I voted for attacking Russia because Russia’s industrial strenght, manpower, and will to fight could have easily taken out Germany by itself. Russia was resposible for nearly 80% of all German casualties in World War II.
mr. revolver, hitler did not execute his generals like stalin did. He fired them if they got into arguments or refused his orders. some of the world’s most brilliant military minds Runstedt, Guderian, and later, rommel, were pullled out of regular command.
rommel was killed because he was part of the conspirsy to kill hitler, so it was for treason.
from a strategic standpoint though, Germany could’ve conquered the soviet union. if they took the causus oil fields by 1942. Practicaly all russia’s fuel is from this region, and with the region in german control, the russians would be doomed.
the germans invaded russia with tremendous success in 1941-1942, inflicting around 500,000 -1,000,000 causalties every month. the loss ratio in terms of men for russia and germany in the first 5 months was 18 to 1. In early 1942, this was down to 13 to 1. later on, as the russian army got better trained, this ratio dropped to around 5 to 1.
a lot this has to do with the fact that russia didn’t mobilize fullly yet, as insufficient numbers of the good t-34 were not produced yet.
Stalingrad was probably the most fatal strategic idiocy, on the part of hitler. The city could;ve been bypassed but hitler wanted it for prestigue. All stalingrad did was waste 6 months of the german armies’ time and
men and give the russians 6 more months to mobilize her industry.
I think that Hitler’s biggest mistake was declaring war on the USSR. If I can recall correctly, they were on neutral terms with each other. The US joining the war was almost inevitable because eventually the US would assist Great Britain and France in Europe and North Africa.
Please correct me if I’m wrong.
Out of your list, I think his biggest mistake is declaring war on Russia. Not because of Russia’s manpower or willpower to fight until the last man alive, but because it opened up a second front before he was truly able to close out the western front. He should’ve waited until he was able to starve out Britain.
If I’m not constrained to your list in this poll, I say Hitler’s biggest mistake is to not view the Axis alliance as an alliance. Had Germany and Japan actually acted like allies, Japan would’ve tore up their non-aggression treaty with Russia at the same time Hitler invaded Russia, therefore keeping Zhukov in the Far East entangled with relentless Japanese patrols, therefore Moscow might had been fallen to von Kluge’s Army Group Center. Of course, this is all a big what-if…
I think Hitler’s biggest mistake was starting the war period. But his biggest mistake in war time would have been his invasion of the Balkans costing him precious time setting back the invasion date of Russia. The state of the russian military in 1941 was appalling and it showed as Babarossa was only stopped by the Winter just short of Moscow.
one of the what if? things is that if germany delayed all its conquests, new powerful weapons systems would have been completed if the war was delayed by a year or two.
The tiger tank was avaliable in early 1942, the cheap and reliable MG42, the panther tank(perhaps?) in early 1943, the mp43 assault rifle by 1943, Me263 jet fighter by 1944, panzerfausts by 1943.
All this stuff would be available by then, and could be massed produced and massed armed to a greater extent.
Taking out Britian, big mistake.
If Britian had fallen would the Yanks come in to the war? And if so where would they have staged from?
Unless they could have convinced Ireland to get withthe programe.
As a slighty correction to what it should say - Going to war with the British.
Well in reality the best thing he could have done for germany then was to have been killed in WW1.
However, if I am looking at it from a practical standpoint and forgetting who the man was. I would say that if it were me I would have conslidated after Czechoslovakia, stood back and tested the waters.
The object of politics is to try and get what you want without going to war. I think he may have, but I think he wanted a war whatever was going to happen. Fact is, he and a lot of his cronies were clearly mentally unstable, its just a pity he came along at the one time in germanies history where he was allowed to con the populace.
Biggest mistake declearing war to Soviets and Americans .
how can you guys think that the bigest mistake was declaring war on the soviets-if the germans had kept the treaty, the soviets would have broken it a year later. the germans and soviets HATED each other. if you were a german taken prisoner by the russians you were as good as dead, and vis versa. the germans broke the treaty at the right time, when the soviets were weak enough to be conquered, and they should have been conquered if the germans didnt make one or two big mistakes. and as for the question about if the germans were prepared enough, they had been preparing for 10 years! they were definetly prepared to fight WWII. just think about it, they were fighting the US, and the Russians, who each had about double the population of germany, and yet the germans almost won the war.
Hitlers biggest mistake during the war, in my opinion was not taking out britian early in the war. if he had done this then the allies would have no where to build airports, and stage troops, so until britian was taken back, germany could not be bombed.
some tidbits: the soviets would most likely NOT break the treaty that soon. The russian army was in no state or moral to attack “greater germany”. especially with the presense of three million troops in the east.
the poor performance of the soviet army against the “blitzkreig” in 1941 is an example of this.
and, germans were mobilizing practically from scratch after hitler took power- the nuremburg treaty still had its stranglehold before that time.
1933 is when hitler took power, its not 10 years, its more like 6-7.
the population of the soviet union is an estimated 200-210 million people. The US had 140 million people. UK had 54 million people.
Germany had 68 million people.
Small point, i always understood that Germanies population was 85 million plus in ww2, where do you get your figures from?
my point exactly…the US’s and USSR’s population doubled that of Germany…
On top of that, the U.S.S.R.'s enlisted or non-enlisted soldiers went farther then men. Women, children, and even dogs were sent to fight or spy on the enemy. The Germany army was no match for the entire Russian population.
Heres a link, the greater German reich had a population of about 80 million:
http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-4901.html
Still not enough to justify taking on the World I dont think.
my point exactly…the US’s and USSR’s population doubled that of Germany…[/quote]
oxford’s ww2 encyclopedia.
not doubled, tripled!! and, most of all, a much larger portion of russian male population were of military age. the life expectancy was in the 40s for the average russian while the average german it was in the low 60s.
And, worst of all, the russians weren’t above sending young women to their deaths…
Young women? I would see that as progressive, today our countries allow women to serve in most military branches.
well, i cant fancy seeing women get shot and blown up!
i believe in most modern armies, women serve non-combative roles
The soviets made all-female rifle units and sent them at the germans charging/retreating to their deaths. Then the germans would take the captured lot and have some fun… :lol: