so why didn’t he just redouble his efforts and finish the West? Was he dumb dumb?
Short answer: yes
Longer answer: Basically, the German military’s capacity to launch an amphibious assault on Britain was near-nil, and the only hope of success of such an operation was to achieve total air superiority over the English Channel. Since that effort had stalled during the Battle of Britain - in part because of the idiotic decision to refocus on terror bombing, in part because the Germany war machine wasn’t really positioned to outproduce Britain in the first place - Hitler needed new resources to continue the fight with, otherwise it was a war of (aerial) attrition that he was going to lose.
He considered that the Soviet Union would be a quick and easy campaign, and succeeding there would give him the immense resources needed to continue fueling the German war machine at an increased level of intensity.
Thank you friend! From the wiki it also felt like too many chefs all with their own thought on how to use the panacea that was aerial bombing. Obviously in no way did I root for these fascist clowns, but I think I would have poured everything into knock out Britain and Really discourage isolationist America into staying their asses home. Then Hitler makes a deal with Ford, declares victory in Europe, and then spends the next 10 years turning all their captured factories into actually being a world power and not just a regional one.
Short answer: yes
Longer answer: Basically, the German military’s capacity to launch an amphibious assault on Britain was near-nil, and the only hope of success of such an operation was to achieve total air superiority over the English Channel. Since that effort had stalled during the Battle of Britain - in part because of the idiotic decision to refocus on terror bombing, in part because the Germany war machine wasn’t really positioned to outproduce Britain in the first place - Hitler needed new resources to continue the fight with, otherwise it was a war of (aerial) attrition that he was going to lose.
He considered that the Soviet Union would be a quick and easy campaign, and succeeding there would give him the immense resources needed to continue fueling the German war machine at an increased level of intensity.
Obviously, it was not a quick and easy campaign.
Thank you friend! From the wiki it also felt like too many chefs all with their own thought on how to use the panacea that was aerial bombing. Obviously in no way did I root for these fascist clowns, but I think I would have poured everything into knock out Britain and Really discourage isolationist America into staying their asses home. Then Hitler makes a deal with Ford, declares victory in Europe, and then spends the next 10 years turning all their captured factories into actually being a world power and not just a regional one.
It’s funny - one of those “They could have POSSIBLY won… had they not been moronic fascists in the first place”
Fucking fact.