Hitler himself admitted why he attacked Russia:
- What confirmed my decision to attack Russia without delay, was the information brought by a German mission, returning from Moscow that a Russian factory alone produced more armored all our factories together. I felt it was the ultimate limit. However, if someone had told me that the Russians available ten thousand tanks, had answered "You're crazy!"
- At the time of the Covenant, the Russians have expressed wishes of the plans of each of our boats. We had no choice but to show inventions, some of whom represented to us twenty years of experiments.
- in the art of weapons, we will always be superior to others. But we must retain the lesson of the events and take care of that after the war, others are allowed to penetrate our secrets. Nothing new will be released without a special authorization issued by a firm ad hoc, even with respect to countries with which we are bound by agreements.
how true this last statement that the allies, especially Americans and Russians started their arms race with the help of German scientists captured at the end of the war.
In Nuremberg interrogation, Alfred Jodl, Hitler said:
- No doubt that many major decisions prevented his lose the war before. One of his greatest successes was the decision to occupy Norway. Another great achievement was his decision to attack France for Sedan, which took at your own risk, and against the recommendation of his staff, had urged him to go right in the so-called Schlieffen Plan, "an enveloping attack by the Dutch coast. was also an outstanding personal achievement, but its most important military victory may have been his personal intervention to stop the German retreat to the east in November 1941. No one else would conseguido.Allí had already triggered the panic. I could have easily produced the same disaster that had befallen the army French in the 1812 campaign.
The historian Ian Kershaw said that "overcoming the crisis of winter had been a new triumph of the will, comparable, in the opinion of Hitler, his rise to power." Kershaw is usual in making personal judgments and express their views. This time it says "never enter your head the idea that the aim of knocking out the Soviet Union in a few months had been a blunder, or that the overall strategy of" Barbarossa "had been flawed from the beginning, or that their own constant interference had compounded problems military command ... But the crisis had passed. He believed that had been his leadership that the army had saved the fate of Napoleon. Had survived the Russian winter. "
David Irving is more friendly with Hitler:
- In the dark months of that winter, Hitler showed his iron will and leadership hypnotic .. . When the generals only saw salvation in an ignominious retreat, Hitler said they strongly defend the land on which they were, until the spring thaw halted the Soviet offensive. When the generals resisted these orders, discussed and disobeyed Hitler dismissed and discredited, and took personal command of the German army, until it gradually, a new spirit prevailed in the Eastern front.
Irving continues with a story that gives us an idea of \u200b\u200bHitler's ability to offer encouragement:
- The ability to influence others that Hitler enjoyed, was very noticeable . Received the news that a division had begun the withdrawal. Hitler phoned the commander of that unit. The general's voice overwhelmed, barely a whisper, came from a bleak, icy wilderness area, located hundreds of miles away. Hitler rebuked him: "You know perfectly well that thirty miles does the same cold back in the place where it is! The view of the German people are fixed on you! " These few words infused new strength in general, and the division maintained its ground.
When winter came, Hitler said with relief:
- "First snow, then ice!". That's all I could read books about Russia. Hilger himself had not told me anything else. We therefore proof that one can not trust all these comments. Clearly, it is easy to calculate the average temperature, based on the results of several years, but it would be necessary to add that any year temperature differences can be, and by far larger than most expected.
- The hammer blow for us, this situation was completely unexpected and the fact that our soldiers were not equipped for the temperatures they have faced. Moreover, the tactics of our leadership failed to adapt to new conditions. Today we support the gaps in Russian without moving and stay in our positions. Behind our lines, or destroyed, or gradually weakened by lack of supply. We must have strong nerves to use such a tactic. I can openly say that the gentleman who preceded me did not have the nerves that are needed. The generals must be hard, without mercy, courageous as watchdogs, men rough, as I have in the party. These are the soldiers that are imposed in such a situation.
- not for the ice would have continued our careers forward: six hundred miles away, in some places. We were within an inch of it. Providence intervened, and we avoided a catastrophe. The oil we needed at that moment, it already possessed. But he had to come the idiot who provided us with the oil "for all temperatures!"
"Even this year, the winter it would not have caused difficulties not surprise us so suddenly. However, it is fortunate that you came in a sudden, because otherwise we would have gone further two or three hundred miles. In this case, the adaptation of the railroad to our wide would have been impossible. With similar temperatures, we are forced to use animal traction.
usually feels the greatest military triumph of Hitler was the defeat of France. However, experts recognized that Hitler could hold fast the Eastern Front during the winter of 1941. Apparently, that only got him. When winter ended, Hitler was relieved, terrible had happened a few months.
Was that his greatest military success?
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