| Gentlemen:
The greatest initial mistake for the cause of WW2 was the French, who blinked when Hitler tested them in the 1936 Rhineland reoccupation. It is written that AH sent his 100,000 men into the Rhinland and would have immediately 'withdrawn' if the French had shown any will to stop them. We all know now, that they didn't. This opened up the opportunity for AH to totally disregard the Versaille treaty and not worry about what the western allies would do. Thus began the buildup. The liberal govt. of England wanted nothing to do with it and the Socialists in France were probably under the orders of Stalin. All Politics again.
After the war started in '39, the Germans(thank God) were too embroiled in their internal petty politics over this and that to come to a full wartime economy. For instance the lack of a Germany heavy bomber in order to hit much further into England along with the ability to add extra fuel tanks to their escorts, but then it took the US awhile to do it too. But one considerable mistake on the German part was that they could have had jetfighters operational by 1942 en masse. What would that have done to the allied air offensive.
Why AH declared war on the US on December 10th still bogles my mind. He was in the midst of war in Russia and now he brings in the soon to be super power of them all. This seems to me to be his worst mistake of all. Even US Confederate General Robert E. Lee thought that the Army of Northern Virginia could not be defeated. His ego and the history of his army said so, but it was not to be. And it ended for both.
Adolf thought of himself as infallible. But there are good reasons behind this. Keep in mind that his generals kept on telling him that he couldn't do something and then when he did it anyway it worked. Rhinland, Czechoslavkia(sp?) Poland, France and after the debacle in Finland by Russia, who would have thought the Soviets would have been any harder to beat then the rest! Even when he was stuck in front of Moscow, he ordered all troops to stand and fight where they were. It is recognized now that this order actually saved the Eastern front from collapsing. After that, things did not go as well for him for the rest of the war. The oil fields in the Caucasus' were too badly mauled for much use for a long time. The US had supplied the Soviets the equivalent of 80 divisions worth of supplies and equipment.
One thing that might have helped immensely would have been the production of advanced U-boats for the Atlantic campaign.
It boggles the mind what WW2 could have actually turned into. It started out with fairly low tech stuff and ended up with Nuclear weapons and created a super super power.
Many good things have been said on all these posts, the maybe's and should have's just keep adding up. Thank God we won.
Just the ramblings of an old man.
Joe |