The Wehrmacht In Pictures: A Look At One of History's Legendary Fighting Force

[mb444]

@Nilgiri See we got one here.

@mb444 You will have to admit it, morally Germans won they war, they still faced less casualties and other losses even.

Morality has nothing to do with the Wehrmacht/SS

They attacked countries not prepared for war and then defended so it is not a surprise casualty overall was less....

But when the faced the Brits in northafrica after the initial victory they were slaughtered ......

After the Russians regrouped and hit back following German treachery they surrendered in their hundreds and thousands and got slaughtered by the Russians all the back to Berlin

Their claim of fortress Europe was breached in less than a day by the allied armada on d-day

You need to be somewhat sick in the head to glorify the nazi death machine

 

[Nilgiri]

@Nilgiri See we got one here.

@mb444 You will have to admit it, morally Germans won they war, they still faced less casualties and other losses even.

I dont agree with the moral part bro. @mb444 is not completely wrong. I admire the skill, valour and fighting spirit of many of the Germans....especially their use of tactics. Just like I would do the same even for India's Enemy today (Pakistan). I always judge the soldiers and field commanders of any side different from their political leaders. It is also why to this day why I also study very deeply the tactics of the US civil war. Even though Robert E Lee, StoneWall Jackson and the other confederate leaders ultimately were on a side that I can never support morally....they were excellent military minds who produced some of the most spectacular results on the battlefield....because they were willing to break the mould, experiment and take the appropriate risks at the right time.

So in the end I believe the Germans overall on the side of wrong...because of the Nazi party controlling them (just like Confederates ultimately were fighting for slavery to be continued no matter how you sugar coat it). They (Wehrmacht + SS) were a tool used by the Nazis to try accomplish an agenda I cannot agree with.

If it was to take revenge on France for WW1 (and its resulting punishment at Versailles). Fine. If it was to fight Communism....fine. But those were just 2 of the goals....instead of the only goals. They (Nazis) sullied themselves and those that fought under their banner ....with the grand vision of lebensraum and sheer anti-semitism...and ultimately too many people ....soldiers and civilians alike....died for utterly no good cause on their side.

In the Ukraine for example they were welcomed as liberators, as they were in many other places of Eastern Europe. They squandered that welcome because of their racism pure and simple. That in itself was the ultimate underlying reason for what happened in Stalingrad and the eventual turning point.

 

[The Sandman]

The dreaded MG 42 aka "Hitler's Buzzsaw"

 

[Nilgiri]

One of forgotten weapons best episodes:

 

[The Sandman]

One of forgotten weapons best episodes:

I freaking love this gun i really hope i will be able to buy it in Pakistan

 

[Nilgiri]

I freaking love this gun i really hope i will be able to buy it in Pakistan

I've been looking at getting one....but they tend to be pricey given the "name".

But I will get one eventually, it will make a nice addition to my Swedish and Boer Mauser as far as my old german origin rifle collection goes.

I would like a Gewehr 98 at some juncture as well.

 

[Goenitz]

G3, AK-47 and modern RPG ancestors can be seen : )

@mb444 British killed million natives peopel during colonocial age..during initial days of british rule in india, million starved as goods were shipped back to europe... plus surrendered Kozak (including families) were handed over to Russians...

 

[The Sandman]

Morality has nothing to do with the Wehrmacht/SS

They attacked countries not prepared for war and then defended so it is not a surprise casualty overall was less....

But when the faced the Brits in northafrica after the initial victory they were slaughtered ......

After the Russians regrouped and hit back following German treachery they surrendered in their hundreds and thousands and got slaughtered by the Russians all the back to Berlin

Their claim of fortress Europe was breached in less than a day by the allied armada on d-day

You need to be somewhat sick in the head to glorify the nazi death machine

@AZADPAKISTAN2009 @Desert Fox would you like to say something?

 

[mb444]

G3, AK-47 and modern RPG ancestors can be seen : )

@mb444 British killed million natives peopel during colonocial age..during initial days of british rule in india, million starved as goods were shipped back to europe... plus surrendered Kozak (including families) were handed over to Russians...

British colonial excesses are many and I would not airbrush them off history

But there is no equivalence... the German war machine existed for one purpose only .... To exterminate those not deemed human.... It was not an colonial enterprise ....they did not wish to rule other people they simply wanted land and killed everyone who is in it and all those beyond its border that it did not think had a right to live.

British atrocities should be rightly condemned. They do not provide any fig leaf for the unique evil that was nazi Germany's. The nazi military prowess is completely undeserved..... Beyond hoodwinking the ill equipped and strategically incompetent French army and outflanking the British in North Africa at the outset of the war there has been no other achievement. Each of these early victories paved way to comprehensive defeats.

The other notable victories were achieved via bullying small nation or sucker punching allies like Russia when they are off guard.

No victory was achieved by the Germans when they faced the allies when the later were on full war footing.

Nazi military prowess is pure BS propaganda just like their belief in the master race which was crushed to dust under Slavic boots.

 

[Foxtrot-Bravo]

Well @mb444 and @Nilgiri , I agree to both of you to some extent but you need to see the strength and numerics of the Allied and central on the other hand. Plus, @Nilgiri You said it right, one's strategic planning matters.

 

[Nilgiri]

the German war machine existed for one purpose only .... To exterminate those not deemed human

The vast majority of the German War Machine did not have that purpose in WW2. To say so is the same level of false propaganda the Holocaust Deniers use. Specific SS detachments like the EinsatzGruppen definitely had the extermination objective as their only purpose. The German Heer, Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine were not there to butcher recklessly all that came in their way for the most part.

they did not wish to rule other people they simply wanted land and killed everyone who is in it and all those beyond its border that it did not think had a right to live.

So why were there still plenty of Russians in the parts of the USSR when recaptured by the Soviets? You make it sound as though the first thing the Germans did was exterminate every living soul in an area. They had specific targets...Jews, communist intelligentsia and possibly some intellectuals and potential resistance leaders and members. Thats what elements of the SS were involved in mostly...Hitler never trusted his own Generals and Military to do the dirty work....and even this dirty work was not immediate annihilation. You have to read what the lebensraum policy entailed over many years and decades instead of what has been fed to you from some cheap propaganda.

The German Wehrmacht certainly does not have clean hands overall....but they werent some crazed total death squads like you seem to be claiming.

he nazi military prowess is completely undeserved..... Beyond hoodwinking the ill equipped and strategically incompetent French army and outflanking the British in North Africa at the outset of the war there has been no other achievement. Each of these early victories paved way to comprehensive defeats.

Its easy to blame the French. The British would have been just as easily routed had they been where France was in relation to Germany. Their channel saved them for the most part.

You also completely forgot to mention the British Expeditionary army. Ever heard of what happened at Dunkirk? Maybe Hitler should not have been so relenting and thrown the BEF a lifeline by holding back when they could have easily all been captured or liquidated. Hitler had this notion that the British would sooner or later come to their senses and ally with Germany against his real enemy - the USSR. That was a tactical and strategic blunder by him, just like it was invading Russia with racist doctrine in play.

The other notable victories were achieved via bullying small nation or sucker punching allies like Russia when they are off guard.

The French were utterly smashed...as was the British Army in France....completely encircled by Guderian's masterstroke.

Catching Russia off guard? Theres being off guard and then theres being totally destroyed even when you have defenders advantage. The main reason for Russia's poor performance in Barbarossa was Stalin. He never listened to his own intelligence and earlier he had purged his own army of most of its competent officers. Even with this the USSR was still a very capable fighting force....but they had no inkling of German tactics. They did learn however....and they more importantly had the strategic depth and acclimatization + eventually logistics advantage (esp during winter) required for a long drawn out war to turn the tables.

 

[mb444]

WW2 did not mirror WW1 where both sides steadily built up respective war machines with conflict triggered by a minor incident in a environment of jingoistic nationalism and political paralysis.

In WW2 Germany built up its forces and attacked. Britain wanted nothing to do another European war hence Chamberlains appeasement of hitler. France wanted nothing do with another war either, it was too busy consolidating its gains in North Africa and Mideast. Russia was recovering and consolidating from its revolution.

Germany had its own way as others were preoccupied.

German losses were colossal when compared with Britain or America ...... It looks good only in comparison to Russia.

If Stalin had completed arming Russia fully and anticipated betrayal when Germany opened up the eastern front then Russia's statistic would undoubtedly be better than the Germans.

The entire premise of the thread is wrong and is disproved by simple search for facts on Google.

 

[Desert Fox]

Tour De France 1940.

@mb444 @Foxtrot-Bravo @Nilgiri With all due respect guys, i don't want this to turn into a debating thread. This thread only serves as a place for pictures. If anyone finds this thread distasteful then you have the freedom to ignore this thread.

 

[Nilgiri]

Tour De France 1940.

@mb444 @Foxtrot-Bravo @Nilgiri With all due respect guys, i don't want this to turn into a debating thread. This thread only serves as a place for pictures. If anyone finds this thread distasteful then you have the freedom to ignore this thread.

Ok bro, I just wanted to answer that guy. Its not acceptable to me if he sullies every German soldier because of the political doctrine he fought under. I will not answer any more and let you continue the picture posting. Cheers.

 

[Desert Fox]

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Ok bro, I just wanted to answer that guy. Its not acceptable to me if he sullies every German soldier because of the political doctrine he fought under. I will not answer any more and let you continue the picture posting. Cheers.

You're right and i agree with you but i don't want this thread to end up being hijacked by people like him. It's simple really, if he doesn't like the content of this thread then he can ignore it and move on to another thread, instead of derailing this one.