The professional German officer thought little of the ill advised strategies of Hitler. He was oft spoke of as “the corporal”. To stop his attack on England to change strategy by attacking a huge nation like Russia which he had a non aggression pact with was moronic. He blew his chance to decimate the British at Dunkirk during the boat lift.
Hitler was a horrible military leader.
Indeed. Had he let his generals dictate strategy, the Nazis would have won the war in Europe, and the Americans would have either not gotten involved or would have sued for peace with a Nazi controlled Europe to have a buffer against the Soviet Union.
In spades. What always gets me is his decision to declare war on the US. I'm hearing that he did so in the "hope" that Japan would, in turn, attack Russia, not realizing their aims were to the south.
My own feeling, being a kid and listening to the adults at that time, was that America was SO pist at the Japs, that, had Hitler held off, there would have been a tremendous pressure on Roosevelt to take care of Japan first and to Hell with Europe.
What sticks in my mind was an incident in England where Gen. DeGaulle was giving a speech, when someone burst into the room, breathlessly exclaiming that Hitler had declared war on the US. Not missing a beat, DeGaulle said, "Then we have won the war." Mind you, these were in pretty grim backs-to-the-wall days, and the audience was stunned at the apparent lunacy of that statement. DeGaulle expanded, and said that the flood of productive capacity of America would drown the Germans.
[off topic] When I was a kid, a veteran told me he was talking with a Russian officer as overflights of aircraft were blotting out the sky, and he mentioned that they were doing the same to the Japs. The Russian was wide-eyed in wonderment of a country that could field that much equipment on two fronts.
We have a horrible military leader right now.
So what’s new?