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→Sportpalast speech, February 18, 1943
I ask you: Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today?...}}
I ask you: Do you want total war? If necessary, do you want a war more total and radical than anything that we can even imagine today?...}}
Even though for all intents and purposes the war had been lost by February 1943 with the defeat at Stalingrad, Goebbels had convinced the German people to fight on in a Total War. By November 1943, after over 1500 days of war, total [[Wehrmacht]] permanent casualties (dead, disabled, or missing) amounted to roughly 3 million men. This makes for a loss rate of just under 2,000 men per day for over four years - a time period which includes the campaigns in [[Poland]], [[France]], the [[Balkans]], [[North Africa]], and the colossal eastern battles of [[Operation Barbarossa]], Rzhev, [[Kharkov]], [[Stalingrad]], [[Kursk]], and the [[Caucasus]].
Even though for all intents and purposes the war had already been lost days earlier in February 1943 with the defeat at Stalingrad, Goebbels convinced the German people to fight on in a Total War. By November, after over 1500 days of war, total [[Wehrmacht]] permanent casualties (dead, disabled, or missing) amounted to roughly 3 million men. This makes for a loss rate of just under 2,000 men per day for over four years - a time period which includes the campaigns in [[Poland]], [[France]], the [[Balkans]], [[North Africa]], and the colossal eastern battles of [[Operation Barbarossa]], Rzhev, [[Kharkov]], [[Stalingrad]], [[Kursk]], and the [[Caucasus]].
From November 1943 through the end of the war in May 1945 - a span of 527 days - Wehrmacht losses would be some 5 million men. Thus, over the final eighteen months of the war, German losses were an astonishing 9,400 per day, and although this closing phase made up only a quarter of the war in chronological terms, it accounted for nearly two-thirds of Germany’s total combat losses.
From November 1943 through the end of the war in May 1945 - a span of 527 days - Wehrmacht losses would be some 5 million men. Thus, over the final eighteen months of the war, German losses were an astonishing 9,400 per day, and although this closing phase made up only a quarter of the war in chronological terms, it accounted for nearly two-thirds of Germany’s total combat losses.