You can't invade a country of 90m with a few thousand troops and get anything but your ass handed to you.
I think a lot of people were aware of that, imagine the horror of your kids being sent off to be mowed down systematically, reminded me of the tactics in Ukraine where they started pulling people off buses and forcing them to the front line because so many over the last few years tragically were mowed down they resorted to hunting people down to send. There is really something wrong with that picture you get that desperate you'll go to those lengths to keep fighting when you should just surrender. Those providence's aren't worth the price being paid for them, in the end they won't get them anyway. The whole thing isn't designed to go down like that. You wouldn't have German contractors helping rebuild the occupied providence's if it was. I have a grandson who will turn 18 in the next couple of years so this does weigh heavy on my mind.