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German high command knew it had to be over quickly to have any chance of success. They didn't have reinforcements to send, everything in the area was already c
by jandrese 5y ago
German high command knew it had to be over quickly to have any chance of success. They didn't have reinforcements to send, everything in the area was already committed. Once the US reinforcements arrived it was game over.
The whole plan was kind of dubious IMHO. Even if it were successful and the Germans were able to capture Antwerp the soldiers would be surrounded and cut off from supplies. Using it to negotiate a better surrender sounds like wishful thinking.
- sofixa 5y ago> The whole plan was kind of dubious IMHO. Even if it were successful and the Germans were able to capture Antwerp the soldiers would be surrounded and cut off from supplies. Using it to negotiate a better surrender sounds like wishful thinking. By that point many knew the war was lost, only Hitler and few others were delusional. Even high level Nazis like Himmler and Göring knew all is lost (which is why Himmler tried negotiating a peace a few months later, and Göring proposed retreating to the Alps to make a last stand/bastion there).
- Nomentatus 5y agoIndeed. But just continuing to fight at all was rather crazy... the idea being to wait and see if one side or other would offer a separate peace. So jabbing at each side (US/Britain/Canada/FreeFrench and the Soviets) hard was a desperate way to try to roll the dice, and incentivize that I suppose. There was no shortage dubious gambling on the German side after 1941.