I wish you well with your attempt to keep doing this programming full time. The web needs this channel's quality.

Fantastically competent guest. Thank you.

Very informative program today. I had little knowledge of the Luftwaffe ground forces during the war prior to today's program. It is amazing to me that the Germans were able to sustain the war on three fronts so long facing a manpower shortage which began in 1941. Michael is a very interesting presenter to listen to--thanks! Great job again Paul for a great program!!

37:26 a lot of people don't realise how weak a soviet rifle division was compared to its German or Western counterpart . I already knew the history of these Luftwaffe Field Divisions (my Bolt Action Germans are Luft Feld Division) but when I hear 'these divisions on paper where weaker than a soviet rifle division' alarm bells ring ............ and 3 weeks training you've got to be joking 3 weeks is barely enough time to train a recruit to make their bed and march up and down at a set pace let alone enough time to train a division .

Excellent presentation. Great detail and research. Thank you Michael

I know I keep repeating myself, but, yet again, a great presentation. One more part of the puzzle. Well done.

@WW2TV

Жыл бұрын

Thank you! Cheers!

Excellent topic. Everyone knows the story of 1st SS, or JG26, but Luftwaffe divisions are big unknown. You have filled up the gap in my knowledge, thank you!

Paul/Michael, Great presentation! A subject I have not read about. Bob

Excellent one Paul ,the Herman Goring Pz Div. was a good unit ,one of there last actions was the battle of Memel were they held the soviets in check for a number of weeks. Would you be able to perhaps look at inviting a guest onto your show who could talk about the Gross Deutschland Div. ?

@JohnEglick-oz6cd

8 ай бұрын

I thought the Herman Goring Panzer Div. was the whole time fighting in Italy ?

@briankorbelik2873

8 ай бұрын

The HG went from Italy to Poland in July-August, 1944. They later fought around Memel and then Ost Prussia often near/with the GD.@@JohnEglick-oz6cd

@JohnEglick-oz6cd

8 ай бұрын

@@briankorbelik2873 Those Luftwaffe Field divisions were a kind of separate entity with their head @ Herman Goring , and were fine fighting units whose fighting , and chivalrous capabilities date back to the Teutonic Knights , of which my mother is a descendant of being from.Ost Preussen ( East Prussia) . The Fallshirmjeger units were of excellent fighting capabilities , tenaciously holding on to territories until them being annihilated . My grandpa ( dad's side) was a manic in the USAs 508 PIR 82nd A/B Div. , could attest to that while in Normandys' bloody "Bocage " hedgerow fighting after his harrowing jump into Normandy France 6/6/44 (DDAY)!

@JohnEglick-oz6cd

8 ай бұрын

@@briankorbelik2873 I meant to say pops pop was a medic , but after the bloody experiences he endured from DDAY to ""Operation Market Garden "to being wounded in the Ardennes "Battle Of The Bulge " , then after being patched up ordered with other American medics to assist concentration camp victims , he suffered PSTD issues , becoming in a way manic , but I originally meant medic . My key pad has PSTD issues !

@briankorbelik2873

8 ай бұрын

I've read at the Battle for the Huertgenwald, that the battle became so horrible for both sides that thsy called a truce so that the medics from both sides just worked on who was the worst wounded first, a Triog of sorts which has shwon to me that even through the worst of the fighting, a glimmer of humanity could and did spring forth. I hate to say it but it was true, that never could have happened with US forces fighting the Japanese. The Japanese had slid so far below being human, they were savage little bastards. Ask ANYONE in East Asia, and the Allied Forces who had fought the Japs, and God help them, if they ever were captured by them. Despite many Nazi crazies, the Americans, Brits, and many of Commonwealth forces could find common ground with at least many of the Heer.@@JohnEglick-oz6cd

Great program with a knowledgeable guest and a little known aspect of World War II. All I knew about the Luftwaffe ground troops were the personnel that Hitler and Göring called on in1945 as part of the last-ditch effort to halt the Russians. Now I can hardly wait for Mr. Stout’s book to come out so I can purchase a copy and learn even more. Thanks for all your amazing coverage of the war on this outstanding channel.

The whole German War was about ideology. It's why everything they did was inefficient. And why they lost the war.

Really great show/channel....and very informative on a subject you don't see much....keep up the good work👍

@WW2TV

2 жыл бұрын

Much appreciated

A very interesting presentation. Had to watch it on catch-up as my live feed didn't start.

Excellent program! I always found it astonishing that the Luftwaffe had field divisions. This program has done nothing to decrease my astonishment, which is a credit to the research and the presentation. Keep up the great work and keep bringing on the stellar historians!

@WW2TV

2 жыл бұрын

I will do

Excellent presentation. Well organized and clear. All I knew about the Luftwaffe divisions was that they were terrible. Now I have some idea of why they were terrible.

This channel continues to unearth aspects of the war that seem completely new. 👏🏼

Fascinating insight into a subject I knew nothing of!

And thanks too Michael Stout!

Great presentation! I didn't realize what a disaster these units were and the confusing nature of how they were born out. Great job again!

Does anyone know this obscure WW2 fact? Hermann Goering's favorite breakfast? Luftwaffles thank you, I'll be here all week, don't forget to tip your servers!

Interesting and informative. Special thanks to guest speaker Michael. Excellent idea using picture slides enabling viewers to better understand what the orator was describing. Using soldier portraits/maps paragraph statements. Did a very good job distinguishing facts from fiction. Class A research project.

Really enjoyed this presentation by Michael Stout. It's amazing to think you hear the Germans were bad but then recoil at how really bad when laid out in detail. All I can say is thank goodness for Göring. Made the Allies life easier.

@WW2TV

2 жыл бұрын

Well said!

Great video mate 👍🌟

Excellent presentation , sometimes I feel sorry for the poor german grunt holding a rifle . This is one of those times .

@davidr2802

2 жыл бұрын

you mean the poor german grunt who shot innocent civilians with that rifle? That's the guy you feel sorry for?

@myparceltape1169

Жыл бұрын

@@davidr2802 I detect an i-witness.

@anglishbookcraft1516

Жыл бұрын

@@davidr2802 yeah every German soldier killed an innocent person. GERMANS WERE LIKE DARTH VADER AND WE WERE LIKE SPIDER-MAN!!!!! Stfu and grow up

The 14th never retreated and never lost a man. Well done.

Howdy there folks. Great presentation with nice phots and maps of the Luftwaffe’s personal army. Tragic misuse of potentially good soldiers who were mistreated by the Army and ineptly lead throughout. Learned a great deal mostly new to me. Two thumbs up for Dr Stout.

I’ve watched this presentation 3 times…fabulous information! Please, please, please do a presentation on the formation/war record of the Volksgrenadier divisions!

Great video, did you ever do one on the Volkgrenadiers?

@WW2TV

2 жыл бұрын

Not yet

ty 🙏🙏

Thanks for a good video..

@WW2TV

Жыл бұрын

You are welcome

Excellent video on a subject I knew nothing about. The only thing I had heard about the Luftwaffe divisions was in a video about Sedlitzt heights where this kid that was in flight school was dropped at a unit with one days training, they got out of a truck and were instantly cut down by artillery. Strange to find out that was the norm.😮

This was a very informative episode, which I had to view the recorded video and missed the livestream once again. The question I wanted to ask was did Michael seem to think that the Luftwaffe "volunteers" sent to these units were perhaps not some of the best quality? I know that often commanders will send marginal personnel off to such units to get rid of unwanted people. I hear in my mind episodes of "Hogan's Heroes" General Burkhalter telling Colonel Klink "Klink. Do you want me to send you to the Russian front?" (Substitute Luftwaffe Field Division)

Very VERY interesting presentation. It just seems funny to me at a high command level to evaluate and realize that these divisions are terrible and they don’t see, oh wait we aren’t equipping them, we aren’t training, why are they so bad?!?!!

First of all, thank you both for a very informative presentation on a much-neglected topic. A couple of comments regarding the 11th LWFD (1:08:55): - Leros was captured by a mixed German battle group that merely included one battalion of the 11th; also involved were battalions from the 22nd ID, 2nd FJD, and the "Brandenburg"; - Speaking of German retreat from the Balkans is misleading: they evacuated Eastern Balkans in the late summer, fall, and early winter 1944-45, but had no intention of leaving the western part without a fight; - Apart from the fighting in Eastern Macedonia in early October 1944 against the Bulgarians, the 11th LWFD fought exclusively against the Yugoslav Partisans throughout the remainder of its career; with the possible exception of some artillery fire received during Operation "Waldteufel" in early March 1945, the division never clashed with the Red Army; - The division did not surrender to the British in Austria, but to the Yugoslavs in the vicinity of Celje, Slovenia. The archival trail of the division for the most interesting period of its history (September 1944-May 1945) is almost non-existent. The best source are the written statements given by the division's officers to their Yugoslav captors, which are now held in the Military Archives in Belgrade. The 11th's last CO, Gerhard Henke, left behind a manuscript containing details on his career and captivity, which can be found in BA-MA Freiburg.

@WW2TV

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for the detail

@dermotrooney9584

Жыл бұрын

Lovely. Any handy published source?

@gajtrifkovic5299

Жыл бұрын

@@dermotrooney9584 In general, very little has been published on these events in English. Most of the information regarding the 11th I wrote above comes from my articles - 'The German Anabasis' - The Breakthrough of Army Group E from Eastern Yugoslavia 1944 (Journal of Slavic Military Studies 30:4, 2017) - The Forgotten Surrender - the End of WW2 in Yugoslavia (International Journal of Military History 37:2, 2017) as well as some unpublished parts of Carnage in the Land of Three Rivers-the Syrmian Front 1944-1945 (Militärgeschichtliche Zeitschrift 75:1, 2016). I believe all of these are fairly easy to find.

Just a stick! My new favorite take down

Another excellent WW2TV program. I knew a little about Luftwaffe ground units but I had no idea of the scale of these forces and there realtivly poor quality.

Kholm with K is in Poland. The 41-42 siege south of Ilmen is Cholm.

I'm watching this program now because, for the last few days, I've actually been trying to catalogue the period of existence and nature of each division in the Wehrmacht. I'm trying to get my head around exactly how many divisions existed at each point during the war and the organisational capability (KStN) of each division (i.e. their theoretical capability if at full strength which, of course, most of them weren't). I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that the number of highly capable, front line, infantry based divisions (in whatever form e.g field infantry, fallschirmjäger, gebirgsjäger, jager etc) hardly grew at all after 1940. Mobile, front line capable infantry divisions were destroyed and disbanded (or converted to panzer or panzergrenadier divisions) from 1941 as fast as new ones were created. And, what's more, the authorised size of these divisions also decreased considerably as the war progressed. The massive increase in the number of divisions in the Wehrmact after 1940 was almost entirely due to the creation of large numbers of poorly and irregularly equipped, often static divisions full of older, unfit, conscripted non-German and/or other poor quality, poorly motivated soldiers generally unsuited to mobile or high intensity warfare. These very second rate divisions (Luftwaffe Field Divisions included) were largely intended for garrison, security duties and quiet, static sectors of the front line. They were created so that every last division capable of use in high intensity, mobile warfare could be thrown into the cauldron in Russia.....and inevitably used up and destroyed in the process. It really backs up what these guys are saying. Even if the nominal number of divisions steadily increased through the war, the average size, quality and field capability of the divisions declined markedly. And that analysis is just the theoretical or planned strength of each division.....the reality is that most front line, "high quality" divisions were well below full fighting strength most of the time. As a whole, it was a very substandard fighting force well before 1944. A thin shell of hard, well equipped, well motivated and highly capable fighting divisions covered a large, soft and very unimpressive centre.

If it has not been published yet it needs to be with the tile of this presentation on the cover. I knew about the divisions from there appearance various games and in reading the books mentioned at the beginning long ago.

Outstanding presentation. As I heard more I began to wonder how the Germans could have thought they could win!!

At the start of the video my expectations for the LFDs were low but HOLY SH*T!

Outstanding presentation!!

This is another very interesting presentation from WW2TV!!! :) What struck me the most is the convoluted and confusing Nazi-Wehrmacht chain of command at the top. Contrast Luftwaffe field divisions with Soviet NKVD divisions. In the latter case, many of them were transferred to the Red Army throughout the war. Thereafter, these ex-NKVD units were reorganized. Take the 70th army as an example which consisted of NKVD divisions led by NKVD officers. It was assigned to Rokossovsky's Central Front before the Battle of Kursk. Rokossovsky overhauled the 70th Army's chain of command as he found many NVKD officers rather wanting (i.e., not ready to lead their men as bona fide infantry commanders). Meindl was never given the level of latitude Rokossovsky enjoyed. Personally, I thought the Luftwaffe volunteers destined to join LwFDs should have been allocated to Fallschirmjäger divisions as replacements. At the least, these ex-airmen-now-infantry-newbies would have been trained and led by folks who knew what being infantrymen was all about and how to lead them, while officially remaining as vassals to the Luftwaffe. I think someone should make a multi-player strategy game that puts each player to take the role of Heer, Kriegsmarine, Luftwaffe, and Waffen-SS higher-ups competing for Hitler's ears while fiercely competing for manpower and resources.

I remember my Grandfather telling me about being up against The Herman Goering Division in Italy during WWII. He was a Canadian member of The First Special Service Force (The Black Devil's).

Interesting presentation! One thing that occurred to me was that the Luftwaffe created many Fallschirmjager divisions later in the war - 3, 4, and 5 FSJR Division in 1943 and 6 and 7 Division in 1944. These divisions, in general, fought well. And of course the Herman Goering Panzer Division fought well. Thus it is clear that the LW had the capability to train effective ground combat units. Somewhat strange then that the LW Luftwaffen-Feld-Divisionen were so bad. As the presentation showed, the Feld-Divisionen were under-trained, poorly equipped, and poorly led, but the FSJR units show that it didn't necessarily have to be that way.

Even when the Luft Feld Divisions were transferred to Das Heer, in about late 1943, they didn't do much better. One of the better Luft Feld Divisions though was the 5th, which fought in the Kuban Bridgehead.

Wasn't there a final LW "levee en masse" before the battle of Berlin?

In 1944 many ground crew airmen from Bomber Command were transferred to the army and sent to the Far East.

26:46 the road to disaster is paved with good intentions. Meindl Division should've been a template for 1 other field division - infantry officers & NCOs training 2nd tier troops long term for infantry combat led by a competent general. Even allowing for the equipment & logistics issues, the potential to have two good division for firefighting was there. Enter Göring and out goes all those lessons. The 12th FD(L) subsequent good performance was in spite of than because of the 1943 reforms.

@dermotrooney9584

Жыл бұрын

👍 Meindl defended Goch.

40:40 What a wonderful scenario to wargame!

There was a lot of competition between Goering and his Luftwaffe, and Himmler and his Waffen-SS. Both sought the favor of Hitler, and sought to consolidate their own power within the Nazi hierarchy by building their own armies. As the war went on, the quality of the divisions they created continued to badly degrade. Most were as weak and ill equipped, or worse, than the earlier Luftwaffe field divisions. All that mattered to Hitler was to see division numbers on a map. The field divisions were created at a time when the German military had suffered very serious losses in the first year of the war on the Eastern front. Germany's industry was already having a hard time just replacing the losses of equipment for the regular army divisions. The army had also suffered severe losses of trained and experienced officers; making it that much more difficult to provide quality officers for Luftwaffe units. Perhaps I missed it, but how is it that Goering had 200,000 extra men in the Luftwaffe available? Were they for a planned expansion of the Luftwaffe, that became unrealistic with the turn of the war by 1942? I seem to remember seeing somewhere that there was a British commando attack that destroyed an aluminum factory in Norway in early 1942. The aluminum from that factory was meant to be used to increase German plane production. Was the destruction of that factory, and the subsequent reduction in plane construction capability, part of why the Luftwaffe had 200,000 extra men to spare?

The Boys had the nut to take on ivan , tho . !

Hmmmm. A leader who went to put yes man in place of independent thinkers. Heard some recent examples today in the J6 hearing

Ah yes, the Luftwaffel Fehl-Konstruktion

The first 10 or so minutes goes to show you that an education can help you learn to collect data very well, or do research, but can’t help you interpret that data. The German Army was a very well disciplined, trained and formidable force all the way up until early 1945- as shown by some of the feats they were able to pull off all the way to the end of the war. Just because yes they were the bad guys, and had some bad units, doesn’t mean we should disparage how well they fought.

@WW2TV

4 ай бұрын

Wehraboos are not welcome here

Wonder how Kesselring fits in this narrative.

@WW2TV

Жыл бұрын

He doesn't really. No direct connection with the Luftwaffe Field Divisions

Security units used to combat bandits who were murdering German troops in the rear area

@WW2TV

2 жыл бұрын

Are you trying to justify what the Third Reich did? Because under what twisted logic is the killing of invaders to your country counted as murder?

@lukeueda-sarson6732

Жыл бұрын

Under international law - both in WW2 and now - killing invaders in your own country IS indeed murder, *unless* you are enrolled in a military force under an appropriate command structure (i.e. you have an officer answerable for your actions), you are wearing a uniform (or recognizable equivalent), and you are carrying your weapons openly. If you do not fulfill these requirements, you are legally a "unlawful francs tireur" (see Article 4 of the postwar 3rd Geneva convention), and thus you are not a lawful combatant under Article 1 of the Hague Convention, and can thus be - entirely lawfully - executed immediately upon capture. This is why Wilhelm List was "acquitted" of executing partisans in the Nuremberg trials by the way, because there was nothing unlawful about doing this (the postwar Genevan convention articles merely re-codified this, but clarified that executing *lawful* francs tireurs was indeed criminal). So I'm afraid you gut feeling is *completely* wrong :-( "Murder" is a legally defined act, and Joe Civilian (or the Soviet equivalent) successfully sniping at a passing soldier from his house very much counts as murder, both now, and then.

@WW2TV

Жыл бұрын

@@lukeueda-sarson6732 Okay, I concede that all you say is true, but there is a morale issue at play. Living as I do in France, just because the German occupiers in WWII had the legal right to treat Resistance fighters as murderers and shoot them by firing squad without a trial, doesn't mean it was morally correct.

@lukeueda-sarson6732

Жыл бұрын

@@WW2TV To be sure. Justice and law are often not aligned, despite what many lawyers would like to think.

@allangibson2408

Жыл бұрын

@@lukeueda-sarson6732 The “anti partisan” forces were also simply wiping out entire villages just because they were in the same general area as partisans and specifically killing any “undesirables” (like Jews, Roma, Communist party members (and their entire families), teachers etc.). Most of those killed were not partisans at all. That is by definition “murder” - exactly like what Russian forces in Ukraine are doing now.

Wait. The waffen SS is different to the SS?

@WW2TV

Жыл бұрын

Yes indeed. TThe Allgemeine SS was responsible for enforcing the racial policy of Nazi Germany and general policing, whereas the Waffen-SS consisted of the combat units of the SS, with a sworn allegiance to Hitler

200 bicycles. Jeez

Several of these LW divisions weren't even in combat theatres until well after their transfer to the army (e.g the divisions in France, Norway and Italy). If their fighting capacity was regarded as being so poor by high command, then why weren't these unblooded divisions, at least, broken up and troops transferred to other Heer formations?

@WW2TV

2 жыл бұрын

That was exactly the question we asked? It seems a lot of it is down to Goering's hubris

@ohlordy2042

Жыл бұрын

@@WW2TV Thanks for the response. It still raises the question though.....why did Goering's hubris still have to be appeased after Hitler had had a gutful of the whole farce and remaining LW field divisions were transferred to the heer?

3 weeks of training, and then combat ... if that's the case, why even train them at all?

Very good. Seems like he was full of himself though.

@WW2TV

Жыл бұрын

You mean Goering?

I'm not sure the idea of the Luftwaffe human material being incompatible with Army units is valid. These men were repeatedly absorbed into Army units and at least three times, the elite Waffen-SS units absorbed Luftwaffe replacements (I believe April-May 1943, August-September 1944 & November-December 1944: the units in question being 1/2/3 SS, then 5/9 and 5/9 again). Until the third occasion listed, the SS units successfully integrated the Luftwaffe transfers and the last occasion was because so many of the experienced officers and NCOs in 5th SS Wiking were missing after the terrible fighting in the "Wet Triangle" outside Warsaw that "the unit was never the same again".

@WW2TV

Жыл бұрын

I think that's exactly what we said? Using Luftwaffe personnel to gradually fill up the numbers in Army units would have been a far better option than sending in entire units to the front

@Wien1938

Жыл бұрын

@@WW2TV I'll have to go back that segement and listen again.

@Wien1938

Жыл бұрын

@@WW2TV Okay, have just gone back to that segment (ending 47:50). The possibility of integrating the LW personnel into the Army units as replacements is noted by your (excellent) guest as a potential problem, but the comment from chat is firmly of the opinion that the reason why the LW personnel were not integrated into the Army was "morale" and social difference between themselves & the Army and that this policy would have resulted in a worse situation than that obtained by setting up new units. To add to my earlier comment, the Army had a whole replacement training infrastructure down to the Division level (replacement battalions), so if the decision had been taken to move 200,000 personnel from the Luftwaffe into the Army, the Army training units would have started the integration process (probably) from scratch. If memory serves correctly, the training process length was the same as that as expected by Meindl (three months/12 weeks), so the replacements would have been acclimatised to the Army, sent out to replacement battalions for front familiarisation and further training and then issued to their destination combat units. This was the same process followed by the Waffen-SS units in 1943-44 when Luftwaffe personnel were transferred. To compare the two situations, The first Luftwaffe FDs were sent out in the latter half of 1942. They had to be raised, equipped and (were not) trained. The end result was units that were not trained and such equipment as they had was grossly inadequate (as noted by yourselves). The alternative of moving 200,000 replacements through basic training and issuing as replacements would have only involved equipping with rifles & light automatic weapons (at most) and the experienced units would have been replenished, instead of suffering when the new LwFD next door collapsed at the first blow. Not trying to be a negative type. Just think that the original argument is not well founded. We can all agree that the process of creating new units was not a wise course of action (absorbing more men into support units than would be counted in bayonet strength), unless existing mauled divisions were broken up and integrated into the new ones.

Göring had contact to the Alliies at the end of the war through Sweden and was disowned by Hitler as a traitor. The Naziregime worked by divide and conquer; Hitler played one leader against all others and one group against each others. And he let only the "loyal" ones near him; "Lakeitel" (from Lakai = servant) was the nick name for Keitel; Göring was called "Meier" because of the bombs on the Reich ... About the three branches: Hitler told that his airforce are good Nazis, his army aristocratic Prussians and his navy monarchists. The army had been the most activ restistance to Hitler till Munich 1938 where they had been betrayed by the English; so it took till 1943 that army officers revived the active resistance which ended with July 1944. The mythos of the great German army in both World Wars is mostly a mythos; "undefeated" the gave leadership to civilians in November 1918 and then blamed them for the peace (loosing the war in August 1914 by declaring war on Russia nd then attacked France trough Belgium to involve the British Empire on enemy side too) and after 1945 writing most of the military history themself, making the German army and navy the unsung heros of the war fighting with honor against all odds and the enemy within and outside. And nobody disputed it. In all this web of lies, atrocities, terror, chaos and unwilling humor the Luftwaffenfelddivisionen played their part and became a mythos of the failing regime and its protagonists Göring and Hitler. As a sidenote: the LFD were used to get rid of critics of the regime, not big enough to put on trail; just to silent them forever. So bad had been the image of this divisions already at their existence.

44:00 again fast forward to the postwar Wehrmacht generals > Allied generals myth - looking at the incompetence & shambolic nature of the German military logistics systems for all the combat arms in WW2, you should be asking why did NATO feel it had something to learn from German generals (to the point it exonerates war criminals in the 50s)???. If anything, the Bundeswehr is getting a better deal all round because NATO being in existence for 5 years before & drawing on the Allies own logistics issues (sometimes had issues but never as bad as the Wehrmacht) is showing them how to do a standardized logistics system for use in war (rifle calibre, interchangeable magazines, army structure, training manual even down to the same towing hitch on vehicles).

@WW2TV

2 жыл бұрын

That's a very good point

@davidlavigne207

2 жыл бұрын

A very apt observation for sure. There were definitely things that the German Armed Forces did well, and they were the most experienced in fighting the Soviet Army. There was much to learn despite their losing the war to such superior numbers.

@dexterscott7824

7 ай бұрын

NATO would certainly have been incorrect NOT to attempt to learn from the military that had recent experience fighting their new prospective enemy. Although the Germans lost, they still knew much more about Soviet combat methods than did the US or UK.

Maybe someone could explain to me how a country that was totally outnumbered in manpower, tanks, aircraft, and everything else except maybe submarines. Had such inferior soldiers, inferior officer corps, inferior weapons systems (except at beginning of war), and yet were still able to conquer the countries and territories they did. Then defend it as well and for as long as they did. How was a country so inferior in almost every way (as is being claimed) able to accomplish (militarily) what they were able to?

@mathewkelly9968

2 жыл бұрын

Have you seen how bad the allies where ? And Germany wasn't inferior in anything early in the war , but by the time you're fielding divisions out of support personnel thats a symptom of biting off more than you can chew .

@mathewkelly9968

2 жыл бұрын

My Pa was in an Australian militia battalion , he hated the army because of the lack of training and equipment he initially went into combat with .

@GLEN1061

2 жыл бұрын

@@mathewkelly9968 It was a crime to send them up there so ill-prepared!

@mathewkelly9968

2 жыл бұрын

And to turn your question on its head . How did the master race with all its wonderweapons lose to a bunch of subhumans ?

@WW2TV

2 жыл бұрын

It's partly due to the early inertia of the German military campaign. But it might have failed badly, if the Poles had received the World support they begged for, if the French leadership had been better and if the Norway campaign had been a little different

Stopped listening at min 9.

@WW2TV

Жыл бұрын

But you are not going to tell us why

Sure. The Wehrmacht was quite incompetent. That's why it took half the world to take it down.

@WW2TV

Жыл бұрын

? This show was not about the Wehrmacht

@levski19

Жыл бұрын

@@WW2TV just saying that generalisation is never good. I agree that the field divisions were subpar, to say the least. Also Meindl was commanding officer of the 2nd Parachute Corps, II. Fallshirmkorps, not division. I know you corrected him near the end but i had begun writing the comment.

I think the phrase "Never mind the quality, feel the width" sums up the German forces in WW2. Right from the start the Nazzis had no strict pecking order and disparate groups of toadies all vied for superiority. Men seized power where they could and clamored to outrank each other in a theatrical spectacle of myriad uniforms and insignia. Apart from Steely men like Karl Doenitz and Heinz Guidarian, many of the top Nazzis were vain sycophants, prominent among whom was Herman Goering. .