Why is nazi germany so overhyped in WW2 documentary?

Totally agreed. Not a propeller head here. I tend to get hypnotized watching the thing in the middle of the propeller go round and round :upside_down_face:

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Happens to me…oops there goes my license :exploding_head: :scream_cat: :crazy_face: :crazy_face: :crazy_face: :crazy_face: :crazy_face:

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Yes, but I did write on equal terms, but it may not be possible to speak in general terms. Read a book about on Normady from German perspective. They said the Americans came out very aggressive 09.00 in the morning but seldom fighted after 19.00. This gave the Germans time to plug up the defence and the US could start all over the next morning. So I dont think the tactics were well suited to the bocage. They also said that Pattons troops have learned blitzkrieg. So with no doubt leadership was also a part of this.

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That is a very good point. The US troops in Normandy were mostly green an without actual combat experience. Also the equipment was not always smart. E.g. the unpainted mess kits stood out in the very long June days. The Germans painted these green.

Also the fanaticism of the Germans towards the population and fanaticismunderstandably led to stress and actually extra training for some units and the US developed new tactics.

E.g. the US used spotter planes to direct mortars and artillery often the Germans didn’t fire on them as the Piper Cubs to prevent them from calling mama artillery bear :bear:

The bocage was hell indeed but also frustrated counterattacks of the Germans. Moreover I can see tactically only attacking by day and stay in well defended positions at night. Early on a few units suffered from unsuspected night attacks. The Germans hated that and found it unfair, it is smart and a lot more fair than what the Germans to civilians. (Eg Oradour)

As for German memoires, like most memoires these are selective and some German writers publishers actively went for the “we were the best market”. Many book publishers of other countries did the same and obviously the sources were inclined to mention the positive.

I don’t know of any German memory on operation Luttich. The idiot counterattack on Mortain. Yes the Allies had more stuff in general but the Germans with their hubris walked into the trap.

George Patton with his 3rd Army had its chance to quietly built up his 3rd Cavalry Army which could go day and night when needed. Bastogne went well for him because Patton had the plan worked out just in case.

We might see another example this year of hey we conquered a city, in defended flanks, nah it will be fine.

So at a tactical level Germany had some elite units, but also a bunch of green or incompetent. Like most organizations.

“ They also said that Pattons troops have learned blitzkrieg” Patton learnt tanks in World War 1 ain’t e.g. Langres and was a great Cavalry man who understood logistics, directed traffic, stole fuel, ignored orders not to take places and motivated his soldiers by driving to the front and take the staff plane back to do it again. I don’t think he had much to learn and this is a case we’re Germans try to take credit for losing. There is an out of the foxholes episode were Patton broke the rules in a training exercise by “advancing” thru another state and buying gas from commercial gas stations :joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy::joy:. He was worse than in the flick.:cowboy_hat_face::pray::+1::+1::+1::+1:

PS I tried to balance my points, hopefully :pray: everyone reads it as such. Disagreements are welcome.

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Experience is not always a good thing. Lot of british 8th army tank commanders was used to drive with the head out of the turret in the dessert. They was easily picked out by snipers when they did that in Normandy.

An about the bocage: colossal blunder in Intelligence that this came as a surprise

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True but they also thought Utah would be the most dangerous beach because of the causeways. It was indeed a blunder I assume nobody really thought much about it and it just looks like hedgerows from the air.

I was there in 2019 to see the Paratroopers in Duxford AND Sannerville, Normandy. On one of the tours of a farm the owner told us to stay left on the path because the they found a Bangalore torpedo 2 days before which still needed disposal​:joy::joy::joy::joy::joy:. I tried to explain that I am no expert but if you can see explosives :firecracker: it hasn’t exploded YET . Some French participants suggested using the Bangalore on the German (actually French people )re-enactment camp😈. Yes it was a bad joke but still funny. Makes me wonder what else is still hiding in the bocage🤔

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Found it :slight_smile: Eisenhower versus George S. Patton who commanded the 2nd armored. Well see for yourselves what happened. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :+1:

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Going kinda off-topic but this site has a lot of the history of the 2nd Armor “Hell on Wheels” and pictures of aerial bocage photo’s and their role in operation Cobra :+1:

2ND ARMORED DIVISION HISTORY — Hell On Wheels - AMPS (how-amps.org)

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nope, sorry but they weren’t the best. A good example would be the SS panzerwaffe unit. The quality varied a lot between each of them, they lost important number of superior officiers during battle and the experience degraded due to the lack of formation. The heer could militarly still do as well if the not better than the SS unit, and only 2 of them really got priority when it to delivering equipment. Also, talk about being elite or “übermensh” when the SS used a lot of T34 beute such as the das reich. They weren’t the best at logistics too as shown by the special like the last one

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I would say every unit tend to degrade over time as casualties occurred and replacements came in. As the war goes on, every nations replacements had less training and that casualty cycle kept repeating. An Elite unit in Germany 1941 might be a shadow of itself by the end of the year.

It got so bad in the US that Congress tried to mandate that 18 year olds had a certain amount of training before they would see combat. You may think of the US as hardly touched by war but in Hell to Pay, Giangreco details the hell of a time the US had in keeping it’s replacement stream active enough the keep the army at it’s 7.7 million man strength.

Upside is of course we didn’t have to extend the draft ranges the way other countries did and there were many exceptions.

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To return to the topic and the quistons asked, There is a huge generel interest in World War 2, and a new book are coming out every week. And the Nazis is a welknown “brand” that is used to sell TV productions.

And as in a lot of war movies, there is often some dramatization of what really happend. And yes, it is a problem if Nazi suddenly just are seen as a military super brand.

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