Worked for Chaplin though!
On the contrary my friend, people know who Hitler is because of his trademark moustache. But I voted not taking the British out of the picture in the early war, if they would have invaded England and set up a stronhold there, it would have made a U.S invasion nearly impossible. But his second greatest mistake was thinking that he could conquer the world and declare war on any country he pleased, such as Russia.
Everyone knows that the day Hitler attacked Russia is the day he lost the war. Another huge contributing factor was the holocaust. It is often said that if Hitler had the choice to send 1,000 troops to the front or to the nearest concentration camp he would have done the latter. Hitler poured way too many resources into the destruction of the jews. Valuable troops railroads and time where wasted on “the final soution.”
Worked for Chaplin though![/quote]
Could be right you know.
Look at other dictators/mass murderers/weirdos with dodgy facial hair:
Crippen, Guido Fawkes, Franco, Franz Joseph I, John George Haig, John Holmes, Hussein, Masayoshi, Freddy Mercury, Piłsudski, Stalin, Vercingetorix, Kaiser Wilhelm II, Zapata and very probably Boudicca all had face fungus and with one exception all are dead*.
Remember children:
Stay Alive - don’t get a 'tache !
- Castro doesn’t count as he is inflatable.
If the Invasion of the Soviet Union was a terrible mistake the Russian were superior by means of Weoponary. The T-34 also stopped the Geman offensive. Hitler alos concentrated an attack of the countries surrondin Russia diverting only a small force into Moscow.
Hi, my name is Digger and I’ve just joined, so please excuse any errors as I’m still flying by wire:shock:
This subject is raised again and again on various sites and I must admit most people go for the military option, perhaps invading the Soviet Union the most popular.
I myself go for the option of Germany was not properly prepared for war. This is purely from my own interpretation of the research I’ve done. It’s a complex answer on a multi level, but can I simply say there is one point that always sticks in my mind. Germany never had a large enough industrial base or economy to wage a protracted war.
Regards to all:)
Digger.
Hi Digger.
Welcome on the board 
Germany never had a large enough industrial base or economy
But Germany had enough base to capture practically all the Europe till 1941.
Every year Germans war industry had a great increase , even under allied bombing in 1943-44 it was capable to increase war production.
I don’t think that invasion into USSR (operation Barbarossa) was a Hitler’s mistake.
This was a good blitzkrieg plan , very professional. Germans practicaly in 6 month reached the Moscow.
Victory was practically in their hands. But … i think ,the main mistake of Hitler was in the overestimation of its Japan’s ally.
Instead of attack of USSR Japanes selected the “sea direction” and attacked Perl-Harbor. This was a realy stupid decision. Becouse Stalin took Far-Eastern troops for the protection of Moscow. This troops really saved the USSR from quick defeat in terrible winter of 1941.
After the Barbarossa was down , Germans had a good chance in 1942.
Army groupe “South” practicaly took the Caucasus. If Stalingrad battle would be successful for the germans they could easy surround the Moscow and Leningrad. But in end of 1942 Red Army obtained a “bloody war experiense” and became a more professional in military planning ,besides this lend-lise began and evacuated to the Ural soviet plans began to make a war production on entire power.
Certainly Germany cann’t to wage protracted war. It hadn’t enought resources for it.
But ,if Germany together with Japan finished off the USSR in 1941 , i absolutly sure, they would win the WW2, and today the world will be another.
Cheers.
i say the A4 missiles is their main mistake. Albert Speer said it himself that those billions of dollars, resources, people could have used to build more jets, which is more effective against allied bombers.
The Germans made use of forced or conscripted labor. For example, I’ve read of a French police unit on exercise in Paris that was captured by the German Army, disarmed, and sent enmass to a factory in Germany. This of course greatly effected quality as slave laborers tend to be disgruntled. The Germans also used the FN Browning Highpower, having a great need for any pistol they could get their hands on due to the large occupation forces and internal security units necessitated. But you may not want to fire an FN BP made specifically for German forces under occupation, as many are reported to contain structural weaknesses and are prone to blow apart on firing.:lol:
What about the Luftwaffe’s disinterest in a four engine bomber and its emphasis on tactical operations over strategic? Does this have anything to do with Hitler? He didn’t exactly force them to develop a weapon’s platform that could have reached the Soviet factories moved east. And this was a possible bomber platform that could have evolved into the “Amerika Bomber” with operational experiences; as opposed to their experimenting with very unreliable revolutionary technology, that is so difficult to do in the middle of a war.
i voted attacking USSR because its that the reason that the US joined the war because hitler attacked russia and they were our allies so we declared war on germany?
Hi guys,
I’ll throw something else up here. By mid 1941 Great Britain with a smaller industrial base was out producing German industry. Thus Germany had never made the industrial and economic preparations for war.
The fact Germany never produced heavy bombers is partial proof of this and many of Germany’s war aims were impossible to acheive because of the limitations on the German industry and economy.
If Germany had properly prepared for war, a lot of the military blunders wpould not have occurred. It’s no good saying Germany produced more weapons, munitions in 1944 when the Allied bombing was at it’s heaviest, because by then it was too late. If these production levels were attained in 1942, then victory might have still been possible.
Better still if Germany had it’s economy on a Total War footing in 1939, then they would not have lost the Battle of Britain, nor failed in Barbarossa.
Perhaps this whole subject, the economy of Germany’s war is worthy of a seperate thread?
Regards to all
Digger.
Hitler declared war on the U.S. on December 15, 1941 --eight days after Pearl Harbor. The Wehrmacht was already far into the U.S.S.R. by then…
o ok so he declared war on the US we didn’t declare war on him… now i get it, still the USSR is way to big to take over what was hitler going to do take his army and go destroy the inuits in siberia
If the Germans had went to war with the proper military resources there would be no Inuits to worry about. Germany did not go onto a Total War footing until 1943, when it was too late.
A total war footing in 1938/1939 would have made them pretty much unbeatable.
Regards to all
Digger.
by the way, i think instead of researching the tanks like king tiger, the germans could have add slope armour, thick track and possibly add a 75mm or 85mm cannon (edit their current panzer division) to their current tanks? I mean their suspension system is great, that is the advantage they have compare to the allied tank, and yet they gave it up and make an unreliable one?
Instead of having a few of powerful yet unreliable tank, they should have mass tank with medium power.
G’day,
As Fw-190 pointed out, simplification of tank manufacture would have helped the German cause. Part of the problem was many German weapon systems relied on craftsmen, rather than production line methods.
There was an attempt to produce a copy of the T-34 with German features but this proposal was not accepted.
Regards to all,
Digger.
Many good points here!
But I would have to say…
1.) Total war not being implemented very early in or before the war started.
2.) Hitler interferring with the operational plans. From the invasion of France to the fatal mistakes in Russia and not being able to reach Moscow in time before the winter.
3.) Keeping Goring around to run the Luftwaffe… after the British retreat from Dunkirk and the failure to win air superiority over Britian to finally being unable to resupply 6th Army at Stalingrad, this guy should of been sacked long ago.
4.) No one has mentioned it yet, but i believe it was Raedar, wanted more u-boats before the war broke out. There was too few U-boats to effectively bring Britian to her knees. Again you could say that was not inplementing total war very early in the war or just after the war started.
G’day,
To Panzer Ace, I agree totally with point one. Hitler’s interference with operational plans was a problem from the beginning of the war. It was his infamous “Stand Fast” order of 15/12/1941 which basically saved the German front which instilled in his mind he was a great military genius.
Goering was a huge problem and as the war progressed his interest declined. Hitler’s big mistake here was not sacking Goering and not appointing Erhard Milch to the supply effort for Stalingrad until it was too late. With Goering still in charge the Luftwaffe and especially the Jagdwaffe were doomed.
Yes Raeder did want more U-Boats and complained bitterly of the declining share of steel production given to the Kreigsmarine. The only problem was the Kreigsmarine had been hoarding steel since before the war, thereby making a mockery of Raeder’s and Donitz’s claims. this discovery was made in 1942 by Milch and passed onto Speer.
Regards to all,
Digger.
They did do this to some extent. The excellent 75mm was fixed to the Panzer Mk. IV and its armor upgraded in order to hold-their-own with the first T-34s before a better tank, which turned out to be the Panther, could be developed.
If Germany had focused its production on the Panther, that alone would have saved them some grief.