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1. Judge Dread (judgedread@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 31-Jan-2025 03:18:35 JST Judge Dread
   1940 population estimates:
   
   Germany - 69 million
   UK - 48 million
   USSR - 195 million
   USA - 132 million
   
   Sorry, frens, Germany didn't stand a chance.
   • Judge Dread (judgedread@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 31-Jan-2025 03:18:32 JST Judge Dread

     in reply to

     • Thunderbolt_of_Kek
     @Thunderbolt_of_Kek The invader is always at a disadvantage, particularly after crossing a moat. Germans had to get troops into England the hard way. I bet the constraints on numbers were severe, though I have not looked up the specifics. And of course paratroopers would be cut up by machine gun fire and the transport aircraft harried by the RAF and antiaircraft fire all the way.
     Kenny Blankenship likes this.
   • Judge Dread (judgedread@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 31-Jan-2025 03:18:33 JST Judge Dread

     in reply to

     • Thunderbolt_of_Kek
     @Thunderbolt_of_Kek You just admitted they dominated the world from that tiny island.
     
     Hitler underestimated England, and it seems you do too.
   • Thunderbolt_of_Kek (thunderbolt_of_kek@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 31-Jan-2025 03:18:33 JST Thunderbolt_of_Kek

     in reply to
     @judgedread How do they fight off the Wehrmacht with no weapons, no armored vehicles?
     
     Having troops stationed around the world doesn't mean your home island is a fortress. They didn't think they would be attacked there, their possessions were far away with oceans in between, the home island was basically naked in 1940.
     
     They didn't dominate the world by having the island heavily armed, they dominated the world by having their heavily armed people stationed AROUND THE WORLD where they were exerting dominance. If they'd all been sitting in England, they would have dominated nothing.
     
     The center was the soft underbelly.
     
     But, you're obviously ignorant of military history and probably have a "muh Russia" thing going that makes the Soviets out to be some kind of unstoppable juggernaut because "muh Russia," instead of the scabrous Eurasians they remain to this day.
     
     And your only response to stuff like England itself factually being basically unarmed in 1940 is "nuh uh."
     
     No point in continuing this conversation, you're not willing to even CONSIDER anything other than the foregone conclusion you've already reached.
     
     The Germans HAD to try something or they were sunk. It actually partially worked, because the majority of Germany remained free of Soviet control and the Soviets didn't go slaughtering and gulaging through Western Europe.
     
     But, whatever. Have a nice one, I've got to go do some shit.
   • Judge Dread (judgedread@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 31-Jan-2025 03:18:34 JST Judge Dread

     in reply to

     • Thunderbolt_of_Kek
     @Thunderbolt_of_Kek The ability of the English to dominate the world with a tiny population undermines your 'invade England' plan.
     
     In 1940 they were a very, very hard target.
   • Thunderbolt_of_Kek (thunderbolt_of_kek@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 31-Jan-2025 03:18:34 JST Thunderbolt_of_Kek

     in reply to
     @judgedread In 1940, they had scraped their country empty of weapons to arm the BEF. They literally put just about everything they could find into the hands of the expeditionary force. Except for aircraft, almost all small arms and vehicles present in England, were at Dunkirk.
     
     Their armies holding down the rest of their possessions don't count when they're far away by boat.
     
     Hell, after Dunkirk, the U.S. had a program to collect hunting weapons from American citizens who wanted to volunteer them, to ship to the British because they had almost no weapons to resist an invasion, and sent a few shiploads of rifles and shotguns to them. Followed, of course, by a river of Lend-Lease, but that wasn't instantaneous.
     
     England was a very, very soft target in 1940. Hitler just fucked up by sparing them.
   • Thunderbolt_of_Kek (thunderbolt_of_kek@poa.st)'s status on Friday, 31-Jan-2025 03:18:35 JST Thunderbolt_of_Kek

     in reply to
     @judgedread Well, then, they did the best they could. Prevented the USSR from seizing all of Europe and mass-murdering its inhabitants. Still a win, since high-tens of millions of French, Italians, Germans, British, Spanish, etc. weren't killed or deported to remote locations. The U.S. being drawn in set a hard line the Soviets couldn't cross without being obliterated, and necessitated toning down their actions toward the European subjects they actually did get.
     
     Though I fundamentally disagree with your premise, as I've already outlined a feasible victory scenario. Seize England to prevent being bombed to pieces, defeat the USSR (as they very nearly did anyway).
     
     Or, seize England to prevent being bombed to pieces, then seize the Mediterranean/Middle East, and acquire the oil necessary to defeat the Soviets when they moved West.
     
     If raw numbers were everything, the British would never have had an empire.