What made the Germans so good at war?

Modern wars are won by logistics. Germans have good logistics.

Iraq and Afghanistan, Vietnam

He was just one general, and he still lost Zama. Plus he got outmaneuvered completely from Capua onward.
Carthage as a whole lost tons of battles in that war, Hannibal's brothers got rekt and beheaded when they tried to bring their armies to him, Spain theater went completely Rome's way, and so did Sicily.

>Despite losing in

>The Battle of Zama, fought around October 19, 202 BC, marked the end of the Second Punic War. A Roman army led by Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus (Scipio), with crucial support from Numidian leader Masinissa, defeated a Carthaginian force led by the commander Hannibal, despite Hannibal possessing numerical superiority. This was because many in his army were recent conscripts, and the vaunted Numidian cavalry which Hannibal had employed with great success in Italy had by then switched sides to the Romans.

>This was because many in his army were recent conscripts
This is bullshit, Hannibal still had most of his italian veterans and mercs. If anything Scipio was the one with the raw troops.

Thats so wrong its funny. German generals exepected their subjects to decide wether to follow their orders or make up their own plan if it suits the situation better. No, Great Britain was known for generals that expected their soldiers to follow their plans withouth exeptions. But go on, tell me how about German infantery tacticts worked based on some Hollywood movie you watched.

being an european country with decent population after the industrial revolution

You can't deny that Germans were good at war from 1866 to 1945
It compensates for the rest of their history (843-1866) during which they have been utter garbage and kept getting humiliated by French, Russians and fucking Swedes.

I wouldn't call Wallenstein or Frederick the Great utter garbage.

I wouln't call Wallenstein or Frederick the Great utter garbage.

Well fuck, I thought my first post somehow didn't make it.

>Wallenstein

JUST

Tell me, Captain, if Germany was so good at war, why has it lost both WW1 and WW2 and why are you reading this in my voice?

Yeah, he got fucked pretty bad in the end. But till then, he managed to hold himself quite well.

>Lose every war since 1871
>"""""Militarily competent"""""

>the Germans always seem to have an effective war machine.
Weren't they the least motorised of all major armies in WW2?

I don't know his voice so poo to you

Put Simply Dukat they're geographically surrounded by powerful rival Nations. They did as well as literally any nation in the war could have in those circumstances.

Only logistically. They'd focussed so hard on making their combat arms the most motorised.

mostly this

divisions were given goals and objectives not orders
the whole mentality was this, which would be impossible without good quality officers, starting from bottom

Vietnam

Where are you getting this?

Got me.

any time Britain won a war

Germans built advanced logistics networks, used slightly more advanced weaponry, and instead of using tanks as support the germans had armies of tanks rolling around fucking shit up. The germans slso had well funded armies, most of Europe was still dealing with the effects of economic downturn and WW1. The Germans started the war with a healthy savings account from an economy on steroids once they acquired wealth from their undesirables and instead of investing in previous war surpluses they invested in their own industries to provide their military with everything needed.

For the most part, it was logistics. Even in the trenches, none of the German men went hungry.

The shining stars of the war were the Finns and Greeks. In that order.

>Germans built advanced logistics networks
>Germany
>Logistics

Oh wait, you're serious. The German Logistical System was the reason they lost the war.

It seems you're right, I've checked what you've said and it adds up.While we're at it, from whom have they adopted that approach? I know the Mongols were the first to use it, but who else?

>mission
>type
>orders

Germany has been consistently good at organization, but has always been shit at wartime economics and grand strategy, which bites them every time.

Albert Speer writes that Germany's manufacturing industry was grossly underproducing in all areas when he assumed the position of minister of armaments, and the sheer amount of money spent on making expensive, sometimes unreliable vehicles like the Tiger I and Panther were flies in the face of wartime goals, to make as many of something as possible for as cheap as possible.

Food economics also hurts Germany hard, with German land often consisting of many small personal gardens, rather than actual agricultural fields which can yield a more efficient harvest. Britain took full advantage of Germany's inability to feed itself in WWI, a mistake they aimed not to repeat in WWII, and were mostly successful until 1943-early 44.

Germany's greatest weakness is grand strategy and seeking the final goal of a war, often not coordinating at all with their allies and not having a final picture on what victory should look like, which was most apparent in Operation Barbarossa. Were the Germans supposed to stop at the Urals and just hope the Soviets have surrendered by then? what if they didn't? Where they just going to stop when Moscow fell? Not everyone in the German high command could agree.

The lack of grand strategy leads to what my professors called Germany "punching above their weight class", being good enough to take on any 1 European Power, but powerless to take on all the major empires at once.

Add Poles to that list. Germans were/are kinda butthurt for past history. I mean, like here-is-20kk-marks-of-bounty-for-any-information-about-paintings-BattleOfTannenberg/PrussianHomage/etc style butthurt.

Jup, that with the horses is true. They used a shit ton of horses in WW2, I think it was more than double the amount of WW1.

German, in both times prior to the war, stockpiled war materials and built a huge war machine.

They then proceeded to squander it in futile battles and skirmishes until either surrendering or being destroyed.

Honestly they aren't that impressive, they just had an early advantage they did nothing with.

Retroculture!