Quote:
Originally Posted by PzJgr
Hitler was obsessed with oil. He was obsessesed in protecting the oilfield in Rumania and was obsessed in obtaining the oil fields in the Caucasus. But as previously mentioned, he did not even think about denying the Russians access to the oil by having them bombed. I believe he did this because he honestly thought he would be able to obtain and hold those oilfields so he did not want to destroy them. Same line of thinking as to why the Generals could not get permission to blow bridges because Hitler wanted them intact to use in his counterattacks. Generals' response, 'Gegenangriff, mit vas!'
It also seems like the Generals were more interesting in destroying armies than destroying economic capabilities. I would have expected more of the General Staff.
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Nice to see some logic about why Hitler didn't bomb Soviet oilfields when he could. I suspect reason was behind fighting at Stalingrad as well - that since this was where the Red Army stood its ground this was the place to fight it. I'd be interested to see what effect Operation Blue had on German fuel stocks and transport capacity and whether Germany's southern armies could do much different by the time that the German army closed up to the Volga.
PS 'Stopped at Stalingrad' was really rather good.