Quote Originally Posted by PanzerJaeger View Post
This all seems to be based more in narrative than history, Louis.
I shall have to get back to you about those horses.


As for the rest, there is a narrative indeed. Like you, my interest is in dispelling myths based in ancient contemporary propaganda.

Europe's most advanced country and largest power twice suffered disastrous defeat in war, despite not unfavourable circumstances. Regardless, this Germany has become synonymous with fantastic overachievement.

Something doesn't add up about that.


Adrian summed up one of the myths I'm up against with his statement: 'Germany took on half the world and nearly won'. Me, I'd say that by the time half the world indeed started fighting, Germany was effortlessly defeated.
I'd rather say that Germany could pick off a handful of smaller opponents one by one, and the very first time it took on somebody roughly its own size it suffered devastating defeat in a period measured not in years, but months. Some achievement for a Reich as large as France and Britain combined.

The scale of the staggeringly poor performance becomes even more clear when one considers that Germany was supported by half of Europe, whereas the Soviet Union was a second world newly industrialising agragrian country run by a madman who had killed his officer corps, had decimated its restless population with mass starvation the decade before, and had let himself be taken by complete surprise. Far from military overachievement, Nazi Germany deserves the title of 'worst military performance in modern history'.