Comparisons to Hitler
Apparently Hitler had quite a relaxed attitude towards allowing subordinates free-reign to manage their own work themselves without being micromanaged. He liked people who showed initiative and generally trusted people to do their jobs as they saw fit so long as they got results. Just saying.
(Vlad the Inhaler forgot his password, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 15:18, 7 replies)

not according to Anthony Beevor
after Stalingrad he was obsessed with fighting to the last man rather than let his generals conduct the defense of normandy as they saw fit.

just saying...
( TheFinch is getting to grips with the complex plane on, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 16:43, closed)

yeah, but
He was teetotal vegetarian who loved animals, so you know he’s like most people, you’ve got to take the good with the bad.
( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Wed 16 Jun 2010, 16:59, closed)

Anybody can have a bad day.
(Wilton Mitrowserz, Wed 16 Jun 2010, 17:12, closed)

Good old Hitler
If he had left the running of the war to his, so called subordinates, we would all be speaking German now.
(bROKEN aRROW PUA HVI Master, Thu 17 Jun 2010, 9:38, closed)

No.
Russian maybe, but not German.

For starters, Hitler had no designs on the UK, we were a pimple on his arse that festered and ended up contributing to his downfall (though in no way as significant manner as the Russians did, or as we'd like to believe). Britain would have installed a puppet govt, as did other Western European countries, and we would have carried on pretty much as normal (unless you were Jewish, Communist etc). These countries governed themselves, (albeit under German influence and with German "security" troops in abundance) and Germany still traded with them as before, for example they paid for raw materials but with obviously shitty exchange rates. They had no wish to destroy economic infrastructure, unlike in the East, where certain regions were to be absorbed into the Greater Reich, and populated by German-speaking settlers.......


Even if the generals had been given carte blanche, Germany was always destined to lose the war, simple economics, and most of the top brass in OKW were well aware of that fact by mid 1942. They couldn't produce as much war materiel, armaments and fuel as the Allies so would have lost out in the end, the only chance of victory went out of the window with the onset of winter in 1941, supply lines were too overstretched for such a broad front.

Maybe if the Italians had not attempted to invade Albania, getting a royal kicking in the process, obliging Hitler to secure his flanks by coming to their aid and moving into Yugoslavia and Greece,then Barbarossa could have started those vital weeks earlier, although the late Russian spring in 1941 screwed up an early advance anyway.
As Hitler himself averred in Mein Kampf, war on 2 fronts was to be avoided at all costs, so the fact that Russia wasn't dealt with in 1941 was the decisive failure. It was simply too much of a stretch in the time available, whoever was in command. (Dealing with the UK in Operation Sealion might have secured his Western Front, but was never really viable at that time, thanks to Royal Navy supremacy making a sea-borne invasion impossible. Barbarossa HAD to be launched in 1941 before the Red Army got its shit together)


If Hitler's subordinates had pulled back to defensive positions in Winter 1941, as they pleaded to, there would have been a rout. As it was, Hitler's stand-fast order kept the front mostly intact. For every decision Hitler made that seems to be contrary to the professional soldiers' wishes and therefore contributory to defeat, there is another decision which showed the generals to be over-cautious or wrong. Although the disastrous decisions taken by the Fuhrer in the later stages of the war cost many many lives, the alternative options preferred by some members of OKW still wouldn't have won the war, they may have perhaps even extended a cohesive defence and dragged it out.
(Rsoles, Thu 17 Jun 2010, 13:45, closed)

But he hired Goerring
who, luckily for us, was useless.
Maybe if the Luftwaffe had had better management we'd all be speaking German now....
(greatoldone Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl f'tagn, Thu 17 Jun 2010, 9:37, closed)

One can only dream.

( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Thu 17 Jun 2010, 10:52, closed)