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To: muawiyah
Now, tell me what part worked

The German economy could not keep the German military supplied.

It worked.

Boohoo all you want about it.

I don't care if it hurt people's little feelings. I don't care if the survivors thought the allied forces were brutal meanies.

It doesn't matter one damned bit how much resolve they had. Resolve was unable to produce enough bullets, beans, petrol, replacement tires, warm clothing, or any of the other things the front line troops needed.

The battle of the bulge fizzled out for the Germans simply because they ran out of supplies.

It doesn't matter one damned bit how squeamish you are about war Muawiyah.

If there is a war here in your lifetime, there will not likely be only two factions and it will be fought at the level described here.

Grow up.

54 posted on 02/13/2013 9:38:16 AM PST by MrEdd (Heck? Geewhiz Cripes, thats the place where people who don't believe in Gosh think they aint going.)
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To: MrEdd
Pretty much this. Germany's war production was inconvenienced but not terribly impacted until the huge city bombing campaigns kicked off at the end of 1944 to hit western infrastructure, and the Soviet offensive in the east took Silesia and other industrial regions out of Germany's hands.

Speer reported that German war material production was barely down at the end of Nov 44, but down 60%+ at the end of February. That is when the transport network really started to fall apart - food distribution became a nightmare, and moving supplies to factories and to the front became even harder. By April, production was pretty much at an end in Germany's remaining factories - raw material sources had either been seized by the Allies or the infrastructure to get them to the factories had been destroyed.

In some ways, maybe we should condemn Allied strategic planners for not going to the massive infrastructure targeting effort sooner, but I think the buildup of aircraft and supplies really took that long - 1,000-plane raids were common in 1945, but logistically impossible a year earlier.

Did innocent people die? I am sure they did. Were there those on the Allied side who were overly bloodthirsty or motivated by vengeance? Yes, and not only on the Soviet end of things. However, in the end, Germany had to fall, and it was either wait for the Soviets to take the whole thing (and the rest of continental Europe) or do our best to bring on the collapse that finally happened.

134 posted on 02/13/2013 10:19:10 AM PST by AzSteven ("War is less costly than servitude, the choice is always between Verdun and Dachau." Jean Dutourd)
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