Herr Goebbels asked for “Totaler Krieg” and he got it, in spades.
The expression “total war” as used by Goebbels did not mean unrestricted warfare, as post-war propaganda tries to assert,. It merely meant total mobilization, maximum effort and sacrifice. We did the same thing: collection scrap, working long hours in war production, and rationing food. I remember all this, and I was only four years old at the time. We recycled metal cans.
The unrestricted warfare came from the air, and on both sides.
The world came out of WWII with rules of war weakened. Under pressure from the Soviets, guerrillas (“partisans“) were given combat status. This was to retroactively excuse their own actions in the War, but also to allow such tactics against the West in the Cold War years. Now guerrillas (people with no uniforms who pretend to be civilians until they kill you) are legitimized. And we are supposed to fight terrorism under such rules?