Well, the Germans certainly bought it, hook, line, and sinker ... until they started "buying it," in the literal sense, at leastTheMarcksPlan wrote: ↑18 Jan 2022 22:55Ah the simple take - believe what Hitler says at face value. Funny how many continue this error despite history's lessons.historygeek2021 wrote:“If there’s war, then I’ll build U-boats, build U-boats, U-boats, U-boats, U-boats. I’ll build aircraft, aircraft, aircraft, and destroy my enemies!”
It is not, of course, an error we see in scholarship much. Ian Kershaw - Hitler's best English-language biographer - points out that many of Hitler's "rages" were carefully controlled acting performances intended for a specific audience (though he also had rages). Here he's probably trying to convey a message of intimidation to an English intermediary (knowing well that the English feared bombing).
Even were the rage real instead of staged, a minimally serious reading of Hitler's outburst would ask whether his planning and actions confirm that he was disclosing actual strategic intent. Obviously not. Hitler built shells, shells, shells after Wallies declared war.

So IF Hitler was building shells, while the Allies were armies, air forces, and the merchant marines and navies to get them to Europe, invade Germany, and kill Germans, apparently Hitler et al miscalculated along the way...