Is the Heinkel He-111 only effective because of sheer numbers during the entire war? Unironically more of a zergling horde aircraft than the B-17?

Like the coward they are, they always mass concentration in sectors where they know they could hold the upper hand and immediately run away the moment the enemy sends more aircraft into the given sector.

Most notable in Battle of Sedan (1940), Battle of Minsk (1941), Battle of Smolensk (1941), the Kiev encirclement (1941), Battle of Vyazma-Bryansk (1941), Moscow counter offensive (late 1941), Siege of Sevastopol (1942), Siege of Malta (praise our hero Keith Park, 1942), Battle Of Stalingrad (1942), Third Battle of Kharkov (1943), Battle of Kursk (1943), Tunisian airlift (though eroding in presence overall by early 1943), Steinbock (a huge failure in 1944), and finally Bodenplatte. Probably more I didn't know.

Most of these battles either see the Luftwaffe acted as a fire brigade that achieved mostly tactical victories through concentration over a specific sector. The moment the enemy respond in strength, they ran away like cowards.

The HE-111 is a good interdiction aircraft under air parity, but when even those air umbrella got siphoned away for the Defense Of The Reich campaign, the He-111 fleet got immediately vaporised everywhere saved for Norway by late 1943.

u/PoauseOnThatHomie — 7 days ago

(Serious) The Nazis really need to be not be Nazis to win the war? I have seen so many alternate scenarios that boils down to this. Please read body text.

I have seen so many WW2 German alternate victory scenarios that basically boils down to Nazis stop being Nazis and acting rational and completely contradictory to what they represented historically.

These are always the list of things people (most Quorians and old Reddit threads from a decade ago, some shamelessly browsed on r/shitwehraboossay with people crossposting) the Nazis do in those scenarios, basically stop being Nazi in order for them to win:

  1. Don't start the holocaust.

  2. Treat every single ethnic minorities with respect.

  3. Focus on heavy bombers and not waste resources on dog shit turtles like the Dornier-Do 17 during the interwar years.

  4. Luftwaffe doesn't bomb civilian targets.

  5. Germany focuses on producing more domestic oil instead of importing them (Idk how the fuck is this possible).

  6. Don't genocide the Soviets, every POW is treated with humane care.

  7. Don't start the Battle Of Britain.

  8. Provide better wages and living conditions relative to their former conquerors.

  9. Don't waste resources on Tiger tanks and focus on StuG 3 and Panzer IV.

  10. Only mass produce the FW-190 and Ju-88, everything else can be shelved after 1941.

  11. Don't declare war on the US, if FDR declares war, reject it. (...???)

  12. Buy the Caucasus region from Stalin so they could establish a logistics lines first before Barbarossa begins (???The Soviets could just close it shut the moment they heard of the attack?)

  13. Appoint Donitz to be the head of Kriegsmarine and acquire 300 U-boats in 1939, never start wasting steels on surface vessels.

  14. Rotate pilots to the back to retain experience.

And vice versa. There are more I could probably think of but these are the ones what ifs I have heard the most browsing on the internet and some...forums. Don't ask who BlackTailDefense is. Just some totally awesome guy that likes a flying tank, ArrowGawring or something I don't know.

So the question is: Could Germany really win the war if they stopped acting like Nazis and think rationally?

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u/PoauseOnThatHomie — 16 days ago

Was Battle Of Britain the only real shot of Germany at knocking Britain out of the war?

Militarily, Germany is screwed either way and an invasion of the British homelands is a no go for the German forces. So, the only realistic chance of Germany getting Britain out of the war is for the Luftwaffe to win the Battle Of Britain and hoping the British public will lose their confidence in Churchill and have the cabinet vote him out and Halifax will sue for peace and the United States will not be incline to enter the war.

Any other way, the Wehrmacht will get grind to paste anyways.

What do you guys think of this?

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u/PoauseOnThatHomie — 1 month ago
▲ 0 r/ww2

The German Air Force had fought the British Air Force in WW1. Why aren't any of the Luftwaffe officers aware of the limitations they will face against the RAF?

Theodore Osterkamp, for example, is the only Luftwaffe pilot within the Luftwaffe at the time (summer of 1940), to have known the limitations of the Luftwaffe fighter force and how the fighters did not have enough range and their trained pilots couldn't be sustainably used against a system designed to inflict grinding attrition.

Why didn't the Luftwaffe high command, also consist of WW1 air combat veteran, didn't know the range limits of their fighters and bombers? Like does Goring not even bother to READ the technical specs of his own aircrafts? He can't be that lazy right?

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u/PoauseOnThatHomie — 2 months ago
▲ 1 r/ww2

Had Stalin allowed Zhukov to use Deep Battle doctrine in December 1941 and greenlights Operation Bagration earlier to counter Operation Barbarossa, would it have destroyed the Wehrmacht earlier?

In my opinion, letting Zhukov have full operational control over the entire Red Army in Barbarossa and using deep battle doctrine instead of Stalin meddling around and messing things up could have accelerate the Red Army's victory by several years earlier.

By concentrating many T-34s and making sure they are the T-34-85 and not the outdated 76 variant plus more well trained tankers and pilots, they could have outfought the German armour and air force, giving them enough momentum to sustain an offensive without breaking up.

Also, I think stopping the development of old variants weapons should be of immediate importance. Starting with stopping the development of T-34 76 and replacing it with the T-34-85 immediately and asking Soviet engineers to design and mass produce IS-2.

Then on the plane side, retire Yak 3 and La-5 and quickly design and order the La-7n and Yak 1 into immediate production to match the BF-109 G and FW-190, giving them an equal fighting chance. Also, USSR have many oil from Baku, so they should churn out less badly trained pilots and more highly trained pilots with higher training hours, less wastage of pilots and more return investment.

And after all that is ready by the end of 1941, immediately launch a counterattack. As it stands, the Wehrmacht is overstretched and is ripe for a counterattack. It only failed historically because Soviet troops are badly trained, with Zhukov in charge and training their infantry in deep battle doctrine and quickly launch Bagration in late 1941, things would change.

I suspect Army Group Center would be quickly cut off and surrounded as the Red Army is more tactically sophisticated and have a decent logistics line while Germans logistics already broke down.

All in all, the Red Army messed up historically and Stalin should've let Zhukov have full control over the Red Army and allow him to unleash Operation Bagration earlier.

Really a shame, because despite being in a very bad state in 1941, they still managed to inflict enormous loss on the Luftwaffe and Heer, the Germans never recovered from the materials and manpower loss during the six months and thus this is the war's turning point.

Imagine what a highly trained Red Army with Zhukov in charge and having trained in Deep Battle doctrine would do to the three Army Groups, they would've been destroyed and the Red Army reaching Poland by early 1942.

All above are my opinions on how the Red Army should do better, that is achieveable realistically had Stalin not meddled with Zhukov.

Feel free to share your thoughts whether the Red Army could have destroyed the three Army Groups by late 1941 with better tactics, training and equipment.

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u/PoauseOnThatHomie — 3 months ago

As a lazy slacker, I wish group projects aren't mandatory for passing grades.

As a long-term slacker, I have been slacking off for how long god knows but whenever I am put into a group, I immediately have to force myself to work and contribute to the project because I don't want others to fail because of me. I did just the bare minimum following the requirements on my assigned part and hope it's enough for a passable grade, in every single group I always do it this way.

Also, the loneliness and awkwardness when no one asks you to join their group because woah shocking, who could've seen that coming? Obviously no one likes a slacker like me yeah, but having an option to do an individual version of a group project would be great, I could do it at my own pace without having to be constantly worried whether I'm slowing them down.

It's exhausting having to pretend you give a damn about your group mates feelings, it's annoying and I'm sure they find me the same as well.

Sorry, for the garbage/broken English usage as I'm sure this is why nobody likes me and I rather work on my own than in a group, at least I am not worried being shamed for my broken English and I can just do my project without the anxiety of having to drag someone do.

Ugh.

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u/PoauseOnThatHomie — 3 months ago
▲ 14 r/Ubuntu

I'm NOT considering other distros because as far as I know, Ubuntu is absolutely the most widely supported and documented distro on the market.

The only barrier for me switching to Linux Ubuntu (plus dual boot) is that I have lots of important stuff on Windows 11 and being a complete idiot on the technical/computer side, I don't want to accidentally delete ANYTHING, not even a single stuff on it.

I did find and used a good Microsoft Word alternative on Windows 11 which is the LibreOffice writer, even submitted a few copies of my homework to my lecturer. So office applications shouldn't be an issue for me.

TLDR; I'm a computer idiot currently using Windows 11 and wondering if it's worth the risk to have a Linux Ubuntu as a dual boot option alongside Windows 11.

Edit: Oh shit, I just found out there is a DDOS attack on Ubuntu right now. :(

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u/PoauseOnThatHomie — 4 months ago