What was Hitler's biggest mistake?

Question

And why did so many 'intelligent' German Generals obey his orders for years when it was obvious (after Die Kristal Nacht) that he was hell bent on exterminating the Jews in Europe among many other ethnic and social groups?

Answer 1

Abandoning blitzkrieg tactics for urban warfare in the rubble along the Volga....

others, include:
1.Started too late in the year (1941), by the time they reached Moscow, the coldest winter in years hit and the Werhmact was totally unprepared.

2. Guderian's Panzers were diverted south at the gates to Moscow in 1941.

3. The Soviets were into a mindset of ordering important and troop saving withdrawals. At Stalingrad the Germans lost 25% of their entire operational strength in the Eastern Front, a heavy blow by all accounts but NOT decisive. It would however be the main factor for Germany's not being able to complete the conquest of Russia.

4. The Germans blew another chance during their offensive in the summer of 1943. Against Guderian's opinion that the production of Tiger and Panther tanks should be up to operational standards, Hitler launched the ill fated offensive at Kursk. The results being the destruction of the panzer armies. The fact that the German still had the capability to launch an offensive of this magnitude in 1943 proves that Stalingrad was not a decisive turning point in the war. From then on, it was just a delaying tactical war against the Red Army.

5. On the western front, two mistakes come to mind: stopping his tanks and allowing the BEF to escape to Britain via Dunkirk, and switching from the bombing of airfields and radar stations to London and other cities....the RAF was nearly brought to its knees before that 'miracle.'

6. Hitler made the mistake of diverting resources to multiple designs, rather than picking the best and staying with it... example is the multiple tank designs.

7. The Russians were resilient, as one German officer stated, "attacking Russia was like an elephant stamping out ants, you killed thousands, maybe millions, but in the end their number told and you were eaten to the bone."

Answer 2

Adolf Hitler's biggest mistake was declaring war on the United States of America.

In the USA the government had produced plans for a new tank, the Sherman Tank. These plans were detailed down to the last nut and bolt and could be built by any factory which could produce a car.

The USA produced more tanks in a single month than Germany could make in an entire year.

Adolf Hitler just had no concept of what is meant by the expression, "Industrial Might". A phrase applicable then, only to the United States.

The reason why Hitler's generals obeyed his every command is because of fear. Fear of the Gestapo in particular.

Without going into detail, you just cannot imagine what happened to the 6,000 people, men, women and children who were butcherd by the Gestapo following the attempted coup on Hitler in c1943/4.

Hitler's generals did try a coup but it failed and they paid the price. Not only were they and thousands of others, even Germany's greatest generals, were horribly tortured and put to death and so too their families.

The wholesale slaughter of six million Jews and possibly two million Gentiles by the Nazis, had very little to do with the German Military. Even though they knew about it, there was very little if anything which they could do about it.

No doubt if the coup against Hitler had been successful then all this killing may have stopped. There was no guarantee of such, but it's possible it might have.

Answer 3

When Hitler came to power in the 1930's, he rose to the top quickly. Germany at that time was going through a bad economic time because of the Vesaille traty they agreed to at the end of world war 1.
Hitler turned the economy around and ignored the traty and built up the army and navy, but then blamed the Jewish people of europe for the resession Germany was in.
Germany occupied France, Belgium, Holland, Norway, Austria, Italy, and most of eastern europe.
His fatal mistake was when he violated the anti agression pact he made with Stalin.
The russians retaliated and asked us to help, but we remained neutral until the japanese, who had an alliance with germany, bombed pearl Harbor. When we declared war on Japan, Germany declared war on the US.

I have read books about the Hollocaust, and I think Hitler had an idea what was going on, but it was most of the top generals, like Goering, Goerbles, Himmler that had the plans to destroy the Jews.

the german people as a whole, during that time, were a good people, not all germans helped hunt down, and turn in the jews. A lot of jews excaped from germany to Switzerland, and some hid in germany and france during the war.
The german soldiers feared that if they did not follow orders of thier superiors, they would be subject to the same fate the Jews faced in the concentration camps......

The jewish people were not the only race to face extermination. Gypsies, homosexuals, vagrants were also subject to the camps, as well as any other person the german hierarchy deemed a threat to the exsistance to the nazi party.

Answer 4

While I won't do all your homework for you,I will say that in my opinion,Hitler's biggest boo-boo was to attack Russia before he finished off the feckless British.It strained the resources of war.Had he waited and concentrated on the Brits (they were very nearly finished) Hitler would have discouraged the US from poking their noses in what was quite obviously a European problem and then could have set his sights on the Russians from a position of strength.His eyes were too big for his stomach.
The answer to the question why did the generals allow the policies of extermination is because most weren't aware that such was going on-could not fathom that a soldier would do such things.The German officer was the epitome of Honor and Duty.For them allegiance was sacrosanct...if you swore loyalty, it was forever,whatever,however.A very noble concept.
Unfortunately they took an oath to obey Hitler,not the German state.

Answer 5

Three mistakes.

Not wiping out the British army whilst they were on the beaches at Dunkirk.
Not invading Britain immediately afterwards when we could not have held out
Invading Russia before he had defeated Britain

The Generals listened to him because it was too dangerous to disagree.

Also many "ordinary" German people agreed with his stance on the Jews. Regreattably they were not much liked anywhere in Europe at the time, but particularly in Germany where many blamed them for losing the first world war.

Answer 6

I think he made quite a few mistakes but the most fatal ones in my opinion were invading the Soviet Union while still fighting the British. And mistake number 2, taking personal command of the armed forces. Had he left it to the generals he might have been able to pull off a victory or at least stretch it out quite a while longer and maybe get a favorable truce. As for why did they obey his orders? Generals do what they are told.

Answer 7

In terms of military decisions, I would probably say that it was hesitating when the British were retreating from France in 1940. He should of sent the tanks in to totally wipe out the whole army. Instead he hesitated, and then tried to let the Luftwaffe do it, which allowed the British to escape with most of their army from Dunkirk. Had the British army not escaped the British may of surrendered meaning that the Germans wouldn't of had to fight a war on two fronts and may have been able to defeat the Soviets with all the forces concentrated on the Russian front.

Answer 8

His biggest mistake had nothing to do with the extermination of Jews. The BIGGEST mistake he made was attacking Russia. The Blitzkreig wasn't designed to take over that large a country. The tactics worked on France, Belgium, and Poland because it took the whole country at once. With Russia it only took a piece. Supply lines were stretched too far. The wasn't enough manpower. And the equipment wasn't designed to work in extreme cold weather.

Answer 9

Hitler's biggest mistake? I think it can largely be chalked up to his ego, in retrospect. That basically lead to overestimation of his own abilities and the abilities of the German forces overall, and underestimation of the defenders. And his failure to LEARN that his forces are not infallible. He should have learned that after Battle of Britain, but he did not. And his order to start bombing London instead of RAF bases had the opposite effect he intended, and effectively lost BoB.

This also lead to severe production problems as his fickle nature tend to interfere in manufacturing and back-and-forth. For example, one of the more famous cases was that he ordered Me-262 to be converted to bombers to help the other bombers blitz London. It was a while later that Goring managed to convince him to rescind the order and converted Me-262's back to a pure-fighter.

In another case, the makers went behind Hitler's back to produce the world's first assault rifle. See the wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_military_rifles#Sturmgewehr_.28assault_rifles.29) and you'll see the quote "Hitler was shown one of the prototypes, even though there were no intention of producing them". Surprisingly, Hitler liked the end result, the MP44, and renamed it StG44, and thus the "assault rifle" is born.

Without meeting Hitler in person, it's hard to imagine his charismatic nature only from the description and the few archival footages left from the era. But suffice to say, he was able to inspire thousands, millions, even though his tactic was to provide the German masses with something to blame: the Jews. That sort of became a self-fulfilling ideal: The Jews are to blame, and thus, to "solve" the problem we must rid the Jews. I doubt Hitler came up with the idea alone. I am quite sure someone else came up with it, but I'm not a Third Reich expert. After Hitler was voted into power, the military saw which way the wind is blowing, and simply went along.

Answer 10

Double crossing Stalin. The Russians would have sat idly by while Hitler beat up on Europe and England.

The US would have been forced to use atomic power on the Third Reich, had it survived long enough before it was developed. How that war would have played out, under those conditions is anybody's guess. We will never know what the outcome could have been, I guess we must settle for what we do know !