Ok guys, simple and direct question: Why the German army, one of the greatest military forces of all times, cannot do a simple thing as prepare itself and its tanks and machines and shit for a goddamn winter of one of the biggest nations on mothafucking earth?
>>1037515
Because Hitler's buddies and all other high ranking Germans thought logistics was for nerds.
>>1037515
>greatest
>military
>force
They actually did a pretty good job till they got surrounded Nd they couldnt send relief forces because western front lol
>>1037515
The Wehrmacht was neither great, nor a military, nor a force.
>>1037515
Hitler was batshit insane by that time. It might have been the speed, or being surrounded by yes-men.
They were sure the war would have already been won before the winter.
They were THAT sure of it.
>>1037533
>thousand
>year
>reich
>>1037515
They clearly did prepare. If they weren't prepared, 90% of their soldiers would've died from exposure. As it was, fewer German soldiers died from non-combat related issues in winter than in summer.
because the germans losing because of the winter, like hitler not listening to his generals, is just a wehraboo meme
>>1037515
The fact of the matter is that they prepared for winter and it was still too much for them to deal with.
They didn't have the logistics to sustain a push, the Russians only managed to make offensives because of the mass of rail systems at Moscow and the boon of having completely fresh and fairly competent Siberian troops, who were quite accustomed to winter.
It was the Russian winter that stopped the German's advance, but it was the Russian soldier that broke it.
>>1037515
Hitler said he insisted on air cooled engines for the russian campain & said not to split forces before reaching moscow
>>1038478
>said not to split forces before reaching moscow
You do realize the entire plan of Barbarossa was to split the army into 3 groups?
>>1037533
Why so salty? Thats simply bullshit. The Wehrmacht overperformed the whole war given its ressources while all the allied nations underperformed too varying degrees.
The reasons for the high losses in the winter were a) Complete misscalculation of the russian strength due to the performance of russia in WW1 and the worldview of the political leadership.
b) The Complete underestimation of logistics in russia and the effect partisans had on the railways. The actually had a good amount of winter clothing but it didn't reach the front.
>>1038495
He was advised to split the army in to three groups, took the responsibility because it happened on his watch
>>1037515
Because the plan called for them to win before winter began.
Why would they be so absurdly optimistic? They were cocky off of their victories in France and Poland, the poor performance of Soviet armies in the winter war encouraged them, they were operating under the default assumption of racial superiority, and good old fashion military intelligence cock ups lead them to believe the Soviet reserve was much, much smaller than it actually was.
>>1037515
Few things.
1. It was one of the worst winters in a long time (40 years?)
2. Russia is BIG and that makes logistics and fuel problems
>>1038551
German military intelligence was a meme for the whole war.
>>1037515
>Ok guys, simple and direct question: Why the German army, one of the greatest military forces of all times, cannot do a simple thing as prepare itself and its tanks and machines and shit for a goddamn winter of one of the biggest nations on mothafucking earth?
Hitler actually explains this in that one audio-recording where he speaks plainly with Mannerheim.
He says that their equipment is not prepared for winter because everyone held the opinion: you can't fight a war in winter and thus there's no need to prepare for it since nobody does it. Hitler said that all their arms and armour are essentially "good-weather equipment".
And because they underestimated the performance of Russia, due to Russia's poor performance in WW1 where they were beaten with relative ease in comparison to the western powers, they didn't expect that it would take that long.
>>1037532
uhm, no. Germany lost the war when they couldn't take Moscow by christmas in 41. The western front hadn't opened until summer 1944.
Russia has the advantage of space, they can fall back a few kilometres and stretch out any assault. If the enemy gets too close to a supply base they just torch it as they retreat.
Either the attacking force sacrifices a good deal of troops to protect supply lines or faces the potential of being surrounded.
>>1038714
This wasn't so much seen as a gamble. Russia simply wasn't considered a strong opponent. The performance of the Imperial German army in WW1 against Russia made the German officers overconfident. France was considered a much more serious threat, and they dealt with France with surprising ease.
because russian winter is a meme
winter had little if any to do with the german offense running out of steam
losing 1/4 of your army and 1/3 of your equipment without being resupplied takes its toll winter or not
