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“Hitler’s mistakes – losing touch with society”

May 31st, 2013

Ryan Bachoo profile picAdolph Hitler had the army and the weapons to win World War II, says Ryan Bachoo, 23, a Commonwealth Correspondent from Trinidad and Tobago, but his great downfall was the failure to recognize the value of engineers who designed his war machinery.

At a time when the world is going through so many wars, and differences are being sorted out by use of force, we’ve grown to respect and honour our soldiers and military.

However, throughout history neither the great tanks and rockets nor the greatest of leaders have been at the core of winning a war, at least not when it comes to weaponry.

The men and women behind building fatal weapons – the masterminds of inventions that would see rockets travel across borders and wreak havoc in cities and kill the enemy – those are the ones that win and lose a war. They are commonly called engineers. Though silent and unobserved, engineers are as important to a war as the men and women on the ground fighting.

But like today’s love and respect for our armed forces, our esteem for our engineers at war hasn’t always been recognized. My fingers are pointed to Soviet Russia and Adolf Hitler’s Germany. We live in a time of great distress and great wars. The tactics are changing all the time. So is the weaponry, and perhaps the fastest changing tool is technology. To operate this technology requires some of science’s greatest minds alive. So it has been, so it is today.

Adolf Hitler had a very strong army, had some of the greatest minds in the world, yet Germany lost the war at an alarming rate. This is already known. What is less known is Hitler’s grave error that ultimately turned his own against him. It’s not the mistake he made in declaring war on the United States on December 11th, 1941, while still embroiled in battle against Great Britain, but rather something simpler. There’s a common phrase used nowadays, “the power of German engineering.” In the early ‘20s and for the next three decades, German engineering led on almost every front, developing weapons and rockets years ahead of its time.

The men and women behind these inventions were the blood that fuelled Germany’s progress and the might of the Third Reich. Some of the names included pioneer of aerodynamics, Alexander Lippisch, an engineer, mathematician, and physicist co-credited with the design of a proposed intercontinental space plane, Irene Bredt, Viktor Schauberger who aided the Third Reich in his fields of being a naturalist, philosopher, inventor and biomimicry experimenter, and Werner Heisenberg, a theoretical physicist. There were thousands of them. Some were the world’s best names in science and engineering, like Wernher von Braun – the man who could, and maybe should have won Hitler the war.

There are many arguments as to why Hitler lost the war. Perhaps it really was the United States’ intervention, or Hitler’s cancellation of weapons programs after France fell in 1940, or maybe it was his optimistic invasion of Russia. There are many angles to look at it from, but ultimately, Hitler had lost touch with his society.

The very men and women who built his greatest weapons lived in apartments in a place called Peenemünde near the Baltic Sea, isolated from mankind. They were escorted by private trains and hidden from the rest of the world so Germany’s far-reaching advances in technology would be kept for a few to know. The treatment was harsh. Some of the greatest weapons of that time were built on the backs of prisoners of war, and in the minds of Europe’s best scientists.

Yet only a few days after April 30th, 1945 when Hitler killed himself, Russia and the United States set on a manhunt throughout Germany looking for Wernher von Braun and thousands of other scientists who helped Hitler build the greatest arsenal of war weapons to date. While it was unknown whether Russia wanted to put these scientists on trial for crimes against humanity, the United States was after their knowledge. After many failed to hide, and others like von Braun surrendered, John F. Kennedy had brought them to the United States to build America’s arsenal of weapons, and – the greatest achievement of all – send America to the moon first.

This engineering power is what Hitler had, and had thrown away. For Hitler, von Braun designed the V2, the wonder rocket at its time that could claim thousands of lives in one launch. For the United States, he engineered man’s first voyage to the moon. The United States accepted these scientists into their culture, gave them salaries and new lives in America in exchange for their knowledge. The foundation of modern day American weaponry started with these discarded Nazi scientists that Hitler failed to protect. Eventually, the secrets Hitler had so tried to hide from the people would come back to haunt Germany.

photo credit: Milestoned via photopin cc

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About me:

“Hi, my name Ryan Bachoo. I’m a Journalist and Public Relations Practitioner from PrincesTown in the twin island of Trinidad and Tobago. I’ve moved into the field of Mass Communication now. I currently work for the West Indies Cricket Board, protecting the online image of West Indies Cricket.

I’ve been a Broadcast Journalist at Cable News Channel 3 for three years. For the Commonwealth Youth Secretariat, I write on topics of politics, war and economics.”

Ryan Bachoo

Journalist & Public Relations Practitioner

The People’s Writer

I speak for those who have no voice!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Commonwealth Youth Programme. Articles are published in a spirit of dialogue, respect and understanding. If you disagree, why not submit a response?

To learn more about becoming a Commonwealth Correspondent please visit: http://www.yourcommonwealth.org/submit-articles/commonwealthcorrespondents/

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Ryan Bachoo profile picAdolph Hitler had the army and the weapons to win World War II, says Ryan Bachoo, 23, a Commonwealth Correspondent from Trinidad and Tobago, but his great downfall was the failure to recognize the value of engineers who designed his war machinery.

At a time when the world is going through so many wars, and differences are being sorted out by use of force, we’ve grown to respect and honour our soldiers and military.

However, throughout history neither the great tanks and rockets nor the greatest of leaders have been at the core of winning a war, at least not when it comes to weaponry.

The men and women behind building fatal weapons – the masterminds of inventions that would see rockets travel across borders and wreak havoc in cities and kill the enemy – those are the ones that win and lose a war. They are commonly called engineers. Though silent and unobserved, engineers are as important to a war as the men and women on the ground fighting.

But like today’s love and respect for our armed forces, our esteem for our engineers at war hasn’t always been recognized. My fingers are pointed to Soviet Russia and Adolf Hitler’s Germany. We live in a time of great distress and great wars. The tactics are changing all the time. So is the weaponry, and perhaps the fastest changing tool is technology. To operate this technology requires some of science’s greatest minds alive. So it has been, so it is today.

Adolf Hitler had a very strong army, had some of the greatest minds in the world, yet Germany lost the war at an alarming rate. This is already known. What is less known is Hitler’s grave error that ultimately turned his own against him. It’s not the mistake he made in declaring war on the United States on December 11th, 1941, while still embroiled in battle against Great Britain, but rather something simpler. There’s a common phrase used nowadays, “the power of German engineering.” In the early ‘20s and for the next three decades, German engineering led on almost every front, developing weapons and rockets years ahead of its time.

The men and women behind these inventions were the blood that fuelled Germany’s progress and the might of the Third Reich. Some of the names included pioneer of aerodynamics, Alexander Lippisch, an engineer, mathematician, and physicist co-credited with the design of a proposed intercontinental space plane, Irene Bredt, Viktor Schauberger who aided the Third Reich in his fields of being a naturalist, philosopher, inventor and biomimicry experimenter, and Werner Heisenberg, a theoretical physicist. There were thousands of them. Some were the world’s best names in science and engineering, like Wernher von Braun – the man who could, and maybe should have won Hitler the war.

There are many arguments as to why Hitler lost the war. Perhaps it really was the United States’ intervention, or Hitler’s cancellation of weapons programs after France fell in 1940, or maybe it was his optimistic invasion of Russia. There are many angles to look at it from, but ultimately, Hitler had lost touch with his society.

The very men and women who built his greatest weapons lived in apartments in a place called Peenemünde near the Baltic Sea, isolated from mankind. They were escorted by private trains and hidden from the rest of the world so Germany’s far-reaching advances in technology would be kept for a few to know. The treatment was harsh. Some of the greatest weapons of that time were built on the backs of prisoners of war, and in the minds of Europe’s best scientists.

Yet only a few days after April 30th, 1945 when Hitler killed himself, Russia and the United States set on a manhunt throughout Germany looking for Wernher von Braun and thousands of other scientists who helped Hitler build the greatest arsenal of war weapons to date. While it was unknown whether Russia wanted to put these scientists on trial for crimes against humanity, the United States was after their knowledge. After many failed to hide, and others like von Braun surrendered, John F. Kennedy had brought them to the United States to build America’s arsenal of weapons, and – the greatest achievement of all – send America to the moon first.

This engineering power is what Hitler had, and had thrown away. For Hitler, von Braun designed the V2, the wonder rocket at its time that could claim thousands of lives in one launch. For the United States, he engineered man’s first voyage to the moon. The United States accepted these scientists into their culture, gave them salaries and new lives in America in exchange for their knowledge. The foundation of modern day American weaponry started with these discarded Nazi scientists that Hitler failed to protect. Eventually, the secrets Hitler had so tried to hide from the people would come back to haunt Germany.

photo credit: Milestoned via photopin cc

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

About me:

“Hi, my name Ryan Bachoo. I’m a Journalist and Public Relations Practitioner from PrincesTown in the twin island of Trinidad and Tobago. I’ve moved into the field of Mass Communication now. I currently work for the West Indies Cricket Board, protecting the online image of West Indies Cricket.

I’ve been a Broadcast Journalist at Cable News Channel 3 for three years. For the Commonwealth Youth Secretariat, I write on topics of politics, war and economics.”

Ryan Bachoo

Journalist & Public Relations Practitioner

The People’s Writer

I speak for those who have no voice!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Commonwealth Youth Programme. Articles are published in a spirit of dialogue, respect and understanding. If you disagree, why not submit a response?

To learn more about becoming a Commonwealth Correspondent please visit: http://www.yourcommonwealth.org/submit-articles/commonwealthcorrespondents/

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………