25 Oct

I know that this one has been posted late, thanks to my computer deciding to stop working, but I would like to put to discussion of the Germany's push to war in Europe and of what people thought about Hitler on his warpath. Our reading last week showed some interesting figures. Lots of people thought what Hitler was doing and his foriegn policies made him to appear to be a great statesman. Technically, he lined up sucess after sucess, so it is not surprising that this view could be off. However, this is a strictly view of Germans, not Europeans. Europe had the strength to not allow the Nazis grow to the point where they could deem war as an option. France in 1939 had the largest army in the world, and Czechlosovakia was not far behind in 4th. These countries, backed with other nations in Europe could have kept Germany in check, yet the Failure of the Allies made ultimate war inevitable due their reluctance to stand firm against the Third Reich. However, the Allies chose appeasement to deal with Hitler which only solidified Nazi support in Germany and gave Hitler's ego a steroid shot pushing him to tackle bigger ambitions. It's not difficult to see this as when Germany mobilized for Poland in 1939, its was only around 50% fully mobilized, yet at this point Hitler didn't think he could be stopped so he went into the war anyways. As in hindsight, the failure to fully or near full mobilize is like shooting yourself in the foot before you even get out the door. That is why blitzkrieg had to work, otherwise, the economy and supply would not be able to fully make it through the length of a long war. I believe this to be a serious error based on Hitler's hubris thinking himself to be invincible after his stunning bloodless victories, that a prolonged war would not require serious munitions stockpiling, as well as normal commodities as uniforms, fuel, food, etc. Yet Hitler thought he could get all this through conquest. After the offensive stalls for Germany, it is apparent how big a blunder this was to not fully prepare for a prolonged war.