Quote:
Originally Posted by Sloth94
The only viable allies were France or Britain. This scenario unfolded in WWI. In WWII the Schlieffen plan worked in so much as it eliminated France rapidly. Although it was never designed to take into account British involvement. As we saw in WWII, even with military dominance, Britain, being an island, is extremely difficult to knock out of a war. It hasn't been invaded in almost 1000 years, and the introduction of the Royal Navy has made that task seem even more improbable.
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The new technologies / strategies of tank warfare and air warfare made the conquest of France possible.
Also, the French of 1940 did not have the fighting spirit of the French of 1914. They watched the entire generation being slaughtered for nothing, with all of the economical issues of the 1930s they felt betrayed by their own elites. The Germans OTOH had someone else to blame and were spoiling for revenge.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sloth94
I don't think there is such thing as a rapid victory against a nation the size of Russia, but victory is possible. The problem is that invaders of the country have placed too much emphasis upon capturing Moscow, and disregarding the Russian winter.
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Well, this would only apply to Hitler.
The Mongols were the only ones who wanted to conquer the entire land and succeeded.
The Poles and the Swedes were only interested in regime change and getting some of the border territories.
The French were woefully unprepared to fight in Russia but then Napoleon was also woefully unprepared to fight in Egypt. The truth is, for all his strategic and tactical talent, he could really only wage successful wars in Europe and was completely lost outside of European infrastructure and supplies.
Hitler had deliberately disregarded the Russian winter because he realized that unless the Soviet Union is knocked out in one swift summer campaign, the war's lost. To prepare for winter in 1941 was to admit the possibility of defeat. Once that didn't work out, the German army started to receive warm underwear and clothing.
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