Quote:
Originally Posted by Webstral
I don’t think anybody is claiming that Soviets deliberately cheated the Iraqis. The Soviets went with their established policy of exporting less-capable versions of the state-of-the-art equipment. The Iraqis were unable to make good on the shortfall in capabilities with domestic industry, and the Republican Guard paid the price. In a way, it’s too bad. Just as I am academically curious to see what the Wehrmacht could have accomplished on the Eastern Front without Hitler’s interference, I am academically curious to see what the Republican Guard could have accomplished under different circumstances.
Webstral
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It's interesting that you bring up operation Barbarossa, Webstral; there's a theory put forth by Shirer in
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich that it was Hitler's interference - at one key moment - that was precisely what
saved the Army in Russia. His own "not one step back" order that kept units on the front line through the winter of 1941 rather than letting them trade time for distance probably spared the Army a total crushing rout. The Russians had not yet perfected a "cut off and bypass" strategem yet, and the strong-points and lines of defense the Red Army ran into as they counterattacked through the winter kept them from becoming too agile, and kept supply lines and rear areas from being overcome.
Had Hitler allowed the high command to permit a general retreat, the victory for the Soviets might have come much, much sooner.
(With that said I think that was more happenstance than any brilliance on Corporal Shicklegruber's part...)
Oh...edit...I feel kind of weird saying this but I feel weird NOT saying it, but I feel regardless like I
should, especially given my user-handle: I'm not a skinhead, neo-Nazi, white supremacist or anything. That post above up there was not some "yeah the Nazis totally kicked ass but got some bad breaks!" type post.
