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Some time ago, a good friend asked me, he said that at the end of World War II, Germany still had 7 million troops, so if this is the case, why rush to surrender? Judging from the state of the German army at that time, it seemed possible to hold on for a little longer. With this opportunity today, let's take a look at how the German army surrendered during World War II and what kind of concerns and considerations existed in the process of surrender.
Estimates of the true number of German troops
First of all, we must make a point: that is, the data of 7 million German troops is still in doubt, and it is not known whether there is so much data and whether there is moisture behind the real data. This is somewhat similar to the wars between the various troops and the various great warlords in the Three Kingdoms period.
Cao Cao claimed to have a million troops, and Liu Bei also claimed to have 500,000 troops, but the real number of troops was often greatly reduced, and even they needed to count all the personnel who distributed grain and logistics supplies back and forth to make up this number. So we do not rule out that the German army at that time also had this state.
However, it cannot be ignored that the total mobilization of the German army during World War II was still relatively large. At its peak, there were more than 17 million men, and in terms of the distribution of troops at that time, Barbarossa planned that 5 million German troops would be in a game with the Soviet Union.
At the same time, the lightning attack on Poland's troops is estimated to be around 880,000 people, and the number of reserves can reach 1.6 million. Some of these troops are scattered across Europe, and some of them need to be set aside to support their pig teammates. Of course, in the late stage of World War II, pig teammates rebelled against the water in time, but became a victorious country, which has to be said to be a joke.
So overall, it may be difficult to expect the Germans to come up with 8 million or 7 million troops, but with millions of troops, this one still has something to consider. With millions of troops, why did the Germans surrender in a hurry?
First, the dragons are leaderless, and the capital is captured
Compared with other reasons, this is the main cause, but it is often invisibly ignored by some people. The reason is simple, because the leaderlessness at this time actually refers to Hitler's suicide. Hitler committed suicide by leading a bullet, and once the news was passed on, it was very likely to cause instability in the German army.
After all, relatively speaking, some of the German troops were able to fight, and Hitler still had a part of the role. Because of this, when Hitler committed suicide, the vast majority of the German army had no intention of fighting. At this time, the German army found itself a fierce character, but the master duel met the high master, and he was fierce, and he did not expect the Soviet side to be more fierce.
Relatively speaking, in the beginning, the two sides of Germany and the Soviet Union often ignored me, and I did not pay attention to you, and the attitude of not interacting with each other was old and dead. Even according to the influence of the Soviet side, the German army would not take the initiative to attack the Soviet Union in the short term.
The reason is simple, because until Germany has completely balanced the whole of Europe, it is unlikely and absolutely impossible to fight on two fronts. At that time, the Soviet Union was also seizing the time to prepare for war, although the Soviet Union and Germany had a war sooner or later, and this matter was on the table, but neither side may have thought that the war would come so early and come so suddenly.
In the beginning, the Soviet Union did suffer losses, after all, the German side was prepared, and a large area of land was occupied by the German army, but when the Soviet Union reacted, the whole war machine began to operate, and a steady stream of logistics troops and troops continued to rush upwards.
Even in the worst series of battles, there are rumors that as long as you can survive for three days, you can become a senior general of the army. It is enough to see how tragic the war was at that time, and how tragic it was. And this time a series of wars on the surface: the Soviet Union suffered a lot of losses, but thanks to the timing and location of the time and the bravery of the Soviet troops, in a short period of time, the German army was seriously damaged, and the heavy damage to the German army was not counted, and even the German capital Berlin was attacked.
On April 30, 1945, the Soviets and Germans engaged in a fierce battle, when the Soviets directly captured the Reichstag. The strategic significance of the capture of the Reichstag was far greater than the military strike on the German army at that time, and in that state, the capture of the Reichstag in Germany often meant that it was only a few steps away from Hitler's official residence. In this situation, the German army also did not have the confidence to continue fighting.
Second, the terrible consequences of multi-faceted warfare
Immediately after that, we will look at Germany's strategic consciousness and strategic form at that time. In fact, Germany had no way to attack the Soviet Union, for the only reason that the Soviet Union controlled a large amount of oil resources on certain lands. At that time, Germany's oil resources were relatively scarce, and even if it was robbed of oil resources from other places, it was far worse than conquering a piece of land of its own.
Then the oil resources were still constantly being excavated under this land, so with this war consciousness, Germany had no choice but to go to war with the Soviet Union. In the course of the war with the Soviet Union, hard bones were encountered, and since hard bones had already been encountered, there was no way but to stumble.
But this is what we have to note: Germany did not break away from all the rear in an absolute sense. In other words, the whole of Europe is far from being under german domination. Under such circumstances, a brazen duel with the Soviet Union is an extremely wrong and extremely confused strategic act. But there was no way, and the matter rushed to this place.
At that time, Germany's front line was too long, and the direct or indirect interruption of logistics, or the crisis of being interrupted, affected Germany's combat efficiency to a certain extent. After all, Germany controlled too much land, the front line was too long, and there were a series of European powers such as Britain not far away.
They were not completely controlled by the German government, and under the premise of several considerations, they often led to major problems in logistics supplies, and major problems in logistics supplies, combined with the Soviet Union's attack on The Reichstag in Germany, was undoubtedly a worse thing for Germany.
Third, the elite troops were completely lost
There is not much to say about this point, and wars are often fought by elite troops. If there are elite troops, they will often do more with less. Judging from the Battle of Jingnan in the Ming Dynasty, it is not difficult to find that the 30,000 iron horses led by Zhu Di helped Zhu Di to a certain extent to make great contributions. Therefore, it is not difficult for us to find that the vast majority of troop competitions often compete in the number of elite troops, the way of strategy and tactics, and other factors that may affect the situation of war.
However, at that time, Germany had been in war for many years, especially when it encountered the hard bones of the Soviet Union and the collective counter-offensive of some countries such as Europe and the United States at that time against Germany, in this case, the elite troops and elite generals often fought one without one, and lost one less. Under these circumstances, it would be very difficult to expect Germany to be able to produce another batch of very good high-ranking generals in the short term.
Apocalypse of History
In fact, on the whole, the surrender of the German army under the circumstances at that time can only be said to be a helpless thing. The reason is simple and there are many factors to consider. Taken together, it only takes a few points to look at: the 1st Army is not as many as we think; the 2nd front is extremely long and logistics are cut off; the 3rd is the reichstag was captured, and the German leaders at that time also committed suicide by drinking bullets.
In this case, there is no room for negotiation in this war, and surrender is natural.