Hitler’s Failues

There were many military oversights that Hitler made during his reign with the Nazi Regime. Hitler was indispensably egotistical and pretentious in his conquest for Europe. He had an abundance of superior generals who had many excellent opinions on the war. However, Hitler, being the egotist that he was, refused to accept any of his generals’ ideas. Another blunder was in his decision-making due to the use of methamphetamines. A lot of the flawed decision-making going on outright delusion was probably a result of the drug, or at least was aggravated by it.

During the Spanish Civil War of 1936, Italy and Germany fought together on the side of the Fascists. Hitler seeing this as good intentions made the mistake to form the Rome-Berlin Axis. Italy was in no condition to fight a war – the soldiers were poorly trained and inadequately equipped. However this was not his biggest blunder, it was a blunder in part that he could have avoided a southern front in the war had Italy stayed neutral. Also Mussolini’s self-ego hindered Hitler into rescheduling Operation Barbarossa. Mussolini, taking pride in his African victory, led a campaign into Greece and was ultimately defeated by Greek defenders and afterwards in Africa. Hitler would have had no problem with the first Russian winter had he not been distracted with Africa and Greece. However, Africa eventually would have been a hindrance to Hitler.

Hitler, before World War II, haggled with the European powers at a game of risk. He saw Italian and Japanese gains with no intervention from the League of Nations and believed that they would be able do the same with his military conquests. Hitler withdrew from the League of Nations and ignored the Versailles Treaty along with the Locarno Pact. He invaded the Rhineland with military force and at first sight knew that he would win appeasement from the Allies. Hitler sent a small force into Austria and annexed the nation with no opposition– more so a welcoming. Hitler began demanding Sudetenland and a conference was set up in order to come to an agreement; appeasement. Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain arranged the Munich Conference in 1938. Chamberlain agreed to give Sudetenland to Hitler with no opposition on the terms that it would be Hitler’s last demand. However, Hitler disobeyed the terms and invaded all of Czechoslovakia. Hitler’s mistake was extending his demands and believing he could avoid a war. He began to demand Danzig from the Polish and as a last straw Great Britain and France agreed to defend Poland if Hitler were to invade. Hitler’s mistake on the invasion of Poland was his belief that von Ribbentrop could get away with attacking Poland. The “Phony war” was not a valid enough excuse for the invasion of Poland thus caused World War II to occur.

During the last days of the invasion of France at Dunkirk, Hitler made the mistake of allowing the British and French soldiers to escape. Had he pushed an attack into the Dunkirk he would have been able to eliminate many experienced French and British soldiers. The British would have been greatly hindered with the loss of troops. The attack would not have been the most fatal blow to Britain, but it would have been a defeat towards the British and given more time to the German “war machine”.

In the Atlantic, during the Battle of Britain, Hitler made the mistake of not focusing on Great Britain’s Royal Air Force and military targets such as airfields or supply bases and instead began bombing London. The bombings of London only strengthened Britain’s stamina. Hitler should have continued to focus on the RAF and improve the Luftwaffe in order to out maneuver the all-ready aware RAF fighters. In addition, Hitler would have never succeeded in Operation Sea lion if only the British air force was eliminated. Hitler would have to focus on “unterseeboots” production and naval bombings in order to succeed in an invasion. Had the British air force and navy been eliminated, Hitler would have only had to face a ground war with Britain in the invasion.

Hitler, upon being defeated by the British RAF, saw an invasion of the USSR as a last option for victory in World War II. The invasion of USSR was one of the two fatal mistakes that I believe he made; the second being the declaration of war on the United States or even before that the Tripartite Pact of 1940. The German wehrmacht was unprepared for a long distance invasion of the USSR. The blitzkrieg tactic in Russia would have not worked for a number of reasons. One, the wehrmacht was ill equipped for the Russian winters. Two, the long distance would hinder supply lines from Germany to USSR. Three, the vast territory of the USSR would have been a total disaster to control. The invasion of the USSR would have never succeeded no matter what upper hand Germany would have.

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