Mainly Hitler wanted to quiet down the western European countries as not to repeat Germany's mistake in WWI - two war fronts. A means to an end.
Sir Winston Churchill denied him just that.

Rudolph Hess did not fly to Scotland because he was mad, as both sides claimed at the time. He flew there in an attempt at negotiating peace with the UK. Before the war both countries had a reciprocal admiration to some degree.
An interesting book on this subject is "The Hitler/Hess deception", from Martin Allen. I cannot vouch for the author's claims, but they do seem plausible.

When Hitler said "we need breathing room", he was thinking of Ukraine and its rich resources. After all he knew the concept of Geopolitics. And hence the Afrika Korps attempt at crossing the Suez, since things were starting to bog down as they draw closer to Stalingrad, the final gateway to his main goal.
And the reason why both contenders fought to last bullet, the last brick standing, for every yard that lead to the Volga.
Had Von Paulus crossed the Volga, the whole war in Europe would have had a very different outcome. USSR war machine would collapse due to loss of important industrial centres, and more importantly, due to loosing vital resources to the Germans. Oil, food, mineral resources. All things that would enable Germany to become fully autonomous -Geopolitics.

Which leads me to believe that if Hitler and Hess had succeeded in negotiating peace with the UK, Hitler would have easily bagged Ukraine. No waste of military resources in Western Europe and North Africa.

When the German forces invaded Poland in 1939, they cut "The Polish Corridor". It was called a corridor for a reason. Operation Barbarossa was the centrepiece of the whole thing.
And while we're at it, the German highways were built with the fast transfer of troops in mind.

It's all about resources, it always is.

That's the way how a lot of us feel here in ZA... about Nelson Mandela ???

No action, no talk as his ANC proceeded to rape the country, kill opposition, etc.. etc.. Not a peep from him ??

No my friends,.. that realistic history, has also been distorted and hidden from your eyes. A lot of fools still believe the lie.
:03:

http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...s/hijacked.gif I guess I'll be very quiet now......Take her down!
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At least he felt guilty about it...or said he did.

In that regard Madison was no better. Little Jemmy had a friend who chastised him for not freeing his slaves. This friend (could he be the same fellow?) sold his plantation, bought a big piece of land in Kentucky and moved the entire group there, freeing his slaves and dividing up his wealth equally among all, then working the land the same as the rest of his newly-freed fellow citizens.
James Madison, by Ralph Ketcham

Japan's problem in China was that their army was bogged down with logistical and terrain difficulties and the war there was unwinnable without the resources, metals and oil Japan purchased from abroad. With every advance and atrocity in China those supplies were being further boycotted by the Western Allies.

When the Pacific War broke out, the Japanese allocated just 11 divisions to the conquest of the Dutch, British and American possessions in the Pacific out of an army of over 50 divisions. It was all they could spare. Most of the rest remained bogged down in a vast land war in Asia that Japan simply couldn't win without those conquered resources they could never really fully exploit. This supports the view that China was a quagmire that kept the Japanese from deploying their full strength to the Pacific.

Jefferson's neighbor knew that just freeing his slaves in Virginie would cause problems, probably involving the newly freed slaves being rounded up and reenslaved or worse. So took all his slaves on a boat north across the Ohio River. On the other shore he simply announced that every man, woman and child was now a free human being and that they could accompany him if they wished and he would treat them as equals.

The result was the founding of the state of Indiana, and he was first governor. Jefferson declined to follow his example. Two opportunities (of many) for Jefferson to show the meaning of the words "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights." But now he was older and knew better... No wonder Marquis de Lafayette disowned him. Jefferson was a despicable human being who freely and knowingly chose the dark side.
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When did this thread go from hypothetical WW2 scenarios to talking about Jefferson's slaves?

Would you believe.......cosmic rays?:D

I really need to get back to my infiltration of Rabaul to salvage my pitiful career. Going deep....
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That is easier then you think if it's early war.(I normally only find a minelayer with no depth charge racks guarding the entrance.)

Kurita was not on a suicide mission, so retreating seems to me to have been a very good move given what he knew about the circumstances.

Imagine how it plays out if he stays and pushes through. An hour to regain command and control of his force, four hours to do a thorough job busting up command, control and cohesion of the Leyte invasion fleet. In that time, he winds up trapped between Halsey's CVs and BBs, Turner's BBs and CVEs, and can't sink enough of the invasion TF to substantially change the outcome. So he loses everything. Sinks maybe a dozen light vessels of the invasion task force, or else sinks maybe a dozen vessels in Taffy 2 and 3.

Doesn't change the outcome of the war much. If anything Nimitz and company have less heavy Japanese surface units to hunt or worry about in 1945.

It took a left turn at the Battle of Britain. After that "history" stopped being history and the past is all fantasy anyway, so why couldn't Jefferson's slaves have stopped Hitler's u-boats?

After all, three American slaves are worth five nazi scumbags. :O:

A. Halsey has a point. His thread was indeed hijacked.
For my contribution to that, I apologize.

I guess it's just human nature. In my corner of the world we have a saying that translates to "conversations are like cherry", meaning you can't have just one, you just keep on going, on to other branches.

Don't worry about it. In fact this is the first thread anywhere I have ever posted to get hijacked so i'm actually honored by it.

Of course it is. If one person says something off-topic that someone else disagrees with, you can either answer it, which takes it off topic, or let it go, in which case a false claim will be believed to be true. If you feel that the person is in error you pretty much have to answerit.

That's a relief. They do usually get back on track after awhile. :sunny:

Where is Admiral Halsey"s thread?-the world wonders? with apologies to Adm. Kincaid!:arrgh!:

I knew someone would do that sooner or later.

Well, it HAD to be me, My mother IS a Kincaid (previous thread) # 714 on the list.:arrgh!:

And the real Admiral Halsey did dodge a pretty good bullet there. Ironic, since he fired that bullet himself.

That bring up another question. What would have happened if Halsey deduced that the Northern Force was a decoy and had waited for Kurita instead?(For arguments sake lets assume that Kurita still turned back towards Luzon and Samar after the Sibuyan Sea )

Alas, Adm. Halsey did not have all his "I"s dotted as he chased the Japanese carriers. Fortuntely, Rear Adm. Oldendorf, with Adm Kincaid's foresight, had his "T"s crossed at the Suragao Strait, the last major use of the classic maneuver. :arrgh!: