How Hitler Should Have Conducted the War

[General_Conway]

A Russian double agent?
Didn't know about that.
Regarding the Me-262, I think it might have been promising but it's fuel consumption rates are sky high and with fuel shortages fielding the Me-262 as a primary fighter wouldn't be a good idea... at least I think so.

I hadnt heard about the double agent, I just knew that Stalin basically ignored Japan.
As for the ME, I think if Hitler would have known the sheer advantage of jet technology, he would have found a way to field it, to find more fuel, and to improve upon it...

 

[Berserk Fury]

Yeah, he probably would but that never happend now did it? :

 

[turin]

As for the ME, I think if Hitler would have known the sheer advantage of jet technology, he would have found a way to field it, to find more fuel, and to improve upon it...

For Hitler the sheer advantage was limited to the possibility of building fast bombers, so: No, he obviously lacked knowledge, especially considering the german situation at the time of the initial fielding of the Me-262. As for the fuel shortages: that apparently was not really a point since the Me-262 formed the backbone of german fighter forces in the last months of the war. When Hitler finally realized the desperate situation concerning the allied bombing raids (at a time when it was far too late), he gave priority to the production of Me-262 over all other fighter planes. The fuel shortages were a general problem that forced grounding of large numbers of aircraft, regardless of being jet propulsed or not. So in the end it did not really make any difference and the combat effectiveness of the Me-262 was highly superior to that of the more conventional fighters. However the jet fighter did not manage to have a real impact on the outcome of the war not only due to fuel shortages but due to lack of enough trained pilots as well.

 

[Berserk Fury]

Lol
That is probably the best explanation so far.
Hitler obviously didn't have experience and he didn't listen very well to his generals. The German air force was squashed so even a squadron of Me-262's wouldn't have turned the tide of war. Plus, by that time the Germans were already focused on their tank divisions etc.

 

[JAF]

First step to have your production capabilities going at 110%.

Before attacking into Western Europe the Nazi's should have built up a sufficient submarine force to strangle Britain. If this force existed than an invasion would not be necessary. Such a force could bloakade the UK while an
advanced class of sub sealed off the Atlantic and isolated Europe from North America.

The escape of BEF was a major boob. Destroy the BEF, occupy all of France and capture Gibraltar, ocupy Morroco, thus sealing off the MED.

If you Seal off the MED and Blockade Britain, no need to invade Africa. The UK fiorces their (in the MED) simply starve.

Russia, if you are going to attack, attack early and charge straight for Moscow and don't stop till the Kremlin's yours. I am of the opinion Germany
was doomed if she did or did not attack Russsia. If she doess you have a two front war against a country with nearly three times your population and
10 times your industrial potential. If you don't than you are leaving that
same country to arm fully.

The air war over Brittain should have concentrated on RAF bases, radar stations and factories. Bombing the populace only strengthens their reslove and gives your oponents a political rally cry. And does nothing to your openents ability to wage war.

Regarding the choice of MBT. I would have like to see the following design,
a Panther type vehichle with a Christie suspension armed with an 88. A nasty beast. If I had to choose an existing design I would go with the panther.

 

[KGB]

[q However the jet fighter did not manage to have a real impact on the outcome of the war not only due to fuel shortages but due to lack of enough trained pilots as well.[/quote]


The first 262 squadron was piloted by an "all ace" group; a lot of them had 100 kills credited to them at that time. I'd love to specify the source I got this from but the book was borrowed and never returned.

One way the allies dealt with the 262's was to send de haviland mosquitoes to lurk near German airfields. the 262s were exceptionally vulnerable while landing it seems, and the allies managed to pick off quite a few of them

 

[Danecookie]

he should've saved OIL RIGS in the first place...

*alas*

 

[ozzieos10]

Why should he be interesting? He is nothing more than a simple corporal and not some kind of general.

 

[Defcon 6]

Hitler could indeed have won the war or at least gained enough ground to call it quits with all of Europe under his thumb.

1.) Never should have declared war on the U.S.S.R, trying to wrestle multiple super powers was idiotic.

2.) Should have stayed out of Africa, all that managed to do was sacrafice good troops and armored divisons.

3.) Stayed away from all the experimental crap. except for:
A.) Me-262
B.) He-163 (advanced versions abound)
C.) Ar-234
D.) Ho-229
E.) V-2
F.) V-1
G.) Me-163 Komet

Thats it. Just those. He should have left Italy alone and reinforced the Gothic Line as well. The Siegfried line was important as well.

Someone mentioned-

Before attacking into Western Europe the Nazi's should have built up a sufficient submarine force to strangle Britain. If this force existed than an invasion would not be necessary. Such a force could bloakade the UK while an
advanced class of sub sealed off the Atlantic and isolated Europe from North America.

Hitler did have such a sub near the end of the war. The Elektro-boat XXI (U-boat). it was an advanced sub that was the basis for the nuclear powered nautilus powered subs. Additionally the XXIII's could have been used for patrol duties.

Before that point U-Boats had been getting the job done.

However the most important thing was the production of Tiger II's and Panther tanks. He should have produced the Tiger II's and Panthers in mass, however he didn't and it cost him the western front. If he had never bothered with Africa and the Soviets then he would have had enough reserves to hold the western front long enough to take Britain, then it would have been a tedious lag because he would have to build a vast surface Navy to continue on from there.

Attacking the U.S would have been a useless gesture unless they refused to sign an armastice.

In short, thats what it would have took to win that war. However Hitler made mistakes and that was his downfall. Luckilly for all of us.

 

[wildcat1]

Hitler should have conducted the war by listening to his Generals and soldiers. His failure to properly utilized his resources led to his demise.

 

[turin]

Would Hitler have listened to his generals at the beginning of the war, then the victory over France would not have happened. Every single general was very sceptical or openly opposing these plans and a certain number of officers even considered conducting a coup against Hitler. These efforts were stopped only after a failed assassination attempt on Hitler in late '39, when public opinion backed Hitler heavily.
I agree for the latter part of the war.

 

[wildcat1]

Every single general was very sceptical or openly opposing these plans and a certain number of officers even considered conducting a coup against Hitler.
Good point.

On another note, I guess that regardless of how Hitler conducted the war, the fact that the Reich had no idea that the Allies broke their Ultra Code nothing Hitler could've done would have made a difference because for every plan they had, the allies are already a step ahead.

 

[Lonewolf]

allied broke the ultra code yes but that was mainly for the uboats, not the so much the land war ( battle of the bulge total suprise acheived )

Hitler had his good and bad, bad being the jews, russian p.o.ws, basicly racism. he did some very good things for germany, autobahn, volkwagen beetle, economy, gave germany back its pride after ww1 and is acknowledge as the world best orator or speaker till today.

As for the corporal's military strategy he was no strategos. he succeded in poland/france because of blitzgreig/ very extremely poor leadership on the french side and abit of luck among other things. Remember the divisionary tactics was still done by the generals not hitler. Blitzgrieg was thought of by Gunderian and runsdant.

Ps my spelling sucks

 

[Col.Gen.]

For the record gentleman I would like to state that the term Blitzkrieg is something reports came up with and was not a real term in german military thinking at that time... And also I would like to point out that every single general was not skeptical of the assault plan but a great deal were. The original idea was for a modernized version of the Great General Staff's plan embodied in the term "keep the right wing strong". A Luftwaffe officer crashed his plane in Belgium while carrying those plans so Guderian and some others helped devise the plan but Rundstedt didn't exactly care for it either. Hence his lack of willingness to let the Panzers off their leashes. Though I do agree there was the very real chance of a counterattack seperating the panzers from the tanks history has proven that it would have been worth the risk.

 

[long live usa]

hitler was a fool when his commanders beged him to atack moscow after smolenks when the red army was reeling he waited, wanting to level the city to be symbolic as the destruction of communism and wanted as much of the population as possible to flood east spreading horror when he alowwed the atack to take place it met huge succes however he waited to long and in october rains began and the low qaulity russian roads turned into mud not until november did the roads freeze and the offensive resume but the cold that froze the roads soon froze his soldiers so he allowed them to fall back to defensive positions this allowed the russians to start counter atacking and re establish defensive lines and the city was saved also many russians viewed the germans as liberators(communism was not popular among the russian peaple) he would have had hundreds of thousands of willing vulenteers instead he had them killed or sent off as slave labor this is proof of his stupidity

 

[Strategos]

I disagree with the abandon africa idea,a better idea would be to send rommel as little as a fith of what was put into Russia,he'd have to take out Malta first but that wouldnt have stood up to a decent sized invasion. meanwhile commit a fair amount of production to submarines an to quote JAF:

"The air war over Brittain should have concentrated on RAF bases, radar stations and factories. Bombing the populace only strengthens their reslove and gives your oponents a political rally cry. And does nothing to your openents ability to wage war."

Then just watch Rommel take the Suez canal,thereb cutting of the island(Britian) form her empire, and prepare an invasion of the middle east. That would take out critical allied oil.this will severly limit russian imports,and give a cushy route to invade them from. We will leave them alone for now.

With the africa campaign over concentrate germanys industrial might on the sea war,and invade them once the navys been brought to its knees(It's oilless thanks to Rommel) Now finaly.

On to Russia! A two prong invasion (Rommel and Guderian anyone?) launched at the begining of the dry season will threaten eveything forcing the enemy to divide its forces, when the goal is reached (either Moscow or the Urikaine) concentrate forces to out number the enemy.Get Japan to to attack Siberia with enogh force to hold Stalin's troops down (tempt them with territory). and:LEAVE THE US ALONE!

Congratulations on your world dommination

 

[crazypole]

Though your plan seems to have all the answers I think that there are a number of problems. Most importantly Hitler's idealogy would not really allow for a very long delay in an assault against the USSR. Ultimately the East was always his intended direction, not the rest of Europe. Also, Hitler struck the USSR at an opportune time. The T-34, and to a lesser extent KV-1, was only just coming into mainstream use, imagine if the bulk of the tanks initially engaged by the panzer divisions were T-34's instead of the variety of lighter (eg. BT-series) tanks actually faced. In my opinion, the panzer divisions would not have really upgraded their tanks, or have developed the Pz. V-VI models, as these were primarily designed to counter the Soviet tanks. This means that the bulk of the panzers in use would be pz III versions, whose 50mm main gun was pretty abysmal against the heavier Soviet tanks.
Also with the purges diminishing, if there was no repeat then the longer the German attack took to materialise the more organised the Soviet command structure would be.
Lastly, I believe that if Japan went to war with the USA Hitler would also declare war as long as he was still at war with the UK and it's empire.

And, from memory, Col.Gen. is right, the Blitzkreig name was not a commonly accepted military term at first. The Germans thought more in terms of Schwerpunkt and Aufrollen, ie. local superiority to create a "puncture" in the enemy lines, followed by exploitation to the rear and to the flanks of the enemy positions.

 

[WAR]

It is said that -- human history is the history of human follies.

Actually Hitler was deeply inspired with Friedrick Neitzhe.
He must have taken strength from "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", but I suppose failed to grasp "The birth of tragedy".

And the irony was, he acted in a pure and concrete existential paradigm. Must have thought and transcended himself to be a true spirit of DASEIN (Man, thrown in the world)!!!

 

[Big-E]

It is said that -- human history is the history of human follies.

Actually Hitler was deeply inspired with Friedrick Neitzhe.
He must have taken strength from "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", but I suppose failed to grasp "The birth of tragedy".

And the irony was, he acted in a pure and concrete existential paradigm. Must have thought and transcended himself to be a true spirit of DASEIN (Man, thrown in the world)!!!

:shudder