German war aims

I meant what were Germany hoping to get from Britain and france?

Oh, quite sorry.

Well, I would assume very little, just the Alsace Lorraine from France. It seems to me they wanted very little in the west, only there living space in the east, and they just needed a secure Western Flank so they could go after the big red bear
 
Potentialy French colonies but I'd imagine bringing France in line and then pounding Russia would be far more in German intrest
 
World War I is kind of fun in this regard because it tended to be within sane bounds. The Germans had a pretty normal government reflecting a spectrum of opinion with schools of thought that enjoyed rising and falling levels of support. As near as I recall, the minimalist school looked to annexing the Brey/Brei iron field region and that was all. The maximast school looked more toward german occupied North Sea Port bases possibly along with annexation of far Northern France to either greater Germany or a puppet Belgium.

Naturally most also wanted reparations from France sufficient to pay the German war debt and colonies in central Africa to round out "German MittleAfrika". Maybe a few extra pounds of French flesh to pay for Angola toward the same end. Inheriting the Belgian Congo was pretty much a given. That might actually have been a colony worth something in terms of strategic resources.
 
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Germany only invaded Western Europe to knock them out of the war. Hitler's primary goals were always in the East, i.e. Russia. He only went to war with Britain and France because they declared war after Germany's invasion of Poland, which he did not expect them to do after not doing anything over Austria and Czechoslovakia.
 
What were Germany's war aims in the western front?

Early war: Knock out france decisivly before Russia can fully mobilize

Mid war: Hold onto current gains, make some rather limited offensives

Late war: Acheive a decisive breakthrough before Germany implodes

As for any gains, IIRC there was never one cohesive, accepted collection of German war aims. Depends on who you ask, and when. Germany sort of rushed into a western war without thinking through what it actually wanted to gain from the experience. Probably, annexes/makes a protectorate of belgium, some gains in northeast france, a few colonies, and probably a major war indemnity. Britain is harder to speculate on, because this depends on how (and if) britain is involved in the war.
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
My theory is that the Germans merely wanted to capture the Chablis region, so that German white wine would then reign absolutely supreme on the world market. In fact, the more I think about it, the more it seems to me that this was really what the war was all about.

:p:p:p:p
 
Avalon1 said:
Can anyone here see a German Syria?

In WWI unlikely, as Syria starts as being part of the Ottoman Empire (carving up your ally might be counterproductive)

In WWII also unlikely. Either give it Italy if Vichy France goes not well (so Mussolini can be happy about his mediterranean empire) or let the latter keep it (so that Vichy might become a somewhat reliable and useful puppet)
All assuming that the Axis actually manage to get there (and stay there)
 
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