My favorite line from any of them is Hitler saying “I always loss at D-day for some reason”
What was the craziest/stupidest thing Hitler did
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The biggest mistake was going to war at all.
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@Pacific:
The biggest mistake was going to war at all.
War is almost always the worst decision.
However it seems that Hitler overestimated the ability of his armed forces after the fall of France. And underestimated how frigging big Russia is. -
…however- the Western Allies didn’t actually invade Europe until June 1944- …
Oh ,Oh, just don´t let Wittmann see this line. Itlay is part of Europe as well!
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lol, ok ok. You are right! Don’t tell wittman! Yes the allies invaded Italy in 1943. And North Africa 1942.
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B******s!
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@wittmann:
B******s!
haha
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- Not having better intelligence of the Soviet Army in 1941. He was so surprised how prepared they were for war.
German Intelligence was well aware of the situation in Russia but simply either, overestimated them selfs or simply ignored valueable facts.
For example, during the time of peace and the Non - Agressive pact with Russia, many exchange officers visited Russian Universitys ,located somewhere towards Siberia and were debriefed when they came back home.
The OKW was well informed about the T-34 but didn´t simply give it to much credit. During the war when the Wehrmacht captured some of these T-34 they were about to figure out that the slope shape and the wide tracks give the Tank the upper hand on soviet ground.
They also knew about the bad roads and had been warned but overestimated them selfs and said they will deal with it when it comes up, thinking that at least the Rollbahnen roads would be allready finished. (at least to Minsk or Kiev)Maybe astound that the Soviets fought to the bitter end and rather died in their trench holes then surrender…
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It’s very forgetful and prideful on the Germans part when planning for the invasion of the USSR to discount the Eastern Front experiences of WWI. The Germans won that war front in WWI only after dividing the Russians politically and having them take up arms againist each other.
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The Germans were victims of their own propaganda placing ultimate faith in the abilities of the “master race” and the complete ineptitude of the untermenschen.
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@Last:
The Germans were victims of their own propaganda placing ultimate faith in the abilities of the “master race” and the complete ineptitude of the untermenschen.
True, but in some ways how can you blame them? They were at war with the rest of the world and almost won. Hard not to get a big head when you conquer all of Europe, large parts of Russia, and North Africa, when you are outnumbered 10 to 1.
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Hitler didn’t use the same trick as the Kaiser: Sending over somebody to cause turmoil and overthrow Stalin. From the invasion, somebody should have come in to represent and liberate the people from the communist yoke. It could have been fake until the war was won, but the people found they had nothing to turn too and stuck with Stalin since Hitler showed his hand what he was going to do before he won. It’s the classic failure in any play or movie where the villain tells you his ultimate plan before he actually carries it out. That allows anybody on the sidelines to choose to go against him.
The Russian people wanted new leadership and the army would have supported it. Heck then 80% of the German war machine could have been turned against UK again.
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Yes, but the germans voted on him in the 1933 election because he promised they could loot Russia and kill jews. The average german dont volunteer for war just to liberate slaves.
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Another funny post. Awesome! I love how you put it…lol
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@Imperious:
It’s the classic failure in any play or movie where the villain tells you his ultimate plan before he actually carries it out. That allows anybody on the sidelines to choose to go against him.
It’s even funnier when you remember that he reveals his plans even before the war started, it’s all there in Mein Kampf.
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Declaring war on america, splitting at stalingrad, not invading malta, attacking at kursk, not equipping his allies with good stuff.
All of these could make a difference if he had chosen to do it. (or not do it)
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Quit artschool?
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Quit artschool?
Probably a good career move, since he wasn’t much of an artist. As I recall, he didn’t actually get admitted to the art academy (I think in Vienna) to which he applied.
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yea, if the measure of the greatness of a man is by how many remember him, then he is one of histories greatest men :P
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It’s good to see genocide is the winner. My god who voted for any thing else are they ok with genocide . That’s insane it didn’t get every vote
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It’s good to see genocide is the winner. My god who voted for any thing else are they ok with genocide . That’s insane it didn’t get every vote
I think a lot of people (including myself) took the question as asking about military decisions.
While I agree that Hitler shouldn’t have declared war on the United States after Pearl Harbor, and if he waited he may have gained some time; however- the Western Allies didn’t actually invade Europe until June 1944- something they may have done anyway if Hitler waited until 1942.
The only problem is this fails to account for how America’s growing presence in the European theater drew German manpower, leaders, equipment, and supplies away from the Russian front at a time when the Germans were arguably close to victory. Germany could probably have thrown another 20-30 divisions, including some top units, if they hadn’t been forced to garrison France, Italy, and the Balkans against a US-led invasion. Throw in dubious troops from their lesser allies, that also would’ve otherwise been on invasion watch, and that could have been the difference in the Eastern front.
And I haven’t touched what the US bombing campaign did to Germany’s economy. Yes, UK was conducting their own bombing campaign. But the addition of the US fighters & bombers was really telling. No bombing alone would not have forced Germany to it’s knees like some contemporary proponents espoused, but it did hurt quite a bit and it tied up resources, men, etc that could have been put to better use besides trying to shoot down US bombers and clean up the damage.
My answer to the question is one that I’m somewhat surprised I haven’t seen thus far. I think one of Hitler’s biggest military mistakes was failing to plan for after his forces blitzed France. It’s not exactly like the channel suddenly appeared or that the Brits dug it out overnight. :roll:
He may not have wanted to fight the Brits and maybe he was hoping they could reach an agreement once France was done with. But I feel it was very shortsighted of him not to plan for an invasion across the channel. This was exacerbated by the failure to capture all the Soldiers at Dunkirk, allowing them to live to fight another day. But better planning for the invasion and maybe some work on designing purpose-built invasion craft would’ve been huge. Instead what happened was something akin in Nemo when the fish escape the dentist and one asks, ‘Now what?’
Knocking UK out of the war would’ve prevented Germany from having to fight a two front war and would’ve deprived future US forces of a major base and all that infrastructure for their eventual invasion.
The 2nd worst decision IMO is something others have already mentioned multiple times. Lord knows how many more people Germany could’ve added to their manpower total had they kept the truth about what their plans were hidden during the invasion of Russia. Instead of being welcomed as liberators and aided by the locals; they drove thousands into various insurgent/freedom groups, thousands more straight into the Russian army, and worsened their logistics problems by having to travel so far into ‘hostile’ territory.
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