• mlg@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    12
    ·
    3 days ago

    They could have won if they utilized their resources properly for their supply lines, accepted research and compensated for research from everyone, didn’t waste resources genociding millions of people, promoted leaders on proper merit and not suckering up to Hitler, making Hitler not be the guy that makes the military decisions, and spent a little more money on espionage.

    So like basically if they negated all the downsides of running a fascist ethnostate lol.

    I’m pretty sure Hitler explicitly threw out research done by Jews which is why their nuclear research ended up being basically non existent and nowhere near what the USA had originally feared.

    • skibidi@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      3 days ago

      If they weren’t a fascist ethnostate led by a madman, they probably wouldn’t have launched the war in the first place. The utterly misguided belief in their superiority is what made them blind to the (rather obvious) conclusion that they didn’t have the resources to conquer Europe (mostly) single-handedly. Let alone take Italy along with them.

      Hell, the only reason it was even - somewhat - close at points was Hitler’s insistence on a blitz through the Ardennes to attack France. The generals thought it was a terrible plan (and it was, that’s a big reason why the French were unprepared and got essentially knocked out of the war in weeks).

      WW2 is interesting precisely because the big numbers only point one way - a complete defeat of Germany and Japan by much larger and better-supplied powers. But there were multiple points where tactical developments could have become strategic victories - which are rather rare occurrences in the study of war.

      E.g. the Nazis didn’t have the resources to conquer the Soviet Union, but if the battles of Stalingrad and Moscow had gone their way, it is difficult to see how the USSR could have maintained a functioning government. Likewise Japan was woefully under prepared to defeat the US in the Pacific, but if the US carriers had been sunk at Pearl Harbor, maybe the Japanese hedgehog strategy to fortify the Pacific islands works out.

      Of course, once the bomb was ready then nothing else matters.

      Ultimately, it was all massive tragedy the likes of which I hope we never see again. The counterfactuals are fun to play out, if you can abstract away the millions of deaths in all sides.

  • glorkon@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    58
    ·
    4 days ago

    As a German citizen born in Berlin to parents who were both babies in 1945, I would like to say:

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    24
    ·
    3 days ago

    If they were still fighting then that would mean Steiner had done his counter attack. Obviously this would mean Germany’s super secret stealth jet technology was also in use and as such no allied bomber could fly over Germany any more. And if any managed to get within sight of Berlin it would just be shot down by their 180 ton tanks that are capable of anything!

    (Obligatory giant /s because people really believe this shit)

    • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      ·
      3 days ago

      Quick question. Would shooting down a plane carrying a nuke cause the nuke to go off?

      Sounds like one hell of a kamikaze run

      • JayObey711@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        3 days ago

        No, the detonator of an atomic bomb is a little bomb itself. The energy required to to detonate is much greater than anyplaincrash could cause. I find it amusing (relatively, we are still talking about weapons of mass destruction) that a thermonuclear bomb need a regular atomic bomb to trigger, wich needs a regular bomb to detonate. So we are just stacking bombs on bombs on bombs to make them stronger.

        • Canonical_Warlock@lemmy.dbzer0.com
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          3 days ago

          the detonator of an atomic bomb is a little bomb itself.

          Just to clarirify, the explosion needed to set off a nuke is far from little. Am implosion type nuke uses a bit over 2 tons of high explosives to set off the core.

      • herrvogel@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        3 days ago

        Nukes are difficult enough to detonate intentionally, so no, it probably won’t happen. I mean it probably will detonate, but it’ll just be the conventional explosives in it. The fissile material that was supposed to explode will instead get thrown all over the place.

  • JayObey711@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    3 days ago

    Thank gooood, I wouldnt be here. My family lived in a prime atom bomb target area. I moved far away about a year ago. I was relieved thinking that if the next war start I’m as safe as you can be in Europe. Mfw I find out there are dozens of US military bases nearby 🤠

  • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    arrow-down
    25
    ·
    4 days ago

    Just to be that guy.

    The Japanese had Unit 731 up and running in 1936. If they’d shared data and resources with Mengele and his cronies, the Axis would have had unbeatable bioweapons long before Los Alamos opened.

    • MataVatnik@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      25
      ·
      3 days ago

      United States provided clemency to staff in Unit 731 in exchange for their data, turns out most of their ‘experiments’ were just depraved forms of body horror torture and provided almost no scientific value.

    • PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      60
      ·
      4 days ago

      Doubtful. Unit 731’s ‘scientific’ experimentation wasn’t much better than the Nazis’ attempts at the same.

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        27
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        4 days ago

        But in ‘Fantastic Four’ #387 that’s exactly how the Axis wins!

        Have a nice day.

          • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            6
            ·
            4 days ago

            As a reward for your faith…

            If you like WW2 stories, check out Alan Furst and Philip Kerr.

            “Night Soldiers” is Furst’s novel about a young Bulgarian fisherman whose brother is killed by a Fascist mob. The hero is recruited into the KGB to fight in Spain. Reads like a cross between Ian Fleming and Franz Kafka.

            Kerr’s ‘Berlin Noir’ stories follow an ex-cop who works as a private eye in Berlin circa 1933 to 1946. He’s not a fan of the Nazis and they return the favor.

            • Aralakh@lemmy.ca
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              5
              ·
              edit-2
              4 days ago

              Thank you for the recommendations! Been wanting to scratch the itch since reading Follett’s Eye of the Needle.

              • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                4
                ·
                4 days ago

                All of Furst’s books are good. For some reason they are marketed as a series, but each is a stand alone. One of his gifts as a writer is that all his heroes are different. His Polish mapmaker is nothing like his Dutch ship captain or his French film producer.

                Enjoy.

    • Shiggles@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      42
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 days ago

      The germans already had remarkably potent chemical weapons during world war 2, specifically nerve agents iirc. They went unused because nobody wanted their own guys getting doused in chemical weapons after world war 1.

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        arrow-down
        18
        ·
        4 days ago

        PugJesus @lemmy.world OP M English 22· 1 hour ago Doubtful. Unit 731’s ‘scientific’ experimentation wasn’t much better than the Nazis’ attempts at the same.

        Dagwood222 English 83· 1 hour ago But in ‘Fantastic Four’ #387 that’s exactly how the Axis wins!

        Have a nice day.