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Great Myths of World War II
It
is claimed that Napoleon once said “history is the lies that the
victors agree on”. While rather extreme, there is a strong element of
truth in this statement. Unfortunately the military history of WWII (as
opposed to the political and socio-economic histories) has been, and
still is, particularly susceptible to this phenomenon. It
appears that the whole subject of Nazi Germany and WWII is so emotive
that it has proved difficult for many historians and other commentators
to be objective. In many cases it has proved impossible for them
to stand back and analyse the purely military aspects of the war, with
particular focus on the tactical and operational performance of the
belligerent’s military forces.
There are many reasons for this, which would in themselves warrant a whole book. However, the core seems to be human nature: who wants to learn that their
‘hated’ enemy exhibited a higher degree of tactical or operational
skill than their own brave soldiers? Who wants to learn that a derided
enemy weapon system was in fact an outstanding operational success?
Nevertheless one would expect that after six decades a sense of
objective realism would prevail in regards to the military aspects of
WWII. Unfortunately the vast majority of literature to do with this subject
is written by ‘authorities’ from the winning side, and generally there
has been a curious reluctance on the part of historians and authors to
shake off the myths bestowed by Allied counter-propaganda during the
war. It is understandable and necessary that during WWII the Allies
(including the Soviets) would assiduously propagate statements to
debunk Axis propaganda. But it seems that many of these deliberate
misconceptions and fallacies sown during the war have continued
post-war. In most cases these misconceptions have been diluted, but the
core messages remain. In the post-war years, too many successive WWII
commentators (with notable exceptions) have taken the received wisdom
of these statements on face value and repeated them ad nauseam until
they have become the generally accepted ‘truth’. Some of the ‘legends
of WWII’ do stand up to close scrutiny and in-depth quantitative
analysis, but a great many do not.
The objective focus of
‘Operation Barbarossa: the Complete Statistical Collation and Military
Simulation’ is upon the tactical, operational and strategic performance
of the Soviet and Axis forces in 1941. The methodology employed in this
work forces the reader or user to ask questions about all aspects of
the war, and in many cases the facts and figures coming out of the
research do not support the commonly held beliefs currently held by the
majority of published literature.
The following constitutes a few
selected examples where a ‘WWII truth’ is nothing more than a myth, or
where it desperately needs to be placed in context for the reader to
gain an accurate overall view.
The T-34 in WWII: the Legend vs. the Performance
The ‘Siberian’ Divisions and the Battle for Moscow in 1941-42
Combat Aircraft Versus Armour in WWII
The Eighty Eight: 'Anti-aircraft, Anti-tank and Anti-social'
The 'Door Knocker'
The German Army’s Reliance on Horse Transport
1940 Panzer Divisions vs. 1941 Panzer Divisions
All Infantry Squads are Not Created Equal
The Omnipresent Luftwaffe
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Last updated, 27th Sept 2008.