Why Hitler lost WW2.

World War II German Military
#81

Reasons Hitler lost was:

  • he went too far after hitting the Jack pot (Poland & France);
    Wow: he did it and these victories made him thinking he could take it all!!!
    But Germany had limited offensive power, which he did not realise enough.

But wenn going further he should have:

  • commit all Luftwaffe units against Britain in 1940 and operate with a plan to anhillate the RAF on its airfields and in the air.

But wenn this turned out to be a failure:

  • he could have go for a strong Cyprus/Turkey/Syria variant to get to the oil in Iraq.

But wenn he still went further invading the Soviet Union (which was a bad decision):

  • he could have been friendly to the Ukrainian and Russian people. With this approach he could have beaten Stalin.

But even when Stalingrad emerged:

  • he could have used the divisions freed after the fall of Sevastopol to bolster the 2 drives to Stalingrad and the Caucasus: now he sent 4 best units to France and an army (11th) to Leningrad. If they woould only have been present near Rostov as a reserve, Hitler could have avoided the Stalingrad disaster, by using these forces to counterattack.

After Stalingrad Germany could not hope to win anymore.
Germany was stopped at Stalingrad. Thereafter a lack of infantry made any operation hazardous: Mansteins counterattack, Zitadelle… they failed because a lack of infantry and this problem worsened after Kursun, the Crimea, Brody, Tarnopol, Vitebsk, Bubruisk, Orsja, Minsk, Vilnius, Brest, Falaise, Kishinev, Budapest, Warschau, Heiligenbeil, Danzig, Königsberg, Breslau, Kolberg, Berlin and Halbe.

So Hitler made a series of mistakes and threw all what was gained away and even worse: destroyed Germany till in its veins and core !!! When he was not to win, Germany did deserve its destruction.

#82

well that’s weard…

#83

i think that Hitler was too arrogant…he opened two battle fronts at the same period.If he just finished the campaign of europe and took cotrole of it…then he turns his scope to the soviet union…probably he would prevail using this way…

#84

Possibly due to Germany’s many great offensive successes on all points of the compass at great distances from the Fatherland in the first few years of the war, which could lead anyone to think that Germany was a mighty military power. Which it was, having defeated everyone in continental Europe it wanted to defeat, and giving the Soviets a big run for their money, which Soviet money was amply supplemented by Lend Lease and other support and diversions from America and Britain while Germany stood on its own.

Why?

What is the point of that without an invasion?

Could Germany reach and destroy all RAF airfields which could be brought to bear against a German invasion force?

What is the point of any of that without virtually obliterating the RN?

Or just gone eastwards through Egypt etc, which Rommel failed to do. Meanwhile Britain and the USSR grabbed Iran and threatened any incursion into Iraq, which Britain invaded and subjugated in 1941 to overcome Iraqi nationalist sentiment and actions which frustrated the Allied war effort.

If Hitler was friendly to the Slavs, he would not have invaded their lands in pursuit of his expansionist policies which held the Slavs as less than human.

#85

Holy crap! Praise are noodly overlords!

#86

GREAT SCOTT!!! oh the humanity!!!

#87

I made a list of personal thinkings of what may Hitler mistake…you are the judge.

1-)Bad time for the invasion of Russia and the hate for them “Slavs”
2-)Not have conquered England and wester Afrika in the time he was thinking in conquered russia.(it problably had stop allies into europe way)
3-)He never took opinions from his commandants just like mussolini
4-)He don’t took practically any interest in american followers or other parties from europeans contries at all.
5-)Bad theaty over the people he conquered
6-)The pact with japan(bring americans into war in a bad time)
7-)Hitler was’t really interest in Italy’s war in afrika which was a key because it will block the allies attacks and he would gain more oil to support a future war in russia now with rumania as ally
8-)And for me the big one was that he underestamed his oponents and allies just because they weren’t germans or Aryans which was realy stupid becaused that did’t even existed.

#88

He lost mainly because he wanted far too much. Even if he had been able to somehow conquer all of the land that he intended to conquer, there is no way that the Germans could have held all of that land forever. Russia for example is far too large of a country to conquer and hold. When he attacked Russia, he now had a second front to fight which means that forces that he could have had fighting elsewhere now had to push into Russia, which, like I said before, was far too large of a country to go up against. The brutal Russian winter did not help either. He did not like to take advise from, or listen to his generals which was also a mistake. Instead of invading Russia, he should have continued to hammer England. Waiting a few more years before starting the war may have helped him as well. There are many reasons why Hitler lost the war, but I think it comes down to the fact that Hitler was a nutjob who was not really living in reality. He was his own reason for losing the war. Even if he had won the war, I think at some point someone within the reich would have realized how evil and wrong everything was that Hitler was doing and someone, somehow would have killed him.

#89

Well, I think Hitler lost because he was pretty darn bad at managing manpower.

Obviously Hitler thought that the Slavs and Jews were inferior to the Aryan, but it is still an idiotic move not to let them fight.
That would be like the British killing the Indians instead of letting them fight in WW1/WW2…
Especially in his situation, he would have needed any manpower he could get.

And I doubt he would’ve ever been able to conquer all of Russia, it simply wouldn’t be logistically possible. He could have captured all of the main cities, which are in the West/Southwest anyway, and that would have likely knocked Russia out of the war, but conquering the entire territory would have not only been a waste of resources, but almost impossible to achieve, too.

At the same time, I have trouble seeing him make peace with England, because that would’ve been mutually unwanted. I rather see him trying to invade it, which would have called the US into action no matter what, especially because a successful fascist Germany would have further encouraged the South American sympathizers…

And that would’ve become very ugly, especially thinking of the Manhattan Project…

Or do you guys think the US would tolerate a fascist German superpower on the European continent, a fascist Japanese superpower on the pacific continent and fascist Hispanic powers in South America?

#90

Let’s not forget the ideology that Hitler used and reflected his beliefs , that was the main motor that powered on the machine of war and hate . Hitler in his beliefs mainly saw himself , his ruling nation ( not to forget his was from Austria not Germany ) to be more smart , inferior to any other so he believed that he can outsmart the democratic nations which in his view were weak whorehouses and destroy them in one quick punch . The main error was in the east , there wasn’t democracy there wasn’t even signs of that since middle ages .( I mean mainly Russia not Poland or Romania , Bulgaria and so on ) . That was the main error he simply didn’t understood the system that was ruling Russia the terror that system used and on his turn he though : ok I will do like in France , Netherlands and so on i will go and simply smash them with one more thing i will crush my main enemy the one i hate so much . They are weak the same as the democracy nations are so it won’t be so hard .
That was the biggest mistake when you have power to underestimate an enemy it’s like playing football match and you are leading with 1:0 and you say " ok the match is mine everything is won " . The result is well known for anyone . So i think the error of the managing man power and others are simply result of that believe and the ideology of the Nazi Germany .

#91

Even with enough manpower, Germany simply did not have enough other natural resources to defeat Soviet Russia in a war of attrition; certainly not in the way the German military was set up to win quick victories. Everyone with half a military-brain knew this except for the dedicated racists like Hitler, who thought the Aryan superiority would overcome this fact, despite problem of him never bothering to knock out the Aryans on the island to his west…

#92

Let’s not forget that it wasn’t planned to invade the entire Soviet Union all the way to Vladivostok. The goal was the line Arshangelsk in the north, Astrakhan in the south, last one was almost reached (with ~60 miles missing) but there was a stumbling block in Hitler’s way called Stalingrad.

At the same time, I have trouble seeing him make peace with England, because that would’ve been mutually unwanted.

Many sources from Hiltler’s closer environment report that a peace with the UK was one of Hitler’s most fervent wishes.

#93

His, maybe temporarily, but Churchill’s definitely not. And I kind of doubt that he would have kept it for long…

#94

Your right on the manpower part, throwing away lives when the situation was hopeless instructing his General’s to hold on to the last man. Luckily a few General’s defied those orders. Plus not having the Luftwaffe at his back severely hampered Germany’s position. Simply, lack of resources such as fuel etc and Hitler’s brain was the downfall for Germany.

#95

From other hand we have to admit that a slow approach mean simply the transfer of more russian troops and the result will be nothing but trench warfare something like WW1 or slow retreat from the germans . Such scenario was not about to be tolerated from Hitler as well as from his generals .

#96

Hitler lost WW2 because:

  • he was a racist and waisted available manpower resources in Germany (jews) and the
    Soviet Union (inferior people) easily worth 100 divisions which he lacked dearly before
    and after Stalingrad.
  • he invaded the SU in te East without taking proper care of the unbeaten British in the
    West
  • he waisted his scarce resources on too many weapon developments
  • he himself took over the supreme command, not letting things done by his generals
  • instead of invading the SU he far more better could have went for the ME, keeping
    the Italians in the war, closing the MED with a superior air force and going for the oil
    in (friendly) Iraq.
#97

And imagine what would happen if he leave the whole Soviet Union to rearm in 1942 ( that was indicated by some documents found in the russian archives ) and strike in his back or simply Stalin to make a deal with US/UK for this . Hitler was racist and ilusionist but not definatelly a fool , he knew well that the war machine needed quick victories , that’s why the blitzkrieg was used , if you don’t take the russians or the Allies by few months maximum year your industry run out of resurces and soon you find yourself in defense instead of forward march . So it was inevitable at the end , to fight against your great ideological enemy and at the same time to keep the Allies from Western Front and the reasons are iconomical , military mistakes and industry shortages . For example i doubt that if the russians were on the place of the german industry shortages and produce only 20500 T-34 per year would stand much such as the germans did but of course we will never know that .

#98

So are you saying that winter clothing would have been enough to grant the Wehrmacht a victory in the east?
Or were there more factors other than a lack of winter clothing/equipment that stopped the Wehrmacht dead in their tracks before Moscow?
Perhaps the Red Army??

#99

Not the winter clothing , enough production of tanks , full control of for example Mainstein over the front and of course a bit luck to achieve quick victory , without any of these the task is impossible . The red army didn’t exist until the 1942 , stalingrad and the transfer of siberian troops until then they only made some delay actions and tactical withdraw .So if any of the high command generals was in control and not so many manpower and so on wasted on ruined city maybe the outcome would be different , imagine wehrmacht full with Tigers and Panthers with production such as the USSR had and the front in the hands of the generals , proper equipment too , i doubt there would be even a chance even if you are with high spirit defending the "liberty " that would not make a difference .

#100

The Wehrmacht had plenty of winter clothing - in warehouses back in Germany. What they were unable to do was transport it to the front and distribute it there - their entire logistics tail was marginally able to provide fuel and ammunition. This is the same reason why so many Soviet citizens died of starvation in the area under occupation - the Wehrmacht made the calculated decision to take their food supplies from them to feed the Army, so reducing the logistical requirements. This decision was taken in the full knowledge that it would result in the deats of millions of civilians.