Stalingrad. Other than the obvious fact that a victory there would have meant they would not have lost 100,000+ men, the Volga also runs through it. That would have cut off the oil and any real traffic. It is also a large idustrial center and the propaganda for capturing Stalin’s namesake city would have been tremendous.
If Hitler had either gotten the Japs to attack in the East or picked better troops than Rumanians to guard Paulus’s flanks Russia would have crumbled.
I really wanted to walk out on this stupid ass movie, but I stayed till the end. Dumbest movie since “Swing Kids”.
Did you know the Nazis didn’t like dancing? They also hated Rainbows and kittens as well.
Ya know, it’s not fair. The Holocaust gets all the publicity and no one ever remembers the poor swing kids who were not allowed to dance. It is like the the “flash dance” of the 30s and 40s.
The director of these garbage movies always seems to be able to steal money from me. I see the concept, looks good, watch it when it comes out and with in the first 10 minutes of the movie I know “the moron has struck again”. This guy has done (among other stupid movies) Independence Day and Stargate.
I won’t go into depth on how idiotic this movie is other than to say this. When “Joe Virtue Good guy” is arguing with “Joe Bad Guy” about whether they should leave some people behind for the greater good he says something like “what will you tell your grandchildren?” How about what Holocaust survivors told their children… I SURVIVED!
Ya, idiotic ideological nonsense is really what you need when the world is coming to an end. When of course everyone follows “good guys” advice it made me hope beyond hope that the movie would end with the human race being wiped out, because that is a better ending than the earth being populated by morons.
For reasons stated, it was not in Japan’s best intrest to attack Russia. HOWEVER, it was in the Axis best intrest that they would have attacked. I didn’t get to read all the posts, (so maybe it has been mentioned) but almost the entire Russian Stalingrad offensesive used troops that had been stationed as a deterent to stop the Japanese from attacking. A Soviet Spy in Japan informed Stalin that Japan had no intention of attacking them. How differently would the war have gone if the Battle of stalingrad was won by the Germans? The Volga river being cut off… the oil fields in the Caucus falling into German hands?
I contend that the Japs did not have to attack Russia, just declare war. That would have kept the troops there. I am not sure on the distance, but if possible I would have bombed Russian factories that had just run east from advancing Germans.
I think the real question here is could the Russians have beaten the Germans if the battle of stalingrad became a German victory, which I am certain it would have been if the Japs had at least threatened an attack in the East.
It depends on when either Turkey or Spain would have declared war. If Spain declared war on sept 1 1939 than it would be by far the better of the 2. If it declared war on june 22 1941 it really wouldn’t have mattered. An early Spanish entry into the war would have seen Gibralter fall almost immediatly IMO, which would have damaged England almost to the point of irrelevence from trade alone. Than take into account that the battle in Africa would have almost def. been won by Rommel with England starving at home, and Rommel having undisturbed convoys giving him supplies. Had he pushed through Egypt most middle eastern countries were sympathetic to the Germans (because they hated the British so much) and it would have been an easy conquest. More importantly, if done in a timely fashion could have threatened Russia’s southern front by the time barbarossa took place. Which would have distracted Russian forces their western front or lose the Caucus. Not to mention a German force in the Middle East would have been a threat to India and caused the British to have to defend in the west while still getting hit by Japan in the east. You could even argue with gains like this, and fighting side by side with the Germans… at this point Turkey may have joined anyway.
I have always thought that the Germans not taking Gibralter was a horrible mistake (militarily of course, thank god they lost). That one asset was worth more than the entire Italian military combined.
What do you guys think? I have been really looking forward to this one, the trailers look great. The one thing I do think is stupid though is they are sticking with the whole “a robot comes back from the future” concept which I think is getting old. It is the future, the war happened, now tell the damn story!
This is more WW1 history than 2, but it really annoys me. People on the Lusitania being warned not to vacation in a WAR ZONE go anyway and die. This somehow is someone else’s resp. than the IDIOTS who vacationed in a WAR ZONE! I bring this up because you know during spring break - even though they have been warned… a bunch of idiots are going to go to Mexico… you know - A WAR ZONE! And when they get killed, mugged, raped, whatever… they are going to act as if they are victems. They are victems - of their own stupidity.
I voted for Spain for a couple of reasons. 1st and foremost they could have than taken out Gibralter securing the Med. Secondly the Uboats would have had more docks. 3rd More airfields would have left the shipping lanes in the Atlantic far more vulnerable to attack. You add another 1000 miles westward into the Atlantic to scout for subs or just outright attack them by air yourself.
Had Spain joined and done this Malta would have fallen from no supply. Troops in Africa I believe could have pushed up and threatened the Caucus from the south (hell of a supply line on that one though). England would have starved and I believe it would have been invaded. If you don’t have the oil/parts you won’t be able to send fighters up to defend.
Operation Barbarossa would have been post poned for a year while Sea Lion was fought (and won) by the Germans. With no force in the west (And all the resources of england to help) to defend against Hitler could have moved everything he had against Russia in 42 instead of 41. Which would have avoided the 41 blizzard.
It would have been a much different war, much more favorable to the Germans.
The biggest mistake the Germans made was not insisting that the Japs attack Russia. That one thing could have won them the war. The Germans would have won the battle of Stalingrad if they had and pushed onto the Caucus.
This is a kind of a political question, but a non partisan one. It has always bugged me during any election how the people running seem to just say “screw the people, I have to ensure I keep my job or get a promotion”. The 2guys we have running right now have not served the people of their state since this whole thing began. Don’t even get me started on a president seeking a second term in office. The country has to go on hold while he makes sure he holds onto his job.
Between this and taking off more days than grade schoolers do for holidays I want to kick every politician in the nads and demand my tax money back.
How about this, we keep “Men at work” but right beside it we have another saying “Woman Holding Sign”.
For someone so stuck on a word with her equality I want to see her crusade for having women do more than hold that sign and make the same $ as people who are actualy WORKING!
@Cmdr:
A) Yes I’m fine
B) No, I don’t know any of the victims, at least that I know of
C) Yes the building I pretty much live in is attached to the one the shooter was in, but I rarely ever actually go into that building.That said, I’m rather ticked classes are canceled tomorrow. :/ I know why, and I understand it, but I was looking forward to them.
http://www.niu.edu/index.shtml
Small world Jen, I went to NIU! I am not sure of exactly where the shooting was (been a while) but it looked to be in front of the main building with the hotel and Mcdonalds. I stayed in Douglas and stevenson when I was there.
I hear you actualy have a football team now, when I went they pretty much never won a single game in the 2 years I was there.
If I ever go back there me and my GF should kick your butt in A&A! :-D
Voting for J MCcain is like trying to pick up a turd by the “clean end”.
I will vote for whomever the dems put forth. In 4 years you are going to have a mess in the government no matter who gets elected and I would rather the blame be on them. I am more concerned about congress… the dems already have the white house (I count Johnny as a dem).
I was wondering if any of you have seen this. I am a huge WW2 geek (as I am sure most of you are), but I have not had the chance to check this out. A guy I met once from my GFs work asked her to tell me about it (met him at a WW2 re-enactment). At any rate the series sounded incredible. The WW2 generation is dying off, and the series is about real soldiers who were there and fought those battles and what the war was really like outside of the bookish geek things that nerds like us read. The guy who suggested it to me to watch, well… he dresses up in 1940s American uniforms and play fights with people. I don’t hold it against him, I am just giving credit where credit is due. He gets into this stuff more than I do. That being said, this could be a really cool series. Have any of you seen it?
When I had my German History course in WW2 I saw a picture of a game called “get the jew out”. The object of the game was to force as many Jews to move to palastine or madagascar.
Kind of silly evil. Like that Borat “running of the jew” thing.
I missed it, but why was the political forum taken off?
Out of thread, but give me a break… Germany with the additional forces in France, Norway, and the low countires… Russians would be speaking German right now. Along with the rest of us (given time).
I would have waited until 1942 to attack and done 3 things to prepare. 1)Get Spain to declare war and take Gibralter. 2)Cleared out the Med so it was safe to reinforce Africa. 3) Pushed the Africa Korp up through into the middle east. (establishing more ports to cut logisitics.
That way when the invasion happened the Caucus would be in immediate danger. As a bonus this could have also potentialy lost Britian India with the threat of the Germans from the west and the Japs from the east.
JIM AND PEGGY
It is important for men to remember that as women grow older, it becomes harder for them to maintain the same quality of housekeeping as when they were younger. When you notice this, try not to yell at them. Some are oversensitive, and there’s nothing worse than an oversensitive woman.
My name is Jim. Let me relate how I handled the situation with my wife, Peggy. When I retired a few years ago, it became necessary for Peggy to get a full-time job along with her part-time job, both for extra income and for the health benefits that we needed. Shortly after she started working, I noticed she was beginning to show her age. I usually get home from the golf club about the same time she gets home from work.
Although she knows how hungry I am, she almost always says she has to rest for half an hour or so before she starts dinner. I don’t yell at her. Instead, I tell her to take her time and just wake me when she gets dinner on the table. I generally have lunch in the Men’s Grill at the club so eating out is not reasonable. I’m ready for some home-cooked grub when I hit that door.
She used to do the dishes as soon as we finished eating, but now it’s not unusual for them to sit on the table for several hours after dinner. I do what I can by diplomatically reminding her several times each evening that they won’t clean themselves. I know she really appreciates this, as it does seem to motivate her to get them done before she goes to bed.
Another symptom of aging is complaining, I think. For example, Peggy will say that it is difficult for her to find time to pay the monthly bills during her lunch hour. But, boys, we take 'em for better or worse, so I just smile and offer encouragement. I tell her to stretch it out over two or even three days. That way she won’t have to rush so much. I also remind her that missing lunch completely now and then wouldn’t hurt her any (if you know what I mean!). I like to think tact is one of my strong points.
When doing simple jobs, she seems to think she needs more rest periods. She had to take a break when she was only half finished mowing the yard. I try not to make a scene. I’m a fair man. I tell her to fix herself a nice, big, cold glass of freshly squeezed lemonade and just sit for a while. And, as long as she is making one for herself, she may as well make one for me, too.
I know that I probably look like a saint in the way I support Peggy. I’m not saying that showing this much consideration is easy. Many men will find it difficult, some will find it impossible! Nobody knows better than I do how frustrating women get as they get older. However, guys, even if you just use a little more tact and less criticism of your aging wife because of this article, I will consider that writing it was well worthwhile. After all, we are put on this earth to help each other.
Signed,
Jim
EDITOR’S NOTE: Jim died suddenly on May 27 of a perforated rectum.
The police report says he was found with a Calloway extra long 50-inch Big Bertha Driver II golf club jammed up his rear end, with barely Five inches of grip showing, and a sledge hammer laying nearby.
His wife Peggy was arrested and charged with murder.
The all-woman jury took only 15 minutes to find her not guilty, accepting her defense that Jim somehow, without looking, accidentally sat down on his golf club very quickly.
Maybe,
But in the liberal version terrorism is defeated by hugs, rainbows, and of course - puppies.
Have any of you watched this on showtime? Last year I got a free weekend of Showtime and the first episode was on, and I was kind of put off by it when I saw the commercial. I thought it would be some load of crap showing how “human” terrorist are. While the show does go into the terrorist personal lives it is in no way a vehicle to show “the other side of the story”. One of the things that put me off about it was that there was only one arabic terrorist in the cell. Sorry, that doesn’t seem likely (possible yes, likely no). That comes off as being “see, anyone can be a muslim nutcase terrorist” which is true, but again not as likely But when I thought about it in the sense that it is a show made to make $ it would be pretty boring to have them all Arabic loons. There would not be much charachter developement, so they took people from different parts of society. So for the sake of entertainment, it was a good call.
The break down is:
The leader of the cell, arabic. Very makavelian in how he conducts things.
A black ex-con turned muslim. The hero of the story (he is an undercover agent)
A French thug ex-neo nazi (this was stretching it a bit).
A Muslim from the former Yugoslavia who saw some awful shit during “ethnic cleansing”.
A stupid ass spoiled white kid. His mommy and daddy didn’t hold him enough or something (parents are Berkley profs).
The show really does kick ass. When it came out on DVD I bought it and did a marathon 1 day watching. I highly recommend it.
Some of the scenes were great. There was this one scene where the white kid and the french guy are approached by a Christian at a university. The Christian guy was kind of acting like flanders (from the simpsons) and they got into a small debate, and the 2 terrorist walked past. It was hilarious, the white kid mutters to the french guy “fucking religious fanatics” and the french guy gave him this look like he is a complete dumb ass.
The second season was very good as well. Part of it was about a terrorist die hard the US had captured but could not break. The interogation we used was not nice to say the least. The guy had valuable intel. that could stop another attack. So we “extradited” him to saudi arabia where he faced a lot of criminal charges. They tortured him to within an inch of his life. During the torture the FBI guy there observing the entire thing said “Just tell us what we need to know! We are Americans, we HATE this sh*t!” The terrorist turned to him and said “that is why you will lose”.
At the end of his torture (as the torturer was going to put a hot wire up his urethra) the terrorist looks at the FBI agent and says (about his torturer) “I understand him, he does what he does and that is all there is to it. But you Americans, you are so addicted to analizing your guilt instead of achieving victory” (rough quote).
Anyway, great series. If any of you have seen it, do you know if there is going to be a 3rd season?
As are most people on this board, I am a World War 2 geek. When I was in college I took every german history and world war 2 class that I could. One of the books I read as a source was Mein Kamph. It of course was not assigned, but I felt (and still do feel) it was pertinent to the classes I was taking. Out of the 4 or 5 prof I had that taught history, none had read the book. I have only met one person other than myself who had read the book, and he was a neo nazi who took a lot of the same classes I had for obvious reasons (real idiot too, he thought that jews turned into goats on the full moon).
That being said I just had a wierd experience at work not too long ago. I get “WW2” magazine and I read it at work during breaks or free time. A guy I work with (nice as hell) noticed it and asked me about it. Told him I was a WW2 geek and all, and even mentioned I had read Mein Kamph. He said he had too - which is wierd as hell because who in the hell reads that crap other than WW2 geeks. He is going to college right now to be an engineer. At any rate I assured him I was not some whack job nazi, and than he told me “No, I wasn’t thinking that. There is nothing wrong with reading that, it is just an alternative point of view”. I was thinking “What the F***”?
Don’t get me wrong, he is a real nice guy. Never had a problem with him at all. But doesn’t that sound a little F***'d up? Hitler having an “alternative point of view” is worse than Dalmer having “an alternative point of view”. Crazy is just that - crazy. What do you guys think?