Georg Elser, the man who tried to kill Hitler

The UK lost its last WW1 veteran this year and I think France has too.
My wife and I were  saddened at the loss of Dick Winters when we heard that. I do try to pick up a paper and read the obituaries, always looking for WW2 stories.
I hope I do not forget what my grandparents have passed on to me, as I am going to do the same with mine. My mum has written down all she can remember from her grandparents and even further back. I have told her I want it all.

Sun Tzu is famous for stating that the battle is often won or lost before your troops even engage the enemy.
Alliances were key before the start of war.

I would have

1  Find a way to ally with the USSR for at least a decade  ( hard to do since Ger, Ity and Jpn were joined by treaty in the Axis as an anti-communist effort)

1A Invite the USSR to attack the British through Persia.

1B Concentrate resources to wrestle Arabian oil away from the British and their allies .

2  Leaving the Mediterranean sphere to Italy was a disaster
and I would have ended earlier.

3  Italian troops should have gotten upgraded training before they were lost in the early going.

4  I would have started joint military war games/exercises in Austria and Czechoslovakia with the German, Italian, and other axis troops to get them all up to par.
This would get them all used to German close air support and combined arms tactics that worked so well in the french blitzkreig.

5.  Invited the Japanese admiralty (especially Yamamoto) to inspect the European fleets soon after signing the Axis Tri party agreements

6.  Yamamoto was opposed to the Rome-Berlin-Tokyo  Tripartite Pact.
I would Court Yamamoto and win him over in a way similar to how Hitler got support from the Asters in the UK.

7.  Sponsor alliance ready, facist-type, organizations in Egypt, Cyprus, Ireland, Norway, Iceland, etc… who would at least be neutral to the UK.  Whoever the Axis can use to gain leverage over the UK.

8.  What worked so well in Norway should have been done in Egypt near the Suez Canal and/or Cyprus.  Before the Norway invasion.

@Vance:

Hitler’s party number was 555.  The number of the BEAST!  :evil:

The number of the beast is 666. Or 616, according to some.

From the Book of Revelation:

I saw another beast coming up out of the earth. He had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke like a dragon. 13:12 He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. He makes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. 13:13 He performs great signs, even making fire come down out of the sky to the earth in the sight of people. 13:14 He deceives my own people who dwell on the earth because of the signs he was granted to do in front of the beast; saying to those who dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast who had the sword wound and lived. 13:15 It was given to him to give breath to it, to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause as many as wouldn’t worship the image of the beast to be killed. 13:16 He causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slave, to be given marks on their right hands, or on their foreheads; 13:17 and that no one would be able to buy or to sell, unless he has that mark, the name of the beast or the number of his name. 13:18 Here is wisdom. He who has understanding, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is six hundred sixty-six.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2091261/Inside-Hitlers-private-world-Wartime-pictures-rooms-Fuhrer-spent-quiet-time.html

@Dylan:

@Guerrilla:

No He lived! Just before the Soviets took over his bunker he was beamed up by a UFO. The aliens injected him with Abiesium and now he is a super soldier on the planet Yolulu. Read your history people… Geez…

GG

Your making fun of people that he did leave.

People that he left? What do you mean? And no, I’m just being sarcastic towards someone who doesn’t believe he died.

GG

George Tweed is buried at Eagle Point National Cemetery about 15 miles from my house and this time of the year the local press helps remind of his story. 2 links to his story.

http://www.guampedia.com/category/124-world-war-ii/entry/371-george-tweed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Ray_Tweed

Patton is one of the most interesting characters in WW2.

First of all look at how the Germans feared him. They were terrified of the man. Secondly a good many of Patton’s strategic and tactical viewpoints came to pass about both the 2nd World War and the Cold War. The man also had a sense of justice. He forced German civilians that tried to ignore the existence of the concentration camps to walk through the horrors there. As a tactician and commander I doubt we had anyone better than Patton.

The man had his faults certainly. The two incidents of slapping a soldier (he discharged a firearm in at least one of those, not sure about the second), he always seemed to have trouble managing his supply lines, and he always had trouble keeping his opinions quiet. He blundered severely sending troops to liberate a POW camp that happened to have his son in law as a prisoner. Patton never believed in shell shock, “battle fatigue”.

I really enjoyed Rick Atkinson’s first two books (Army at Dawn and Day of Battle). Patton is a major player in Army At Dawn (focused on North Africa). In the second book Patton is involved briefly but you learn many of his predictions about the fight in Italy prove to be correct. I look forward to third which focuses from D-day to the end of the war. I was disappointed in the amount of time Jeff Shaara devoted to Patton in “No Less Than Victory”. True a wealth of information is already recorded about Patton but writing any WW@ novel without Patton would be like writing about the Shenandoah Valley without mentioning Stonewall Jackson.

I believe that some authors portray Patton with a bias and marginalize Patton (most notably alternative writer Harry Turtledove). Part of this is because Patton offers so much stuff to criticize in his character. Part of it also comes from the fact it is popular to criticize anyone that could be considered conservative today.