Were the Germans really that good?

[fastphil]

Initially, the Germans were unstoppable, history proves that. Their tactics, use of combined arms and overwhelming confidence gave them that, don't forget, they were also an angry nation who believed, quite rightly, that they had been shafted after the Great War and had some serious scores to settle.

I disagree with you here. History only shows they were not stopped. Hitler could have been stopped at many points in time, but there was not a collective agreement to stop him in Europe or for that matter the US. You notice I say 'collective agreement' because no country was 'individually willing' to act alone against Hitler. At the time of Germany's occupation of the Rhine, France had a bigger army than Germany. But she refused to act independently, as did the UK. The policy of 'appeasement' was adopted. When Hitler occupied Austria-Europe did nothing. When he occupied Czechoslovakia-Europe did nothing. Why the hell do you think Stalin signed a non-agression treaty with Hilter and paved they way for Poland's dismemberment? Because Europe when it had the power did nothing to check Adolf and Germany. Hitler truly believed France and England would do nothing when he invaded Poland.

They were the first modern mechanised Army and it showed.

Germany was not the first modern Mechanized Army-in fact it never was fully mechanized. I believe GB holds claim to the first(look at the makeup of the BEF) but if not them than the U.S. of the major powers.
Although the majority of German strength rested in 'the Panzertruppen'
the majority of Germany army was and remained 'saddled' to the horse
and on foot. If you look at the TOE of the US/UK Armies in 1942 I don't think you will find any horse drawn units. Now mountain or other special units might have mules etc but the armies were motorised/mechanized. Now I am not saying that any other country did a better job of utilizing the mechanized forces they did have, but
Germany was never able to mechanize the majority of their army .

The German Army fighting a global war was doomed from the outset much like the Confederate Army fighting in A Civil War. They suffered
from the same things -good Army, good generals(for the most part) and poor economy with the Germans having the worst of it fighting a global war without a global airforce, global navy or global economy.

The German long term global war strategy was-well it didn't exist. The German Army, as well as the Luftwaffe was built along lines of the short-term small-scale war. The Luftwaffe's role was army support and home defense. Short legs, short-ranged, small loads. It was not designed for a long duration-long distance war. However, the means to build a 'strategic airforce' would have taken away from the other services unless Germany Industry went on a full war footing in the thirties. If they had a global Navy capable of projecting power, who knows what they could have done in NA. But then again building a global navy would have drawn resources away from the other services.

As it was Hitler meddled too much and the German Army didn't have a long term plan established to fight Russians as the winter of 41/42 showed.

Well thats enough for now. Bound to raise a few hackles.:stir: