Biggest Mistake's by Adolf Hitler
The successes of National Socialism in the 1930s put Hitler in command of the Third Reich, but his mistakes quickly turned the tide against Germany. The Reich of 1000 years would only last for 12.
Below are some of his biggest blunders that cost him the war.
The invasion of the Soviet Union
Adolf Hitler made several fatal mistakes in the campaign of the Eastern Front. The first one was the mere fact of believing in an easy conquest of the Soviet Union (it was an incredibly optimistic vision, to say the least, needless to remember the enormous extension of the territory).
The second problem came with the six-week delay of Operation Barbarossa, a decision by the Nazi dictator to save Mussolini’s people in the Balkans. Likewise, the Germans were not prepared to fight a long war, since Hitler took for granted that Russia could be completely defeated by the summer.
He ordered the siege of Leningrad, but not its capture, and wrongly delayed the final advance on Moscow by ordering that their Panzers (battle tanks) help suffocated units in the south of the front. It should be noted that if Moscow had fallen, the Germans would have taken full control of the Russian rail connections and would have mined enormously using its supply routes. Certainly, a mistake that would cost the Third Reich dearly.
The Battle of Britain
When Adolf Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to “liquidate” the British, this logically began with the disablement of the troops of the British Royal Air Force (RAF). According to RAF leaders, the Nazis almost succeeded and, in fact, they were only two weeks away from destroying it and have absolute hegemony of the British skies.
Hitler then decided that the Luftwaffe should focus on the indiscriminate bombing of English cities, especially focusing their offensives on London. The only thing that was achieved with this change of strategy was creating cohesion between British citizens and this gave the RAF a vital little truce in order to rebuild after being on the verge of collapse.
True, the city of London was almost reduced to ashes, but the German casualties reached such a point that Hitler had to cancel the entire English campaign.
Cancellation of experimental weaponry programs
After the fall of France in 1940, Adolf Hitler was so sure of the final German victory that he cancelled the majority of arms research programs, under the erroneous premise that the Third Reich had the weapons to win the Second World War.
Two years later, with the Germans in serious trouble due to having to confront allied arms on all fronts, Hitler decided to restart the old arms research programs and development. The truth is that two years had been lost and, worse still, most of the best engineers had been killed by Russian soldiers.
Despite everything, Nazi Germany managed to produce several impressive weapons, but never in sufficient quantities to gain a decisive advantage in the twilight of the Second World War.
The order to “never withdraw”
Probably the biggest mistake Hitler made in Russia. When things started to look bad for the Germans during the first winter, Hitler ordered his troops to never withdraw under any circumstances. It is a somewhat crazy measure since it doesn’t make much sense to let troops be massacred before an enemy surpasses them in number and/or firepower.
Stalin was also a defender of this questionable doctrine, preferring also to put pride before the lives of his men. In Hitler’s case, this measure was a blunder for another reason too: the tactical advantage of the Germans resided in the mobility of their troops.
It would have been infinitely more efficient to withdraw on time and counterattack effectively. The only general who had courage to contradict Hitler on this matter was Erich von Manstein, although he paid a rather high price (he was relieved of command in March 1944 after saving troops trapped in Korsun-Cherkasy).
Using the Me-262 as a bombardier
The Messerschmitt Me 262 or Me-262 was an imposing aircraft, and in many respects, was a decade ahead of its time. It was the world’s first fighter jet and outperformed the best-allied planes of the Second World War. The Me-262 was conceived, designed, and developed as a fighter jet (it was a plane designed specifically to shoot down allied aircraft).
Hitler ordered its mass production … as a bomber.
His subordinates tried to discreetly develop it as a fighter, but Hitler made sure that it was eventually developed as a bomber. On test flights, few pilots were able to bomb their targets located just over a kilometre.
The Messerschmitt Me 262 was a total (and predictable) failure. When a few saw the light, Me-262 as fighters, it was too late to reverse the destruction of the Luftwaffe.
Absence of women working in the factories
Did the Nazis have to resort to slave labour in their factories? The truth is that they did, they were primarily motivated by a large shortage of manual workers in factories since Hitler had decreed that women should not do work on them.
Instead, millions of British and American women worked tirelessly on the lines of production, thus allowing millions of men to focus on the battle. The Germans suffered vital labour shortages during the Second World War, while their women stayed at home playing the role of mother and housewife trumpeted by National Socialism.
The declaration of war against the United States
Hitler’s declaration of war against the United States occurred right after the Japanese attack on the Hawaiian base of Pearl Harbor.
Why? Hitler thought it would be a good move for the morale of the German people.
Probably, the United States would have declared war on the Third Reich, but the truth is that Hitler handed Roosevelt what he wanted. Roosevelt had a hard time convincing the American people to adopt an interventionist policy from the very dawn of World War II.
More mistakes in the Soviet Union
In 1942, Adolf Hitler ordered his armies to capture the oil fields of the Caucasus and the city of Stalingrad, the Nazis spread out over the vast Soviet territory. As a result, his forces were unable to seize the oil fields and suffered enormous losses in the battle of Stalingrad.
The Battle of Kursk
In 1943, in Kursk, Hitler ordered a large-scale offensive. He did this when the Russians clearly knew that Hitler was going to launch an attack. The last great offensive of the German armies was epic with the Russians presenting a fierce resistance, since they knew how to prepare thoroughly. In fact, the Battle of Kursk was the longest tank battle of all military history and ended in the defeat of Germany.
The Battle of the Bulge
Adolf Hitler’s last attempt to win the Second World War. He tried to repeat the success of 1940 by attacking the Allies using the exact same strategy. The German forces were significantly smaller than in 1940, they did not have enough fuel and were to face an enemy far superior to the 1940 French army.
It would certainly have been more sensible to attack the Russians and try to slow down their advance, as the Battle of the Bulge was doomed from the start.