Dan Carlin's Hardcore History Addendum

[GloryofGreece]

So do most the armchair historians here think Dan's right about the military in Imperial Germany being superior overall to the Nazi military overall?

[heydaralon]

So do most the armchair historians here think Dan's right about the military in Imperial Germany being superior overall to the Nazi military overall?

I've wondered about this too. He makes an interesting case. If you are interested, you should check out that Wages of Destruction book I told you about. Its a slog, but there are some chapters on the Reich's military capabilities and economic power at the time. You could start by comparing those figures with Wilhelm Germany. I am not well versed enough in anything military to know the answer.

[Speaker to Animals]

Rockets
Jet fighters
Possibly anti-gravity technology

[Montegriffo]

Nothing new about anti gravity technology. The Chinese have been flying kites for thousands of years.

[doc_loliday]

It's been a while since I listened to it, but I think Dan excluded technology. In retrospect I think he was pointing out which army was better in its time. He seemed to regard leadership and the quality of the officers to be primary factor there.

He gave examples of quality leadership in WWI and gave examples of terrible leadership in WWII. He pointed out how a lot of Nazi officers got their positions by loyalty rather than merit. Goring, for example, tended to bungle everything.

[Speaker to Animals]

Nothing new about anti gravity technology. The Chinese have been flying kites for thousands of years.

No, I mean, there exists some evidence that they *might* have been able to produce the opposite effect of gravity, not just lift. The thing would create anti-gravity. Allegedly. Though there's an interesting case to be made that they in fact did accomplish a small effect like that, including multiple and independent testimonies from POWs during interrogation by Polish intelligence.

People always rush to poop all over it, but that's also what they did to the EM Drive, and that works too.

[Speaker to Animals]

Interesting interview (part 1):

http://www.astonishinglegends.com/al-po ... ell-part-1

Part 2:

http://www.astonishinglegends.com/al-po ... ell-part-2


What I find interesting is how they didni't really understand *why* it would work (again, allegedly). If somebody argued they figured out some super-advanced science on their own and then exploited it in an advanced engineering project, then I'd be even less credulous than I already am. But the idea that they were just fucking around and had no idea why this did what it actually seems more plausible to me.

[Speaker to Animals]

Also, with respect to the German's relative strength, consider the fact that pretty much the whole world surrounded them and attacked and they lasted as long as they did.

[heydaralon]

Rockets
Jet fighters
Possibly anti-gravity technology

Those v2 rockets didnt work that well though. Ive read stuff saying more people died creating them (ie jewish slave labor on the Von Braun V2 project) than died from them being used. Towards the end of the war, Hitler began having delusions that one of his many high tech projects would pan out and change the tide of the war. Germanys economy was such by that point that those projects basically just siphoned money off from the immediate war effort. Not to mention Germany by this point didnt have the money to mass produce any of this shit in a way that would have stopped Russia, Britain, and the US.

[Speaker to Animals]

Rockets
Jet fighters
Possibly anti-gravity technology

Those v2 rockets didnt work that well though. Ive read stuff saying more people died creating them (ie jewish slave labor on the Von Braun V2 project) than died from them being used. Towards the end of the war, Hitler began having delusions that one of his many high tech projects would pan out and change the tide of the war. Germanys economy was such by that point that those projects basically just siphoned money off from the immediate war effort. Not to mention Germany by this point didnt have the money to mass produce any of this shit in a way that would have stopped Russia, Britain, and the US.

You have to account for their complete lack of concern for the labor force, though. They didn't exactly have to adhere to workplace safety standards. They really didn't give a shit if they blew up a few dozen Jews. These projects were run by the SS and the SS didn't even give a fuck about German citizens who were working on those secret programs. If you worked on such a program and were not SS, then you really weren't going to leave the site. They called this kind of person a "bearer of secrets".