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Nazi Germany stood a reasonable chance of winning WW2. They made many mistakes as well as underestimating the resistance that Britain would provide, but victory

Nazi Germany stood a reasonable chance of winning WW2. They made many mistakes as well as underestimating the resistance that Britain would provide, but victory was certainly feasible through 1941 or 1942.

rich_sasha 4y ago
Did it really? It will always be hard to estimate, I read articles arguing either way. But it seems, certainly, from the perspective of 1930s, WWII would mean for them attacking a coalition of Poland, France and UK, and attacking Russia and USA down the line (I understand this was always the plan). UK and France were the two dominant superpowers of the era, with US on the way up. It's not, IMHO, incomparable to the current situation. Only a madman would attack the "West", be it NATO, EU, or its allies in Asia; the chances of victory are perhaps not negligible, but expected gain certainly very poor. But it seems there's something in human history to disregard such calculus and plough on regardless.
- mathgeek 4y ago
  > Did it really? It will always be hard to estimate, I read articles arguing either way. That's certainly fair, and a definite delta from your previous "probably not, or a slim chance" statement. Thanks for considering alternate views.
- jelkand 4y ago
  In retrospect all history seems like it followed the inevitable course. I think we can certainly say that Nazi Germany were confident enough in victory to start the war.
monster_group 4y ago
Off-topic - I highly recommend watching the show "The Man in the Highcastle" on Amazon. It depicts a future in which Germany and Japan won World War II.
- rdtwo 4y ago
  And it’s a pretty meh show
ZeroGravitas 4y ago
There's room for debate, but several High ranking members of the German military thought it was suicidal and actively tried to get the UK and other's to nip it in the bud before it got out of hand. And note, these weren't "good guys" trying to save the world or anything, they were just slightly less reckless bad people in most cases. > The high-ranking German military leaders believed that if Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia or any other country, Britain would declare war on Germany.[52] MI6 was of the same opinion. The British declaration of war would have given the General Staff, it thought, both the pretext and the support for an overthrow of Hitler, which many of them were planning because of the prevailing "anti-war sentiment of the German people".[53] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Canaris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Canaris

rich_sasha 4y ago

Did it really? It will always be hard to estimate, I read articles arguing either way. But it seems, certainly, from the perspective of 1930s, WWII would mean for them attacking a coalition of Poland, France and UK, and attacking Russia and USA down the line (I understand this was always the plan). UK and France were the two dominant superpowers of the era, with US on the way up. It's not, IMHO, incomparable to the current situation. Only a madman would attack the "West", be it NATO, EU, or its allies in Asia; the chances of victory are perhaps not negligible, but expected gain certainly very poor. But it seems there's something in human history to disregard such calculus and plough on regardless.

mathgeek 4y ago
> Did it really? It will always be hard to estimate, I read articles arguing either way. That's certainly fair, and a definite delta from your previous "probably not, or a slim chance" statement. Thanks for considering alternate views.
jelkand 4y ago
In retrospect all history seems like it followed the inevitable course. I think we can certainly say that Nazi Germany were confident enough in victory to start the war.

monster_group 4y ago

Off-topic - I highly recommend watching the show "The Man in the Highcastle" on Amazon. It depicts a future in which Germany and Japan won World War II.

rdtwo 4y ago
And it’s a pretty meh show

ZeroGravitas 4y ago

There's room for debate, but several High ranking members of the German military thought it was suicidal and actively tried to get the UK and other's to nip it in the bud before it got out of hand. And note, these weren't "good guys" trying to save the world or anything, they were just slightly less reckless bad people in most cases. > The high-ranking German military leaders believed that if Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia or any other country, Britain would declare war on Germany.[52] MI6 was of the same opinion. The British declaration of war would have given the General Staff, it thought, both the pretext and the support for an overthrow of Hitler, which many of them were planning because of the prevailing "anti-war sentiment of the German people".[53] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Canaris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Canaris