For Military Historians: What was Hitler's Biggest Mistake?

Question

First let me say that I am totally anti-nazi, I believe the holocaust happened and I thank God Hitler lost. I got a violation the last time I asked this question, so if you must, you must. No hard feelings.

It's always been a mystery to me why Hitler lost the war. After he finished trying to bomb Britian into submission, it seems like there is a blank period where not much happened and then he tried to conquer Russia (after Napoleon, you'd figure anyone would think twice about that).

But I've been watching a ton of war movies lately and from the movies it seems the Allies had so many close shaves and freak events that went in the Allies favor that it couldn't have been like that. I think some of it is Hollywood embellishing the stories to make them more exciting.

So what was his main mistake(s)?

In your own words (no Wikipedia please), what do professional Historians or Military Historians was the event or series of events that lead to Hitler losing the war?

Answer 1

Hitler made many errors, one of which was to think himself a military genius because he was right once.

He stopped at Dunkirk, because he wanted to give the British a chance to sue for peace.
Then he listened to Goering who swore that he could bring the British to the peace table just with his planes instead of invading immediately. The Luftwaffe had lost 2000 flight crew during France campaign and needed time before it was ready to attack, time the RAF put to good use.
Then when the British bombed Berlin he sent the bombers against London just when the Luftwaffe was succeeding in its campaign to destroy the RAF.
He attacked Russia before closing down the western front.
He got sucked in Africa, and didn't put the effort needed to win and get access to the petrol fields.
He ignored the naval war. He was an infantry man and never understood the need to have power over the sea, the loss of the Bismark just put a stop to his interest. The U-boots did tremendous damages but couldn't stop the convoys.
He stopped using paratroopers as air lifted units after Crete because of the tremendous loss those units suffered. The Allied learned the lesson and started using them.
He stopped the production of the ME262 (the first jet powered plane) in 42 to change it to a fighter bomber. That plane would have destroyed the Allied air forces. When it came out in mid 44 it did a lot of damages but the production was slowed to a trickle by the Allied bombing.

And that's only a few of them... Thanks goodness for all of them.

Answer 2

Great Question, Fantastic Answers !! Obviously based on the Extensive Knowledge, of Those in Possession of a High Degree of Intellect. Me ?, a Professional or Military Historian, ? Jury's Still Out on That One.. So Undaunted, I (at 55+yr.), Dare call on a sometimes Fleeting Memory.. Hitler(etal) Mistake #1.. I believe the UnPredictable, Often Deadly Weather Conditions, Currants of The English Channel, Saved Britian for an Assault by German Naval Forces. #2 Lessening of Coastal Defenses i.e. Normandy etc. were Completely Dwarfed by The MAMMOTH Allied INVASION Forces. #3 The Efforts of "Monty" as Leader of British Ground Forces, who entered into a FIERCE Struggle, to Hold Title, and "The Legacy" of The warrior to Claim The Severed Head of Fuhr/Madman Hitler. ...Enter Stage Left. The Equally Egotistical, and FEROCIOUSLY Determined, "Old Blood and Guts" Gen. George Patton, Both Claiming to be 1st. #4 Christopher Reeve and "The Rat Patrol" Kickin Rommels Buttt All Over The Burnin' Sands of No. Africa... #5 The (Recording setting?) Blizzard, Sub Zero Conditions, the German Army Suffered, while pushing East to Russian Borders, arrived as a Weakened, Undermanned, Fed or Supplied, Only to Be Slaughtered upon encountering the Well Prepared, and Very PissedOff, Russian Army, with "Home Turf" Advantage. #6 The Nazi GeneralsHigh Command, Realizing an Impending Defeat,of the Once Superior War Machine, Geared by/for The "Master Race" , Once Lab Experimentals,The Assembly Line, methodically Pumping Out the Super Human, now facing Forced Surrender, the Unpopular Option, but Japanese approved and Honorable? HariKari. or To Simply Jump Ship/Go Hide/Flee the Country... Now that YOU Mentioned it . Many of Those Nazi Butchers, War Criminals, made their way to the once Good Ole' USA. Lets think about that for a minute. tick..tick .. Bizzzzzzz !! Sorry, Times Up. Those who got an A+, answered correctly saying the OFF SPRING of these Nazi/Fascist/Marxist/Commie/Zionist/Homo8sextual Elitist/PNAC/NWO/Bilderberg BazzTurds, such an Herr Karl"with a K" RovenNazi.. Herr Detrich Von Fritzen RumsfeldenHauser, along with an assortment of Other(Majority in Busche Admin.) High US Govt. Officials, ALL Vaunted, ALL Respected, yet Feared, Envied by their ChickenHawk Peers, wanting to Hold Title of MAJOR SCUMBAG, yes Our Very Own Team, Highly SKILLED in the Art of U.S. Constitution Destruction. These BOLD DEFENDERS, of the American Peoples Favorite, The Ever Popular PROTOCOLS of the Elders of Zion. Real Big Diseased SewerRats,They Zionist Freaks Like: wolfowitz, perle, feith, abrams, William"The Flamer"Kristol, Zelikow"The Director of 911 COVER-UP, Libby, Wurmser http://zeitgeistmovie.com/

Answer 3

Invading Russia was probably number one. Hitler committed so many resources to the Russian front that he couldn't mount much of a defense in the west. He was never able to admit a mistake, and this was a good example. When he was pouring his entire army down a hole in Stalingrad, he could have walked away but didn't. Second I would have to say was ignoring his generals, especially about the Normandy invasion. He was totally taken in by the Allies' deceptions, and refused to listen to his generals who didn't want to put all their resources into defending one point. And yes, the movies do make things seem more uncertain than they often were for the sake of drama. By 1943, it was only a question of how long it would take. Hitler was already doomed.

Answer 4

First off, I think that just labeling Hitler as a loonie and a moron is a big mistake. He may have not been a military genius, but he was pretty good to judge character (most of the time), which meant he was sorrounded by very competent people. Hitler did not envision "Blizkrieg" warfare, but did let Heinz Guderian prepare the German Army for such warfare. Hitler may have not understood marine warfare, but promoted Admiral Donitz, the architect of the Battle of Atlantic and U-boat wolfpack tactics, which almost defeated Britain. Hitler maybe did not know how to read a map, but soon realized that Erich Von Manstein was the best planner in Germany and empowered him to architect the attacks of 1939 and 1940. Goebbels, Speer and others were associated with his rise and turned to be great at what they did.

So now that we established that Hitler was no moron at least for selecting his underlings, we can think what went wrong with his plan. The conventional consensus is that Hitler lost the war because "he did not find a way to make peace with Britain".

The assumption here is that due the war with the British, Hitler was not able to concentrate all his resources against Russia, which would have been defeated with the might of the German Army. And that there was actually a way to defeat the British.

I think that short of a full invasion (which was not feasible), NOTHING that the Germans did would defeat the British. It is ironic how many people correlate Hitler and Napoleon with Russia, but do not remember that Napoleon himself said the country that really defeated him was Britain ("those filthy merchants who bribe others to fight me where the cowards will not come").

Hitler was VERY thorough in looking for a way to defeat Britain, but he ended playing into the British hands by engaging them at sea and Africa. Nor that Hitler had any other option. Maybe a massacre of the British at Dunkirk would have led to an armistice, but most surely (and entirely based on British history) it would not. For all we know, Hitler realized the only way he could sue peace with Britain was to let the BEF live or he did not want to lose many Germans asaulting a deeply entrenched enemy who could not be flanked.

I think that actually, what happend to Herr Fuhrer and the Germans was a combination of much simpler facts: they drak too much of their own Kool-Aid AND they also failed to realize that their entire army doctrine was geared for the offensive, and NOT for the defensive.

Regarding their own Kool-Aid, Germany did not absorb in all of the Blitzkrieg hoopla that their offensive victories of 1939 and 1940 were due to a combination of surprise at new methods of warfare (for which no counterstrategy was known THEN) and that Polish and French democracies preferred surrender that the total obliteration of their countries and people. This is why Russia was such a failure: the Germans really thought they were invincible. But instead of fighting a mild and totally surprised democracy, they found a ruthless enemy who did not care to lose men, who studied his enemy, and who had the equipment and the will to eventually push back the Germans.

Which bring us to army doctrine. The German Army was an offensive weapon, and thanks to the idea of Blitkrieg, the Germans simply forgot to do any kind of defensive advance. When the offensive was taken from them, the Germans had no real way to counter with a defensive strategy, which lead to their imminent defeat.

These two combined with a third, fairly forgotten FACT explain everything: barring the tenure of Bismarck as Minister, Prussia/Germany ALWAYS fought overwhelming odds and against everybody. Which means Hitler somehow failed to take into account that he would eventually have to face France, Britain, Russia, America, and several others.

A little more history would have led Hitler to realize that eventually he would be overwhelmed in all fronts by superior resources, which meant that to endure, he would have to build an entire network of defenses or completely surprise all of his enemies. But since he believe the Blitzkrieg hoopla, he produced an offensive army with a low capability to fight on the defensive and highly unflexible to adapt once someone found a way to counter mechanized armor tactics(which the Russians did). We know what happened then.

Answer 5

It may be easier to ask What mistakes he did not make. He went contrary to his military advisors on more than one occassion. However, if I were to choose one blunder as the greatest, it was his disregard for military history, Specifically making the same mistake which Napolean did and attack Russia in a winter Campaign. Against the advice of his military advisors, hitler pushed through a design to attack Russia, Creating two fronts -the eastern one being Russia- where he would now have enemies on both flanks. He repeated Napoleans mistake further by Beginning his attack to close to the hard winter months in Russia.

He laid seiges and was bogged down in a trench warfare that cost him lives and resources.

Answer 6

So many so little room. I'd have to say not letting his General Staff run the war.


The big moments:
Not slaughtering the British at Dunkirk was the first and perhaps biggest blunder.
Invading the Soviet Union.
Trying to capture Moscow instead of driving on the Caucauses and the vital oil fields.
Failing to ramp up war production until too late to keep up with loses.
Too much time and resources on "secret weapons" technology and too few airplanes and tanks.
Huge expense of resources on the "Final Solution" for the Jews.
Failing to allow in the field decision making in general, such as not releasing Panzer reserves into Normandy until far too late.
Just a start.......

Answer 7

There are 2 serious mistakes that come to mind. First was his invasion of Russia. As you noted, based on the experience of napolean, one would think that Hitler would have thought better of the idea. His second mistake was in the Battle of Britain. It is estimated that the Luftwaffe was mere weeks away from completely destroying the Royal Air Force. Prior to destroying the RAF however, Hitler chose to target British cities in an attempt to terrorize the population. Had he destroyed the RAF when he had the chance, it is possible that England would have been forced to capitulate.

Answer 8

His major mistake in my opinion was not finishing the British off when he had the chance and attacking Russia. He lost it when he moved away from his divide and conquer strategy, once he started fighting on too many fronts he couldn't win. If he would have stuck with a check list, France, England, etc... he might've just pulled it out.

I'm no Hitler fan either, but it is fascinating how close he got.

Answer 9

Not finishing off the British at Dunkirk.

Many are going to say invading Russia, however some asked a question earlier about why Hitler did it and if you read the responses you can see why that was not a mistake when he invaded.

Edit- Many people are confusing invading Russia w/ Mistakes made while in Russia. The invasion was sound. The error would be the failure to pull out of Stalingrad, not invading Russia. But i still hold strong on his inability to destroy the britians at Dunkirk

Answer 10

No, the biggest mistake in military history was Operation Barbarossa.... Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union.