WWII if you could choose the top three biggest blunders of the 3rd Reich..?

Question

What would they be in no particular order and why? I will list mine after.

I think that they lost because of Hitler's interference and Goerrings ego.

Wow good answers so far. I may have to let this go to a vote!

Answer 1

Policy wise:
1) Pursuing that aggresive policy after Munich before much more significant work was done on the Air and Naval forces, especially the Naval. War with GB, if it occured, would only be won by crippling its capacity to wage war not in defeating the GB armies in itself.

2) Invading the Soviet union before G.B. was knocked out of the war economically. There might not have been much choice in the matter considering Stalin's poise to attack Germany at one moment or another. Either way it was a huge gamble attacking USSR.

3) Letting Ideology take complete control over reality. Possibly with patience and little more "Realpolitik" the Nazi's may have had more of a chance of consolidating and expanding over time.

Militarily:
1) Changing tactics in the Air war with Britain from hitting tactical military tactics like airfields to strategic bombing of civilian dual use sights. This later decision should have only been made after the 1st one had been accomplished.

2) Invading Russia with Hitler's seige mentality but with Blitzgreig capabilities of the armed forces. Hitler took time out of going straight for Moscow by trying to seize long term objective goals. In Hitler's mind he thought the war would last long and therefor needed to secure important points, but his army and capabilities along with Germany's were made for quick knock out blows. If that would have worked anyways is anyones guess. After December 1941, strategically speaking, the war in the east was no longer in Germany's favour.

3) Making complete enemies out of the people's they conquered along the way. Many people, mostly in the USSR campaign, would have been very eager if not neutral in Germany's favor against the Russians but the ideological burtality took away from possible gains there.

Once GB did not surrender, Hitler basically went all or nothing in the east. He then mixed both his impatience at overall victory goals with methodical long term determination of minor objectives. This contradiciton in itself caused many miseries for the armed forces and did nothing to help bring about rational new strategic objectives as they came let alone victory in the war.

Answer 2

All of these are fine examples, the Third Reich was created by Hitler and was destroyed by Hitler. He was a megalomaniac and his refusal to listen to certain generals, like Rommel, while being hoodwinked by the likes of Goering, who swore to Hitler he could beat Great Brittan by air power alone, all but sealed their fate.
History should have told Hitler invading Russia was a no-no. Ask Napoleon how well that worked. If he would have listened to Rommel and focused his forces in N. Africa he would have had an easy road through the middle east, pushing towards Russia's oil fields in the Caucasus's and along the Caspian sea, capturing the single most valuable commodity the German war machine needed, oil. Putting Russia in a precarious situation of having Germany already occuping most of Europe, and having them occupy most of the mid east and threating their oil fields and their southern border.

Answer 3

Failure to Finish off the British and French Armies at Dunkirk and the subsequent survival of Britain
Starting Operation Barbarossa six weeks later than planned because the Germans had to assist the Italians in their invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece which meant they were overtaken by the Russian winter before they could capture Moscow .
Believing the Allied deception that the Normandy invasion was only a feint and the real invasion would come in the Pas de Calais

Answer 4

1. Hitler's "big ship" mentality. The Bismarck, Tirpitz, Scharnhorst & Gneisenau (not to mention the cruisers) were brilliant ships but the fact remained that German could never strategically defeat the United Kingdom in a fleet action. If they'd concentrated more on submarines, destroyers & torpedo boats, maybe they would've had more success. Moreover, following the loss of the Bismarck, Hitler's insistence on keeping the ships in port for as long as possible sent thousands of tons of steel to rot.

2. Use of medium - not heavy - bombers. If they'd developed the Me 264 a few years earlier, who knows, they may have succeeded in breaking the morale of the British and in developing a solid long-range a/c. By 1944 the Heinkel 111 was obsolete and it showed, even on the Eastern Front.

3. The switch from bombing RAF bases to bombing civilian targets. The RAF in August 1940 was really worried that the Luftwaffe's continued bombing attacks on south coast airfields would wreck the airfields, negate the strides made in aircraft production that summer by Beaverbrook et al. and send all their pilots to the airfield in the sky. Had Germany continued, she would've won the Battle of Britain. Whether Germany's invasion would have been successful in the face of the Stop Lines and the Royal Navy is debatable but it would have been far more likely and could have led to the U.K. suing for peace under a Halifax government following Churchill's collapse in a sort of "Norway Debate" repeat.

Answer 5

Hitler's interference says a ton, doesn't it? Invading Russia too late, underestimating the American fighting ability, simply thinking that the superior Aryian race would beat others just by showing up on the battlefield. I read Jeff Sharra's book, "Rising Tide" and it's amazing how much Hitler's head was in the clouds. Rommell tried very hard to get the high command to see reality, but it didn't happen. I've also heard that Hitler put too much into rocket development, when they could have developed jet fighters that would have turned the air war around.

Answer 6

There were many but here are my top three...
1) Germany's failure to build a long-range heavy bomber fleet. The twin-engined mediums were cheaper and faster to build but they lacked the hitting power of the Allies' Lancasters and B-24 Liberators.
2) The second front. Starting up with Russia spread Germany's resources too thin and the campaign on the eastern front was logistically and militarily a disaster.
3) Germany (like Japan) didn't rotate their pilots back to train other pilots. By 1944 the kids fresh out of Allied flight schools were better than the best that Germany could put up against them. The Allied pilots had the benefit of all the experience the Allied aces could give them and this had a devastating effect on Germany's air power, not to mention the fact that by late 1944, you couldn't move anything anywhere in Germany without some 19-year-old kid in a P-51 Mustang or Hawker Typhoon dropping out of the sky and blowing it to pieces.
There are many other factors, incompetent leadership at the top being the biggie. At the outset of WWII, Germany had the best army, the best air force, the best scientists and the best engineers. They still managed to lose because, all in all, their resources were used ineffectively by a madman with a delusional vision of history and his place in it.

Answer 7

Hello,

1) Not taking Dunkirk and allowing the British Army to get away.

2) Taking attention away from the bombing of the British airfields and going after London.

3) Declaring war and invading Russia before finishing Britain or making peace with her once and for all.


Mike K

Answer 8

Opening a second front with Russia. This split his efforts and made it difficult to consolidate his gains in Europe.

Failure to invade England and allowing the USA time to gear up for war.

The brutal treatment of the occupied countries was also a factor causing the military to have to spend its resources on policing the occupied countries.

Answer 9

6) Songs that point out a thought remote places to you. long Distance Runaround - confident Siberian Khatru - confident permit My call Be Swallow - eX-woman 9) Songs that make you smash out your inner nerd. protection Dance - adult men devoid of Hats Der Kommissar - After the hearth She Blinded Me With technological know-how - Thomas Dolby 10)Songs the point out '3'. 3 Flights Up - Nanci Griffith 3 of a suitable Pair - King purple 3 Mile Smile - Aerosmith

Answer 10

Operation Barbarossa. Opened up a two front attack allowing them to be sandwiched.

The battle of Stalingrad. The refusal to pull out of the city and regroup was a terrible idea. Hitler was so intent on capturing the city named after the Russian leader that he let good judgment escape him. Effectively surrounded one of his armies between the crux of two rivers and the Russian armies that he allowed to close in behind the city to cut him off.

Weak response to the Normandy landing. It took Hitler hours to divert Panzer divisions towards the beach in France, and by that time, the battle was already lost.