Neither have I, but it would not surprise me because the German economy was in shambles because of WW1, WW1 reperations and the Great Depression did not help matter either.
Sorens Really What If Thread
- Thread starter Soren
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syscom3
Pacific Historian
I dont think the German economy was going to collapse in the short run. The militarization of the economy was putting plenty of people to work. Just by adding a few divisions to the army would soak up a lot of unemployed men.
syscom3
Pacific Historian
The long run would have been a couple of decades.
wmaxt
Staff Sergeant
syscom3 said:
I'm not sure about that, remember the economy? When you have a paper economy and you put togehter an army, airforce, navy and equip/pay them, much of which depends on imports the blak wall comes quickly. Once that happens a war to generate spoils and or outright elimination of your debt is inviteable.
wmaxt
I'm not sure about that, remember the economy? When you have a paper economy and you put togehter an army, airforce, navy and equip/pay them, much of which depends on imports the blak wall comes quickly. Once that happens a war to generate spoils and or outright elimination of your debt is inviteable.
wmaxt[/quote]
Agreed. I remember reading that Hitler wanted the raw materials from Russia, Norway, etc because he knew that the war machine would grind to a stop quickly without these things. Like Napoleon he had to adopt a continental plan. U-boats or not, the English had access to the world, Germany did not.
:{)
wmaxt[/quote]
Agreed. I remember reading that Hitler wanted the raw materials from Russia, Norway, etc because he knew that the war machine would grind to a stop quickly without these things. Like Napoleon he had to adopt a continental plan. U-boats or not, the English had access to the world, Germany did not.
:{)
Agreed also.
syscom3 said:
And that's exactly the problem.
When you employ lots of people making goods that have no (peacetime) value you strain the economy. Think of it this way... If we have an economy with 3 bakers, 3 farmers, and 9 unemployed people the bakers and farmers will trade goods and the unemployed are in hard times. Now you employ those unemployed people as soldiers and pay them... what happens to the price of bread now that we have increased the damand by 250%? Obviously it goes up.
By continuning such a cycle you create what is known as hyper-inflation which is what Germany was facing. In hyper inflation, the value of currency falls drastically very quickly eroding savings.
You simply cannot just print money to pay the expanding military without consequence.
=S=
Lunatic
Glider
Captain
Good example
Nice post Lunatic.
Agreed completly. War is good for an economy only in the beginning. Eventually it will hurt you economy.
Notwithstanding tha above mad debate about what if the RAF had suddenly all been dissapeared somehow [when UK aircraft production in 1940 outstripped the Nazis] Soren's what if has been an informative debate for me anyway as a what if at least gives you an insight into the limitations of the equipment at the time.
This what if is a bit lame though. The best and probably only opportunity to knock the British out of ww2 came at Dunkirk. Once again we can all thank Hitlers and his fellow Nazis madness for allowing Dunkirk to happen.
If the entire UK army had been captured I am almost certain that the UK would have signed a peace treaty with the Nazis. No 2nd front, no US involvement and a completely diffrent Europe. Thats the lot of the Nazis it seems, to forever be seen as the nearly men and to be shown as ironically hastening the very thing they wanted to fight to prevent, a Communist ruled Eastern Europe!
Cheers
This what if is a bit lame though. The best and probably only opportunity to knock the British out of ww2 came at Dunkirk. Once again we can all thank Hitlers and his fellow Nazis madness for allowing Dunkirk to happen.
If the entire UK army had been captured I am almost certain that the UK would have signed a peace treaty with the Nazis. No 2nd front, no US involvement and a completely diffrent Europe. Thats the lot of the Nazis it seems, to forever be seen as the nearly men and to be shown as ironically hastening the very thing they wanted to fight to prevent, a Communist ruled Eastern Europe!
Cheers
Hitler did not want to prevent a communist eastern europe but rather make more living space for the German people.
- Thread starter
- #135
- And war ofcourse.
Ofcourse.
Partly true, I agree, but Nazi rethoric made the ordinary German fear a Comminist grab in the Eastern European countries which frankly wouldnt have been possible without ww2.
Jabberwocky
Staff Sergeant
Hitler didn't order the halt at Dunkirk, von Runstead did. It was a military decision, made in the heat of the conflict. Hitler was only informed of the decision the day after the tanks were stopped. The decision was made because battle weary German formations, with marginal supplies, had bumped up against British and French resistance of higher calibre than usual in the past few days, been subjected to local counter attacks and need to resupply, refit and repair. There was a pervasive fear German intelligence that there were several large enemy formations waiting to launch a counter attack because opposition through the frontier had been lighter than expected.
Hitlers key decision came about 4 days later, when, under advice from his generals, he orderd that the British evacuation be target by the Luftwaffe, primarily because the ground around Dunkirk was highly favourable to defensive operations. When the Heer did decide to move, it was too late and the British and French formed an effective defensive perimiter and managed to keep German land forces at bay, primarily through the prodigious and profligate use of artillery and infantry.
Yes the Nazis hated the communists (well pretty much everyone did) but even if Russia had been a Democracy Hitler still would have looked East because that is the only place to go for living space.
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