|
Well yes! I think Germany's goal in this instance was quite simple- to conquer Moscow, the very heart of the Soviet empire, an idea that was critical to success in regard to the overall strategic plan. The point of the peice was, that had Hitler realized that Moscow was indeed lightly defended, he could have achieved an early victory. It has to be understood that goals or objectives go hand in hand with good intelligence. I think the assumption at the time was that Moscow was heavily fortified and so the critical delay.
I think it can be said that for all of the Germans' tactical and technological brilliance, they did lack in overall strategy. I think they overlooked intelligence because of the overwelming success in the early stages of their operation. They assumed that the Soviets were another easy victim. In fact the first Germans into Russia were welcomed by Soviets as liberators from Stalin's tyranny. This attitude was short lived once the Germans started killing them. Because of the German's stunning early successes they really started to believe in their place on the planet as "ubermenschen". This arrogance ultimately led to their downfall. They were completely surprised by the ferocity and tenacity and sheer superiority in numbers of the Soviet people. The point of all of this is really about the corollarys that would apply to our present day predicament, not to repeat the mistakes of history and the importance of good intelligence and an overall strategy. That being said, I certainly would not want to open up a political disscussion here. I would like to avoid that pile of dog doo-doo.
|