What was Hitler's biggest mistake?

Question

What was Hitler's biggest mistake during World War 2?

Answer 1

Not consolidating after breaking up Czechoslovakia.
I disagree that his biggest mistake was not invading Britain. If he had, he was leading eastern europe wide open to invasion by the USSR. Operation Barbarossa was initially successful because it destroyed much of the soviet army which was amassed on the borders of eastern europe.
If Hitler had tried to take his army to Britain, there was nothing from stopping that soviet army from steamrolling through eastern europe. The USSR had already invaded Finland and taken territory, and then it invaded Poland (the British and French never declared war on the soviets though, only the nazis). The soviet union was just as territorily ambitious as the nazis, as seen after the war when the soviets took all of eastern europe and forced communism on them.
Hitler should have worked with the other european powers to stop the USSR rather than just trying to expand german interests.

Answer 2

Operation Barbarossa. Started in June of 1941 after the year long terror bombing campaign on England The campaign to take over Russia. In the initial stages it was sucessful but he had underestimated the harshness of the Russian winter and many of his troops were inadequately prepared for an extended winter campaign.

Also the campaign was flawed from a logistical stand point. During the winter the fuel lines in many of the tanks, half tracks, and trucks would freeze up and the air intakes would become clogged with dust from the tundra. They couldn't very well use the rails to transport troops and equipment either as much of Russia's railroads operated on a wider guage(distance between the rails) than German railroad equipment.

With losing the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942 the campaign on the Eastern Front fell apart and Germany would be on the defensive losing ground everyday in the East for the duration of the war. Abandoning the blitz of England for his campaign in the East also allowed England to rebuild it's severely damaged air force, a move that would also cost Hitler the war.

Answer 3

Hitler's biggest mistake was probably not continuing to bomb Britain and then invade it. As I recall, the British had minimal forces left when he ended the assault.

If they had continued, he could have cleared the way for an invasion of Britain, which would have secured his Western flank and allowed him to focus on the Soviet Union.

Without a jump off point, it would have been difficult for the Allies to invade France, and he might have been able to take the Soviet Union out of the war. Then it would have been simple to push the remaining Allies to a negotiated settlement which would have allowed him to keep a large portion of Europe.

Answer 4

Well, Hitler's ultimate mistake was sending his troops to Stalingrad. When they had reached the Volga river, south of Stalingrad, the Soviet Union attacked, and the Germans were forced to surrender. After this occured, everything went down hill for Hitler, he lost the Battle of the Bulge, his last-ditch effort, than the Battle of Kursk, and by that time it was too late, and he was forced to commit suicide once the Allied Forces drew near.

Answer 5

All other blunders pale in comparison to his biggest mistake.....fighting an urban battle along the banks of the Volga in the winter of 1942. Prior to that, the war was up for grabs. After that, the results of war were no longer in doubt.

Answer 6

Declaring war on America just because of the Japanese attack at Pearl Harbor, a monumental error in judgement, just marginally worse than his invasion of Russia. Rule: never take on the British Empire, Russia and the USA at the same time.

Answer 7

Creating a second front for the Germans by not eliminating the British before he decided to invade the USSR whom he believed were subhuman and would not fight back enough to stop the German war machine. By doing this he sealed the fate of North Africa and began the demise of the Nazis and forsaken one of its greatest general ,Field Marshall Erwin Rommel.

Answer 8

1) Starting a major fight with the three biggest guys in the room. "Figuratively Speaking"

2) Thinking he should run a country.

Answer 9

In thinking he knew more than his generals. He would replace good generals with those that were willing to do what Hitler thought was the best course of action. This caused him to loose in Russia and in Britian.

Answer 10

Going to Russia in the worst winter in history and failure to recognize the value of the navy and oil fields.