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Old October 30th, 2007, 04:14 AM
Roddoss72 Roddoss72 is offline
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Default Re: What if German generals were switched with their Allied counterparts?

Quote:
Originally Posted by T. A. Gardner View Post
This would be a tough one to answer. The various Allied militaries were distinctly different in their mindsets and doctrine fromt that of the Germans. Let me start with the easy ones:

In the air the switch is distinctly in favor of Germany now. The Allied states are saddled with a raft of incompetents and technical illiterates starting with Göring and going down the list. Officers like Kesslering would go unappreciated. While an excellent ground commander, he is nothing special with air power.
On the flip side LeMay, Harris, or Kenney to name just a few, would have quickly changed Luftwaffe policies making that force far more coherent and effective than it historically was. At higher levels, the orgainzation of production and aircraft design would have quickly done away with many absurd and failed projects in a heartbeat. I could see the He 177 ending up with four engines, no dive bombing ability and being an actually effective aircraft to give one example.

At sea the narrow-minded hidebound conservatives of the Kriegsmarine would likewise be replaced by a better crop of far more aggressive and knowledgable Admirals from both the British and US Navies. While they would have far less material to work with they would know better how to utilize it than the now rich German admirals would with Allied naval units.

On land, the Germans would likely run circles tactically and operationally around most their Allied counterparts given the plethora of material they now have. However, they would most likely also be far less conservative with it and far more willing to trade casualties for victory than the Allies were. The only big advantage the Germans get is in now having far more genius for strategy and logistics than they had. I can't see the Allied generals in this situation getting themselves repeatedly pocketed and destroyed on an immense scale. Nor can I see them squandering resources or meddling with production like the Wehrmacht did so frequently.
For example, the Allied generals would have never reinforced the obvious defeat in North Africa as the Germans did.
And, Roosevelt and Churchill did meddle in strategy on a frequent basis. However, they, along with Stalin, did not do so to the degree Hitler did.
On the whole, I doubt that the changes on the ground would be world shaking but rather give the Allies a marginal advantage in operations they originally did not have.
The only way LeMay and his cohorts would get the Luftwaffe the way you say is to depose Goring in a takeover (yes folks mutiny) and i can assure you they would be executed for that. On the Heinkel He-177 the Heinkel Company asked for years to allow the decoupling of the twin engine configuration and allow the aircraft to be a traditional four engined heavy but Goring forbade it, and at one point threated Heinkel Company head with imprisonment if they defied his directive that the He-177 remain a two engined heavy and so they caved in.

On the Navy, you are forgetting one point "Hitler" he forbade any conditions that would put any capital ship in harms way after the sinking of the Bismarck, the German heavy units never again fought in the open sea after the loss of the Bismarck, so again the above mentioned cohorts you say would have to defy Hitler openly and put to see, outcome, immidiate sacking and most likely imprisonment at worst execution.

Oh you mentioned Kesserling, imagine Kesserling in charge of the RAF. Imgine Generalleutnant Adolf Galland in charge of RAF Fighter Command and say Generalfeldmarschal Hugo Stumpff in charge of RAF Bomber Command and has the Lancaster and Halifax strategic heavy bombers under his command, while on the other side of things Air Vice Marschall Sir "Bomber" Harris is lumbered with the obsolete Do-17's, He-111 making up the bulk of his Bomber Command.
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