The 10 Biggest Mistakes of the Wehrmacht in World War II
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- Опубліковано 15 тра 2024
- What were the biggest mistakes the German Army made during World War II? What were they due to? How could they have been avoided? What were its consequences? Which were the most serious? Next, in this program, we are going to analyze the 10 most important mistakes that the Wehrmacht made.
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00:00 Introduction
00:34 1st Mistake: Dunkirk
02:09 2nd Error: Battle of Britain
02:57 3rd Error: Barbarossa Planning
04:40 4th Error: United States Declaration of War
05:54 5th Error: Malta
06:30 6th Error: Stalingrad
08:10 7th Error: Operation Citadel
09:15 Rest of Errors - Розваги
His biggest mistake…his ego n not listening to his more qualified generals.
His biggest mistake was listening to them.
True if he let his generals rule the war he would’ve have won the german army was absolutely unstoppable
It depends on which generals. If he'd consistently listened to von Manstein then maybe. Halder, no. Guderian, no. Rommel, no. And even von Manstein wanted to pull out of Italy ASAP, while it turned out that Kesselring made an effective delaying defense there.
Also, few if any of Hitler's generals seemed to appreciate the value of grabbing the Caucasus oil vs. the lower value of attacking toward Moscow. Hitler was horrible toward his fellow human beings, but the concept that his generals could have done better militarily is highly questionable.
You're right, H was a meglomaniac and speed freak, if he had declared war was over July-Aug. 1940, no one would
have taken on the Wehrmacht not UK, US, or USSR! H. attacked the USSR., USSR saved Europe, US didn't. show up
till June 6, 1944.
Biggest mistake was stopping and not going into Dunkirk the war woulda been over in 4 days. England would have surrendered
The grandest error was the fact that the Germans were too arrogant to realize that the allies had broken their enigma codes and knew in advance every single thing they were going to do. This fact figures greatly in most of these other "mistakes" that are listed here.
This is the most important error - not mentioned in the video. The Germans war plans were known to the allies at all times and could be countered.
The British would not use information from Enigma unless there were two other possible sources of information.
I believe a mistake (or error if you prefer) involves doing something. Failure to be aware of a critical weakness does not qualify for this video IMO.
Basically the biggest mistake you could make in WWII was to bite off more than you could chew. Germany and Japan were on the victory train and thought they could keep it up forever.
The Wehrmacht allowing Hitler to go forward with his hold-fast order was one of the biggest mistakes; it started at Stalingrad and never end until the end of the war. Divisions after divisions were cut off or crushed and if they were lucky enough, they had to make uncoordinated chaotic last minute retreats, losing their vehicles and heavy equipment, most of the time against Hitler's orders.
It actually started during the retreat from Moscow. Hitler finally gave the order of no more retreat and soldiers should fight and die where they stand if necessary. It actually stabilized the line. He probably thought it would work again, and it obviously didn't.
Maybe there was a reason for hold-fast order. Maybe Germany was out of oil and couldn’t fight the war of maneuver, it used in the beginning of the war
I beg to differ: it began with the battle of Moscow , 1941. In scale it was twice as large as the battle for Stalingrad, and with twice the casualties. The Germans were hurled back c.150 miles - this had never happened to them before. For many in the Wehrmacht it dawned on them that they couln't defeat to Soviets ... although little did they imagine what was yet to come... .
@davepaterson935 It wasn't nearly as big as Stalingrad. The Germans lost around 1 million men in that battle. They never saw casualties like that before. The Russians lost 2 million and then brought in another million for the encirclement. The million or so reserves that were brought in for the Moscow counter offensive were brought in when it was clear that Japan wasn't going to attack and at the time that was the last of the Russian reserves. It was the only time the Germans actually had numerical superiority in manpower. Most supposed "historians" criticize the invasion, but in 1941 Russia was at it's weakest and it was realistically the best window of opportunity for Germany to defeat Russia and win the war.
@@davepaterson935 Yes Hitler's "no retreat" concept seems to have started near Moscow in 1941, not at Stalingrad. Near Moscow in 1941, Hitler was afraid that if the Germans retreated it would hurt morale and possibly lead to the collapse of the entire area. This was WWI-type thinking of course, not WWII, but Hitler had been a soldier in WWI so that experience shaped some of his thinking.
The view was also that if the Germans could remain close to Moscow, they would be positioned to launch another attack in that direction after 1941, but they never did. However, remaining near Moscow may have led to Stalin believing that Moscow would be attacked in 1942, which may have helped open things up for the actual 1942 German push further south (i.e. "Case Blue").
"Standing fast" near Moscow may have worked out "ok" for the Germans, which might have meant Hitler to think he was correct. But he should have learned from Stalingrad 1942 that this was generally a bad idea, yet he repeated the "no retreat" mistake again and again during the war.
Germany did not have a strategic view. In april 1941 OKW could have given Rommel 2 extra panzer divisions so to reach Suez and put an end to the Adrican campaign. Then, Barbarossa could have benefited from more aerial and panzer support that was wasted in North Africa. However, it is true that the declaration of war on America was completely nonsense and the real reason for the loss of the war.
You're comment fails at it's first essential sentence. They could have given Rommel 2 panzer divisions. No😂😩. They couldn't because they couldn't supply the ones they already had in africa. If you can't supply divisions they're useless. Soldiers don't have bullets to fire, soldiers don't have enough food and water and the divisions don't get enough replacements etc. This is why they didn't send the 2 divisions to africa. Logistics.
@@KokenyRichard Since we are speculating on the 'what ifs'....let's go back to the study made by General Thomas, sent ahead of any German forces to North Africa, to ascertain what it would mean to commit German forces to this area. He concluded that Germany could supply no more than 4 divisions, which must be mechanized...he also recommended the removal of the Italian forces to ensure enough supplies reached this Afrika Korps. Had this been done, Rommel might very well have had the forces he needed to sweep British forces from one end of North Afrika to the other.
I believe Germany biggest mistake in ww2 was not destroying the British expeditionary army at Dunkirk, but allowed them to escape, if there army was stopped at Dunkirk Britain would have to capitulate to Germany and the United States would have to declare neutrality
The entire US high command strategy was Germany first. It really didn't matter that Germany declared war on the US, it would have joined the war in Europe sooner or later.
lol
Of course Germany had a strategic goal
Which was to capture more oil in Middle East or soviet
Is east sitting back and judging from distance
Not annihilating the Allies in Dunkerque and not allowing Paulus to break out of Stalingrad were the biggest mistakes Hitler made. Hitler considered himself as the best leader of the German army, he was a kluns, an idiot and he refused to listen to his excellent and experienced commanders.
That move wasn’t the first time sparring the enemy to retreat and then backfire years later. The British did the very same mistake during the revolution in the 18th century in New York.
I think not recognizing that the Enigma code had been cracked was a fatal error. It's what made the trap set by the Soviets in 1943 as effective as it was.
In my humble opinion, of all the mistakes, the most pathetic was declaring war on the US simply "out of solidarity with Japan"... which wasn't corresponded by the latter in any way, shape or form. It's true that the Roosevelt administration was already sending help to Britain and even the USSR before entering the war, but without the German declaration I doubt the American public would be willing to sacrifice American soldiers directly for another European war, while Roosevelt would have dedicated entirely to defeating Japan, at least for the first few years. There was no reason for Germany to declare war on the US.
Beat me to it. That was a HUGE, FATAL mistake. However, Hitler thought that Japan in China would as a formal ally present a threat on Russia's eastern border, but Stalin's spies knew they had no plans to do so, so Stalin's troops were withdrawn from there just in time to save Moscow.
Invading the soviet union was far and away the biggest mistake. Without the eastern front there would have been no chance of d-day and a fully conquered Europe under Hitler without the soviet union as an enemy was a much bigger threat to the US than Japan occupying parts of Asia temporarily. By the time d-day did happen Germany's best divisions had been wiped out and rebuilt, some more than once. The cream of Germany's military strength bled itself white in the east.
@@stevencorscadden5767The German Soviet war was inevitable Hitler planned it decades before he came to power and there was no way he just wouldn’t invade the SU he needed the oil food and land
The US would have declared war on Germany anyway and would have entered the war regardless. Hitler just made the decision himself instead of having FDR decide for him
Done unilaterally by Hitler and without the approval of his cabinet. Without American help, the USSR may well have collapsed.
Hitler got to Paris, Kaiser Wilhelm never did. The amazing thing is how close the Nazis came to victory, not the fact that they lost the war. Churchill thought Barbarossa was the end of the USSR and again thought that with Fall Blau in 1942. Roosevelt's military advisors agreed with that assessment. Hitler did not lose the war militarily so much as politically. The Germans were spread too thin. The Nazi racist attitudes on steroids were to blame. He could have brought back Poland in some form like Vichy France. He could have done the same with Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. That would leave only the need to occupy and garrison Norway and Northern and Western France. He could have done the same with Yugoslavia and Greece. Hitler should have attempted to keep his end of the 10 year Molotov/Ribbentrop Pact. Stalin was supplying Germany with oil and other strategic materials badly needed. When they did invade the USSR the Germans should have well treated the subject peoples such as the Ukrainians, the Belarus, and the Baltic States: Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Germany should have liberated these people and guaranteed them their own states, even if puppet states. Most of these people hated the Moscow Bolshevik government of Stalin and would have welcomed the Germans. Instead the Nazis treated these peoples as subhuman slaves. This was the biggest mistake. WLR
You nailed it. The Germans couldn't police all that land even if they took it, not when you're killing/enslaving everyone
Your assessment is actually very precise, their racist ideology also ensured that Russians who sympathised with the whites could never show meaningful support, Turks would not enter the war on their behalf to blockade the Mediterranean of British shipping and his love for the English meant that the 1944 Normandy landing was Hitler's own doing.
I agree that if Hitler had treated the subject nations with more humanity, he might have gotten more participation by them against the USSR, with less partisan resistance. At one point Hitler considered having Poland join Germany against the USSR, though obviously that concept ended with Germany's invasion of Poland.
The Baltic states did send some troops to fight the USSR, and Ukraine might have sent millions to fight the Bolsheviks if they'd at least nominally been given some nationhood. The Cossacks were somewhat supported by Hitler and many did join the German military, in the hope of having their own independence.
But the bottom line was that the Nazis were Nazis, and thus did treat the occupied areas - especially the USSR - as subhuman slaves or worthy of extermination. So asking the Nazis to not be Nazis would seem a big stretch in the "what if" category. The Nazi ideology drove the war itself, so no Nazis, probably no war at that time.
Nazism is an extreme form of Fascism, and not all Fascists are antisemites. Your point is basically correct, but it could have been different. If Hitler had treated the Jews like the Hohenzollern Dynasty did, he might have gotten the atomic bomb 💣 first.
They lost due to strategic blunders and lack of oil
Putting Goering in charge of the air force.
yea he was an idiot
Did not matter. The Allies were always going to produce 4X more of everything over the Germans .
He was a drug addict.
I think Goering should get at least 25% of the credit for winning the allies the war overall. Not a single good decision made on his end
Yeah he was a boob. Hitler should have fired him.
Hitler delayed Barbarossa 3 months to defeat the Greeks who were beating the Italians. It would of meant getting to Moscow by Autumn instead of Winter.
a Key omission!
Two month, not three!
AND! ....there was a chance! Prepearing for 1942!
But no and what happened 1942? They did the same misstakes as 1941 and Napoleon, again! 🤦♂
I agree. That's one of my top four reasons Hitler lost.
The attack couldn’t have been moved up that much. May is still Rasputitsa season in Russia.
@@bradwhitman7877
??? 🤦♂
Mistake number 1: Starting the war.
Mistake number 2: Kursk.
@@ariramo9108
I've got Stalingrad at 2.
Then probably Kursk at 3.
The war was force on them
@@Hoang-88 lol ok
@@mdiciaccio87 : )
We should all be thankful for their mistakes.
Only a Zionist can say that🤡
Looking at the world today, I am not sure about what you said.
Really ? Transgenders, and BLM ? This is what we have to show for our victory.
@@garycartwright4860 and don’t forget White Christian Nationalist.
@@EvangelismforGod and bending the knee over a known felon who’s life’s wasn’t worth shit anyway
1. Attacking The Soviet Union without knocking Britain out of the war.
2. Declaring War on the United States.
3. These two things determined the outcome of the war right there. Nothing Germany could have done after those two points would have made any difference.
Occam's razor applied to history. Me likes.
Hitler decided to do that against the advice of his general. In fact every expert knows the problem of fighting wars on so many fronts. Hitler ultimately lost the war on his own. He blundered on every turn.
Hitler's need for living space as expressed in Mein Kampf and his belief that the Soviet Union would attack Germany no doubt drove him to the reckless decision to attack the Russians. Nevertheless you are quite correct that he committed 1 blunder after next. There were few of Hitler's generals that would dare to stand up to him. Understandable considering that being sacked was the best outcome one could expect for doing so.
I believe this is the biggest mistake!
One more thing that could have been the most important. Germany started war time production only after Stalingrad in 1943. The allied did this from the moment they entered (or declared the war). One example of German armoured vehicles production: 1940 - 2154 pieces, 1944 - 27340 pieces.
Had they started earlier (1939 or 1940), would have won the war.
It was Runstedt, who suggested stopping before Dunkirk. Also the ground was overwhelmingly not suited for tanks there - they needed to wait for infantry to follow up. Also: bombing an area before attacking is absolutely understandable. The Germans knew they would meet fierce resistance. The break for several days was IMHO no blunder, but neccessary.
Yes, and the weather was the main reason the British got away - it was just bad enough to prevent the Luftwaffe from flying most of the time (due to cloudy conditions) but good enough to permit use of the beaches for evacuation. If it had been worse, there would only had been 40,000 evacuated. If it had been better, the Luftwaffe would have been able to achieve something. The Luftwaffe did force most evacuations to occur at night. To have such weather was not to be expected and if there had been a storm the troops wouldn't have been able to embark at all. The reason for the halt was that a lot of first world war generals were in command at the top (including Hitler and von Rundstedt) who were very concerned about keeping a continuous front and not having exposed flanks. Hitler also saw the terrain as marshy and unsuitable for tanks. There were very few tanks in running condition but the British army was in complete rout and just needed to be pushed to capture them. Instead, they got a respite that enabled them to rally and establish a defense line.
Barbarossa the invasion of Russia was the one definitive mistake that Hitler made, " those who can not remember the past are condemned to repeat it, he basically made the same mistake that Napoleon made hundreds of years before, underestimating the fighting resolve and tenacity of the Russian people, the vastness of Russia itself, the deapper the invasion went the longer the supply line , the longer the supply line the more difficult to keep troops at the spear head supplied with food , ammo etc, a logistic nightmare, invading so late in the year and not taking into account of the russian winter, not allowing paulus to break out from Stalingrad etc etc.
History has taught us that when an invading army conquers vast amounts of inhabited lands then plans to hold onto those lands and rule the conquered people it will require a huge amount of resources by the conquering force. It means occupying troops put in place, continuous supply lines, infrastructure support and some form of conquering government put in place. Look at the Romans who went as far as Britannia. The Germans conquered France easily but then had to fight the French Underground. Same thing in Greece. It's a costly task long term. Imagine the cost of an occupying force in Russia. The Russian people would have still fought the Germans had the Nazis succeeded. Over time the Germans would have grown weary.
The mistake wasn’t operation Barbarossa itself the mistake was from the Wehrmacht not listening to his generals and him leading the german army
@@haroutsaryan2136that's not true. He was absent from war meetings during weeks of 1941 where it was his generals who pushed for an offensive into Moscow instead of Hitler's wish to take over the Caucasus for its oil reserves.
..".hundreds of years before" Really? Come on dude
The invasion of Russia took place 22 June 1941, not late in the year.
A severe problem was that the Wehrmacht was not properly equipped for a winter war in the Soviet Union. They lacked warm clothes and boots. Lots of troops were lost by freezing limbs.
True but they didn't expect to be fighting on into the winter. It was supposed to last a few months. Logistics was a nightmare and there would have been no way for soldiers to have been supplied with winter gear at the start and carry all that stuff with them.
@@mikehart5619 So they repeated Napoleon's failure. Not very wise!
Becoming allies with the Japanese but not the Ukrainians seems kinda stupid... Had he not declared War on America and made alliance with Ukraine, Latvians, and other countries who welcomed them was their biggest mistake.
Are you dumb? Ukraine was part of USSR back then.
After driving out the BEF, Hitler was convinced that he was a military genius.
Hitler didnt 'drive out the BEF' !
The BEF was the smallest force there and was sent to assist the French and Belgium forces who were both far larger. Yet despite this, the BEF advanced while both the French and Belgiums retreated leaving the BEF flanks exposed and forcing them to retreat too.
If Hitler ever thought he was a military genius, which is doubtful. It would have been after defeating the Polish, the Dutch and Belgium Armies but particularly after defeating the French who were considered the finest and best equiped Army in Europe at the time, yet the Germans defeated them in only 6 weeks. So if Hitler felt any sense of pride at this time, it was certainly justified.
Nevertheless it was after the defeat of the BEF that he became even more dictatorial and started overruling his generals. I don't know why yo u deny that the BEF was defeated, whether it was their fault or not.@@johnbrereton5229
@@johnbrereton5229Relevant facts, yes. And the military genius belief began 7 March 1936.
Another great video again, thank you
If only Hitler hadn’t stopped Guderians panzers 220km from Moscow in September 1941.
No Defense of Moscow was established yet and winter hadn’t come yet. Hitler was an idiot.
And then what?
Napoleon occupied Moscow, and what good did it do him? Also, what if attacking Moscow had gone like the Battle of Stalingrad?
Furthermore, diverting Guderian south helped capture something like 700k Soviet troops in the "Kiev pocket", and opened up the southern USSR front where most of the economic value lay.
Of course if Guderian had gone straight for Moscow and captured it, then "maybe" there would have been a collapse of Soviet morale and a change of government similar to what happened to Russia in WWI. But there's also a good chance that they'd have continued the fight, especially if realizing how brutal the Nazis would be toward them.
Moscow itself was of little value to the Nazis, and even Hitler stated this. Hitler did want Leningrad early on, but then he had the monstrous idea of starving the people of Leningrad to death, rather than capturing the city and having to feed the occupants. Hitler may have viewed Moscow in a similar way - just more mouths to feed, while the "breadbasket" was further south, in Ukraine.
IMO, the biggest fault in the German prosecution of the war was Hitler's racism, which lead him to underestimate the Russians because they were Slavs and the Americans because they were a mix of races. Fatal mistakes, both of them.
Not getting out of bed during the D-Day invasion .
Great discussion.
Apparently Hitler did not read the history of the Napoleonic-Russian struggles ...
true,learn from the mistakes of others 🤔
US would've likely joined the war against the Germany regardless of their declaration of war. Similarly Battle of Britain wouldve been lost regardless of whether they estimated RAFs forces correctly.
The main mistake in my opinion is the general directive of Hitler to his generals to hold on to every inch of territory instead of giving his commanders operational freedom and letting them conduct mobile warfare of fighting retreats and counterattacks. In fact this is what the generals (Manstein especially) wanted. That strategical blunder was the cause of many others - Stalingrad, Kursk counterattacks, operation Bagration etc. Holding on to meaningless territory instead of recognizing that the point is to destroy enemy forces.
The US would have supplied Britain and Russia like they did but only fought Japan in combat if Hitler did not declare war.
The American people would have concentrated on the country that actually attacked them .
I do not agree that the Battle of Britain would have been lost by Germany. They were superior and if they had stuck to the original plan to destroy all panes. air fields and production of planes then they would have achieved air superiority. It would not have been as easy as they expected because of British radar but they would have achieved it. The diversion to bomb non military targets was a massive mistake.
Of course an invasion of Britain would have been a different matter. However with air superiority they would have removed the threat of a European invasion from Britain without actually invading Britain. At least for several years. It would have been a difficult problem for the Commonwealth to overcome. They might also potentially have then starved the Royal Navy of fuel. British ships would then need to go to Iceland or further to fuel up. This would not have stopped Britain, eventually returning with aid from the Commonwealth, but it would have secured the West for Germany for many months if not years. Especially if the USA took another year to enter the war. Which is also feasible.
In that scenario, the Commonwealth would have to first either divert enough of the Luftwaffe away from Britain or else claw back the air space starting from Scotland and moving South. Only then being able to build up to threaten the continent. That could have prolonged the war for 2 years easily.
@@davexb6595 If Germany did not declare war on the US and Russia and it was a one on one with the UK.
It would have been a stalemate staring match .
Both side could not cross the channel to D-day each other .
In a air war the attackers lose because surviving shot down attacking pilots are POWs and shot down defending pilots jump into another plane .
The Germans were in a conundrum at the South-Eastern Front: Trying to cut the important supply route of Volga river as well as gaining access to the direly needed fuel resources of the Caucasus, which made them split their force, and resulted in not being able to decide either in their favor.
Now it is arguable whether one should have been preferred.
Preferring the Stalingrad direction might have hindered further operations due to fuel shortage, and maybe opened a weak flank in the South.
Preferring the Caucasus option might have been preferable imo, but I am not sure what the consequences on the Northern flank towards Stalingrad would have been.
AFAIK, there were major disagreements among the German command before the decision to persue both directions, and even before, whether the capture of Moscow was really of greatest strategic importance, and not merely a symbolic objective, and more troops should have been engaged in the South-East and other directions.
Stalingrad was very important in their operation because they wanted to make a 3 pronged attack towards Moscow which was way to ambitious and would of led to the destruction of all 3 army groups at once they needed the oil from the caucus honestly declaring war on the soviet union wad there biggest mistake but was inevitable
What about not understanding that the code of the enigma machine was broken?
yea that was big
They had no way to find that out. The mistake was believing it was not breakable. Their cypher security measures (e.g., changing the base setting daily, avoiding repeated phrases within messages, etc.) were not followed religiously. Late in the war, decryption sometimes took as few as 15 minutes. After the war, a delegation from Bletchley Park visited the German cypher division and asked if they had any Enigma machines stored there. The Germans very proudly showed the a room full of them, bragging that these machines were the best in the world and had never been broken. The British visitors managed to politely stifle their laughter until they had left the building.
@@jguenther3049 I respect your wisdom, but I think it was pretty obvious that enigma was broken when most of their submarines were sunk during 1943. For instance, that Guggenberger U-boat was sunk after being located after a communication to Germany. The americans didn't even had to look for it, just went to those coordinates and sunk it easily off the coast of Brazil.
@@luismacielcosta8845 Yes, it may have been obvious to those aboard the Guggenberger sub.
...and you got 10!!!likes for that? 🤦♂
What do you really know about the Enigma Code and Bletchley Park?
Shall I guess? 😎
You did a nice job of highlighting the worst mistakes made by Hitler in WWII. If I had been asked these questions I would've pointed out these. But I also would've added in how the Bridge at Nijmegen was defended. And also Hitler stopping the research and development of certain technologies that would've really helped German out until it was too late or close to it.
Hitler had war disease. After his first conquest, Czechoslovakia, he was incapable of not starting another fight no matter how the last campaign ended.
Don't forget another big mistake: the Tikhvin offensive in October 1941.
If the 18th Army had concentrated it's efforts in the "Small Solution" for Leningrad - the capture of Volkhov - instead of the "Big Solution" to take Tikhvin, Leningrad would have starved completely and would have surrendered in January 1942.
By not blocking the "Road of Life" in Lake Ladoga, the Germans let Leningrad survive with meager supplies, and thus never surrendered.
Tldr: capture Volkhov= Leningrad falls.
As Field Marshal Montgomery told the House of Lords: "Rule one on page one of the book of war, is: ‘Do not march on Moscow’. Many have tried and it doesn't work."
Actually, if Hitler had marched directly on Moscow he may have won. But it's a big "may".
Absolutely incredible, not even the War Academy knows about the significance of the british enigma program. They were feeding entire German battle plans to the soviets, and they still just barely held on.
This is what arrogance does 🤔
A pretty accurate list.
It was a wonderful historical coverage video about 10 military mistakes committed by Germany during WW2... I think the video clearly pointed 👉 10 decisive mistakes .all those mistakes, one pursues the other one .that meant Germany was going on mistakes Road .I think Germany wasn't open 2nd front ( Barbarossa operations) before finishing England question .. When Germany left the British freely on theirs island .. Germany donated valuable time to the British to regroup its strength and focus on the northern Africa campaign and Italian invading beside the USA. Thank you 🙏 ( war academy) channel for sharing this magnificent video
Yes, there was synergy between mistakes, each one combining to make the situation that much worse.
What about not invading Britain immediately after preventing the evacuation at Dunkerque? Yes, German casualties, without mastery of the sea and air, would have been huge, but not as bad as those at the Battle for Moscow (1941 - 1942) and Stalingrad (1942 -1943). Of course, had Britain been subdued, the subsequent attack on the Soviet Union would have been greatly facilitated.
That is a good question. We need to remember that the British Navy were dominant. So it is not clear how Germany could have launched a successful invasion at that time. At least not without air superiority. Which they screwed up by lacking of focus on military targets.
The biggest was not listening to the Generals.
I knew I would find that assessment , 100 % , The best part is the war could have been winnable .
the generals were not as good as you imagine they wrote their own biographies which later historians picked up on the invinsible wermacht with super sayan generals leading them was a myth it was hitlers generals that convinced him to attack at kursk wheras hitler wanted to attack donbass in ukraine and take some 200000 prisioners
His generals were the ones fixated on taking Moscow in 1941. Hitler originally wanted go straight for the resources in Ukraine and the Caucasus
One of the biggest errors was the belief that very detailed work rules using craftsmen to build armaments was superior to true mass production . There was also a tendency to over build and over engineer . This led to high unit costs as well as unreliability and low production . It still happens to this day - compare the reliability of any German automobile to Honda or Toyota .
Thank you for your well done vids! Please study Bletchley Park's impact on the eastern front. Stavka eventually began incorporating this British intel into their planning. In your own words "the resources used in Operation Citadel would have been better deployed on a section of the front where the Russians didn't have full awareness of German planning." Donitz was dumbfounded by the allies constantly showing up where his submarine forces were located. Love to see what you come up with!
Good points, but you miss the most obvious one that was the biggest mistake for Germany AND Japan- they went to war 100% DEPENDENT on importing oil because both are barren of oil fields. Once we stopped the flow of oil to them, the wars were considerably shortened. For example: The Germans had 100s of tanks and planes (including the ME-262) all built and ready to go at the end of the war- but couldn't use ANY of them because we cut their oil supplies.
Yes and no.. Japan attacked the Americans precisely because they were being blocked from oil and would soon run out. They saw it as a way out of the existing oil blockade. If Japan had been able to keep fighting in China and still buying oil then the rationale for attacking USA was not there. Which means the plan to invade South East Asia wasn't practical or required.
Of course some generals would probably still have advocated invading South East Asia and who knows if they might have eventually done so anyway. The Americans obviously thought that was unlikely for the foreseeable future. I think the Japanese would have remained bogged down in China no matter what resources they had. It is difficult to predict what they would have done because their whole expansion in the 30s was a case of the generals doing what they wanted to expand, rather than a truly defined and strategic goal.
Touché- good points, thanks! @@davexb6595
Not only was aircraft production at a respectable level during the Battle of Britain, but fast repairs returned many damaged aircraft back to the front line.
Another was making the Italians use German encryption,which was broken, over their own which weren't.
Great video. They should have never let the british and french escape at Dunkirk.
The 'Halt Order' at Dunkirk did not come from Hitler, so he can't be blamed for it. After the British attack at Arrass alarmed German high command they ordered the halt to allow their stretched infantry and supplies lines to catch up. They were worried this attack could repeat the WW I 'Miracle of the Marne' when British troops attacked the very similar stretched lines of the German advance and along with the French pushed them all the way back to where they had started. Hitler only agreed to the Halt after they had already authorised it. However, while they rested, German army group B took over the attack from the North, so it wasn't really a Halt, more of a change of emphasis. Army group A needed to rest and regroup to attack further south, because they thought the BEF was trapped at Dunkirk and couldn't go anywhere, they were wrong !
Hitlers biggest mistake was allowing British to escape from Dunkirk. All his other mistakes are consequences of this error. In his war with the USSR, he had to live with a functioning enemy in his rear, which would also be the launchpad for inevitable US intervention.
There seems to be 1 Theme through most of these mistakes Hermann Göring...
The most important mistake was to invade the SovietUnion in 1941. First England
The very first mistake was committed by Hitler and Hitler alone; after assurances he had no more territorial ambitions in Europe, he went ahead after Munich and swallowed up what was left of Czechoslovakia....THIS is what convinced England and France that the fool could never be trusted and led to their support of Poland's existence. It also led to an increase in military spending by both western powers...
British re-armament was already well under way by then.
nothing is black and white, but my opinion on this
1. Dunkirk
Hitler did not attack Dunkirk for two reasons
* the environment was created by the front detachments of the tank divisions (the allies in the panic of fleeing did not realize that there were more of them than the Germans who were "pursuing" them
if the Germans had attacked, they would have immediately received an "uppercut" in the chin and the tank division would have been massacred (and they are too expensive, they were kept for Russia)
* While bringing in the infantry, Hitler offered peace, a truce, whatever Britain wanted, as long as they didn't go to war with each other, but Churchill wouldn't listen
luckily for Britain they pulled out 400K soldiers, otherwise Africa would be in terrible trouble
2. Battle of Britain
The fundamental mistake was that "aviation" defeated Britain
what they needed was an invasion attack supported by aviation
30K paratroopers around a port in the south of Britain would be enough to capture the port while the infantry floats in under the "Luftwaffe umbrella"
But then again, Hitler never had Britain on his list, and he saved the divisions for Russia
an invasion would be expensive (loss of a division or two at sea, but the British Navy and RAF would not be able to stop everything),
without the equipment and with the German bridgehead and Britain, the war would be pointless, no matter what Churchill said
3. Barbarossa Planning
in the plans, they did not include two important factors, Britain and the USA, which were helping their ideological enemy against the Germans (the enemy of my enemy is my ally)
and everyone forgets that German logistics was tied to railways and horses (fuel was saved for tanks, planes and submarines)
* the commander of German logistics himself said before the war that they had fuel and ammunition up to Smolensk, and that they had to stop (refueling, ammunition replenishment, people's rest and service of the army)
the phrase that "they didn't send winter clothes" is meaningless, because
a) there is only one railway leading to the front, which has a limit on the number of trains that can pass (the north was a little better off because it had Baltic ports for support)
but the center and even worse in the south the supply lines were very thin and long
b) when you have limited space, there was no room for winter clothes, everything else had a higher priority
and you should know that the trains had to be reloaded at the Polish-Russian border
because Russia has a wider track spacing than the rest of Europe, another huge waste of time
4. United States Declaration of War
definitely the biggest mistake
if Germany had not declared war on the USA, the USA would not have turned to Germany until Japan was defeated, and even then it is very questionable because of the public who did not want war and read about the losses and wounded
* if Japan had not attacked the USA, Roosevelt would never have received congressional approval for the USA to enter the war
Every senior US officer (Army and Navy) said "stay out of it" when asked if the US should enter WWII
Nice!
But #1 is RADAR! That was the key summer 1940!
#2 Not taking the Ukraine on their side, just treading then as whatever Nazis did with "not living worthy" human beings!
then...take points whatever you might be right!
...and there was a small tiny point, no one mentoing! Iraq summer 1940! They were Hitler asking for help against the british!
No one knows who is interessting in this topic 2nd WW!
One of Germanies biggest mistake was at the beginning of Barbarossa , the soviet people hated Stalin and their military wasn't that fond of him either and would have deserted to the German side , but the Germans turned the population against them with acts of brutality executing citizens and captured soviet troops ,burned villages and plundered the country, So if the Soviets people turned on Stalin and Russia collapsed in 1941, Stalingrad would never have happened or any of the other losses like Kursk and so on, and a Russia surrender would have negated all the other mistakes Germany made in the west like Dunkirk and left Germany in a excellent strategic position not having to fight a two front war, plenty of oil and other materials from Russia, and also might have drawn Turkey into the war on the German side as a axis member to help them defeat the British in the middle east
Going to war with weak and remote allies which couldn't help them much. The Wehrmacht had to bail out Italian troops in Greece, North Africa, which delayed their progress. Japan was a world away and couldn't help them practically, they fought separate wars and couldn't coordinate like the Allies did.
They would have been better without Italy. Their army was the worst
This single greatest failure by the Germans was Dunkirk, and second, failure to defeat the RAF and subdue England. Had they captured these 330K troops, preventing them from defending England, and then destroyed the RAF allowing for invasion or at least widespread bombing of England, they might have succeeded in forcing the British to sue for peace. Once that was achieved the entirety of German might could have been unleashed on the USSR almost assuring victory there. This would also have allowed more resources to go to Africa. Other significant errors were their failure to stop daylight bombing raids by developing the jet fighters vigorously, entering the war too soon when the submarine fleet was not yet ready along with other branches like the Luftwaffe being under prepared as well as their atomic program. Lack of 4 engine bombers, clear plans and equipment with which to invade England, lack of range and firepower for early fighters, overly complex tank designs, reliance on bolt action rifles, all contributed. Declaring war on America instead of coordinating with Japan to invade the USSR was also dumb. Had the Axis put the USSR in a 2 front war it would almost certainly spelled the end of that country.
Shifting to bombing cities rather than trying to destroy the RAF was a huge mistake but Germany didn't have any long-range bombers. They had focused on dive bombers and could only hit south-eastern England. They couldn't touch factories and air fields further north so they couldn't have destroyed the RAF in any case.
@@mikehart5619 very true, but they were on the verge of crushing the RAF. The attrition of planes and pilots was unsustainable for England. Had a Germany just continued bombing and strafing airfields in the south, forcing the British to operate out of base is farther to the north they would’ve greatly delayed response time. But as it was, England was almost out of planes and pilots, another month or two Would likely have made RF responses anemic.
Germany NEVER took Malta. Your other picks were spot on but the Nazi’s tried to take Malta and tore it up really bad, the Brits held on tight..
The German's and Italians did major damage to Malta. They never made an attempt to take it.
Dunkirk was pretty much a lose-lose situation for the Nazis; I can't remember which channel I got this info from but apparently the ground leading to the town was pretty marshy, which made is bad for tanks, which would have needed to go in without infantry or artillery support due to them being left behind by the panzers. Also, the panzer crews were pretty burnt out and their vehicles needed maintenance and repairs. With this in mind I'd say trying to use the Luftwaffe to attack the evacuating troops made sense (there was a ton of low cloud over the town and the German planes couldn't stay in the area for very long due to a lack of air bases near to the combat zone).
11. Fuel Fantasy. Germany's conquest was based on robbing Austria of coal and converting it to gasoline. When the fuel ran low, Germany had weak knees for war. 12. Grosse Deutsch. The more territory Germany captured, the more enemies it had.
It starts with how the economy was mismanaged, and the lack of oil did not help. Add that to wasting resources that were already in ever decreasing amounts. No matter what forces you have you will fail without the resources to supply and resupply those forces.
The greatest failure in Kursk was that Hitler had holdet back the attack for 3 month while he wont that his new supertanks (TIger, Panther and Ferdinant) could participated. In this time the Sowjets had bolstered their defence to make it unpenetrable.
Thank you for the information..when you said germany had to station 50 divisions in the west instead of joining Barbarossa i jow knew Dunkirk cost Hitler the war..
Barbarossa: They both ignored the reports from General Georg Thomas, which showed they did not have logistic capability for an operation this large, and the war games (run by Paulus) which showed the infantry could not keep up with the mobile divisions, nor could the supplies reach that far. It was not allowed to present Hitler with counter arguments.
von Rundstedt had it right. He responded to Hitler's request for how to assist him with, "end this war." Got fired, again.
In his somewhat clumsily written, but seemingly well-researched book, “Hitler’s Panzers East,” the author R.H.S. Stolfi argues that the suspension of Army Group Center’s motorized drive on Moscow in mid-August, 1941 was THE turning point in the European theatre of WW II. The more strictly descriptive account by David Stahel, without Stolfi’s “what if” approach to the subject, also points to late summer of 1941 as the time period during which the German campaign in the east was lost (“Operation Barbarossa and Germany’s Defeat in the East” and “Kiev 1941”).
This is a very good book! However, the decision to focus south before Moscow is much more complex than presented in the book. Did Germany have the resources to take Moscow and hold it? Months later, with better supply lines, Germany failed to take Moscow because of a supply collapse. Capturing Moscow early could have had significant political and symbolic effects, weakening Soviet resolve, but it's uncertain if it would have achieved a decisive victory given Stalin's determination and Hitler's refusal to negotiate.
Securing Ukrainian resources was vital for a long war, especially considering German supply limitations. The southern threat from the Soviet army also demanded attention, and it would be difficult for Germany to take or hold Moscow if it existed.
The mistake of letting the British expeditionary forces escape Dunkirk lead to all the other mistakes that Hitler made during WW2. That combined with the fact that the Luftewaffe stopped bombing the planes and radar installations of the RAF and started bombing civilians instead. That was a catastrophic mistake which the Nazis never recovered from.
The Germans never should have attacked Russia until England was defeated. That one single decision was the worst one.
Is there a video that has the mistakes that the Japanese made? Such as the intense rivalry between the Japanese army and the Japanese navy. Was this a factor?
If we were talking of Hitlers biggest mistake’s then surely the fact that he more or less dismissed Churchill’s determination to continue the fight and perhaps more importantly his diplomatic efforts as the FDR whisperer pre Pearl Harbour, we don’t have the complete record / transcript of the trans Atlantic communications between the two but needless to say the rapport between FDR & Churchill cannot be overestimated.
1st and most important mistake - attack on Poland.
2nd mistake not to make the Soviets a friend.
The Germans never took Malta. It remained a strategic obstacle between Italy and North Africa. Malta was heavily attacked, but was never taken.
Germany's lack of Spam didn't help them either
Spam: The number one post war POW ration for Germans doing their sentences in USSR. Spam supplied by USA.
I have heard that Stalin tried to make peace with Germany in early 1943, but Hitler rejected it. If true, this was one of Germany's biggest mistakes during the war.
Why would Stalin do that when he had achieved (with Hitler and Paulus' help) a victory at Stalingrad?
In my opinion, Hitler and Stalin are too much alike with their egos
Stalin offered peace in 1941 but hitler rejected it
How about the Invasion of Poland in 1939??? Hadn't Hitler taxed the World's Patience in 1938 over Czechoslovakia??? He should have laid low and consolidated at least until 1945. If Russia makes a false move, say an invasion of Finland or Poland, Hitler could have quietly slipped over to join the Allies.
From Dunkerque 1940, 200k British, 100k French (many of whom chose to return to France).
The first major, major blunder made by Hitler was Operation SEALION. The Luftwaffe failed its objective completely by abandoning the Operation and turning its focus on Barbarossa when in reality, Britain was at the tipping point of capitulation . Thanks to the RAF's determination against all odds. Germany turned her back on her most powerful enemy in Europe and that's Britain. The second major blunder was Barbarossa. They had a good start from the beginning. If I were Hitler I would just bypass the Ukraine and Stalingrad and concentrate a gigantic blow on the forces around Moscow. I would have army group North, Center and South capture Moscow before the Russian winter arrives. Operation Typhoon would have succeeded early on had Hitler listened to Guderians plea to take Moscow first. A major mistake. The time alloted had given the Russian forces to set up a defensive belt outside Moscow. Failing to capture Britain in the beginning germais doomed.
I have to disagree. Sealion had no chance of succeeding. The Germans would have had control of the see and total dominance in the air. They had no ability to control the sea, and, at best, could only contest control of the air. Any invasion troops would have been lost.
@stephennewton2223 Yes that's why it's a "Blunder". I never stated that sealion would succeed. It would be a catastrophe given Britain's powerful Navy and Airforce to say the least. Yes an amphibious landing would have failed. Attacking Britain head on was a mistake to begin with. "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few'"
Churchill
@@stephennewton2223at some point germany destroyed more planes than GB could produce they also Bomben airfields and ports for good but turned to bomb civilain targets in the worst moment like massive idiots
Pride comes before the fall
After occupying France, Germany should have focused on Mediterranean and North Africa. It means taking Malta and if possible Gibraltar and then push to Suez. After that it would be easy to reach Iraq over Syria, possibly with Turkish involvement. Follow up would be to help independence movement in India and set up trade route to Japan.
so many people have argued that the Germans could’ve beaten the allies back in the sea on Normandy BUT I do not think so and it’s because the panzer would’ve been blown away by the ships and American and British aircraft in addition to the fact that the allies would’ve continued to send more soldiers in with more bombing because the German Navy had been destroyed and the German Air Force was on its very last legs and so bad all they couldn’t hold the Russians back and they couldn’t hold Normandy if they tried. Ever since the days of George Washington, America and the United States have really been into trickier for deceitful warfare. General, Robert E Lee was really good with this, and especially when it came to union genera and I cannot think of his name right now except that he was an exceptional trainer, but he just didn’t want to risk being out numbered.
He was definitely known general grant, or Sherman at all, and I think that several of them have their good qualities, but this one general refused to go on to be attacked until Gettysburg when he happened to get lucky, and the Indiana regiment found a note with two cigars wrapped with a red ribbon . 😂 these two soldiers thought they struck gold finding to cigars in the field. Then I got curious and opened the little piece of paper, which was one of the little letters with battle plans. That was one of the five which were supposed to go to the other five generals, but somehow the gentleman who was supposed to be delivering the apparently dropped one , and did not tell general Lee. Uh oh!! if the guy would’ve admitted that he lost one General Robert E Lee would’ve been able to alter the battle plans, but the guy was too scared to tell General Lee. That was the first time ever that this union general receiving the new in advance, actually went on the attack because he knew the confederate battle plans.
Hitler's refusal to grant Field Marshall Paulus' request to retreat and live to fight another day.
Where could Paulus retreat? The German lines were broken. When the Germans established a line behind Stalingrad, it was too late.
Reasonable points and some backed up with a great arguments. I'd like to add Not going over to 'Total War' in June 1941 whereby Germany copied the UK and brought all young women into factories and farming, etc to free up much needed men for the front would have made a big difference. Along with not sticking to one or two types of equipment i.e. manufacture just Panzer 4s and Stug 3s [and variants] only. Also the conversion of the Soviet railway tracks over to standard European ones took too long and then the Germans didn't expand the Soviet railway system. This with the German focus on vehicles for transporting supplies and not railroads left them short of equipment at the front.
"focus on vehicles for transporting supplies" Many of the 'vehicles' were horse-drawn, requiring a big logistics train of their own, over vast distances.
Hi Ellie, That's why I mentioned Trains first - the Germans went away from their very efficient WW1 movement of troops by train to Autobahns. Horses of course were still very important, but they could have been transported by trains to near their final destinations.@@EllieMaes-Grandad
Good point, but break-of-gauge stymied the use of railways in USSR pending time-consuming alteration. Not that there were many railways there anyway.
Horses were used in huge, but huge, numbers by Germany, carrying lower loads on wagons, more slowly, than trucks could do. @@vincnetjones3037
Also, not pursuing the development of a four engine heavy bomber was a big mistake!
Failure to prioritise the building of U-boats and FW200 Condors in the first 3 years of the war. They never had enough of either. By the time U-boat production was ramped up in 1942 and 43, it was too late and the opportunity was gone. Also sending out the Bismarck in late May just when daylight is at its longest and it's hardest to hide such a ship.
Hitler had jet fighters ( Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighters ) that could have been widely deployed. Hitler, viewed fighter planes as defensive and gave priority to the production of bombers and the training of bomber pilots instead.
The German generals thought that a limited offensive in the Ardennes might have achieved something, and urged Hitler to only plan a much smaller operation. A spoiling attack might have been enough to make the western allies move more slowly and cautiously. Really, the Red army was advancing quickly in the east, and that's where the troops were needed
They split the 6th army into two groups A and B THAT WAS IT. YOU DONT SLIT YOUR FORCES IN THE TUNDRA
Ils n’avaient pas d’équipement d’hiver en 1941 parce qu’ils n’avaient pas anticipé que Barbarossa durerait si longtemps
Another massive blunder early in the war was Gibraltar…Franco owed Germany and Hitler 200million dollars for military aid in the Spanish civil war…he actually agreed to enter the war in May 1940…the British knew about this and threatened the immediate annexation of the Canary Islands if Franco joined the war …if he had of captured Gibraltar then there would of been no Malta …or Monty at El Alamein and nothing to stop Rommel capturing the Middle Eastern oil fields ( which was one of the reasons for the invasion of Russia) Apparently he personally didn’t like Hitler and demanded some of the French North African dominions in return for War . Certainly if Barbarossa was delayed until 1944 or 45 the Wehrmacht and Hitlers special weapons would of been ready …
Hitler's insistence to make the ME 262 a bomber not a fighter is bad mistake
Too many fronts.
The weather in Russia was a large part.
The decision to send troops and panzer armies to Hungary instead of strengthening the forces east of Berlin is a major one. Beyond that, not pulling back forces (e.g from Norway, Italy, etc…) when it really mattered.
I think mistake #1 was the battle of Britain. The British had the worlds best navy and a very capable air force, but without an army they had no reason to shell or bomb German positions except that Germany was attacking them. All Hitler had to do was leave Britain alone and he could have ignored the Atlantic coast.
You could also have mentioned, when talking about the Battle of Britain that the Luftwaffe stopped bombing RAF bases and switched to the cities.
And why are the maps in Spanish?
Point one is wrong. Von Rundstedt, Guderian, Rommel and Hoth all agreed with the Second Haltbefehl, while they had ignored the first one. On 24 May only half of the German tanks were operational while the infantry needed to catch up. When the Second Halt Befehl was ordered the Wehrmacht was simply incapable of taking Dunkerque.
Germany didn’t learn from WWI and got involved in a two front war.
If the Germans attacked at Dunkir it would have been a very similar situation to the Germans in stalingrad where 300k men are doomed to death or captured
Mistake attacking Russia instead of occupying it. Another 1 was discriminating his own citizens. Strange an Austrian ruled Germany, one from Georgia ruled Russia and one from Corsica ruled France
Their biggest error was opening up a second front.
ITs all second guessing what people did not know then vs what they found out.
The Italian campaign against Greece delayed the attack against the USSR for weeks, if not months!
1:07
1st technical error!
Approx 250,000 BEF Soldiers, and approx 50 French! While the French subsequently suffered (& still suffer) years of ridicule for being “Sunburnt Armpit Surrender Monkeys”, their VALIANT Efforts in fighting rear guard during Dynamo, and after, were more than impressive. Their efforts therein allowed Dynamo to have a chance, and the 3 day hold on advances (apparently a Fürher directive, not a senior military command order) merely allowed the fine tuning & the flotilla of little boats to make Dynamo the success it was.
Without that hold, the rear guard action by those BRAVE French would have not allowed more than 50,000 rescued, & Britain may have fallen.
If you read the Fiction, “Fatherland”, by Robert Harris, it details the ultimate world we could have been in.
While I will join the banter agin the French, (as a Brit, it is customary to do so, as we have been at odds with them for many hundreds of years), I do Not forget that their Bravery changed the course of the war, & world politics!
The biggest problem was Hitler himself. He continued to try to refight the first world
war. Everything was about speed, not about long range. So his planes and armor were all made for short range attack and speed. Which meant the further he got, The harder it became to re supply.