R i g h t a r d i a: The Germans made some big mistakes World War 2

by The Major

It is generally believed that the Germans had a huge advantage in military hardware and training because they had planned for many years to invade Europe and consolidate regions of German speaking nationals in outlying countries into the Fatherland. This explains Hitler's annexation of Austria, the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia, and Poland which also had some German speaking regions.

The Germans did have a training advantage from the invasions and its involvement with the Spanish Civil War. However, there were some severe deficiencies. Hitler put all of his eggs in the Wehrmacht (the German Army).

During the Battle of Britain, the UK was able to maintain air supremacy because they were continuing to build aircraft while the Germans were not. Hitler was a charismatic political leader, but his military skills were marginal. The allies did not try to assassinate him because they were aware of his flawed military thinking and felt Hitler was more useful alive than dead.

Many German weapons system were also overrated. The British Spitfire was superior to German ME-109, particularly since the US had provided the UK with 100 octane gasoline that the Germans didn't have. The gave the Spitfire the edge in altitude and speed. It also took time for the Germans to realize that the UK was detecting their air formations using a new technology called radar.

Hitler also made a strategic blunder by attacking London rather than finishing off the the RAF by continuing the attacks against the UK air bases. If the Germans had to continued to attack UK air facilities, they would have gained air superiority in another three weeks.

The respite gave the RAF time to rebuild its air force. Hitler gave up plans on invading the UK after huge air losses and turned the Wehrmacht onto the Russians. This was a another huge mistake that allowed the allies to launch the Normandy Invasion from the UK in 1944.

At the beginning of the War, the best tank was manufactured by the French. By the end of the war, the Russian T-34 tank was considered the premiere tank. The Panzer tanks had a single gear system that often stripped causing the tank to fail.

The US Sherman tanks had a precision dual gear system that was more reliable. The big German Tiger Tanks were slow and too heavy to operate in many areas. Unfortunately for the Germans, Hitler invested most of his war budget in armor that frequently had little utility.

Russian T-34 tank

The Germans followed a fascist philosophy that encouraged corporate innovation. Unfortunately, the German war efforts was overly decentralized and there was a lot of duplication. The Germans were the first to field jet airplanes in World War 2, but they didn't make enough of them to stop the allied bomber runs. The Germans lost air supremacy because the US and UK made more aircraft. The German nuclear program was small and years behind the US program.

In the Atlantic, the U-boats enjoyed great success early on. But the U-Boats were slow and not much different than the subs used in World War 1. Once the allies started using sonar to track the subs and radar on aircraft to locate subs that had surfaced at night, the U-boats became ineffective.

The allies also captured an Enigma machine that allowed it to break the German code and to know the plans of the German U-Boats. However, The Germans had also broken the UK code books as well.

When the Germans launched the siege of Stalingrad, the Russians had some advantages. First the Russian uniforms better protected their soldiers from the cold. In fact, a documentary on the Military Channel indicated the Russians soldiers could stay nearly 40 degrees warmer than the Germans. The Russian uniforms protected their soldiers from brutal Arctic fronts. The Russians also wore a cold weather cap rather than a steel helmet that rapidly cooled the German soldier's head.

The Russians also had better scopes on their rifles and the Russians snipers took a huge toll on the Wehrmacht. The scopes were of a more modern design and could be quickly calibrated by hand without using a screwdriver, The Russian soldiers in Stalingrad had also been immunized against typhus and tularaemia. Far more Germans died of infectious diseases who had not been immunized.

Russian Mosin-Nagant rifle with sniper scope

Hitler some bad mistakes. He considered himself a field marshall, but he had military intuition of the corporal. He over relied on the Wehrmacht and do didn't invest enough of his war budget in air power and modern U-Boats. He failed to listen to his generals.

Since Hitler was unable to subdue the UK, the US was able to launch bombing raids from the UK over Germany during most of the the war. In fact, the biggest US fatalities in Europe were from the Army Air Force, not the ground pounders.

The Allies also opened up a second front from the UK in Normandy in 1944. Hitler seemed to be unaware of lessons of Napoleon who was also defeated by the Russians and a brutal Arctic winter. By the end of the war, the Germans had a lot of advanced technology, but the US had better aircraft and the Russians had better tanks.

Some small things like uniforms, cold weather hats, rifle scopes and immunizations also made a big difference in the outcome of big urban battles between the Nazis and the Soviets. Hitler's poor leadership skills also hastened the defeat of the Nazis.