Re: History Channel: The Third Reich
Actually the Germans invading Russia was out of necessity. They vitally needed the Western region around Stalingrad for the natural resources to continue to fuel thier military machinery and is pretty much the reason Hitler double crossed Stalin. He really had no choice.
They needed to take over the city of Stalingrad as a symbolic victory to kill the morale of the Red Army and help them maintain that strategic region so they could continue to maintain thier military might with the abundent oil fields there. He knew it was risky with winter coming but had they taken over the region and kept it secure even for a year the war would have gone on for another several years at least.
Yes it was the beginning of the end for Germany after they were chased out by the Soviets but had they not invaded it only delayed the inevitable and Germany would have started losing all thier strongholds because of thier depleting resources.
Most history books or shows made in North America are much too biased regarding WW2. They try and make Hitler look like a buffoon and that he invaded Russia because of his ego but that was far from the truth. Simply put he was one of the greatest military leaders in history and General Rommel one of the greatest generals. Nobody likes to admit it because Hitler was such a nutcase. It took the efforts of England, North America and the Soviets with 3 times as many troops to take Germany down which was pretty unbelievable considering the relative small size of Germany. Not to mention Germnay had to constantly bail out Italy with thier bumbling military efforts under Mousselini in Africa and Greece.
If you guys really want an unbiased account of WW2. I suggest you watch the BBC series the World at War narrated by Laurence Olivier. It's about 15 hours long and made back in the early 1970's with alot of interesting interviews with people who were vital figures who were still alive back then. Some of the footage they show is simply amazing. It doesn't try and glorify anybody, it pretty much just tells the facts that occurred in WW2 in an unbiased way.
They explain why Japan attacked Pearl harbour and it wasn't simply because they were evil. The U.S. were facing enormous pressure to enter the war from Britain after France was defeated but Roosevelt didn't have the backing of the American people to justify it. There has always been strong rumours that the British intentionally gave out false intel that Japan would get wind of where the U.S. was about to launch a full scale attack on Japan (Churchill knew a Japanese attack would get the U.S. into the war quickly). Pearl Harbour and Midway island were key strategic military bases that Japan felt needed to be wiped out to protect against a U.S. preemptive strike.
The British were crafty in getting thier way just like every other country in WW2 and did alot of dubious things in doing so including sacrificing some American lives for what he thought was the greater good.
Churchill was also crazy and not in a good way. He was mentally ill and may have been as crazy as Hitler in some ways and was ousted quickly as Prime Minister after the war ended by the British voters as he wanted to hit the Soviet Union with the atomic bomb because of the Eastern Europe division and the Americans pretty much told him to get lost. It was also probably the main reason that the Cold War started as the Soviets feared Churchill was crazy enough to convince the Americans (who just got a new president and thought he may have been vulnerable to Churchill's demands) to deliver an atomic bomb at them in the late 1940's.
Actually the Germans invading Russia was out of necessity. They vitally needed the Western region around Stalingrad for the natural resources to continue to fuel thier military machinery and is pretty much the reason Hitler double crossed Stalin. He really had no choice.
They needed to take over the city of Stalingrad as a symbolic victory to kill the morale of the Red Army and help them maintain that strategic region so they could continue to maintain thier military might with the abundent oil fields there. He knew it was risky with winter coming but had they taken over the region and kept it secure even for a year the war would have gone on for another several years at least.
Yes it was the beginning of the end for Germany after they were chased out by the Soviets but had they not invaded it only delayed the inevitable and Germany would have started losing all thier strongholds because of thier depleting resources.
Most history books or shows made in North America are much too biased regarding WW2. They try and make Hitler look like a buffoon and that he invaded Russia because of his ego but that was far from the truth. Simply put he was one of the greatest military leaders in history and General Rommel one of the greatest generals. Nobody likes to admit it because Hitler was such a nutcase. It took the efforts of England, North America and the Soviets with 3 times as many troops to take Germany down which was pretty unbelievable considering the relative small size of Germany. Not to mention Germnay had to constantly bail out Italy with thier bumbling military efforts under Mousselini in Africa and Greece.
If you guys really want an unbiased account of WW2. I suggest you watch the BBC series the World at War narrated by Laurence Olivier. It's about 15 hours long and made back in the early 1970's with alot of interesting interviews with people who were vital figures who were still alive back then. Some of the footage they show is simply amazing. It doesn't try and glorify anybody, it pretty much just tells the facts that occurred in WW2 in an unbiased way.
They explain why Japan attacked Pearl harbour and it wasn't simply because they were evil. The U.S. were facing enormous pressure to enter the war from Britain after France was defeated but Roosevelt didn't have the backing of the American people to justify it. There has always been strong rumours that the British intentionally gave out false intel that Japan would get wind of where the U.S. was about to launch a full scale attack on Japan (Churchill knew a Japanese attack would get the U.S. into the war quickly). Pearl Harbour and Midway island were key strategic military bases that Japan felt needed to be wiped out to protect against a U.S. preemptive strike.
The British were crafty in getting thier way just like every other country in WW2 and did alot of dubious things in doing so including sacrificing some American lives for what he thought was the greater good.
Churchill was also crazy and not in a good way. He was mentally ill and may have been as crazy as Hitler in some ways and was ousted quickly as Prime Minister after the war ended by the British voters as he wanted to hit the Soviet Union with the atomic bomb because of the Eastern Europe division and the Americans pretty much told him to get lost. It was also probably the main reason that the Cold War started as the Soviets feared Churchill was crazy enough to convince the Americans (who just got a new president and thought he may have been vulnerable to Churchill's demands) to deliver an atomic bomb at them in the late 1940's.
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