Do you think the Nazis could have won the war if Hitler had been killed?

Question

Opening a discussion here. I honestly think that because Hitler like to play general, he is the reason they lost. So, do you think they could have won if he had been assasinated and replaced?
(maybe by Rommel?)

Answer 1

No. At first, I wanted to say that it depends on at what point in the war Hitler is killed.

But especially with the US in the fight, even if his more competent generals took over the campaign, his death would only have prolonged the war and delayed the inevitable defeat of Germany.

Still, it's interesting to think about how many bad decisions Hitler either directly or indirectly made that cost the Germans key battles in WWII. The following are just my own observations / opinions.

For one thing, Hitler never fully understood naval power and was obsessed with battleships and U-boats. Thus, he allowed the Royal Navy to survive and the Kriegsmarine never developed then-revolutionary weapons such as aircraft carriers or carrier-based fighters like the other combatants did. Having serious naval airpower could have helped save the Bismarck. Imagine what would have happened on D-Day if a German aircraft carrier group arrived off the Normandy coast?

Britain could have been defeated as early as 1940 if their army was not allowed to escape to fight another day at Dunkirk and if the Luftwaffe was allowed to strike the RAF a critical lightning blow soon after the fall of France. Hitler believed that Britain would seek peace after he took Paris and his month-long delay over the decision to attack Britain gave RAF Fighter Command valuable breathing space to strengthen its defences for the Battle of Britain to come. If Hitler had subdued Britain early, he could have avoided a two-front war and focused solely on Russia in 1941.

Hitler also viewed the African campaign as secondary to the one against Russia, refusing to provide Rommel with the additional reinforcements he repeatedly requested. It is amazing at how long the Afrika Korps was able to keep going despite having a shortage of tanks and fuel. Probably a combination of Rommel's brilliance and Monty's incompetence. Again, he missed a chance to defeat the British and sacrificed the veteran Afrika Korps in vain.

Ironically, he made the same mistake with Paulus' 6th Army in Russia, sacrificing millions of German troops at Stalingrad by telling them not to withdraw from a futile battle. In many ways, Stalingrad was the beginning of the end for the Germans on the Eastern Front.

One last thing. The Germans pioneered a lot of jet and rocket propulsion technology, even as early as the 1940s. The Me 262 fighter proved to be more than a match for the lumbering B-17s and prop-driven Allied fighters. Hitler's flawed thinking led him to direct his scientists and engineers to focus on jet bombers rather than fighters. There is also evidence that the Germans had been working on a nuclear bomb. If Hitler had not persecuted the Jews and lost many Jewish scientists, Germany might have been able to develop a bomb before the US. Why do you think the US and the Russians scrambled to grab as many German scientists as they could get after the war?

Answer 2

I'd argue it might. Hitler made so many stupid decisions: the bombing of London, the invasion of Russia, the invasion of Yugoslavia, the completely pointless declaration of war on the US, not letting his forces retreat when there was no sound reason to keep fighting. For that matter Hitler's rejection of "Jewish" physics killed any chance they'd develop an atomic weapons program. With Himmler in charge (a likely candidate) things would have been very different. For one while HImmler was not a good strategist either he was a superb organizer talented at putting the right people in position to get things done. He also I think adored Hitler enough he would have turned the man into a martyr of nearly divine purportions filling Hitler's dream of the state surplanting religion as the subject of adoration and rallying the german people. Would the German's have won WWII? Maybe not espescially if the US had gotten involved (likely inevitable) but it probably would have been a longer and more brutal fight.

Answer 3

No.

However, that begets an issue I have with the question you pose. I think I read you correctly when you equate National Socialism (the Nazi Party) with the German professional military and to the German people.

For the record, the majority of Germans, both civilians and those in the military, were not Nazis. They were Germans, and proud at the beginning of the war to see Germany overcome its belittlement by the world following the end of WWI. The years until Hitler came to power were marked with spiraling inflation, chaos and the rise of Bolshevism. It was well into WWII that most people realized they had lost the war and the resulting deprivation and devastation was shouldered by soldiers and civilians alike.

Adolf Hitler's syphilitic brain and his sycophant nature brought true defeat to the German armies at the gates of Stalingrad. Had he been replaced by Erwin Rommel it's very unlikely the might of Germany would thusly have been crushed in the East. Had all of those resources been focused to the underbelly of Europe and the West, our landings on D-Day and the invasion of Sicily may have turned out totally different. Nevertheless, while I believe the war would have been prolonged suing for peace would have been very costly to Germany and in the end I believe the Allied powers would have prevailed.

Answer 4

Possible. If Germany had been content with a lesser portion of the world & stopped before attacking Russia & declaring war on America, they may have been able to keep what they had already over taken. Although with the invasion of Poland, England entered the war thus almost making certain we would enter to help them.
Rommel was not a Nazi, I'm pretty sure that he would never have taken the war as far as Hitler did, he certainly would never have killed the number of innocent people that Hitler did in the POW camps! Hitler seemed to lead a charmed life, try as they might, they(his own men) couldn't kill him!

Answer 5

I agree along the lines of "geegee". If Germany had not opened the Eastern Front with Russia and Japan would have kept the Russians occuppied along the Kamchatka Peninsula, I believe that with Hitler dead and Rommel or other competent leadership; Germany could have held on to Western Europe. Very scary thought.

Answer 6

Not neccessarily, the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht general staff was usually cowed by hitler, without his harangues, a more professional outlook on Tactical & Strategic Movement could have Prolonged the war, but once the Soviet Union & the United States became involved it was only a Matter of time till the end.

Answer 7

I would like to think anyone replacing Hitler would have seen the sure madness of the war, and sued for peace. Rommel was a man of honor, a soldier's soldier, rational, and a gentleman.

Answer 8

definately, early on america was not prepared,germany had a non- aggression pact signed with the soviets, and the germans had steamrolled over poland, finland, france.... all that was left in their way was britian. britian might have won the battle in the air over the luftwaffe, but a german invasion accross the channel wouldve crushed britian. The problem was hitler got way to cocky, storming into africa and breaking their truce with russia was disasterous. And at the time, i'm sorry to say, the u.s. wanted nothing to do with any of it. Even if we did, we had no war industries and very little ordinance to combat anything germany had. we werent really ready for war until '43, this wouldve given germany ample time to gain such a foothold in europe that we would be crazy to attack

Answer 9

Maybe but when Japan got the USA involved in the war it was just a matter of time until the axis was defeated. If we had been kept out of the war and Hitler had been killed I think they would of had a good chance of winning

Answer 10

They were fighting on to many fronts to win. They might have lasted a little longer but they would have lost eventually. But I agree Rommel was there best tactician.