Quote:
Originally Posted by peter12
The Germans were basically done after France. They had lost too much of their panzer force. Also they were never motorized really properly enough to engage in anything more than limited expeditionary conflicts outside of their sphere of influence.
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Errrm...?
The whole "overrunning the entirety of the Balkans (Yugoslavia,Albania, and Greece) in 14 weeks" thingy?
They were far from "done" after the operations in France.
In terms of the Mechanized, "leg" Infantry, and Tactical Air Units that were tasked with completing this mission?
This initiative used a
tiny proportion of the total forces that OKW had at their disposal at the time.
It is one of the common "tropes" (WRT the chronology of the Second World War) that this "Balkan Adventure" consumed an inordinate percentage of the OKW's resources and thereby effected upon Barbarossa.
In reality, Hitler gained massively in this particular gambit.
Mostly in rare earth ores, which they had been importing for hard currency, prior to conquering this region.
Tungsten, Manganese, Chromium, Vanadium, plus significant Bauxite repositories. All of these with functional mining infrastructure and smelting facilities ripe for the picking...
If you are interested in WWII and have never read "Wages of Destruction" by Adam Tooze?
I would highly recommend it.
All for now, Ron