Were the Germans really that good?

[RedDevil]

I'll chip in a wee bit

I base the early victories and eventual demise on the NCOs and young officer corps of the German armies. They were highly trained and very effective at what they did best. When your best men are dead or crippled, it is rather difficult to continue achieving success. It is also difficult to train others to be as efficient as those before them, when there is no experience to draw from.
When you couple this with the paralysis (ala Hitler) of the German High command when it came down to making a decision, it was only a matter of time irregardless of manpower and logistics.

I think western powers chose to pull men from the front to train fresh recruits because they could. Germany could not afford to do this after the winter of 41/42 and the summer campaign of 42 really overextended their manpower resources. One can only press so much of the population into the military, without destroying the economy.
Contrary to belief,The Reich was not even on a full war production at this time yet! They had no real pool of skilled labor people to produce things as most were in service and women were not utilized until later in the war to work in factories. They failed miserably in mass production efforts depending on hand made and custom building at several locations and then assembly in a main complex. Very strenuous on the transportation and economic systems for any country at war. Thank God they didn't have a Henry Ford idealist...

Another flaw in the German plan lies in it's command organization, none of the armed forces were able to effectively coordinate with each other. The organization plan to create new units, rather than rebuild broken ones also weakened the command structure and gave less meaning to comradeship and trust of the man next to you in combat situations. One must also consider the physiological effects of seeing their country being devastated around them as well. Do you want to die for der fuhrer or get home and protect your family now that the situation has becmoe rather unpleasant for your side..

Many mistakes were made and all of them will point to 1 bohemian at some time or another, let's be thankful he was in charge screwing up everything, and not a well versed Prussian General or even a King, who left military affairs to be dealt with by capable General staff.