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As I stated in an earlier post the blame game should not be rested on Paulus but Hitler, Goerring, and Von Manstein also. These three men tried to wash their hands of this defeat when in all actuality they played a big role in the loss of over a million men in the Stalingradkessel.Actually blaming Hitler or Stalin for the failures is one of the the great lies of the war. Sure, these men wielded a huge influence on the conduct of operations, but their respective staffs supported many of these decisions, and only after the war were they suddenly emboldened to say "I told him but he didnt listen" In fact many of these detractors were actually ardent supporters of the fateful decisions at the time.
Dont get me wrong, I am not trying to defend either Hitler or Stalin, but it is just untrue that both of them single handedly lost battles or the war.
division...
That would be more strategically sound. Adolf Hitler was a brilliant man in many ways, economically and politically, but was extremely overconfident of the Reichs' military abilities to take on the whole N. Hemishere.I firmly believe that a better option would be to complete the conquest of the Crimea, fortify around the mius, perhaps even Rostov, and undertake local counterattacks as opportunities arose. Put out the peace feelers, wait for the Russians to immolate themselves on the front line, and pray that you were still scary enough to convince them to make a peace
Sorry, but another misconception. The Germans tooled up for war at the maximum that their fragile pre-war economy could take them. Overy has done perhaps the best analysis of this. In 1933, when Hitler took over, the German economy was even more on its knees than those of other western nations. Wheras the US, and even Britain and France, had some reserves (or in the case of the british and the french, their overseas empires) on which to fall back on to tide them through the depression, the Germans had no such resources. they had been sucked dry by the repressive reparations of WWI, and the massively destructive effects of the hyper-inflation of 1923-24. Germany entered the depression in a terrible state.
People often ask "where is the socialism in national socialism". Well look at the reconstruction programmes of 1933-39, and you will see why. Hitler borrowed immensely, mostly from the US, but rather than pouring it into long term economic reconstruction he instead poured the money into short term re-armament. There simply was not the money in the pre-war to re-arm any faster than they did.
People often wonder why Germany went to war in 1939 rather than 1943-4, when militarily Germany would have been far more capable. Its not the only reason, but one reason was that ecomically he had to. Pre-war germany was living in an economic fools paradise, with the creditors starting to get nervous, wanting their money, and Germany not having the means to pay the debts she had rung up. Conquering Europe allowed the germans to fix the exchange rate at artificially advantageous levels for germany, which in turn enabled them to refuel their flagging economy.
The Germans could have ramped up their economy in late 1940, but instead delayed that decision until the beginning of 1942. After that, they introduced increasingly austere rationing, and began the forced labour programs, along with the most ruthless exploitation of their own allies) that sustained and enlarged the German economy to the levels it reached in 1944-5. however, as Speer points out, this level of production was simply unsustainable for germany. Even if the Allies had sat back and done nothing in 1944, there would have been massive reductions in German output, as once again economic realities caught up with the Nazis
Could we make this a simpler answer to this question? I feel Both Germany and Japan's biggest mistake was underestimating the resolve, fight, industry, and determination of their enemies, and their over confidence in the skill and superiority they believed they possessed over the rest of the world. I feel a vast portion of their mistakes were because they believed themselves both to be superior to all their enemies. I know this is a broad answer to this question, but it seems to me most of the mistakes made were from not looking at the situations realistically. Weather it was Japan believing that their bushido spirit was all they needed to outfight a enemy with the capacity to out produce Japan with both men and machine. Or Germany who ended up in the same situation, where even something as simple as logistics which has been brought up in this thread, could not even produce or maintain enough trucks and trains to deliver supplies to their troops. Or could it be that they both just never could imagine the amount of men, ships, weapons, tanks, planes, etc. that their enemies could produce.
A simple answer, but I feel this is the underlying reason for many of the biggest mistakes made by the Axis. The U.S. too made many of our own mistakes from overconfidence or from underestimating their enemy.
.... He could have won the "hearts and minds" of the Russians but he picked up where Stalin had left off in the massacre of the Slavs and Russians.
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Italy was also treated as an outcast, and because of its mediocre performance in WWI did bot share in the spoils of war very much (at least thats how they perceived it....in relaity I think they did quite well out of the peace treaty)
Hitler's declaration of War on the US was by far the biggest blunder. Followe closely by Pearl Harbor. THis move sealed Hitler's fate and ensured Britain would survive. Barbarossa is often cited but with just the Russians to fight? Who knows. It is the subject of endless speculation.
I have often thought about why Hitler would have chosen to do that and, referring back to an earlier discussion of the Battle of Britain, I wonder if Hitler still thought that Britain would negotiate a peace settlement leaving him to fight Russia alone?
I have often thought about why Hitler would have chosen to do that and, referring back to an earlier discussion of the Battle of Britain, I wonder if Hitler still thought that Britain would negotiate a peace settlement leaving him to fight Russia alone?