How Was Germany Able to Fight Till 1945? While Germany was cut off from resources
and German factories were pounded by allied bombing campaigns Germany managed to keep
up the fighting till 1945. For that there was one key figure that made sure the Germans had
arms to fight. A person that some called 'a good nazi' after the war. Who was this person and how
did he manage to keep on the German late war weapon production? You will find out today!
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In a previous video I talked about how a great deal of Germans were willing to fight till the end
and why. Because of nazi terror everyone was to be kept in line. Because of Soviet terror many wanted
to keep on fighting. The effective bureaucracy kept the system going. A dedicated officer corps
motivated the troops. And the failed July Plot led to the radicalization on the command structure.
This video we're going to look on a more material level. See, in order to fight a war you need the
people, but you also need the materials to do so. And here I mean weapons. K98's, STG-44's,
panzersfausts, tanks, airplanes were needed to keep the fighting possible. Responsible for
this was Albert Speer, from 1942 the head of the Reich Ministry of Armaments and War Production.
Before that he served as Reichs architect and was already years member of Hitler's inner circle.
This inner circle was already full of power hungry despots who despised one another,
but relationships became more poisenous as the war shifted in favor of the allies. After the
failed July Plot Speer himself was confronted by suspission allegations which weakened his position
in the nazi hierarchy. Yet, because of the urge of inmediate weaponry he could stay on his position.
Speer argued that the war was of technical nature and that
more and better weaponry would determ its outcome.
We can see this with the many prototypes of new weaponry the German weapon engineers came up in
the latter years of WW2. In the latter years of the war countless of new weapons – fighter planes,
assault rifles, tanks, rockets – were developed – in order to change
the tide of war. Some of these weapons didn't make it past the design phase,
some only had prototypes and others were taken into full production. German propaganda spoke of
wonder weapons. Once the Reich will develop such powerful weapons, that they will win the war.
Yet, Goebbels and Hitler argued it wasn't quality but quantity that was in need: in others
words: more men and thus more weapons should be sent to the front. That eventually gave way to
the formation of the Volkssturm: this last-ditch German army that consisted of civilians. Here you
clearly see the favor for quantity over quality. Because at the end the Volkssturm was worthless
because these ill-trained underequiped man didn't make any difference in the outcome of the war,
exept the prolonging of the dreadfull conflict. And now you may ask: why didn't the Germans
put slave workers in the factories. Well, first of all they did, but do note here:
you couldn't solely rely on slave labour. Also because these labourers needed armed
guards to keep them to work. So here is the catch. Speer needed German labourers for
weapon production. Goebbels wanted those labourers to be recruited to fight at the
front. This led to an endless tug-o-war between Goebbels and Speer. As autumn progressed Speers
organisatorial talent impressed Hitler who then agreed with Speer to a large degree.
Around that time German weapon production decreased severily because of the ongoing
allied bombing campaigns. Actually, did you know that 60% of the allied bombs dropped
on Germany where dropped after July 1944. Just think, if the Stauffenberg Complet was
succesfull it wouldn't only save countless of human lives but also saved Germany a
great deal of destruction. Production of raw minerals dropped with 2/5. Because of the
bombing of petroleum installations there was a drop of 2/3 in the production of jet fuel,
which led to a weakened air defense which led to more damage because of
allied bombing campaigns. Attacks on railway systems damaged Germany's infrastructure.
Now what is interesting is that despite these enormous
setbacks Speer managed to keep weapon production on some level.
In September 1944 Speer visisted the western part of Germany. He reorganised transportation
systems and where nazi hardliners urged their soldiers to fight till the better end,
Speer wanted them to produce till the bitter end. Therefore factories shouldn't be evacuated
too soon. Even if these factories happened to be right behind the front line, they should produce
weapons for the troops till the last minute. And here is why I find Speer such an interesting
person in history. Where the hardliners wanted factories to be destroyed so they wouldn't be of
use for the enemy, Speer was kinda thinking ahead. And with ahead I mean thinking about
a post-war Germany. A country that would need its factories to rebuilt.
At the end of September Speer visisted the region again and
helped raising morale of German troops that had retreated from
France after the breakthrough of the western allies by providing them with new weapons.
Without Speers organisatorial skills, his energetic attemps to keep on weapon production,
the continious repairing of destroyed infrastructure the war would've ended sooner.
And I know you might say things like – hey man, I saw your previous video in which you talked about
these crudely designed, malfunctioning, unreliable, inaccurate
weapons like the Panzerfaust, Volkssturmgewehr and Einstossflammenwerfer 46, so Speer sucked. You
need to realize this: the fact that he was able to create weapons till the latter stages of WW2. That
is an extraordinary achievement. An achievement that in the end got many people killed.
Even though Speer argued after the war that from September 1944 he saw it as a lost cause,
his action didn't correspond with that. And sure it can be said that Speer had
his eye out for a Germany after the war. A Germany he perhaps could've played a role in.
And let us not forget that Speer approved the inhumane conditions in which 100K's over
forced labourers where. After the war Speer was among the 24 "major war criminals" that
was tried at Nuremberg. He was found guilty of war crimes and crimes against humanity,
principally for the use of slave labor, but did not receive the death sentense. Released in 1966
he wrote a auto biograph ical books which were a huge success. He always stated that he was blinded
by Hitler charisma and that had not known about the extermination of the Jews. As a well manuared,
intelectual man he presented himself as 'the good nazi'. But that can be consisered quite a myth,
by the things I pointed out earlier and other things that are beyond the scope of this channel.