The German Breakthrough in the West - WW2 May 18 1940 (Ep 38)

YouTube ^ | 05-18-2019 | WW2

[NRx]

The German invasion of Western Europe has been going for over a week now, and the Neutral and Allied countries are in disarray. The Netherlands, despite putting up fierce resistance on some occasions, faces overwhelming powers while Belgium, France and the British feel the pressure from an organised and armoured assault from the Ardennes. And still, the German tanks, soldiers and aircraft are not all the Allies have to fear, as many of their losses are caused by their own command.

[NRx]

The latest in a week by week history of the Second World War.

[SuperLuminal]

Will never have to worry about the German army of today... How can you sustain an offensive if your army has to stop 2-3 times every day, kneel, bow heads, and praise the great pedophile?...

[laplata]

That’s a neat video. I subscribed. Thanks.

[allendale]

Funny how things worked out. Britain was on the verge of being forced to sue for a negotiated peace after France fell and 300,000 British soldiers were on the verge of capture at Dunkirk. For whatever reason Hitler stopped the German army offensive and they eventually escaped to England. If they had been forced to surrender, England would have ceased hostilities. The rest is history. Dunkirk was the turning point of WW II.

[yarddog]

I think the main reason the Germans were so successful especially early was the ordinary German soldier.

[xkaydet65]

Had a friend tell me it wouldn’t have mattered. USSR would have defeated Hitler. I pointed out that if England fell the entirety of Nazi power would fall on Russia. No need to maintain any forces. Land or air in the West. No England, no US entry. No 15 000 aircraft. 8,000 tanks,3,500 locomotives, 750 000 transport vehicles, no 100 octane aviation gas. Remarkably he was unimpressed. Said Stalin had it figured out.

[jmacusa]

There were a number of reasons Hitler didn't finish off the Brits when he had the chance. He and his generals, the staff officer, desk bound types anyway just couldn't get their heads around the fact that the blitzkrieg had worked so well. They just too slow to understand how far and fast the panzers had moved and especially how far ahead they were of the infantry who were still miles behind the forward units.

OKW was also concerned that the supply lines and flanks were vulnerable and Hitler really thought he could negotiate with the British and perhaps even swing them over to unite against the Soviet Union. And Fatso Goering didn't help matters boasting that his Luftwaffe alone could finish off the BEF.

[dfwgator]

Best thing on Youtube. Look forward to every episode.

[dfwgator]

How can you sustain an offensive if your army has to stop 2-3 times every day, kneel, bow heads, and praise the great pedophile?...

Yet that's what Hitler wanted. He felt had the Aryans adopted Mohammedism, they would have conquered the world, because it was a religion better suited for soldiers.

[jmacusa]

Yes but that theory doesn’t take into account Hitler s axis partner, Japan. The Japanese, unbeknownst to Hitler were planning an attack on America which bought us into the war. Hitler, bound to the Axis agreements and his own stupidity declared war on America three days after Pearl Harbor and the rest is history.

[dfwgator]

Hitler also still held out hope that the Brits would “come to their senses” and get rid of Churchill. He originally thought Britain and Germany would be natural allies because of their mutual hatred of Bolshevism.

But when von Ribbentrop felt slighted by the Brits when he was Ambassador to Britain, he developed a burning hatred for them, and he was able to convince Hitler to hate them too.

[dfwgator]

Hitler thought Japan would help him against the Russians.

The Japs weren’t stupid.

[sparklite2]

Dunkirk was the turning point of WW II.

---

I don’t see how. Britain was not defeated but they were out of action. The Pacific war had a turning point at Midway, but to say any one event was the turning point for the European war is difficult. Normandy? Stalingrad?

[dfwgator]

One factor that isn’t appreciated is the aid that the Brits were able to give to the Soviets.

Of course the Soviets don’t want to talk about it, but the fact is, and Stalin even admitted it privately, that without that help, there was no way the Soviets could have held out.

[sparklite2]

Not just the Brits. There were 78 convoys from the UK and North America to the arctic port Arkhangelsk between ‘41 and ‘45.

[dfwgator]

True.

The thing that irked me was the fact that they would label the supplies as coming courtesy of the “Workers’ Party of New York”, to make it look like the aid came from fellow Commies in the US.

[sparklite2]

Heh. That’s the first I heard of that.
We were such patsies.

[dfwgator]

I still believe that Hitler sent Rudolf Hess on his mission to Britain, and they were the only two who knew about it.

[jmacusa]

Yes. The Japanese pretty much played along with Hitler. They probably thought he would eventually screw up. They were almost entirely unconcerned with the ‘’round eyes’’ in the West. They wanted an empire in Asia and America out of what they considered their back yard, the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. And you're right, taking on the Russian bear was not part of the plan. Their drubbing at the hands of the Red Army in 1936 taught them that lesson.

[jmacusa]

Well if he did, he certainly put on a good show of being pissed off about the whole thing. But then again Hess was certifiably nuts anyway, the guy was a whole brickyard short of a load. I forget the name of the historian who called Hess ‘Hitler's dim-witted deputy’’.