Part of the Germans problems was Hitler himself.
Hitler was adamant that the K98K Mauser bolt action with it’s 5 round stripper clip was the ultimate rifle for the Wermacht even though the 10 round Garand semiautomatic allowed for more time aiming and firing.
If the 1898 Mauser had been good enough for corporal Hitler then it’s descendants were good enough for his army.
Hitler fought the production of the StG44 until reports from the Russian front begging for more of the rifles were made known to him.
And the tanks!
Hitler thought bigger was better in every way. He wanted bigger, heavier tanks with bigger guns.
Between that and the German propensity to over engineer EVERYTHING the tank line-up was a mess with too many of the heavier tanks unable to cross most European bridges.
The failure to completely mechanize the Wermacht was a huge failure. Without the trucks and transport needed for the infantry Blitzkrieg was prevented from reaching it’s true potential.
Hitler also delayed the introduction of the ME-262 fighter.
He vacilated between wanting the plane as a fighter only, a fighter bomber and a light bomber. In any event he delayed the introduction for a little over a year.
Hitler was his own worst enemy.
the 10 round Garand semiautomatic
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Eh?
The real problem with the Me 262 was not Hitler so much as it was Junkers could not make the engines fast enough. And the engines they did make only had a service life of about 10 hours or so. This was due mainly to the lack of critical metals, like nickel, chromium and molybdenum that were needed to make the heat resistant metals needed to make jet engines.
Messerschmit had produced hundreds of airframes that sat idle for lack of jet engines. And those engines that were made were also used by the Arado 234 jet bomber.
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
The Germans had come up with the jet engine in the late 30’s but Hitler wanted to stick to propellers. He really was our best general.
My next door neighbor did a full tour in B-17’s and then switched to fighters. He flew P-51’s and P-38’s. When he crashed his 5th plane, they awarded him an “Iron Cross”(made from foil gum wrappers) for being a German ace.
The failure to completely mechanize the Wermacht was a huge failure.
Interestingly our Navy had trouble supplying the fleet with fuel in the early part of the war as well. Battles and ship movements were tied to fuel supply.