Hitler wasn't an idiot, listening to his Generals wouldn't help and more, all in one helpful video

[Husein]

Recently saw a video by TIK regarding the main reason for Germany's loss in WW2, and he raised some extremely valid point that most of WW2 History buffs seems to have ignored, and that is Germany's limited fuel supply that would have ran out in October of 1941. Oil explains so many things and previously unexplained "idiotic" decisions.

Why did Hitler start a 2 front war and attack the Soviets? He would have ran out of oil if he waited 4 months more.

Germany could have won if they didn't spend stupid ammount of resources on new weapons and simply mass produced more PZIV's -> No, Oil was such a problem that Germany had to demotorize a lot of it's units. More tanks would have only made the issue worse.


Why did Hitler attack South in 1942 rather than take Moscow? Because taking Moscow wouldn't have done a thing, Soviets would keep on fighting and Germany's Oil shortage would still exist. Whereas striking south and depriving Soviets of Oil would cripple them and give Germany the only shot of winning the war.

Why didn't Hitler allow men to retreat in the east and reform for an attack? There simply couldn't have been another attack, retreating would do nothing except lose teritory faster, his only hope was to hold the teritory and bleed the Soviets dry in a static war.

How Halder single handedly cost Germany the war? All of that and more.

I genuinely suggest watching the video and would love to hear what you guys think of it.

With this said, I hope Paradox can properly model the impact of Oil on WW2 in the next expansion

 

[Geriander]

That video is discussed here: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?threads/wwii-and-oil.1101198/

 

[Sarmatia1871]

Does this TIK character encourage people to spam his videos around internet history forums to increase his viewing counts?

 

[Herbert West]

Does this TIK character encourage people to spam his videos around internet history forums to increase his viewing counts?

I think he is just the newest crop of people mixing in rather well-known issues (Oil production, manpower losses, etc), with a relatively bombastic argumentative style. In short, if you want to pretend you are smarterer than the average WWII pulp history knowing forumite, you use his videos now.

I find them unbearable to listen to, mostly because of his accent.

 

[gagenater]

I'll repeat my post from that thread here, since it bears repeating:

It made diplomatic missteps but even if somehow it had played the diplomatic game perfectly, it’s lack of oil spelled doom. Having enough coal and iron was no longer a sufficient basis to wage a major war once the internal combustion engine ruled all forms of mobility, both strategic, and tactical.

Daniel Yergin’s famous and award winning book ‘The Prize’ which is a history of the oil industry up til ~ 1990 does an incredibly effective job of explaining exactly how hopeless the strategic material position of the Axis was in WWII.

 

[Henry IX]

Germany lacked the following things to win WW2:

- Oil
- Food
- Manpower
- Iron
- Chromium
- Aluminium
- Industrial capcity
- Trained technicians (esp in the electronics industry)

They managed to solve the lack of rubber with clever chemistry, the lack of food with conquest and the lack of iron with conquest and diplomacy. They never solved the rest.

Oil was just one of a number of constraints on the German war machine that ultimately ensured its defeat after the British refused to surrender.

 

[Geriander]

If oil was the reason to invade the USSR, wouldn’t a concentrated push for the British oilfields in the Middle East have been a better choice? The logistics of reinforcing the Afrikakorps may have prevented that route but what about going through Turkey?

 

[Finnish Dragon]

How much oil did the Ploesti oil fields produce during WWII and how large share of that was transported to Germany?

 

[Graf Zeppelin]

How much oil did the Ploesti oil fields produce during WWII and how large share of that was transported to Germany?

Ploesti produced roughly 5 million tons a year and half of it going into Germany and its Army. In comparison Germany produced 7 million tons of oil and "imported" roughly another million from Hungary, Poland etc.

What was most important about Ploesti was the Kerosin for aircraft.

 

[gagenater]

If oil was the reason to invade the USSR, wouldn’t a concentrated push for the British oilfields in the Middle East have been a better choice? The logistics of reinforcing the Afrikakorps may have prevented that route but what about going through Turkey?

Most of the oil fields of the Middle East hadn’t been discovered yet. The ones that were there were logistically out of reach. It takes many years to build a railroad or pipeline from the locations the oil was known of then, to the Mediterranean Sea. 3-5 years is about as fast as it goes in peacetime with nobody trying to stop you. In real life, any forces the Germans sent into Iraq or Iran would have lost VERY quickly to this British because they would run out of munitions, while the British sent armies in by sea or via India with short and convenient supply lines. Supplying the Afrika Corps is simplicity itself compared to putting an army in that region. Eastern Turkey is tremendously mountainous. The first pipeline that made it through that region in real life opened in 1970

 

[Graf Zeppelin]

Most of the oil fields of the Middle East hadn’t been discovered yet. The ones that were there were logistically out of reach. It takes many years to build a railroad or pipeline from the locations the oil was known of then, to the Mediterranean Sea. 3-5 years is about as fast as it goes in peacetime with nobody trying to stop you. In real life, any forces the Germans sent into Iraq or Iran would have lost VERY quickly to this British because they would run out of munitions, while the British sent armies in by sea or via India with short and convenient supply lines. Supplying the Afrika Corps is simplicity itself compared to putting an army in that region. Eastern Turkey is tremendously mountainous. The first pipeline that made it through that region in real life opened in 1970

Indeed.
Technicaly Italy was siting on more oil they ever need in Lybia.

 

[JodelDiplom]

Germany lacked the following things to win WW2:

- Oil
- Food
- Manpower
- Iron
- Chromium
- Aluminium
- Industrial capcity
- Trained technicians (esp in the electronics industry)

They managed to solve the lack of rubber with clever chemistry, the lack of food with conquest and the lack of iron with conquest and diplomacy. They never solved the rest.

Oil was just one of a number of constraints on the German war machine that ultimately ensured its defeat after the British refused to surrender.

Britain lacked the following things to win the war:
- Trained soldiers
- Competent officers
- Heavy industry
- Reliable allies
And they still won

 

[Husein]

Britain lacked the following things to win the war:
- Trained soldiers
- Competent officers
- Heavy industry
- Reliable allies
And they still won

Britain had an Empire spanning quarter of the globe to pawn in a war and open sea-lanes to import goods they lack. First of which fell appart after the war due to that pawning. There's a reason why Britain won the war and lost the empire.

 

[JodelDiplom]

Britain had an Empire spanning quarter of the globe to pawn in a war and open sea-lanes to import goods they lack. First of which fell appart after the war due to that pawning. There's a reason why Britain won the war and lost the empire.

Trying to find reasons why Germany lost is just so boring. Studying history should ultimately make one smarter at understanding the present. Try finding reasons for why Britain should have lost the war.

 

[bz249]

Trying to find reasons why Germany lost is just so boring. Studying history should ultimately make one smarter at understanding the present. Try finding reasons for why Britain should have lost the war.

They pretty much lost it... started the 20th century as the number one world power, in 2018 they struggle to keep their last colonial holding Ulster.

 

[Kovax]

They pretty much lost it... started the 20th century as the number one world power, in 2018 they struggle to keep their last colonial holding Ulster.

….but they still control the Falkland Islands, so they remain a "world empire".

 

[bz249]

….but they still control the Falkland Islands, so they remain a "world empire".

Yes, they still have Diego Garcia (GMT+6), the Falklands (GMT-3) and the Pitcairn Islands (GMT -8) the the Sun never sets in the British Empire of 2018

 

[Antediluvian Monster]

Britain lacked the following things to win the war:
- Trained soldiers
- Competent officers
- Heavy industry
- Reliable allies
And they still won

They also had the English Channel, the classic hard counter to land based armies.

 

[Gil galad]

Germany never solved the lack of dood throug conquest.

 

[Graf Zeppelin]

Try finding reasons for why Britain should have lost the war.

They got nothing out of the world wars. In WW1 Britain managed to maintain the status quo for another 25 years and after WW2 they been spent.

The only winners in ww2 been the US and USSR and to a lesser extent Germany and Japan who got rid of their shitty governments and got a booming economy. Italy got it better too I guess.