DISCUSSIONS
I wanna know all the big to small German mistakes, failures and strategic disaster from 1933 to 1945. Like the invasion to Poland to the bigger operations like operation Barbarossa to smaller mistakes by German generals and officers. I know a lot mistakes but what do you think and witch is the most critical?
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"A mans success isn't based on how high he can reach at the top ... only how high he bounces up when he have hit the bottom" - General G.S Patton
- thegeniusmartin
- location: Sweden
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I'll start of an point out one of the biggest/obvious mistake - which is Germany invaded Russia during the russian winter - hitler was to impatient...
- Radeon
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Radeon said
I'll start of an point out one of the biggest/obvious mistake - which is Germany invaded Russia during the russian winter - hitler was to impatient...
I agree, and considering the general excellence of German planning, the fact they never prepared for supplying winter equipment & clothing was a pretty bad mistake.
Well, Germany invaded Russia in June. Problem being that once you get to the eastern part of the Ukraine and Belarus it's wet in the spring. So you can't march east in April.
Hitler's 'original sin' was to assume the German racial superiority. It never occured to him (and most of the High Command) the a bunch of Slavs would ever defeat them in battle. I think that explains a lot of the success of Wermacht units on a tactical level, but an epic fail on a strategic level.
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- sgtpoliteness
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sgtpoliteness said
Hitler's 'original sin' was to assume the German racial superiority. It never occured to him (and most of the High Command) the a bunch of Slavs would ever defeat them in battle. I think that explains a lot of the success of Wermacht units on a tactical level, but an epic fail on a strategic level.
I agree with you sgt. This is a simple point but one often overlooked. The racial hatreds of Hitler and many of the high command blinded them to a true understanding of their enemy.
Sun Tzu would have given them all a dope slap upside the head, and told them:
"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
Chris--
Product Manager
the biggest failure was not getting chuck norris and forrest gump and snoopy on their side *
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- Makarov
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The fact that he didn't come in as a liberator to Russia is what really killed in my opinion, he came in as a conqueror and set the people, who wanted to be free from Stalin, against him. Thousands upon thousands joined the Red Army ranks and together with the Russian Winter destroyed German hopes of defeating Russia.
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- cavetroll1304
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true dat
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- Makarov
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I'd say one "mistake" was declaring war on the USA. Hitler didn't even have to do that. The US declared war on Japan, and Hitler could have just not said anything, and would have only had to fight the UK on the peripheries (Africa) while taking Russia with almost all the German army. But when Hitler declared war on the United States, that was the only "in road" Roosevelt needed to get the US into Europe.
- RommelsAsparagus
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Fall Blau was a big mistake.
Germany's military had already been wary from the many battles they had fought in their march to Moscow. They had poured too many troops into Moscow, and they were slapped in the face by Stalin as they faced defeat. By then, the Blitzkrieg had already came to a halt, and the German initiative had been lost. And then Hitler pulls some plan out of his ass stating that they should send a bunch of troops though the Ukraine to get the the Caucuses. Big mistake, when they attacked Stalingrad they made another mistake.
While Germany poured massive amounts of troops into the city, they had weaker Romanian, Hungarian, Croatian, and Italian troops guarding their flanks. Once the Russians had amassed enough troops, they encircled the Germans in Stalingrad in what they call "The Stalingrad Kessel". And Frederick Paulus became the first Field Marshall in the German military to surrender.
A retarded thing that the awe strucken Germans did, was Hitler told Paulus to NOT attempt to break out of the Kessel, and Hitler, being the dumbass he was, ordered the Luftwaffe, and some troops to attempt a break-in to the Kessel. All attempts became futile. And the Germans came to be defeated.
With the extremely huge amounts of troops that Germany sent to Stalingrad were all lost, they now had only a fraction of troops they originally started with. After that, the Russians almost never saw a defeat.
This comes to the part of what SgtPoliteness said about German racial superiority. The Germans had been humiliated by an "Inferior" race.
Another huge mistake was of Hitlers large impatience. In about 5 years, his "Third Reich" bot conquered and lost more than half of europe.
My country never encounter any German army in the WW2, but we were facing their ally, the barbarians from the islands country, But of course i need to learn the whole story, isn't it? Back to eastern Europe, Battle of Stalingrad was the most exciting history to learn, leading to the defeat of Germany and their so called "friends", im looking for an active forum to discuss about WW2, and found one, lucky me :)
- Joe
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Seen the fact we have it about pure military mistakes, I would like to add the mistake of the holocaust. Just imagine how many soldiers that were involved in this business. When Hitler didn't want to destroy the jews, he would have had many more soldiers, equipment, money and resources to fight the war. All those facilities, all that equipment, if you put that on the battlefield, he had way more troops in battle. A mistake.
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- Dutchie
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Im agreeing with all u guys. But it doesnt have to be a huge mistake it can be a very small in just a battle or something like that!
"Idea becomes real" - Nordic Battle Groups motto
"A mans success isn't based on how high he can reach at the top ... only how high he bounces up when he have hit the bottom" - General G.S Patton
- thegeniusmartin
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Dutchie is absolutely right. Unbelievable amounts of men and materials were used by Hitler and the SS for mass murder. Hitler's insanity lost the war for the Germans.
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- sgtpoliteness
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Im suprised no one has said started a fight on 2 fronts yet lol. If hitler had waited and invaded the UK as planned he could have possibly forced a surrender, and then turn ALL his resources against the russians instead of fighting on 2 fronts... In my opinion having to fight on two fronts was one of the most fatal mistakes if not THEE most fatal mistake made by the germans ;)
- Radeon
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Also switching the german airforce to bombing london and other bigger cities also proved to be a mistake, sure it cost alot of damage and cost the british alot of money and resources but if the germans kept bombing raf bases and factories that were producing the war goods (granted most likely there in the city lol) it could have turned out very different for them, all they had to do was destroy the raf bit by bit because the british were starting to run out of experienced pilots during the battle of britain...
- Radeon
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the big mistake is alliance with italy
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- firestone
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Rushing into North Africa, then not being able to support Rommel.
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- MajorLufbery
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To help Italy in North Africa was smart but to never help the brilliant Rommel, turned out to be the end of Italy!
"Idea becomes real" - Nordic Battle Groups motto
"A mans success isn't based on how high he can reach at the top ... only how high he bounces up when he have hit the bottom" - General G.S Patton
- thegeniusmartin
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