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Hitler ignored a lot of good advice from his generals and advisors.
For instance, Ribbentrop advised Hitler AGAINST declaring war with the US in the event that Japan attacked the US. Because the Tripartite Agreement was purely a defensive pact. Hitler ignored this advice and gave Japan assurances that Germany would join them if they attacked the US.
I think that was his second-biggest mistake. His first was rejecting the USSR from joining the Axis. He had no intention of sharing the world with Stalin though or letting Stalin carve off parts of Europe for himself. He saw the USSR as this big threatening bear to the east that had designs on Europe and he wasn't wrong. In a lot of ways, the war was Germany's to lose. They were too strong and too efficient and they caught pretty much everyone else with their pants down. France was vaunted as Europe's strongest country besides GBR and they got run over. Maginot Line? Yeah. In retrospect it almost seems like after that Germany did everything they could to lose. They didn't need to fight the USSR or US or even GBR, much less all at once.
WW2 in actuality is about 20x more interesting than the simplified version we're taught in school. Everyone had their own motivations and fears. I have a feeling if it hadn't happened when it did (i.e. if Germany had waited until 1949), Stalin would have pre-empted it himself by seizing what he could in Europe. "WW2" would have ended up being France vs USSR and we would have had GBR and Germany on the same side in response.
Did the US know Germany had given up on their nuclear program at the time the US bomb was being developed? I didn't think they had an idea until near the very end of the war. For the movie's timeline it seems reasonable to think they were up in a race against the Nazis for most of that time. I mean, Germany discovered fission and set off the panic in the first place.
Interesting, so the movie's historically accurate in terms of dialogue. Still paints a picture for modern audiences that Germany was racing to develop something they weren't though.
Didn't know Germany discovered fission but I'm not surprised. Thought the US pretty much did everything. Those history books strike again! Norm was right.
Ossoi Oh yeah, Norway had "heavy water" that the Germans needed for nuclear production. Germany being so concentrated of an area was also a huge handicap for them. The Russians could put all their production facilities behind the Ural mountains, and the US had an ocean between them. Germany on the other hand didn't have anywhere to stash something like a Los Alamos, as you said, except maybe in the far reaches of Norway.
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