Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!gatech!ncar!boulder!sunybcs!bingvaxu!leah!itsgw!brspyr1!miket
From: miket@brspyr1.BRS.Com (Mike Trout)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Soviet Access to Usenet
Summary: Nazi paranoia...
Message-ID: <5066@brspyr1.BRS.Com>
Date: 30 Nov 88 19:22:35 GMT
References: <5044@brspyr1.BRS.Com> <825@novavax.UUCP>
Organization: BRS Info Technologies, Latham NY
Lines: 74

In article <825@novavax.UUCP>, nanook@novavax.UUCP (Kieth Dickinson) writes:

> in article <5044@brspyr1.BRS.Com>, miket@brspyr1.BRS.Com (Mike Trout) says:

> > All nations engage in military adventures only when they feel threatened. 

> I'm sure that the Germans were feeling REAL threatend back during World War II

You bet your ass they were.  I'm sure you're familiar with Nazi racial and
political policy that blamed Germany's hellish economic problems of the 1930s
on non-Aryans, Jews, international bankers, and the like.  When the war began,
Germany had only just recovered from devastating economic disaster.  In fact,
conditions in Germany were still not very comfortable when Hitler launched the
war.  The German people wanted to eliminate the outside threats they felt,
which centered on the non-Aryan internationalists that Hitler claimed were in
control of such nations as France, Poland, and the USSR.  It was felt that the
horrible economics of the 1930s could appear at any moment unless the outsiders
were eliminated.  It's also important to remember that before the war began,
the German armed forces were VASTLY outnumbered by the hostile armed forces of
the nations surrounding them that were perceived as the home of the
internationalists who were bent on the destruction of Germany.  Hitler worked
the German people up into a frenzy with these fears, and they lauched a global
war our of fear for their own survival.  The German people were NOT comfortable
and did NOT feel secure.  They felt their only choice was to destroy or be
destroyed.  If they sat back and did nothing, the Germans felt that it would
only be a few years before invading hordes of Jews, communists, and
internationalists from the other parts of Europe obliterated the German people.
The Nazi empire didn't mass-execute 11 million innocents because it was
comfortable and powerful; it did so because it was AFRAID of those 11 million
people.

> when all of those nasty countries like Poland (with it's horseback cavalry) 
> and the such were threatening to take over the country!

See above.  You have also completely misread the Germany/Poland military
situation of 1939.  Your attitude is unfortunately almost universal among 
Americans, probably due to faulty history teaching in our schools and
stereotyped nonsense in movies and other mass media.  In 1939, both Poland and
France were regarded by Europeans (and Americans as well) as nations that were
more powerful and "dynamic" than Germany was.  Most of the world (including the
Germans) expected Poland and/or France to make short work of Germany in any 
war.  Only the new innovative German commanders felt that they had a new type
of warfare that would give their forces a chance.  In reality, the German
Army invading Poland had MORE horse cavalry than the Polish Army did.
Criticizing Poland for having horse cavalry in 1939 is pretty silly, since ALL
nations (including the USA!) had substantial horse cavalry formations at that 
time.  Most of those nations continued the use of horse cavalry throughout the 
war, including Germany, which by the end of the war had positively HUGE forces 
of horse cavalry.  Also, the Polish Army of 1939 was almost as large as the 
German Army, and was in some ways better equipped and trained.  Contrary to
popular American opinion, there were NO recorded instances of Polish cavalry
charging German tanks, while the German cavalry DID charge Polish tanks on more
than one occasion.  The famous Polish Lancers, incidentally, used submachine
guns in combat, just like most WW2 cavalry (the lances were for ceremonial
purposes only.) The Polish forces fought bravely and well, and at the 
Battle of the Bzura the tide almost turned.  Only the extreme mobility and
flexibility of the German Panzer forces managed to save the trapped German
forces from certain annihilation.  Among other things, German aircraft losses
during the Polish campaign were just as heavy as they were during most of the
other WW2 campaigns that are better publicized.  Unfortunately, Poland was the
FIRST nation to face Blitzkrieg tactics, and nobody--not the USA, not the 
USSR, not the UK--NOBODY had any idea of how to stand up to Blitzkrieg until
about 1942.  If the Germans had somehow invaded the USA in September of 1939, 
we would have fallen just as easily as did the Poles.  Thank God for the 
Atlantic Ocean.  All the above discussion of Poland applies doubly to France,
which had armed forces LARGER than Germany's, with substantial superiority in
such areas as numbers and quality of tanks.  But again, that was 1940, and in
those days nobody could withstand a German Blitzkrieg. 

-- 
NSA food:  Iran sells Nicaraguan drugs to White House through CIA, DIA & NRO.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Michael Trout (miket@brspyr1)~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
BRS Information Technologies, 1200 Rt. 7, Latham, N.Y. 12110  (518) 783-1161
"God forbid we should ever be 20 years without...a rebellion." Thomas Jefferson