The Bigger Mistake made by the Axis

Which of these to moves do you think was a worse mistake made by the Axis during World War II? This is a tough one for me, I can't decide.

 

BOTH were equally suicidal!


John

 

A war between the US and Japan was quickly becoming unavoidable for both nations. Pearl Harbor was a reasonable plan as an opening move by the Japanese.

Germany invading Russia was a choice Hitler made. It was not necessary for him to do so. In fact, given that Britain was still in the war it made no sense for Germany to open a second front especially given their limited resource base.

 

^ Good points, I have to agree.

 

There are many.

1, Germany's alliance with Italy, ie... Germany continual coming to Italy's rescue time after time, in the Balkans, North Africa and being sold out with Italy's total capitulation in 1943. Germany was forced to divert men and war materiel when it was desperately needed on the Eastern Front.

v.R

 

I don't know BUT Hitler was getting far more of the natural resources he needed from Russia when they were allies than when they became mortal enemies I don't know much about the Pacific theatre so I'm not qualified to say:smg:

 

Definitely Barbarossa, IMHO. I think TA said it very well!

 

Operation Barbarossa was clearly the wrong move at the wrong timr. Rather than waiting for the invasion of Western Europe to be complete Hitler launched into the East.

 

ditto. Barbarossa was THE wrong move

 

And thank goodness Addi was so mistakes prone.

 

Because of the embargo by the U.S. the Japanese had 2 choices. either pull out of China or go to war to get the oil they needed and they had to knock out the U.S. fleet to do that. Hitler could have waited till he knocked England out of the war, there was no rush to attack Russia so it was a giant mistake

 

Barbarossa was Hitler's dream and he fudged it.

 

Hitler knew what a mistake it was to launch a second front with an active enemy still in his rear. But he was more worried about an alliance between Russia, the US and Britain and knew that war with Soviet Russia was inevitable, as did Stalin. He counted on the U boats to slowly strangle Britain into some kind of peace agreement as the German submarines were at that period, being very succesful at doing just that.
An interesting sidenote, Guderian was another of Hitlers generals who opposed war with Russia, but being a good soldier he also thought the matter through. His plan was much different than the one that actually came about: Guderian thought that his panzers must advance practically non-stop through Russia, to be supplied by parachute. Probably he realized the huge resources the Russians had available and the limited time the Germans would have before the Russians reorganized and the window to victory closed. His plan was rejected and in the event Hitler's incessant tinkering with the plans formulated by the OKW, both before and after Barbarossa, are what effectively doomed the operation to defeat after the failure of Operation Typhoon (German attack on Moscow) in 1941.

 

What evidence can you present for this Hitler "feeling"?

In what capacity did G. present this plan? To whom did he present it? Who rejected the plan?

Can you quantify the amount of fuel, ammunition, food and other supplies that would be neccessary? For How long? What would the airlift capacity be? Who would provided, from what airfields up to which distances? What forward airfields would be needed as the troops would advance? How would supplies be moved to forward airfields, by parachute too? How many parachutes would be needed and what would the capacity be to furnish them?

 

I believe I read something like this in Lidel Hart's "History of WWII".
Need to check me sources but I'm quite sure I read it there somewhere. Oh and Za, it doesn't provide half the information you're asking



Cheers...

 

See, Miguel, anyone can come up with ideas, but one comes down to the nitty-gritty great ideas may be not so great after all. My query addressed the practical implementation of such bright idea and I don't think the Luftwaffe wouldn't even want to hear about it as soon as they started making some baasic sums.

 

Goering would certainly say it was more than doable!
My guess is Guderian did devised that plan but, never thought on how to implement it.



Cheers...

 

:headbonk:I think that going to war against the U S S R had always been Hitler's top military goal. I believe that he could've won if he had the support of the civillians but, he treated them like trash

 

And why is that? How would that have helped?

 

I think he meant entering Russia as a liberator. And treating Russia's POWs in a more friendly fashion. That'd increase the number of desertions and with civilian support, more men to the fray I say (this happened in a smaller scale).
Of course it's all possibilities and stuff since no one can predict the behavior of an entire nation...



Cheers...