One of the biggest myths amongst nutcase Nazi's is that Adolf Hitler was a military genius. They point to the success of the campaigns against Poland and France to justify this. Although these campaigns were spectaculary successful, you can't ignore everything that happened after mid 1940. Firstly the Battle of Britain. Hitler's air chief Goering told him that he'd smash the RAF. How did this go? Not too well and Hitlers airforce lost many of it's best pilots. It's bomber force was also depleted prior to the Russian campaign. Did he sack his clearly incompetent Air force chief. Nope. Goering was still in place as the battle went wrong at Stalingrad and a massive German became trapped. What was Goerings advice to Hitler? "We can supply the army by air" - Net result - Hitler's army was destroyed.
What about North Africa. After Rommel's initial successes, his army was routed at El Alemain. Hitlers advice? Fight to the last man. Don't retreat an inch. Rommel, who (whatever his faults) clearly was a military genius, realised that Hitler was bonkers and ignored the order. He fought a classic retreat back to Tripoli, dishing out a very bloody nose to the US army on the way (their first experience of fighting the Germans). Rommel realised that the war was lost, so threw his lot in with the Valkyrie plotters.
What about the Battle of the Bulge. Hitler rallied all of his resources for a push against the Western Allies. How did this work out? The German army was destroyed, shorteningthe war by six months. In his bunker, almost till the end, Hitler thought he had armies and even boasted that the Soviets had fallen into his trap.
As a result of his actions, Germany was divided for 45 years and the Soviet Union became a superpower, controlling half of Europe. I'm an opponent of the death penalty, during a discussion about it, I was once asked what I'd have done with the remaining Nazi's who were executed after Nuremburg. Personally, I'd have jailed them for life, so they could have seen how much better off the world became without their brand of poisonous politics. If anyone ever tells you that Hitler was a military genius, ask them who won. I'd say that actually being successful is probably the first requisite of someone who claims that particular title.
2 comments:
I disagree. Though it is true that success is a big factor. Tesla was also largely unsuccessful, and far from his ultimate goal, yet can definitely be considered a genius, if not also a mad man. However, Hitler's incredible feat laid in the fact that the size of his military, and country to begin with, was nothing like that of Great Britain, the US, or the Soviet Union. And Failure of the Luftwaffe in Stalingrad? The Luftwaffe maintained total dominance of the Area for 5 months, and completely annihilated the VVS through strategical air formations. Hitler was able to break through 6 Armies, with his one Army. He Annihilated ~1.5 million people in that single battle which was largely fought with one Army. That being said he was absolutely a mad man, and if anything his hubris is what caused his defeat and perhaps his delusions in the end from the Bunker.
Hitler wasn't anything close to a military genius. Some of his field marshals and generals were near genius military men. Excluded from the roster would be Hermann Goering and Heinrich Himmler. Goering was an ace pilot in WWI but Himmler was nothing but a failed chicken farmer whom Hitler favored due to his ruthlessness.
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