Attacking Stalingrad instead of going after the oil fields was a biggie
Uh, is it just me or is this pretty much obvious?
Hitler should have just had summer weather that winter.
I read a very interesting book that theorized Hitler attacked Stalin because Stalin was about to attack him. The Germans did not have the luxury of choosing the date.
He would have eventually beaten Britain...America would have stayed out of hitlers hair...and afterward he could have taken Soviet Russia at his leisure. No it was Hitlers massive ignorance of battle tactics that lost him the war...not clothing.
Once again, the importance of dressing for success.
I think being ill-equipped in the dead of winter after years of war have torn apart the continent is a good example of a ghastly winter condition.
Kind of a chicken versus egg analysis. Hitler’s troops were unprepared for winter and lacked proper clothing or equipment. Russian winters are typically brutal. I could kind of see it both ways.
Hitler’s biggest mistake was in attacking the Jews.
Jewish people were German patriots and his brain trust. They would have fought and worked for him. Instead they were rounded up and slaughtered.
No one can blame any one thing for the loss of a war, it takes many things working as a chain. Each link in the chain adds to the loss.
I often wonder what would have happened in Europe had Japan not attacked the US. Suppose Japan instead of attacking the US had gone to meet Hitlers Armies with their seapower and transported them across the Channel?
Sorry Mr. Roberts, but it WAS the wintry conditions that led to the defeat. Had it NOT been for the wintry conditions the German's "wrong" clothing would have been ok. Sheesh.
Like saying that it was the lack of an oven mitt and not the hot pan that burned you.
Germany started the campaign 2 months late due to Italy’s blunder in Yugoslavia and Greece. What was left was an impossible time line.
The winters of the early 40’s were much, much colder than average.
German uniforms and other supplies did not count on a winter campaign or a protracted campaign of any kind.
Hitler refused to hold up the attack and allow his generals to choose good defensive ground.
>>>>”wrong clothing..... not winter”>
?????????
That is nonsensical!
Hitler should have waited for Global Warming before attacking.
Sounds like British historian Andrew Roberts is a bit of an idiot.
If the winter was not a factor, why in the world would Roberts claim they needed "woollen hats, gloves, long johns and overcoats?"
Sheesh.
Hitler’s biggest mistake was being a murdering fascist dictator. Using meth daily was also not a great idea.
Had Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa n April, 1941 as initially planned, the crucial months of fighting would have taken place when the weather would not have been the disastrously mitigating factor in Germany's defeat. The Germans were forced to fight in the worst winter in a hundred years, the cold so fierce to have caused fatal rupture of the intestines when soldiers' relieving themselves.
http://www.worldwar2database.com/html/greece.htm
Italy was at once awed and jealous of the German successes in 1940, and Mussolini declared war on Britain and France on June 10. Stagnated in France until the German victory, the Italians looked to the Southeast for something they could claim as their own prize. 200,000 Italian soldiers attacked Greece from Italian Albania on October 28, 1940. The Greek Army proved much tougher than Mussolini or his generals expected. Not only was the Italian advance smashed, the Italians were expelled from Greece and driven back to Albania . Hitler was furious; Mussolini had not bothered to inform him of the invasion. As Hitler planned to attack the Soviet Union in the Spring of 1941, the Italian advance had left his southern flank critically exposed. Now he had to postpone the Russian timetable in order to secure the Balkans. Hitler’s forces attacked Greece and Yugoslavia on April 6, 1941. The Metaxas Line, fortresses on the Greek-Bulgarian border, stopped the Germans until Yugoslavia fell on April 17. Then the Germans could move into Greece from Yugoslavia and surrounded the Greek positions. Hitler still had to shift forces preparing for the invasion of Russia to collapse the Greek Resistance. The whole Peloponnesian peninsula was overrun and Athens fell on April 27.
That strikes me as a distinction without a difference.
Every war has a lot of what-ifs. So what if Stalin hadn’t murdered large numbers of top-flight officers, like Tukashevski, before the war? What if Stalin had listened to Richard Sorge, his top foreign spy, and properly prepared himself for the invasion? When you get into the game of what-ifs, you have to include everything.
Our troops had the same problem in the winter of 44-45.