I would still consider it a bad take, solely due to the “Hitler was an idiot” part.
“Hitler was an idiot” is probably the most common excuse for Nazi loss ever, pretty much up there with “Don’t cancel Sea Lion” or “Just take Moscow”. The whole idea went along the line of “If Hitler listen to his general on [insert matter], the German would have fare much better or even won”.
Unsurprisingly, this idea originate from surviving Nazi generals after the war claiming Hitler made all the bad decision, and “If Hitler listen to his generals, he would have won”. One of the decision that Hitler made against his general advice was to focus on southern oil field in Soviet Union rather than keep pushing toward Moscow, so this should give you some idea how credible the whole excuse is.
I have also had cryptofascists on twitter tell me that the USSR’s tremendous losses were because of bad decisions by Soviet generals citing books by two American military analysts (!). There is no end to agenda-driven armchair commentary when it comes to WW2.
Sarcastically : Yeah, it certainly toooootally about Soviet being absolute incompetent that they need to resort to number, and the fact that the war on Eastern Front began right in the middle of massive, nation-wide modernization programs that left the ENTIRE military with tons of older equipment in the middle of being phasing out, and way too few of newer equipment that they haven’t got a chance to iron out the deficiency or to be integrated into the military yet certainly play no role in huge casualties.
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I’m not claiming myself to be expert in WWII, just consider it my hobby mainly due to engineering developments of the time, but seeing internet people oversimplifying the whole war just to fit their narrow narrative sicken me. It’s not just sheer disrespectful to those who served and lived in the war, whether on the front line or the home front, but to those who actually spent time and effort to study the conflict in detail as well.
Overemphasis on “Hitler was an idiot”
Ironically, Hitler had the right idea. He wanted to go for the oil fields first and not the capital after having taken Ukraine. It were the old school prussian generals that thought they could knock out the USSR the same way they did with France. Of course, this broken clock moment then lead to the generals heeding Hitlers advice on other occasions, which went as badly (for them) as we know. Having the right idea once doesn’t make you “the greatest tactician of all times” it seems.
Because America is not the hero in this.
