Could the Germans Repel the Assault on Berlin?

Site Issues 2005 Archive Room
#41

well,i was out off topic.

the aircraft is,was and will be important for the rest of the history.
(btw,bombers are better,why do you think aircrafts have their own force?,and artillery belongs to army)

let’s continue and stay on topic.

#42

i’m talking about ww2 erwin. carpet-bombing enemy positions wasn’t that effective. besides being very obvious to the human eye, a fleet of bombers often bomb their own men!

massive artillery supremacy can reck havoc on attacks/defensive operations and stop your own batteries with counter-battery fire.

#43

On the Eighth day god said, let there be tactical bombers, and the mosquito was made.

#44

haha, you make that up mate ?

#45

Off corse you not think that is god say ,dont you. :wink:

#46

lol good one :lol:

#47

Anyway, once again, back on topic - No, Germany couldn’t have repelled the assault on Berlin for 2 reasons

  1. as mentioned earlier, you need Air Supremacy over an area to control it, and
  2. when you have Russian artillery knocking at your door and Russian soldiers and tanks on every street, your pretty much screwed
#48

there is no way the germans cudve repelled the attack…the battle of the bulge was there last attempt at salvaging the war, they knew that they couldnt defend Berlin after losing the battle of the bulge.

both the americans and russians were producing more soliders, tanks, artillery, etc then ever before. then they both converged on berlin. it was a lost cause.

maybe if the germans hadnt started the battle of the bulge, and foritifed berlin more they couldve held off the capture of berlin at least momentarilly.

#49

the battle of the bulge is not the last attempt to salvage the war. thats what a lot of american textbooks say. Operation Spring awakening is the last german offensive of the war, it took place on the eastern front. its failure helped the russians reach berlin.

the bulge ended in jan 1945. It was costly to both sides though. both sides lost similiar amounts of men and tanks. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_bulge

while it is not shown in this website, the americans also had a lot of damaged tanks. the bulge probably, by most estimates, slowed down the american advance for 2 weeks.

#50

Surely the best thing the German leadership could have done for the German people is leave the Western front undefended and put EVERYTHING on the Eastern front… But, I suppose as we discussed in the thread about crazy super weapons, they just couldn’t admit to themselves that the writing was on the wall.

#51

well, most of the german army was in russia for the whole war. But germany had to put at least 10-20 percent of her troops in the west, north africa, and italian fronts.

#52

But my point is that they’d have been better off in late 44 to stop opposing the Western allies all together and keep the Soviets out.

#53

Eh? Surely it wasn’t in Russia until 1941?

#54

You KNOW what he meant Crab, now stop being so picky.

#55

yeah, of course, my mistake. 1941-1945 , most of the german army was in russia.

but, festamus, what would happen after the landings? with a free ride to germany, more problems fro the germans would emerge.

#56

Not after the landings but late 1944 when it was clearly a matter of time on both fronts, especially the East. Surely the Germans would have realised that the Western allies were far preferable occupiers?

#57

I agree no way to stop russians ,they can 1941 if they not attack .

#58

Festamus is trying to say that if the Germans had realised they were going to lose the war, say in 1944, they should have put as effort in to holding the Russians off in the East.

If this had happened then Germany would, maybe, not have been split up as it was, as the Allied would have taken most of it.

#59

The Nazis tried to do two attempts to stop the Russians after they crossed the Oder river (or Odra in Polish). The first was at the Seelower Höhen, east of Berlin, and the last attempt was to use the rivers and canals in Berlin encircling the city centre as a final line of defense. By then the German military were on their shoestrings. As a university student I had a semestral break job in spring 1989 working for a EOD removal company. We did a systematic search of the Tiergarten park just west of the Brandenburg gate, within a mile of Hitler’s Reichstag. The Germans used any weapon or ammunition they could get their hands on. We found Czech and Italian grenades, French machine guns etc…

Jan

#60

Yeah in berlin houses must be cleared house by house ,building by building.

Everything is been fire point ,bridges parks ,churchs ,metro .