How could Germany have won the war?

@88:

Forgive this for being simplistic.

The successful assassination of Hitler early in the war would have done wonders for the Reich.

Less economy/ trains tied up in the ‘final solution’.

Liberation of eastern Europe/ White Russia/ Ukraine rather than war of extermination against the ‘inferior’ slavic peoples. This would have lead to much less partisan activity behind the lines, and would have provided easier access to food/ shelter/ conscripts etc.- rather than a population that quickly learned it had to resist or be killed.

Sober choices regarding Stalingrad/ Kursk/ Battle of the Bulge etc. These battles cost the Wehrmacht hundreds of thousands of lives and thousands of armored vehicles/ artillery/ aircraft. Each loss was another broken vertabrae in Germany’s back. All of them were the result of Hitler’s personal hubris. Stalingrad could have been bypassed- instead the entire 6th Army was consumed and marked the official turning point on the East Front and the war in general. Kursk was pure stubbornness- the Red Army had over 10,000 pieces of artillery prepared, massive anti-tank earthworks, and outnumbered the German armor by over 2 -1, and knowing this Hitler still ordered Operation Citadel to continue. What a dufus.

Less resources spent on ‘wonder’ weapons and V1 &2 (Vengeance) rockets. Negligible effect on the war, large amount of brain power and resources wasted. Again, this was personal and not rational.

As said earlier in this thread, winter clothing for the start of Barbarossa.

Implementation of total war economy. Hitler insisted on having life in the Reich stay as normal as possible. Oops. In the meantime Russian women were flying Yaks and driving T-34s, American women were working their asses off on assembly lines producing Shermans, and all the while German women were getting busy trying to push out as many aryan babies as possible. Another mistake.

Allowing Goering to lose focus on the prize during the Battle of Britain. The RAF was exhausted and all but defeated. A few stray bombs fell on London by mistake, and the next thing you know the Luftwaffe is going after cities rather than the battered British air force. This break allowed them to recoup, and Britain remained alive and eventually became the staging ground for D-Day.

There are a bunch more.

If Hitler had been offed, and his generals had taken control of the state, Germany would have avoided myriad disasters and most likely would have kicked in Russia’s door.

Thank god all the assassination attempts failed.

Factualy, everything you said is true.  But you are missing one HUGE point.  If there was no Hitler, there would have been no war.  His generals from day 1 were saying not to attack Poland (even b4 the war they were telling him not to get too aggresive politicaly).  Hitler demanded miracles from the german army early on, and for the most part they delivered.  Stalingrad… while it was a huge mistake German forces were encircled before (winter of 41) and goering did supply them by air.  So while it was stupid to keep his troops in Stalingrad, goering did make good on the promise of doing it in 41.  So Hitler figured he could do it again (he was corporal Hitler, There is a huge diff between the 2 situations).

Germany not having a war time economy?  Good point, but do you remember one BIG reason Germany lost WW1?  Because people had to go w/o.  Hitler wanted to keep the people happy, and not re-live the same situation of WW1.  It actualy says something about Hitler’s bullshit mindset.  The Jews lost Germany WW1, but he knew all along (somewhere in his twisted mind) that the German people had enough by 1918 (even the non jews shock).

Can’t blame the German people, becaue they are all so aryan… how could they do something wrong?  It had to be those damn jews.

ok, take a breather and think of your history.

Winter of 41 the Russians stopped the assualt on Moscow.  At the same time they had encircled German forces.  The German airforce did supply them by air.  You all know the standard Hitler order (across the board), no retreat.  Remember the Russian winter offensive in 41?  It did not break Germany, but why do you think that was so?  Do your research, it was an orderly retreat (supplied from the air while encircled).

The difference between the 2 scenerios is that in 41 it was a broad front, the Russians could not contest the air over so much territory (not to mention their AF was destroyed on the ground, and obsolete to boot).  In 42 the Russians could stop resupply.  They focused on Stalingrad as their “big trap”, and it worked.

Am I wrong in this?  To the poster who said they barely got any supplies into staingrad… how many German planes were shot down trying to?  How many were JU52s were shot down in 41?  That says it all.

Oh god, Hitler’s F ups?  I can write a book on them, and many have.  Anyone with a passing knowledge of WW2 (which i think most of you have posting on this board) would know them.  To make it short (both ends of the war), why attack in 39… and why throw away your last remaining assets in the Bulge?

Hitler knew what a corporal would know as far as tactics go,  and that is the rank he achieved when he fought in WW1.  The gains that Germany got early in the war (and why they were able to fight such a great def. battle after 42) were because of people like Rommel, kesserling, guadarian, and many others.

All that has to be said about Hilter running the military is that when the Normandy landings were happening, no one wanted to wake up good ole adolf because it was too early.  1000s of Germans were dying, but they died it for a good cause, Hitler needed his sleep.