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RE: Bedtime Facts (172/365)
Absolutely. Hitler is saying things that one would expect to go through the mind of the leader of a Central European power juggling powerful enemies (at that time the Soviet Union was a potential enemy as the two powers had an agreement) both in the west and the east. Germany synthesized petroleum from coal using the Fischer-Tropsch process but it would've been better to refine crude oil.
The Soviet Union provided Germany with the necessary petroleum products and other essential raw materials after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact when Germany was waging war on the Allied in the west. The Soviet Union got military technology from Germany in exchange.
Further reading: Nazi-Soviet economic relations (1934-1941)
he spoke about the petroleum wells in Romania. Something like 5 million tons was required to run the campaign. Mentioned he was shocked at the number of tanks the Russians had. 35 000. Biggest tank battle in history was at Kursk. 6000 tanks were involved and something like 2 million men lost in one battle.
The Battle of Kursk went on for two and a half weeks in July 1943.
Losses in the battle itself were nowhere near that great. That number of off by at least two orders of magnitude if von Manstein is to be believed. He estimates both German and Soviet losses to be in the tens of thousands during those 18 days. German record keeping was usually reliable in this matters.