Quote:
Originally Posted by Capt. Teach
Also, and once again I'm speaking from very limited knowledge, but didn't the german navy get pretty much ignored? Additionally I'm pretty sure that Doenitz and Goering (might have butchered that spelling) didn't exactly get along ... so the Luftwaffe didn't provide very good support for the navy under the best of conditions due to that little feud. [perhaps its just the way history is written for the most part but almost all of what I see and hear about WWII Germany concerns the Luftwaffe and the Army.] I mean, didn't Doenitz only recieve 1/2 of the number of subs he stated he would require to impliment the blockade? If that is the case I would think his only real alternative would be to "bare bones" his subs so his budget or whatever would allow the production of more. This would place expensive [and then] high tech decoys on the backburner if not totally scrapped.
And last, but not least, this brings into focus just how much we take satellites for granted now.  |
Im not going to get into any specifics, but the german military was filled with blundering incompetence and politics at the higher levels. Politics and petty feuds often prevented incredible machines of war from being made, or being made in enough numbers, or early enough. The me110 (one of the worst aircraft of the war) was chosen over the fw187 (an absolutely incredible aircraft that could have held its own until 1941) because someone didnt get their blowjob that morning. Hitler told the navy he wasnt going to start a war until 1948, and the plan to build the navy was made accordingly. Obviously one can infer that the navy was in NO position for war in 1939. Germany was supposed to have 3 Aircraft carriers, 9 or so battleships, a good dozen cruisers, and so on. The Navy itself (except Dönitz) felt that submarine warfare was dishonerable, and preferred the soon to be outdated capital ships. If the amount of subs that Dönitz wanted could be provided (about 300 on patrol at any time), surely britian would have had a far worse time, and had a MUCH greater chance of falling. The OK was filled with traditional prussians who were to egotistic to get over the fact that the franco-prussian war was over and that they needed to look into new ways of doing things.