes as good as the ones described in the movie.

 

[Agrippa]

Were did Germany get its fuel supply from? None of the territories they conquered had much oil.

Romania gave Germany a great deal of oil from Ploesti. Additionally, there are some small oil deposits in Austria and Poland. Finally, Germany had a number of synthetic oil plants. Despite this, oil shortage remained a concern for Germany throughout much of the war.

 

[Injured Soldier]

Agrippa is right, much of Germany's fuel supplies during WWII were from the Ploesti oil fields in Romania. A third of Germany's oil came from seven refineries spread over 19 square miles in this region north of Bucharest. Much of Germany's Mediterranean strategy was to keep these fields out of range of Allied bombers, the operation in Crete is one such example of invading places for this reason when they had little stategic value otherwise. Still, the Americans bombed Ploesti once every year from 1942 until the Red Army took Ploesti in August 1944.

The synthetic plants were targets of the Allied bombing campaign over Germany, and we all know how Germany fared in that respect in WWII.

 

[oldrooster]

The Caucasus campaign is another example, Germany needed the USSR's oil as much as she needed to deny it to the Russians. That is why so much was invested in the drive to Baku.

 

[Roman Soldier]

I've always been confused by Germany's relationship with Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania during the war. From what I understand Germany sent soldiers into these nations, overthrew their governments, and turned them into puppet states right before Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Is that how it worked?

Germany also used soldiers from these nations to fight in the Soviet Union. Why would the Nazis want the Slavic people from these nations to help elimination the Slavic people in the USSR?

 

[Agrippa]

I've always been confused by Germany's relationship with Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania during the war. From what I understand Germany sent soldiers into these nations, overthrew their governments, and turned them into puppet states right before Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Is that how it worked?

No, initially these nations supported Germany. Bulgaria joined in the German invasion of Greece in April 1941 (Bulgaria had claims on Greek territory). The Bulgarians refused to participate in the invasion of the Soviet Union, but that didn't prevent te Soviets from invading Bulgaria in 1944.

Romania initially sided with its WWI allies, Great Britain and France. It allowed Polish refugees to flee through its territory towards the Black Sea then on to France. After the fall of France, Romania tried to save itself by siding with Germany. As a price for its earlier actions, Romania surrendered a great deal of land to Hungary, Bulgaria, and the Soviet Union. Romania then participated in the invasion of the USSR to regain the land surrendered to the Soviets. By 1944, the Soviets had reached Romanian territory and the Romanian government switched sides. This action, however, didn't save Romania from post-war Soviet domination.

Hungary had a fascist type government in 1939 under Admiral Horthy. It sided with Germany to fulfill its claims on Czechoslovakia and Romania. When Germany took over Czechoslovakia in March '39, it gave Hungary a slice. As mentioned above, Germany also forced Romania to surrender land to Hungary. In 1944, the Soviets were attacking into Hungarian territory. Hitler feared (rightly) that the Hungarians were going to switch sides, so he occupied the country.

 

[Injured Soldier]

Romania had the most radical fascist style group in all of Europe (yep, even more fanatical than the German nazi Party): the Iron Guard. But Hitler didn't put them in power, Hitler preferred conservatives he could control or manipulate in states he invaded when he could get the opportunity rather than fanatic groups who could possibly twist out of his control (like the SA in his own country did). Antonescu was one such conservative. Romania switching sides shouldn't have saved it from Soviet domination after the war, Romania was one country that systematically began killing Jews before the Germans even did during WWII. Changing sides at the 11th hour shouldn't save them.

All of Eastern Europe was caught between a rock and the hard place in WWII. They had to side with Stalin of Hitler, knowing full well either would stab them in the back at the first opportunity. After the Poles tried to side with neither group and paid the ultimate price, no one in Eastern Europe was not going to choose a side, distasteful as it may be.

 

[mikie8]

neutral countries supplied nazi germany with tool and resourses such as Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and Argentina .As did american industrialists although america brought out a law in 1942 to stop its citizens trading with nazi germany others continued to do so thrugh out the campaign . Switzerland although neutral was the nazi banking system and many more countries traded with them without fully investgating where the goods were heading .

 

[Roman Soldier]

Did Hitler want his brain to be preserved, or is that just a myth?

 

[TScott]

neutral countries supplied nazi germany with tool and resourses such as Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Turkey and Argentina .As did american industrialists although america brought out a law in 1942 to stop its citizens trading with nazi germany others continued to do so thrugh out the campaign . Switzerland although neutral was the nazi banking system and many more countries traded with them without fully investgating where the goods were heading .

An interesting note along this line is that Sweden built one of the best anti-aircraft guns in WWII. The Bofors 40 MM gun was standard on all US ships and most British ships after 1942. The same gun, only in 38 MM form was used by Germany throughout the war.

 

[oldrooster]

Did Hitler want his brain to be preserved, or is that just a myth?

That is just a myth, he wanted his body to be totally destroyed.....