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Originally Posted by senojekips Unfortunately he seriously underestimated their resolve. In short, he seriously overestimated his own ability as a strategist, his complete lack of ability in this regard is confirmed by his own military staff on any number of occasions throughout the ensuing war.
That was one of the main contributing factors in Germany's defeat. |
Don't get too caught up in the hype of Hitler's lack of ability as a military strategist. Much of this stems from the memoirs of generals who understandably wanted to uphold themselves in the best light. Hitler was not classically trained at the German Generalstab colleges and so was looked upon as an amateur by the well heeled aristocratic officers who saw themselves as part of an elite club. Hitler made some great decisions early on in the war for Germany and in 1936, Hitler probably had more vision than the vast majority of the German Generalstab. For example:
- He realised that the Schlieffen Plan (Halder's Plan was all but this) would not work again in WW2 and he recognized that the Sickle Cut plan proposed by Manstein (with help from Guderian) would be the best option.
- He saw almost instantly the possibilities of all amoured divisions moving swiftly as spearheads, thus avoiding the trench war stalemate of the previous war.
- His decision to send Guderian south in July 1941 to assist AGS with the capture of Kiev and the Ukraine resulted in the largest encirclement in history, with the largest casualties ever inflicted on an enemy army. Hitler was more interested in the destruction of the enemy forces in the field than the capture of prestige targets and this was fully in line with recognized German military doctrine since Scharnhorst.
The first problem with Hitler is that he severely underestimated his enemies (especially in Russia) based on warped racial prejudices. The second problem was that after the failed attempt at Moscow in December 1941 Hitler lost his nerve. Instead of allowing his best commanders their head he reigned them in and tried to do too much by himself, hence the phrase, Hitler's meddling. In the first years of the war, Hitler barely interfered once operations were underway. And there was nothing wrong with his ability as a strategist.