re: WWII buffs: let's talk about Germany's biggest strategic blunder

Not being able to tap the occult.

Hitlers biggest blunder was thinking he had more war waging knowledge than his generals...Russia is but one example of this...he repeatedly ignored men who had fought in WWI as officers....if you remember, Hitler was like a Corporal during WWI...he was basically a messenger boy...he did not have the prowess, knowledge, educataion, nor experience to lead an army and it showed in the end...

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Keeping Spain on the sidelines was key to the eventual German defeat, and was a major diplomatic coup for the allies.

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I'm currently re reading Ziemke's work "Moscow to Stalingrad" from the Army Historical Series.

In the segment regarding Finland, Ziemke's research makes a couple of things clear.

During the 1941 months between July and late November, the USA was a neutral power, but, was involved in sending military and economic aid to the Soviet Union via the port of Murmansk, which is near Finland. While still neutral, the USA threatened Finland with a warning that any obstruction of that US aid would wreck US Fin relations. At about that time, Britain declared war on Finland.

After the USA entered the war, Britain and the US continued very intense diplomatic threats and pressure to "persuade" Finland to limit its war effort against the Soviet Union.

My point is this, we can logically deduce that Spain and Franco were both under the same kind of diplomatic pressure from the UK and US. Spain's geographical location was much more exposed to UK and US air/naval forces than was Finland's.

Add to the above the fact that there's some evidence that the German Abwehr Intelligence Service, headed by Canaris, might have been playing a double game to keep Spain neutral. Canaris and other Abwehr figures were quite anti-Hitler/Anti-Nazi.

It might have been tough to bring Spain in as a German ally no matter what Hitler's diplomacy could muster.

Germany's biggest strategic blunder was Economic. Germany's military had great breadth in that it contained a diverse variety of very competent combat arms that practiced effective combined arms tactics. The problem was that this quality breadth lacked DEPTH. It lacked depth in that it possessed insufficient capacity for sustained total war.

There were not enough of these great war weapons and trained troops to sustain anything but a short war. Not only that, but, German industry wasn't mobilized for maximum war production effort until after Albert Speer became Minister of Armaments. Speer took that position around the time of the Battle of Stalingrad.

So, that's my 2 cents. Good thread.

Hitler's biggest mistake was not being aborted before birth

fricked with America


/thread

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A fully Axis Spain gives Germany control of virtually the entire Mediterranean, cutting Britain off from the Middle East, India, and the southern supply route to Russia through Iran.

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For those who think the Russian invasion was too soon - do you think a peace in the West was possible? Was there any concession Hitler could have realistically given to get a negotiated settlement with Britain?

another big blunder was letting the british escape from dunkirk.

Hilter not listening to Rommel when he requested fortifications on the Normandy beach. He instead kept them back to protect his own interests. I wonder what would have happened if we failed to breach Normandy. I mean, we had the biggest invasion fleet in a god awful weather. Losing this battle would be a major blow to the Allied war effort.

Thank god we had the Midterrian and Africa battlegrounds to train our really GREEN armies. This was our first time in history that we really incorporated Air, ground, and navy forces to attack enemy front. If we went in Europe without this experience, we would have got our asses handed to us by the German veterans serving up there.

Spain would've been a second Italy. More of a hindrance to the Third Reich than a help.