Better German naval strategy 1930-1945? (1 Viewer)

GrauGeist said:

The Weimar Republic was starting to come apart - if the National Socialist party failed, the next strongest party would have filled the void.

That party was the Social Democratic Party (SPD)...

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Yes, and..? Are you saying the SPD wouldn't have been up to the task? I'm not that familiar with the Weimar-era SPD, but seems the SPD and CDU have taken turns ruling Germany after WWII. And seems they have done ok, Germany today enjoys a high standard of living, and at least so far they haven't started WWIII either.

Thumpalumpacus said:

It's very similar to saying Japan would have won at Midway if they hadn't started the war with America. They wouldn't have, because there wouldn't have been a war. But of course, where would they get oil? Tin? They couldn't get those resources without foregoin their invasion of China, which was predicated much on seizing Chinese rice to feed the burgeoning Japanese population, Again, agricultural issues.

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Yes, they couldn't have continued with their China invasion and still being able to access world trade. Choices, choices.

What you advise is not a "war-winning" strategy, but a peace-keeping strategy, which is all fine and well.

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Sometimes you have to realize that the only way to win is to not play.

But when you consider that Germany could not feed itself from its own agricultural output (just like Japan) and still had to import foodstuffs, and that that German industry devoted to domestic farm tractors is not industry devoted to generating foreign currency exchange, what do you do then? Your economy is going to overheat anyway, as you're spending a lot internally and still piling up external debt while you sort out your farming equipment.

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The argument is that agricultural mechanization and synthetic fertilizer could have provided a vision for Germany to feed itself, as an alternative to the dreadful nazi Lebensraum vision of conquering and enslaving neighboring countries and getting enough food that way.

As for foreign exchange, that is undoubtedly a problem. But it's even more a problem for a military buildup as well, considering all that military hardware is, from an economic perspective, deadweight. In reality Germany solved the foreign debt problem by starting the war, otherwise it would have defaulted on its debts. If that's not an option, the government would have to be more careful about taking on more debt.