Saturday, September 3, 2011

Hitler and Napoleon

Ok so I have been thinking for the past years that Hitler and Napoleon Bonaparte are very similar in a few ways. Hitler and Napoleon took control over a functional democracy and named them self ruler for life and changed the governments dramtically. Hitler transformed the Germanium government into a Fascist state, where Napoleon created a form of Monarchy. After taking power both of these men created armies of such great size that the world hadn't seen in centuries and they utilized them correctly(but not always). But there is one major fundamental flaw in Hitlers great army and it was his chain of command. His Chief of Staff did not have any idea on how to utilize the German Luftwaffe correctly, but also more importantly they did not listen to Rommel. If Rommel had been in charge of all units in the Mediterranean theater, the Germans(and the Italians even thought they played no major other then the transporting of fuel) would of won a stunning victory. I brought up the Luftwaffe because if the Germans had utilize them correctly  then the Italian oil tankers would of made it to North Africa safely and Rommel's war machines would of smashed the British past Cairo and even push the Americans back into the sea. But this did not happen so the oil tankers sank from the British ships and planes and Rommel's tanks sat empty on the field of battle. This here shows one of Germany's biggest failure and the second one is strongly related to Napoleon and that's attacking Russia. If Germany did not attack Russia then they could of focues their armies on Western Europe and stop the Allied advance in its tracks for a time, but also the forces from North Africa could have also supported German forces after their victory. Napoleon also made the mistake of attacking Russia, and this is where he lost his Grand Armee and also where is moral was lost. Russia and later the USSR uses the Scorched Earth strategy to great effect. Scorched Earth strategy is where the defender retreats and burns/destroys and valuable resources as in food, water and timber so as to hamper the enemy but also to extend the enemies supply line but at the same time shorting yours. Napoleon like Hitler was defeated by a coalition of allies, for Napoleon every major European nation joined against him six times before he was defeated in 1813. Napoleon was exiled to Elba and escaped a year later and came to power again, but once again was defeated by a coalition at Waterloo, this coalition consisted of British and Prussian soldiers. This ends my Hitler and Napoleon post, plz comment your ideas or feellings on this subject.

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