"Hitler's Greatest Mistake?" Topic

In directing the war-time strategy of the Third Reich, what was Hitler's most significant error?

Thinking he could win?

Doug

Giving up the painting career?

Going to war with Britain without a killer submarine fleet

Invading Greece / the Balcans to bail out the Italians.

directing the war-time strategy of the Third Reich

That would be it right there.

Getting out of bed in the morning?

Not inhaling more deeply in that WWI gas attack?

Thinking he knew better than his professional general staff and not taking their advice.

How can you pick one out of so many?

what was Hitler's most significant error?

Failing to understand that with a limited population base one has to be prepared to make strategic withdrawals from time to time instead of committing troops to stand and die rather than retreat.

Frederick The Great tended to make the same error and commit troops to situations where heavy loss was likely, but even he was more fluid than Herr Hitler.

The Russians could afford to have vast numbers of men surrounded and forced to surrender as it could more easily replace them. Nazi Germany could not.

Being a complete and utter git.

The mustache.

Invading Russia.

Invading Russia without having settled with Britain first – invasion, blockade, peace agreement, whatever.

Not letting the Panzers capture the BEF at Dunkirk.

I believe we have a consensus…

trying to sell statues of himself on ebay

Believing his own propaganda? "Hey, Eva, check news, we really ARE invincible! Let's invade Russia next week!"

Or declaring war on the US and giving FDR a bye on persuading the public that the US should declare war on Germany after they'd just been attacked by the Imperial Japan Navy and not the Kriegsmarine.

Or ensuring the Luftwaffe had a strategic capability rather than a largely tactical support one. Luftwaffe bombs killed lots of British civilians, but did they actually do much to dent production?

Halting research and development during 1941 (fuzzy memory, stand by for corrections…) and relying on current weapons, assuming the allies had nothing new to surprise them with…then seeing those T-34s shrugging off 3.7-cm Pak hits. Then going all out on R&D and coming up with lots of new toys for the boys, but always sold out because they could only afford to build a handful of them. Meanwhile, those T-34s keep coming, and so do those pesky Shermans.

Failing to actually form a functioning alliance with the other Axis members; did anyone ever tell anyone else who they were intending to invade next?!

Forgetting to put a roof on Fortress Europe (well, they probably asked for a few quotes, but I bet it wasn't a cheap build…).

Accepting that at some point, Germany would end up fighting in both the East and the West, unless the Soviets could be beaten within three years, and then realising that if can't beat the Soviets inside one year, you're pretty much stuffed.

Gary

Beginning the war before the Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe was ready.

Not catching one in the brainpan during WW1.

Being the leader of such an abhorrent regime that no compromise with the rest of the world was realistically possible?

But purely in terms of military strategy, it has to be not listening to the advice of the professionals.

Declaring war on the U.S.

Directing the wartime strategy…..

Keeping on starting new fights all the time, until Germany got over-stretched?

Having Theodor Morell as his doctor.

link

Dan

Excellent Dan,

"Reich's Spritzenmeister" Herr Doktor Morell. There must be a moral somewhere.

Cheers,

Like I always told the kids when teaching:
All the above!

Not marrying that nice Jewish girl down the road?

Invading Poland.

Oh yes, and thinking he was as good as Freidrich der Grosse!

Being the leader of such an abhorrent regime that no compromise with the rest of the world was realistically possible?

He did rather well on that score. From '39 onwards, he lost his edge over a period of a bit over 2 years, but most credible effort really.

Finishing World War I as a Corporal should've told him something about his strategic abilities. But he wasn't one of the worlds great listeners.

Sorry, are we talking about the same CinC that conquered most of Europe using strategy that his 'professional' generals considered madness and made many attempts to sabotage. He did it faster and against stronger opposition than Napoleon – who is considered a genius.

Sick he may have been, evil he may have been but he was damn successful for a good long time. So long that I'd say that was his main error – beliving he was ALWAYS right.

Making that bet that his best pal couldn't shoot a peanut off his left testicle with an air rifle. Some bets you don't want to win.

Two words: Herman Goering. Plus being an undeniable megalomaniac, who had bad intentions.

Napoleon was also an undeniable megalomaniac, but at least he gave good and lasting things to the world, along with the bad. Things like Code Napoleon, and, kind-of, the metric system, among other things (like driving on the right side of the road). For instance, his Egyptian campaign staggered the world with the new discoveries his savants brought to the attention of the world.

Swab Jockey

Picking fights with, The British Empire, The Soviet Union and The United States of America, all at the same time probably counts as a significant error.

Not understanding the basics of his economy.

Pitting Germany's production output against the Allies.
Pitting total available manpower of Germany against those of the allies.
Pitting the Reichmark against the the dollar, pound and ruble.

These are all basic economic factors that any good leader should take into account if they are planning on starting a war.

There are those who would point out that at the beginning he was facing France, Britain and the low countries; however if you read Mein Kampf he wanted large parts of Russian for his people. Also history would show that the U.S. supported Britain in a war against Germany and should be considered before attacking.

wrgmr1 beat me to it.
Add pitting his minions against each other in wasteful competition.

Basically, if he did not commit all the mistakes he made, he would have not been Hitler.

Going to war of course! If he had just stuck to economy, we could be remembering him for that, instead of as one of the worst murderers and harshest dictators in history.

Living beyond 1935

Hitler's economy depended on looting conquered countries.
It was not sustainable.

Hitler's economic miracle was basically a case of Keynsian pump priming. This ends in massive inflation unless you increasingly distort the economy with price controls.

Rather than building dams with picks and shovels or other make work programmes which at least leave infrastructure behind, a lot of his pump priming involved building a brand new shiny airforce, army and navy.

You know what its like, once you have them painted, you just have to put them on the table.

Looking at development cycles, he probably should have provoked a war with Britain and France a year or two earlier.

Barbarossa. Followed by declaring war on the U.S.

Not realizing that he was the Villain in the story and that the Author would never let him win in the end.

Bombing Pearl Harbor!

YouTube link

not having his brain put into a giant hitler robot.

not having his brain put into a giant hitler robot

Hah

Shows what you know!

For not having the courtesy of getting his lousy self killed in the Beer Hall Putsch in 1925.

Bruce the Texas Grognard

Guys, your appeal to Hitler's economic reason is laudable but unhistorical.

You're mistaking the man for Napoleon with tanks. He wasn't that.

This was the twentieth century. This was not about nation states. The guiding idea was that Germans were human, and everyone else was a cockroach.

One does not worry (too much) about pitting the Mark against cockroach currency, any more than one worries (too much) about cockroach "man"power.

Mind you, some cockroaches are crafty and resilient, and one takes that into account. But that doesn't change their inevitable fate, which is to be stomped on.

That was the thinking.

A country too far and early.

WW2 came at least half a decade too early for the Germans.

Once the war started, it took on a momentum of its own.

Invading Poland starts the war with Britain and France. Once France is out of the way, the Germans have a nice big army – which needs to be disbanded or used*. This leads to invading Russia whilst they are on a roll. The rest is history.

(I am sure economics have a part in this somewhere …)

Steve