So... the Nazis.

[Woodsey]

They chose their name for sole purpose of sounding like The Nasties.

Most of them hated ice cream (although there was a strong pocket of support for chocolate-fudge towards the latter years of the war).

They aimed to be the most easily reusable enemies in video games ever. Subsequently, neo-Nazis are waging a secret war on Russia, as they now seem to have stolen this prized mantle

snip

Indeed. One does not simply walk into Britain. One strides, with a top hat and cane.

 

[WanderingFool]

I have my History GCSE exam on Tuesday, and it's on Germany from 1918-1945. I'd like to sneak in some interesting facts that we haven't been taught in class, just to be a smartass. So, has anyone got any interesting facts about the Nazis (as you may be able to guess, they feature rather prominently under that heading). In fact, anything interesting about the topic at all would do for me. I'll soon see how quirky I can make my essay...

The its because of the Nazi's that we have the Electron Microscope, Highways, The beatle, anti-smoking laws, and some other things (you should really look this up to confirm, its been almost a year since I had this information, and that about all I can remember.)

You would probably find this site quite intriguing come to think of it. http://listverse.com/2011/01/31/top-10-things-the-nazis-got-right/

Hmm, I was already beaten to the punch.

 

[teebeeohh]

if your exam is on Germany from 18 to 45 the nazis cover about half that time so maybe some knowledge about the Weimar republic would be nice. Or you could go ahead and blame france for both WW2 and the cold war because most the stuff in the Versailles treaties that made it easy for the nazis to grab power and made it necessary for Germany to cozy up to soviet russia were in there because france insisted on them. apparently making people sign treaties at gunpoint almost makes them vindictive even 40 years later.


yeah and Hitler was a vegetarian, non-smoking, painting animal rights activist

 

[Thaluikhain]

Hitler could have defeated Britain if he had stuck to the original plan of bombing the airfields. But when the allies bombed Berlin, Hitler retaliated by bombing London instead of the airfields. This gave the RAF (Royal Air Force) the time they needed to recover.

Not entirely true. Although it certainly was a mistake, defeating the RAF was no easy thing at the best of times. The RAF also had the option of simply retreating beyond the range of the Luftwafte until an invasion was attempted.

Also, It was the RUSSIANS who defeated Germany at the Battle of Berlin, NOT AMERICANS. But the Americans liberated west Europe.

Um, the Allied forces in western Europe compromised much more than just the Americans. They were a major component, of course, but to say it was them alone that liberated western Europe is wrong.

(And, technically, the Russians were only part of the USSR, though everyone knows that the two have become almost interchangable)

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

The failure of operation citadel ( the battle of kursk, a major turning point in the war- to quote chrchill "if stalingrad was the end of the beggining then kursk was the beggining of the end) was in large part due to Hitler's order to delay the operation until june. A decision that could be said to have cost germany the eastern front.

Not quite, it might have hastened the defeat, but Germany couldn't defeat the USSR.

The point of Citadel was not to defeat Russia, but essentially force a stalemate on the eastern front, giving the germans a chance to dig in, and to redeploy some troops to Italy to prepare for the allied landings there.
Instead, the germans played right into soviet hands and ended up suffereing a massive reversal and lost a significant portion of captured RUssian territory.
There are three books i would deinitely reccomend you read for detailed infor
Lost Victories, by von Manstein
Zhukov in his own words, by Zhukov obviously xD
Panzer Leader,by Heinz Guderian

 

[GonvilleBromhead]

Hitler could have defeated Britain if he had stuck to the original plan of bombing the airfields. But when the allies bombed Berlin, Hitler retaliated by bombing London instead of the airfields. This gave the RAF (Royal Air Force) the time they needed to recover.

Not entirely true. Although it certainly was a mistake, defeating the RAF was no easy thing at the best of times. The RAF also had the option of simply retreating beyond the range of the Luftwafte until an invasion was attempted.

Agreed; furthermore, British Aircraft production was growing significantly compared to the Germans, as well as training more pilots than the Germans. Add onto to this the RAF's ground breaking ground controlled intercept system, the greater flight time available to the RAF (the German aircraft, particularly fighters, used the bulk of their fuel simply getting to Britain - a problem the RAF didn't really have). Plus, when a Brit was shot down and bailed out unharmed, he could take a train to his base. No such luck for a Gerry who bailed out

 

[kiwi_poo]

Hitler had the German autobahns built.

Actually, that's not true. The first one and the plans for them were already there before he took power in 1933. They would have been built regardless of him.

 

[Thaluikhain]

The point of Citadel was not to defeat Russia, but essentially force a stalemate on the eastern front, giving the germans a chance to dig in, and to redeploy some troops to Italy to prepare for the allied landings there.
Instead, the germans played right into soviet hands and ended up suffereing a massive reversal and lost a significant portion of captured RUssian territory.

Ah, ok, misread you there.

 

[Bertylicious]

First of all: Is that actually a popular belief, believing that no Germans were Nazis? I haven't heard it before. Is it a regional belief or something?

I believe Ziame may be polish and the eastern europeans have a complex relationship with Germany, WW2, Hitler and nazis generally on account of having been occupied by them (and suffering horrendously) and subsequently by the Russians.

I've only ever had brief conversations with Polish people about it though and it would be very interesting to hear more of their unique cultural perspective.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

I have my History GCSE exam on Tuesday, and it's on Germany from 1918-1945. I'd like to sneak in some interesting facts that we haven't been taught in class, just to be a smartass. So, has anyone got any interesting facts about the Nazis (as you may be able to guess, they feature rather prominently under that heading). In fact, anything interesting about the topic at all would do for me. I'll soon see how quirky I can make my essay...

Germany invented the stealth fighter. Called the Horten Ho 229. It was made of wood with stealth paint. It was even better than the ME 292, their famous jet aircraft. Its main drawback was an unreliable engine that gave out randomly.

The Germans tried their hand at a super heavy tank called the MAUS. It was to act as a mobile bunker, but it was so heavy the engine had trouble actually moving it.

There was another. It was something that could have been used, but I forgot it. Sorry.

Was it not something they, not surprisingly, called Monster? It was a super self-propelled artillery platform fitted with their massive rail mounted Artillery gun (Schwerer Gustav). Of course, physics had some words with those engineers and it was scrapped before leaving the drawing board.

EDIT: Ha, I found the name. It was called the Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster. Aptly named. As a size comparison, the MAUS weighed 200 tons... the Monster was to weight 1,500 tons.

I looked through google to see if anyone did an artists rendition of this never to be monstrosity. What I saw laughs in the face of what Warhammer 40k calls large in terms of tanks. I wonder if the limitations would still be present today? Of course a super sized artillery platform would only be a massive target for a tomohawk strike, but still... I want to live in a world where tanks are as big as city blocks.

EDIT EDIT:

Hilariously large is it not.

Final Edit: Looking at that image, I just noticed it has 2 cranes build onto the rear. Possibly meant for loading the huge shells this beast would fire (same as the Gustav).

Spoiler: Large image

 

[Trivun]

I have my History GCSE exam on Tuesday, and it's on Germany from 1918-1945. I'd like to sneak in some interesting facts that we haven't been taught in class, just to be a smartass. So, has anyone got any interesting facts about the Nazis (as you may be able to guess, they feature rather prominently under that heading). In fact, anything interesting about the topic at all would do for me. I'll soon see how quirky I can make my essay...

Search 'Nazis' on Cracked and there are plenty of articles about them or entries about them in general articles. Some stuff there is really interesting and surprising. For example, the Nazis were the first group to promote anti-smoking campaigns. And they were the first people to do the Torch Relay for the Olympics - it was Goebells' idea of showing the world the strength of the 'Aryan Nation'...

 

[RoBi3.0]

The Nazis were one of the first groups of people to try talk to extraterrestrial life. They had a secret division dedicated to it. To this day not much is widely known about it.





*Yes this is made up, my point is that maybe you shouldn't take peoples on their sole word. Ask for links, because it anything about the internet is true it is that for every kind person that give actual real information there are at least 10 dick holes that may be bore enough to try and ruin your day.

 

[RoonMian]

There was an SS officer ( i forget his name ) that believed that Germans were direct descendants of Atlantis, but lost their powers through breeding with "inferior races".

That was Heinrich Himmler, not only an SS-Officer but the Reichsführer SS, meaning the chief of the bunch.

He was absolutely possessed with everything occult and pseudo-archaeology. He dug up ancient roman and germanic villages trying to prove that the romans and their great culture were actually germans etc... When he only proved that that rome and greek had high civilizations when germans still lived in mud hovels even Hitler started mocking him.

___

But teebeeohh has a point. You could also read up on the Dolchstoßlegende (Stab-in-the-back myth) and on how Hitler pissed on the life's work of Gustav Stresemann who actually travelled tirelessly across europe to have Germany at least somewhat accepted by the other european nations before 1933. He brokered the deal with Russia to excuse Russia of the reperations they owed Germany for WW1 and actually convinced the other nations in Europe to do the same to Germany slowly building up trust and good will with a policy of baby steps.

When Hitler bragged about Germany not paying a single penny of reperations dictated in the "Schandfriede" (peace of shame) of Versailles any longer he forgot to mention that Germany hadn't been paying reperations for years. All just manipulation of the public.

 

[Trasch17]

Highways were just built by the Nazis. They were actually planned by the Weimar Republic.

Oh, and Hitler wasn't his real last name, i think it was Schicklgruber or something like that. He changed his name so it would sound harder, more brutal (Same reason why the Konzentrationslager were called KZ and not KL).

Hitler was a soldier during WW I and wanted to become officer but his superiors declined beacause they thought he wasn't suited to lead and to take responsobility. (Somehow ironic)

Not all Germans were Nazis. They just didn't dare to speak up, fearing strict punishment.

Indoctrination of children through school worked pretty well (my great-grandmom is still convinced that the Nazis were actually good)

Hitler wasn't as intelligent as you may think. The only thing he was good at was talking.

The Nazis wanted to rename Berlin into Germania.

The idea of different human races was originally formulated by some french guy (forgot his name).
Blitzkrieg was invented by a british guy (forgot his name too and I'm too lazy to look it up).

Hitler stopped the invasion of the Soviet Union for several months because he wanted Tiger-Panzer at the Eastern Front.

HItler wasn't a vegetarian.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Was it not something they, not surprisingly, called Monster? It was a super self-propelled artillery platform fitted with their massive rail mounted Artillery gun (Schwerer Gustav). Of course, physics had some words with those engineers and it was scrapped before leaving the drawing board.

EDIT: Ha, I found the name. It was called the Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster. Aptly named. As a size comparison, the MAUS weighed 200 tons... the Monster was to weight 1,500 tons.

I looked through google to see if anyone did an artists rendition of this never to be monstrosity. What I saw laughs in the face of what Warhammer 40k calls large in terms of tanks. I wonder if the limitations would still be present today? Of course a super sized artillery platform would only be a massive target for a tomohawk strike, but still... I want to live in a world where tanks are as big as city blocks.

It's not merely physics, but resources and logistics that laugh at that.

Hitler was big on that sort of thing, he also wanted the most ginormous battleship ever built...it didn't go into production in the end because it was absurd, and people recognised that there was no point building normal battleships at the end of WW2 anyway.

...

Nowdays, you probably could build a tank that big, but what would it be good for?

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

Was it not something they, not surprisingly, called Monster? It was a super self-propelled artillery platform fitted with their massive rail mounted Artillery gun (Schwerer Gustav). Of course, physics had some words with those engineers and it was scrapped before leaving the drawing board.

EDIT: Ha, I found the name. It was called the Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster. Aptly named. As a size comparison, the MAUS weighed 200 tons... the Monster was to weight 1,500 tons.

I looked through google to see if anyone did an artists rendition of this never to be monstrosity. What I saw laughs in the face of what Warhammer 40k calls large in terms of tanks. I wonder if the limitations would still be present today? Of course a super sized artillery platform would only be a massive target for a tomohawk strike, but still... I want to live in a world where tanks are as big as city blocks.

EDIT EDIT:

Spoiler

Hilariously large is it not.

That is unbelievably awesome. We have to build this.
And i can't believe i've never heard of it before. Damnit i want one so much

 

[Trivun]

Also, It was the RUSSIANS who defeated Germany at the Battle of Berlin, NOT AMERICANS. But the Americans liberated west Europe.

Wrong. The Soviets (not just Russia, but rather the USSR) were the main guys on the Eastern Front. The British and their fellow Comnwealth countries were the driving force on the Western Front and in Africa, with support from the French Resistance and US troops. Yes, the Americans were vital to help provide supplies for the UK given the German blockades, and they were vital in securing certain beaches on D-Day. But aside from that, their part in the Western Front was relatively minimal compared to the British push.

The Americans' most useful role really was on the Pacific Front, fighting Japan and their local allies on the islands. That was mainly the US Air Force and Navy taking key islands and gaining enough of an advantage to flank key fronts and hit key targets, pushing towards Japan. We Brits helped out to a certain degree on the mainland, on the Asian continent, but the Pacific Front was mostly American forces.

Basically we can sum up the situation like this:

Eastern Front: Soviets mainly pushing to Berlin, with minimal support from Allies.
Western Front: Mostly British, with some support from Americans and French Resistance and Allies.
Pacific Front: Mostly Americans, with some limited support from Allies.
North Africa: Mostly British, with Allied support.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Was it not something they, not surprisingly, called Monster? It was a super self-propelled artillery platform fitted with their massive rail mounted Artillery gun (Schwerer Gustav). Of course, physics had some words with those engineers and it was scrapped before leaving the drawing board.

EDIT: Ha, I found the name. It was called the Landkreuzer P. 1500 Monster. Aptly named. As a size comparison, the MAUS weighed 200 tons... the Monster was to weight 1,500 tons.

I looked through google to see if anyone did an artists rendition of this never to be monstrosity. What I saw laughs in the face of what Warhammer 40k calls large in terms of tanks. I wonder if the limitations would still be present today? Of course a super sized artillery platform would only be a massive target for a tomohawk strike, but still... I want to live in a world where tanks are as big as city blocks.

It's not merely physics, but resources and logistics that laugh at that.

Hitler was big on that sort of thing, he also wanted the most ginormous battleship ever built...it didn't go into production in the end because it was absurd, and people recognised that there was no point building normal battleships at the end of WW2 anyway.

...

Nowdays, you probably could build a tank that big, but what would it be good for?

Making aliens think twice about entering our atmosphere? It would please Warhammer 40k fans to no end though.

 

[EMFCRACKSHOT]

Blitzkrieg was invented by a british guy (forgot his name too and I'm too lazy to look it up).

Blitzkrieg is a populist term invented by the american press. The only example of Blitzkreig (in world war two, the six day ar could legitimately be termed blitzkrieg as well) as it is defined was the battle of France, and much of that success was not intentional and only made possible by poor allied command and armoured doctrine.
Thats a quote from my armoured warfare lecturer Dr Aleric Searle

HItler wasn't a vegetarian.

According to all of his generals with published memoirs he was.