Ask the Dragon

[VonMudra]

Hello there and greetings from the Traction Wars Development Team!

Some of you may already know who I am from interactions on the forum, but allow me to introduce myself. I am VonMudra, a historian and researcher for Traction Wars, and it is my role to help advise the team on matters concerning weaponry, equipment, visuals, battlefields, and to find documents and/or photographs that will best help the creation of the game.
In real life, I am indeed a professional historian, currently holding a Master of Arts with Distinction, and pursuing my PhD in Polish History. My main path of research therein lies in coming to grips with the mythos and memory surrounding the Polish military and the September 1939 Campaign.

Recently, I got to thinking, "You know, the devs all get their fun updates and Dev Blogs, but what does the Research Department get?" Well, I am happy to say, I have an answer. Starting soon, we will be running a periodic update – "Ask the Dragon" – in which I will answer any and all questions you have (to the best of my abilities) concerning the Second World War.

You may post your questions below, and I will pick a few of the most interesting ones to write thoughtful answers to, with supporting citations. Through this, I can help not only show the inner workings of research and historical understanding within the Traction Wars development team, but also help clear up mis-conceptions and help people better understand the war we wish to represent with this game.

 

[Pjosip]

*removed*
-Please keep your questions decent.

 

[Aristle]

Germany was leading the war with some of the most advanced technologies, weaponry, tactics, and scientists. How and why did they eventually collapse after the landing of Operation Overlord?

 

[siben]

Germany was leading the war with some of the most advanced technologies, weaponry, and scientists. How and why did they eventually collapse after the landing of Operation Overlord?

I can answer that very shortly, when you fight on 3 fronts where you are always outnumbered, sometimes with enemies that are 20 times your size, are always being bombed, have an industry output many times smaller then the counties you fight and are in short supply of everything then it is just a matter of time. Even is your average soldier is more efficient then an enemy one, you will still loose.

 

[Colonel__Klink]

Germany was leading the war with some of the most advanced technologies, weaponry, and scientists. How and why did they eventually collapse after the landing of Operation Overlord?

VonMudra will certainly cover a lot of this better than I can but here are some important points:

-Germany delayed the final development of very advanced weapons due to early successes of others. For example Jet fighter technology to my knowledge was delayed by two years because the ME109 performed so well.

-Germany did however try to develop more powerful tanks rapidly when it became apparent early on that their armor (PZ III and PZ II) were inferior. The problem is that their ultimate designs, the tigers and such were very heavy, difficult to transport, difficult to manufacture and had horrific reliability.

-Germany didn't have the production capacity its reputed to have. Germany had to actually grow its industrial capacity as the war drug on, in the end they were importing slaves from occupied countries to keep production up. Because of this production of equipment was not enough to keep up with Russia AND the United States.

-Hitler's direct involvement in many campaign decisions proved to be a disaster, despite the fact that his choice to accept the plan to slice through sedan in 1940 was a good move. There were cases such as prematurely detaching the armor column protecting the 6th army's advance on Stalingrad that resulted in dramatic losses. Other nations could afford losses in that war, Germany could not.

 

[Swatas]

Well I woud like to ask: I know that the germans worked on something big called: "Heavy Water" somewhere in sweden I think but the thing is it got sabotaged. So what woud be results if germany have created this WOMD (Weapon Of Mass Destruction)

(Sorry for my bad grammar)

 

[VonMudra]

I would ask that we not answer questions in the thread. No matter how obvious they may be, please leave them for me to get to as a possible choice. This will be left open until there is a good set of questions for me to choose from.

 

[Maniche]

Well I woud like to ask: I know that the germans worked on something big called: "Heavy Water" somewhere in sweden I think but the thing is it got sabotaged. So what woud be results if germany have created this WOMD (Weapon Of Mass Destruction)

(Sorry for my bad grammar)

But... That was in Norway...

I feel sad now.

Swedes trying to get the honour of that one, pffft.

 

[Kevino]

how can you be invisible ? Pete's Dragon (1977) - IMDb

 

[Aristle]

Personally, I very much enjoy jazz music, and I prominently hear it in many WWII videos. How did such music become so popular around this time unlike other types of music such as rock and hip hop?

 

[Kevino]

Personally, I very much enjoy jazz music, and I prominently hear it in many WWII videos. How did such music become so popular around this time unlike other types of music such as rock and hip hop?

in the 30's and 40's ??????

 

[Swaffy]

Sometimes what people don't know amazes me...

Here's a question. I heard that the IL-10 was built primarily for ground attacking but was a fine dogfighter if the situation needed to be. Do you know anything of the IL-10, or the IL-10M?

[Edit] Image of an IL-10M

 

[Colonel__Klink]

What was the primary polish armored fighting vehicle? What was the primary polish aircraft and the overall performance in the air? I'm especially curious about the last part because I know a polish squadron was one of the most stalwart defenders of the isle of Britain in the battle of Britain.

 

[Sir Apple]

How many dragon licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

 

[TheViscount]

It's not 100% WWII related, but as a historian, do you subscribe to the idea of the 'Military Revolution' and if so, do you think this could have influenced later wars, such as WWII?

 

[Comrade Roe]

What would've happened if Hitler had died before the war in Europe began?

 

[Feldmeijer]

What if Mussolini did not screw up the invasion of Greece so that he would not need German assistance?

 

[Alex]

Personally, I very much enjoy jazz music, and I prominently hear it in many WWII videos. How did such music become so popular around this time unlike other types of music such as rock and hip hop?

Because heavy metal and rock were already flying around them!

 

[th_battleaxe]

How much of a shock were the German airborne operations (think Rotterdam, Eben-Emael) to the Allies during the 1940 Blitzkrieg?
Or even Unternehmen Merkur?

 

[General Naga]

What's the (probably) most commonly held myth you can think of about the German tactics of WW2?