Was Raeder's Plan Z realistic in any way?

The Navy getting all the steel? All of the capital ships had already been launched (B&T, S&G, and GZ) as had all 5 of the Hippers... outside of some for u-boats and escorts, the navy didn't lay down anything substantial in 38 or 39

There were gigantic shit loads of steel being poured into the west wall and the oder line though; as the small german bunker design of the period required 2 5-tonne armored plates, and the larger bunker required 2 19-tonne armored plates... and both lines had many bunkers

However its is highly likely that the steel was of a different spec for that used in ships. Plus limitations on things like plate sizes at the rolling mill, that sort of thing.

In the short term, these things arent just interchangeable...and even if they were, the skilled workers cant just be taken from the farm (as were some of the West Wall workers...:)
 
Mega projects interested him greatly... probably the inner artist or whatever
Did you ever see his designs for the insides of the luxury carriages to be used on the verrry-broad-gauge railway that he wanted to have built all of the way from the Atlantic ports, via Berlin, to Vladivostok? :cool:
 
However its is highly likely that the steel was of a different spec for that used in ships. Plus limitations on things like plate sizes at the rolling mill, that sort of thing.

In the short term, these things arent just interchangeable...and even if they were, the skilled workers cant just be taken from the farm (as were some of the West Wall workers...:)

This is true as I have found doing longer term research for der manstein kommt

Germany faced severe alloy shortages in 1938 and 39 that limited their ability to produce the type of steel they really liked (and that they used in their ships, which proved to be some of the most durable shit on earth when built properly)... so a fair number of the bunkers got lower grade steel especially those built 39

The workers are interchangablish... the guys pouring all the concrete and digging AT traps, nope; but the guys doing all the spot welding could translate over to dockyard work pretty easily

This period is where the loss of Dr Schajt was really REALLY felt, he was good at cooking the books to let Germany maintain some international trade, which promptly ended with his departure and replacement by Hitler's butt boy Todt
 

BlondieBC

Banned
No, that was NOT Hitler's strategy at work--it was his blind LUCK at work.

If France and England had any balls at all in 1936, or even 1938...Hitler's strategy, him, and Nazi Germany, falls flat on its face before he even gets started.

Adolf Hitler was an evil, psychotic, megalomaniac, who probably would have been a huge bluffer if he'd ever played poker. Nothing more.

Luck is where opportunity meets preparation. Hitler deserves credit for recognizing and capitalizing on the weakness of the UK and France, as he deserves blame for the USSR invasion.

Now if we are going to allow people to change decisions after the fact, like the UK/France could have done, their are lots of great generals who lost wars. Napoleon would likely either take back the Spanish or Russian invasion. Conrad would be a great military mind with his War Plan Russia in 1914, followed with defense only against Italy. Falkenhayn would should love a second shot at getting 1914 or 1916 right. Tsar Nicholas II would like a redo of his Russo war. Tirpitz would like a second shot at the first few weeks of WW1. etc.

That France and the UK had the theoretically ability to stop him is irrelevent to what he got done, renounce versailles, massively rearm, gobble up lots of territory that was lost and pull Germany out of the depression even in the face of a hostile entente who had every opportunity to destroy him whenever they wished

That they didn't destroy him is due in no small part to his political gamesmanship, brinksmanship, ability to read his opponents and indeed risk taking... the only gambling analogy that fits in 33 to 40 is blackjack with a strong ability to count cards

fortune favors the bold

Agreed, even though I would say poker where the opponents all have tells is bit better example. For 33 to 40, Hitler was the card shark, France and the UK were the easy marks.
 
Commerce raiding

First, when the Germans started rearming, what the Brit navy feared most was that the Germans might build a fleet of essentially improved pocket battleships as commerce raiders too fast for battleships to catch and too powerful for the British treaty cruisers with their 8 inch guns. Ironically, in the mid-1930s through the beginning of the war, the Brits thought that they had the submarine problem solved. The fast commerce raider plan might actually have been the better option, partly because more of it would have been done before the war started. On the other hand, the German battleships did tie down an inordinate number of British battleships (7 or 8 I believe), so they weren't a total loss to the Axis. The Brit battleships would have been useful in the Med or the Far East, though the Japanese might well have sunk most of them if they had been sent to the Far East.

Surface commerce raiders made sense in the days before long range naval aviation and radio made them easier to locate. Useless in the North sea, those german vessels would have to break into the Atlantic without being detected, then find a way to refuel without being caught (if their tankers survived) and finally they would have to get back to germany without being caught.
And the easy counter would be to place one BB escorting any large convoy everytime there was intel German Heavy Raiders were at sea.
Surface raiders made a lot of sense for France in the pre WW1 era, for its Armoured cruisers could get into their hunting areas fast and in relative safety. Geography made that a very risky business for the Germans.
 
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