Remembrance Day Contemplation

On Guard for Thee · November 13, 2014

Apparently mine is but it seems to be hit and miss for some reason. I thought it was just my ineptness.

Oops, that came out wrong possibly. I wasn't suggesting any ineptness on your part. Gad zooks, stop me if I'm just digging a hole.

WestCoastRunner · November 13, 2014

My quote was working until tonight actually. Doesn't matter which browser I use.

Bonam · November 13, 2014

I know the numbers.........In Northern France alone, the Nazis had several Army Groups and several SS Divisions (to say nothing of second tier garrison forces), a number equal to the Forces committed to Stalingrad and Kursk.....likewise, the majority of both the Luftwaffe and Kregsmarine was engaged with the Western Allies.

~4 million German troops fighting in the east at any given time 1941-1944

vs

< 1 million German troops fighting in the west at any given time 1941-1944 (no real fighting on the ground in western Europe during this time, just an occupation force and the relatively small North Africa campaign)

~11 million German troops dead or captured on the eastern front 1941-1945

vs

~1 million German troops dead on the western front 1940-1945

Derek 2.0 · November 13, 2014

~4 million German troops fighting in the east at any given time 1941-1944

vs

< 1 million German troops fighting in the west at any given time 1941-1944 (no real fighting on the ground in western Europe during this time, just an occupation force and the relatively small North Africa campaign)

Two German Army Groups at the onset of the battle of Stalingrad (Summer 1942), two Army Groups (plus Garrison forces) in Normandy post Dieppe (1942)........No British Commonwealth and American forces involved in war, no Dieppe raid, no German requirement to keep regular Army in France, resulting in doubling the Forces for Stalingrad just from the forces in Northern France alone...........

overthere · November 13, 2014

Politicians should be offering up their sons and daughters first.

I hear this annoying, vapid bullshit every year.

The armed forces in Canada is composed entirely of adult volunteers and has been forever except for a few months in late WWII.

Politicians or anybody else cannot 'offer up their children'.

overthere · November 13, 2014

The Germans would have done much. much better if Hitler has simply let his generals ( the real and excellent professionals, not the appointees) instead of interfering in strategic and tactical areas of which he knew nothing.

overthere · November 13, 2014

I do not agree at all. Here's a question: what do you think the world would look like had the Nazi's taken what they were after in Europe?

They did take nearly what they were after in Europe: complete control of all major countries and\or effective control of the rest. By 1941 they controlled North Africa,all that mattered in Europe and had neutralized Russia. Their allies in Asia controlled much of the Pacific. The US was not at war in either Europe or the Pacific.. Britain had no offensive capability that mattered, they could not possibly mount any meaningful attack in Europe. They were being carpet bombed daily and were waiting to be invaded. The Jews, Gypsies and intellectuals were being massacred. So I'd say the Germans had already gotten much of what they wanted in Europe.

Two major blunders changed all that. First the Germans opened their Eastern front, something the generals warned Hitler not to do, or to at least wait a few years.. And the Japanese at Pearl Harbour made it impossible for the Americans not to get fully engaged. That was the beginning of the end for Herr Shicklgruber.

Michael Hardner · November 13, 2014

Of course they did. But the rush to judgement/justification seems to regularly be that if somebody hadn't beat the Nazi's we would all be goose stepping around speaking German. It's all hogwash.

The justification doesn't seem that way to me. The Nazi system was objectively far worse for people than the alternative, even if you just measure that in terms of life and death numbers, so it had to be dealt with.

There's almost no clearer justification for war out there.