which made him lose the war...
The initial success of National Socialism put Hitler in command of the Third Reich, but their mistakes quickly turned the tide against Germany, the Reich of 1000 years only live just over 12.
By removing its senior officers and achieve success after success in the 30s, way to World War II, Adolf Hitler came to be regarded, and regarded himself as a military genius. Wilhelm Keitel called him aller Zeiten GROFAZ Größter Feldherr (The greatest commander of all time). He was the master of the march to the Rhine in mind 1936, the annexation of Austria two years later, the subsequent annexation and dismemberment of Czechoslovakia and invasion of Poland in 1939's apparent political, military and diplomatic invincibility of Hitler fed a conviction that he would believe a messiah.
By reserving the right to dispose of units in the field, not allowing direct control of those who fought, managed to support the Allied cause and accelerate its fall. A book could be written with full military mistakes he made, only some of the most important will be mentioned.
* Declare war on the United States *
On December 8, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt addressed Congress and asked to declare war against the Japanese Empire. Germany was never mentioned. Back then there was no popular support for expanding the war unless Hitler carried out an act of stupidity monumenta, the United States had no official reason to declare war against Germany. The British and American strategists were frustrated. They had always assumed that once the EU join the war, defeating Germany is sonvertiría priority, before Japan. But now it seemed that America's number one target would defeat Japan while Britain was fighting alone against Germany.
Lucky chances for them, four days after Pearl Harbor, Hitler committed one of the most monumental mistakes of history. While President Roosevelt needed 517 words to declare war and the destruction of Japan, Hitler's Reichstag only needed 334 words to seal the fate of the Third Reich.
In the last month of 1941, a perceptive observer might have noticed that the first glimmers of hope for Allied cause and the Germans realized that the worst was to come. The British had not only been defeated, but were counterattacking whenever possible. Even more worrying for the Germans was the Soviet counteroffensive in front of Moscow, where fresh Siberian divisions drove back the army group center of the Wehrmacht.
Although the skies were darkening quickly, hearing the news of Pearl Harbor, Hitler left his headquarters in East Prussia where he was -a commanding troops against the Russian winter offensive and hurried to Berlin. The December 11, 1941, was before the Reichstag to declare war against the United States. It was an act of suicide. Although Germany was hooked with a two-front war against Britain and the Soviet Union, Hitler did not hesitate to declare war on a nation that produced ammunition in a year much like Germany in five years. It was not his most serious mistake, however, was the most colossal.
Why did ?. This question has been rotated in the minds of historians for a long time. Hitler was certainly aware of the production capacity of America, and had written about it in Mein Kampf. The simplest answer is that despite Remember not impressed American military potential. In 1940 he had told the Soviet foreign minister Molotov that the United States would not be a threat to the Third Reich for decades "1970 or 1980 at most." However, Hitler had always believed that the war with the EU was inevitable. For him, it was better to have that one the war when He chose and when he could have the distraction of large numbers of American troops by Japan. So Germany, for the second time in a generation, found herself in a two-front war against the world's largest economic powers.
Sort high to progress in Dunkerque *
If there was a brief moment when Hitler had the power to win the war on one front and remove from its list of antagonists to England and France was at Dunkirk. The May 10, 1940, the German spearheads put aside the slight defenses in the forests of the Ardennes before crushing the French defensive line at Sedan. Swift through France, the General Heinz Guderian's panzers entered Abbeville, 20 miles from the English Channel, 10 days after the start of the offensive. The French army, cut in half had been unbalanced and never regain its balance.
But even if the Wehrmacht was finishing off France, the following Hitler would ensure the survival of one of his opponents, the British Expeditionary Force; and would give a gift to his most tenacious opponent, Winston Churchill: an army with which to continue the struggle.
On May 23, panzers forward units were just 18 miles from Dunkirk, closer than most British units. While German troops were exhausted from two weeks of continuous marching and fighting, local commanders judged that easily would capture the port and would catch the British Army in France. Sensing that a landslide was close, the commander of the Wehrmacht Walther von Brauchitsch ordered that the city be taken. But just before the tanks will advance, Hitler launched his famous tall order, stopping on the outskirts of Dunkerque.
He never mentioned his reasons for the order, including assumptions Hermann Göring's promise that the Luftwaffe would complete the destruction of the British forces are made; Hitler was reluctant to risk their valuable panzers on the ground near Flanders. Whatever the reason, the top gave the British two precious days to consolidate their defenses around Dunkirk, allowing them to perform rescue troop most famous in modern history. In the end, the Royal Navy, supported by some French ships and a fleet of 800 ships evacuated civilians 338.226 troops from the beaches of Dunkirk, including 118,000 Belgians soldiers, French and Dutch. These men provided a rescued soul veterans about to redo a new British army.
* Do not judge the potential of U-boots *
With the Royal Navy protecting the English Channel and the Royal Air Force denying the Luftwaffe air dominance, England was safe from invasion. Still, Hitler had a gun to get England podrñia war: U-Boots. In 1917 the submarine were about to kneel England. Despite this, Hitler saw slow to see its value. If, during the second half of the 30s, he would have taken half the resources wasted on the construction of a surface fleet almost useless and had invested in the construction of U-Boots; Germany could have started the war with hundreds of these silent murderers, more than 57 that started.
Even with the slow numbers, U-boats reached a breeze to pull Britain out of the war. By mid 1940, Germany had only 25 U-boats in service. Still, they managed to sink nearly 700,000 tons of Allied ships at the end of the year, or the equivalent of 225 merchant ships. Despite that success, it was not until February 1941 that Hitler issued Directive 23, ordering an emergency program of production of U-boats.
Germany produced more than 1,100 U-boats during the war, with more than 450 still in service in 1945 to early 1943, U-boats were brought to England in a desperate situation and win the battle of the Atlantic became a high priority for the Allies. Then in March 1943, almost imperceptible on a Start-tide began to change. A combination of better tactics, new antisubmarine technologies and a German naval code was broken the North Atlantic became a graveyard of submarines.
German submarines sinking allied ships continued until the end of the war, but their own losses were unacceptably high. In the end, Germany lost nearly 800 U-boats and 30,000 sailors. Although they sank about 14 million Allied ships, that was impressive total overwhelmed by about 40 million tonnes that the United States built to replace those lost. Considering that the entire merchant fleet of England in 1940 was less than 18 million tons, it is clear that if Germany had started the war with submarines as with tántos ended, Britain would not have survived too.
* Open a second front VAST *
England survived and remained defiant when Hitler made a mistake, second in importance after his gracious declaration of war on the United States launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.
Have just been over two decades since Germany had launched its war on two fronts and suffered the devastating consequences. Therefore an impressive level of strategic incompetence needed by Hitler to start the war in the east where the conflict continued in the west. Tenacity mixed with flashes of tactical and operational brilliance kept the Germans in the battlefield for four bloody years. And once again, the German military were victorious in almost bet Hitler. But such martial attributes were insufficient to overcome the fundamental strategic mistake that put them in Russia from the beginning. An additional number of errors was required by Hitler to crush the German hopes of a Drang Nach Osten "March to the East."
* Failure to take Moscow *
The first of those errors that would arrive soon after being launched Operation Barbarossa. From the beginning, Hitler's military leaders knew that speed was the essence: they were in a contest of speed, not a war of position. And his early successes made the race against time was promising: after crushing Soviet border divisions, Army Group Centre won a tough battle in Smolensk. In conclusion, over 200,000 Soviet prisoners marched to the prison camps already saturated and the road to Moscow was practically free. Now it was time for a strong and direct offensive against the Soviet capital.
More than just a political objective, Moscow was the nerve center of the Communist party, senior industrial center and, most important, the nexus for almost any railroad in the Soviet Union: if Moscow fell, lateral movement of Soviet forces would become impossible. More than anything, the defeat of Moscow would help cut the West Russian armies east, which were beginning to move in support of the city. In 1812, Russia may have lost Moscow against Napoleon and suffer few military consequences. Losing Moscow in 1940 would have been catastrophic for the Soviet cause.
But then Hitler changed the strategic emphasis of Germany: instead of sending forces to Moscow, in late August Hitler ordered General Heinz Guderian to take his Second Panzer Army and take him south to help the Army Group South. To explain his conduct, he appealed to the natural resources of Ukraine and the Caucasus oil, both of which considered vital to the German war effort. When his generals persisted in protesting this change in strategy, Hitler exclaimed, "My generals know nothing about economics". Reluctantly, Guderian led his panzers south, bagging another 600,000 prisoners held in Kiev. It was the greatest tactical victory of the war, but it was not without cost.
When advancing towards Moscow -Operation Tifón- was renewed on October 2, had lost a valuable month. A combination of fierce Soviet resistance, German overextension and dreadful weather suddenly stopped the German offensive right on the edge of his goal. In late November, was canceled when Typhoon, the German spearheads were less than 20 miles from Moscow. Only two weeks later, the Russians launched a vigorous counteroffensive winter. Unlike Napoleon's Grande Armée, which was destroyed by the Russian victory and winter, Army Group Center did not collapse. We do, however, suffered terrible losses and was never again in a position to threaten Moscow. Hitler the opportunity to get a quick and decisive victory in the East was dissolved.
* Overestimating Stalingrad intended *
All hope was lost AUNO victory. In the spring and summer of 1942 a restored Wehrmacht launched a new offensive to secure the oil fields of the Caucasus. It was at that point that Hitler made a series of bad juicos who lost to the German army and had dire consequences for the entire war effort.
After lecturing to his generals about Moscow was a mere political objective of little military value, Hitler, remarkably, allowed himself engage in a battle of prestige for Stalingrad. Instead of focusing on the oil fields, he divided his force, sending one part south to Baku and the other to take Stalingrad. It was a battle that incited fierce, long after the city had lost any military utility. Division after division was brought to power the death in Stalingrad, where whole battalions were virtually missing 24 hours of assignment. For nearly three months, the German Sixth Army punished the city until only a small slice remained in Soviet hands.
Focused obsessively sick and in capturing the city that bore the name of his mortal enemy, Hitler ignored the pile of Soviet reserves in the flanks of the Sixth Army débilas. When the Soviets launched an attack to catch -Operation Uranus- Sixth Army in mid-November, they quickly swept the Romanians and later the Italians and Hungarians. Two days later, Soviet pincers met in the city of Kalach trapping the Sixth Army. For several months the lost army slowly starved before finally surrendering on February 2, 1943.
Hitler's maniacal insistence on taking and holding Stalingrad had cost more than 750,000 casualties and the loss of an irreplaceable army.
* Bet * all in Kursk
Eventually, the Soviet offensive in Stalingrad lost momentum and were given the Germans a breathing space to consolidate a new defensive line punished and restore their strength. If you wanted to have a chance to negotiate a favorable peace, now it was time to fortify depth, mobile forces reset to conduct counterattacks like the one conducted Erich von Manstein at Kharkov in February and March 1943 and overcome their strength for the next Soviet offensive.
Instead, Hitler's idea of a massive summer offensive aimed at a huge projection on Soviet lines near the city of Kursk was fixed. Sorting simultaneous tongs from the north and south, hoping to trap the Soviet forces and cut the bag, allowing the crackdown continued in the East.
If the battle of Stalingrad was the one who decided that Hitler would win the war, the Battle of Kursk was the one who decided to lose her. Aware of the massive preparations the Russians had carried out near Kursk, many German generals were reluctant to attack; even Hitler had his doubts, admitting that the thought of that made him sickening attack. Despite his misgivings, Hitler eventually ordered to continue.
It is a testament to the tactical skill of the Germans who have pushed the Soviets back for 10 days making the Wehrmacht. And for a brief moment, it seemed that despite the terrible losses inflicted on them would not be in vain. The final defensive belt was drilled and armored Fourth Panzer Army were pooled for the final push. It was at this time when the Russian commander, General Georgi Zhukov, unveiled its surprise ending. The Soviet reserves, comprising the 5th Armored Guards Army was ordered to move to plug the gap. Near the village of Prokhorovka, Soviet tanks crashed against the Germans. In what became known as "death ride of the Fourth Panzer Army," both sides fought face to face with tanks. When he finished, the German offensive power in the east was gone. The panzer divisions, reconstructed at great expense in the first half of 1943, were undone. With them, Hitler's hopes of a victory.
* Strengthen the Afrika Korps too late *
While the Germans were marching towards death in Kursk, Allied forces landed in Sicily. That they have been able to beat the forces of the island relatively easily and quickly follow with the invasion of mainland Italy can be attributed to another of Hitler's mistakes. Since early 1941, Hitler had allowed the commander of German forces in Africa, Erwin Rommel, conduct a financial transaction forces. For two years, rejecting Hitler to commit more units that only a handful of troops forced Rommel to build your reputation by fighting and winning mostly in disparity of numbers.
Only after the battle of the battle of Alamein was lost, with the admonition to the successful Allied landings in western North Africa in November 1942-both was that Hitler suddenly decided to massively reinforce the army of Rommel. Tens of thousands of German troops were transported to Tunisia in an attempt to maintain the position of Africa. Hitler's decision came long after all hope of victory had vanished with predictable results. Approximately 230,000 Axis troops in Tunisia surrendered in May 1943, including most of the legendary Afrika Korps of Rommel. These veterans were desperately needed and would be greatly puzzled in the battle for Europe.
Brooding * Normandy *
By early 1944, it was apparent to the German High Command Hitler and even the final competition for control of Northern Europe would not be long in coming and that the Allies would soon attempt to cross the channel. In one of his flashazos intuition, Hitler predicted that the invasion would come through Normandy. Unfortunately for the German senior strategists did not have the courage to support his conviction. When the Allies landed in Normandy in fact, suspected Hitler was a diversionary attack and that the real target was the Pas de Calais region. The confirmation of this was that nearly 19 German divisions, including six powerful panzer divisions, D spent the day without moving.
If the panzer divisions had reached the beaches on the landing, they'd been turned into a living hell and could have driven the enemy back into the sea. Over the following weeks, Hitler was more and more convinced that the Normandy invasion was fun; it was not until late July that finally approved the movement of a division of the 15th army, guarding the Pas de Calais. Once again it was too late. For when, arriving with divisions, the German lines were about to collapse.
In another unfortunate decision by Hitler, had ordered the Normandy front was maintained at any cost. This ensured that when inevitably forces withdrew, the surviving skeleton would be unable to carry out any mobile operation or face the enemy on the fortifications they had along the German border.
* Claim the command "stay and die" *
The order to keep their positions until the last man and the last bullet would have more dire consequences on the Eastern Front.
Timed to be as close to the landing in Normandy, Stalin had ordered Operation Bagration-the destruction of Army Group Central to that launched on June 22, 1944, on the anniversary of the invasion of the Soviet Union. Shortly before that launched the Soviet attack, Hitler's generals advised him to withdraw the army, trying to keep the city of Minsk, to shorten the lines in more defensible positions and let the offensive hit an empty space. Failing to persuade him of the need to leave the space in which the Soviet pincers would close, begged to establish the defense in depth.
Instead, Hitler ordered the majority of its forces to maintain their positions and prohibit the withdrawal, no matter how desperate the situation was. The result was calamitous. In a month of fighting, the Soviets disappeared Army Group Center, annihilating 20 divisions in the first weeks of the offensive So many allies as those fighting on the front of Normandía-. Just the tired red horde stopped on the Vistula River near Warsaw. Once restored forces were prepared for your next big move: the Third Reich.
* Losing the second bet in the Ardennes *
There was, however, a decent chance that Hitler could save East Germany almost two generations of Soviet occupation, had it not been for his next misstep. By the end of 1944, the Allied armies were positioned to enter Germany from the east and west. Through a maximum effort, the Wehrmacht was able to replace several of its divisions and organize pazer a mobile reserve that address the threat. The renovated armored formations were much less than what Germany needed to turn the tide of the war. But if these divisions had been deployed on the eastern front, they would have been able to keep the Soviets at bay German borders enough that the Western allies will advance and occupy most of Germany.
Of course, such thoughts never bothered to Hitler. Instead, he threw his armored in December on a weaker section of the American front-in the forests Ardenas- when it became famous with the name of the Battle of the Bulge. This attack through the Ardennes, had a false hope and doom from the start. It may have delayed the Allies, but had no opportunity to recreate the glorious advance of 1940, although it was held in the grounds. Everything was Hitler gained a foothold in Belgium that could not be maintained. In exchange for the bulk of what was left of their armored forces, Hitler lost the last hope of salvaging something from the disaster to come.
In the end, it is surprising that despite mistake after mistake, Germany resisted the combined power of the great powers of the world for nearly half a decade. This is a testament to the ability operatic German army, which proved tireless in his recovery through the war. Even in 1945, the Wehrmacht was able to deceive their stalkers and inflict great losses in the last months of the war. But all in vain. Progress in the field could not overcome incompetence in high places. Nor could erase the fact that the combat capabilities of the Wehrmacht were in the service of a vile cause. Humanity will always be grateful that the cause was led by one of the most incompetent military leaders.