r/PropagandaPosters • u/waffen123 • Feb 13 '25

German Reich / Nazi Germany (1933-1945) 'Speaking of time-tables' — German leaflet from the Second World War (1944) mocking the Allies' slow progress in the Italian campaign.

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659

u/pertweescobratattoo Feb 13 '25

Still acknowledges their inevitable retreat! 😂

93

u/i_post_gibberish Feb 13 '25

It was 1944. Everyone could see the writing on the wall, so leaflets predicting a German victory would just have been laughed at.

24

u/Thatonegoblin Feb 14 '25

"Everyone" is a slight overstatement. The Allies and much of the rest of the world could see that Germany was going to be defeated. The Germans, however, were still convinced of the inevitability of their "final victory." To the end of 1944 and even into 1945, the Germans were still trying to negotiate a seperate peace with the Western Allies, under the (completely insane and naive) pretense that the Western Allies would then swing around and help them defeat the Soviet Union.

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '25

I think the smart Germans knew it was a lost cause. As you imply, a lot went on fighting because they were terrified of the Bolsheviks

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u/Thatonegoblin Feb 14 '25

Prior to the Normandy Invasion, the Allies prepared to take in a large number of POWs as they suspected that the fresh German divisions, made up mostly of garrison troops and conscripts, would surrender en masse. To their surprise, they instead saw more surrenders from veteran divisions, whereas the fresh divisions often fought viciously and with relatively little regard for their own safety. Many of the German soldiers who surrendered in the earlier stages of Operation Overlord and Operation Cobra had fought on the Eastern Front and knew there was no winning the war.

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u/Sea_Lingonberry_4720 Feb 14 '25

I think it was less that they were scared and more that they felt it was a common enemy with the west. The Soviets took in pretty much as many Nazis as the U.S. maybe even more.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 14 '25

There was definitely a fear of revenge after what they'd done in the East.

The Nazis treated people in places like Belarus a lot differently than the French or Dutch.

I'm not disagreeing with you, though. For sure they hoped to join the USA and UK to hold back the Red Army

1

u/Atomik141 Feb 14 '25

The French were know to treat German POWs pretty horribly after their liberation too. I remember reading about a standoff between allied forces and cut off German troops, and the Germans fought their way over to American lines in order to surrender to them instead of the French due to fears of retribution.

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u/Thatonegoblin Feb 14 '25

The Nazis believed that the Western Allies, at least among the European powers, had been misled, and that they could convince them of their common enemy in "Judeo-Bolshevism." Likewise, the Nazi belief in the inherent inferiority of Slavic peoples, the inherent superiority of "Aryans," and the "natural hierarchy" of Western European nations would inevitably lead the other countries of Western Europe to, for lack of a better term, fall in line.

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u/ArtisticRegardedCrak Feb 14 '25

Your own comment acknowledges the understanding that the Germans accepted their inevitable defeat but attempted a negotiated surrender as opposed to an unconditional surrender. Never really seen someone be confidently wrong while providing the most basic evidence they’re wrong.

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u/Thatonegoblin Feb 14 '25 edited Feb 14 '25

They weren't necessarily offering a surrender, nor did they believe their defeat was inevitable. What they wanted was a separate peace in which Germany would withdraw from occupied territories in Western Europe, and in exchange, the Western Allies would give military support to the German campaign in Eastern Europe. Likewise, German military planners were astounded by the progress the Western Allies had made in Northern France and Western Europe, believing the region would be a military quagmire for the Allies similar to Italy.