Adolf Hitler was an idiot. And that’s a good
thing because it led him to make some really bad strategic decisions during World War
II. If Hitler had been a little smarter, we might very well be living in a messed up
Nazi-controlled world full of Hitler Youth today. Luckily, that’s not how history played out.
As we progress through some of Hitler’s worst decisions during World War II, you may
be surprised to find that it was his ego, the name of an enemy, and his belief in
the occult that partially cost him the war. Let’s start at the beginning. When
you’re a genocidal maniac like Hitler, your choice of allies can end up being pretty
slim. One of the main reasons that Hitler’s Nazi Germany allied itself with Italy was because
no one else was crazy enough to join him but Benito Mussolini. Most historians argue that
Italy wasn’t Hitler's first choice for an ally, or even his second or third choice. But when your
entire platform is predicated on mass genocide and ruling the world in your own deranged way, not
many people can be convinced to get on board. It was Mussolini's authoritarian rule and his
dislike for the Jewish people that made him the perfect ally for Hitler. However, allying
himself with Benito was the first mistake Hitler would make that would eventually lead
to him losing World War II. During wartime, you want strong and independent Allies who
will have your back when things get tough and can bring something meaningful to the table.
Mussolini’s Italy was none of those things. Time and time again, Germany would have to
bail out Italian forces as they continually became pinned down or surrounded by the
Allies. This would cost Hitler greatly, as Germany would lose valuable resources and
men whenever Italy failed in its missions. Choosing the wrong ally was definitely one
decision that cost Hitler in the long run. But it would not be the only
one. The way he handled the North African Campaign starting in 1940
ended up being a disaster to his cause. World War II started in Europe on September
1, 1939, when Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Axis forces swept across the continent, securing
strategic positions and decimating anyone who stood in their way. However, the same cannot
be said about their campaign in North Africa, as it was brought to a grinding
halt by an unexpected force. The main objective of the North African
Campaign was to secure the Suez Canal, which would allow Nazi forces to have better
access to oil coming from the Middle East. The Nazis had some of the best tanks, aircraft, and
naval vessels in the world, which gave them the upper hand in many battles. However, without
oil to fuel these vehicles, they were useless. Originally Hitler left Italy in charge of
securing North Africa while he focused on decimating Western Europe. This was his first
mistake. Italy had trouble defeating Allied forces in the region from the beginning, and
Hitler had to send men and tanks down to bail them out. The distance between Germany
and North Africa meant this would take time, but it had to be done if the Axis
powers were going to control the region. Eventually, Hitler decided to send General Erwin
Rommel to the region to command the German tank forces in North Africa. His mission was to sweep
across the continent from Morroco to the Middle East. Once there, he would be in charge of
maintaining control of the vast oil reserves in the region. This was a wise strategic move for
Hitler, but the execution was performed poorly. After some initial success, things started to
fall apart in North Africa. The main problem was that Rommel just didn’t have the resources
or tanks necessary to get the job done. Rommel made it as far as Tobruk in Libya before
he ran into some issues. He was able to capture the seaport of Tobruk, but once the Nazis
forces began their advance further east, they were stopped by British general
Bernard Montgomery at El Alamein. For twelve days Nazi and Italian forces tried
to break the British line without success. Hitler was furious with the lack of progress in
North Africa. After a second defeat at El Alamein, Rommel returned to Europe. He complained that he
should have been left with the tank battalions in North Africa, where he was sure he could
eventually defeat the Allied forces. However, whether it was Hitler’s direct orders or
his influence over the Nazi’s military, Rommel was forced to stay in Germany while
his forces in North Africa were defeated. The Allies had secretly landed more troops in
Morroco and Algeria. They charged across the region and eventually trapped the retreating
Axis forces. Altogether around 250,000 German and Italian troops were captured. This would be
a definitive turning point in the war to control North Africa and led to a huge disruption in
the oil supply that fueled the Nazi war machine. As a side note, Rommel was later accused
and convicted for playing a role in the 20 July Plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler. This
led to the general being given two options: execution by the State or death by suicide. On
October 14, 1944, Rommel bit down on a cyanide capsule and ended his life and career as a Nazi
General. There is no clear evidence that Rommel actually played a role in the assassination
attempt on Hitler’s life. This may mean that rather than having a traitor killed, Hitler
made the mistake of eliminating one of his best generals, as Rommel is traditionally
seen as a brilliant commander in the field. And Hitler’s mistakes would keep on coming. The
United States played a major role in securing victory for Allied forces in Europe. However, one
of the main reasons that the U.S.A. sent troops to Europe was because Hitler made the mistake
of declaring war on the United States first. The U.S. was sending supplies and
resources to the Allies in Europe from very early on in the war. However, they
had adopted somewhat of an isolationist policy and had no plans of directly
intervening in Europe until December 11, 1941. That is when Hitler made another
decision that would cost him the war. Early on in 1941, the United States had not
sent or had plans to send, troops to Europe. Then Pearl Harbor happened. Hitler had no idea
that the Japanese were going to bomb Pearl Harbor, but he had hoped from the beginning that Japan
would pull the U.S. into a war in the Pacific. This would cause them to focus their
attention on the other side of the world, likely reducing the amount of
supplies they were sending to Britain. Instead of letting these events play out, Hitler did something really dumb. He started
attacking American supply ships in the Atlantic and immediately declared war on the U.S.
Hitler was delusional and thought even if he destroyed American convoys and declared war
on the country, the U.S. would still be too preoccupied with Japan to retaliate. However,
nothing could be further from the truth. The United States’ economy was incredibly
strong and had already begun ramping up wartime production. They had the men, resources,
and now the motive to fight a war on two fronts. At the time, President Franklin Delano
Rosevelt was still on the fence about whether troops should be sent to Europe or if
the United States should solely focus on Japan. But Hitler’s decision to declare war on the
U.S. prematurely made the decision easy for him. America would go to war with Nazi Germany and kick
their ass. And Hitler only had himself to blame. Just to put it into perspective on how big
of a mistake this was, every year of the war, the United States constructed twice as many
planes and war vehicles as Nazi Germany did. The United States also had immense resources
and a huge labor pool to pull from. With everyone now united under the declaration of
war against the United States by Adolf Hitler, the whole country put everything they had
into the war effort to defeat Nazi Germany. In the summer of 1941, Hitler would
make a decision that would cost him enormous amounts of men, resources,
and pretty much the war itself. On June 22, the Nazis launched Operation
Barbarossa. At the beginning of the war, Hitler was smart enough to have Soviet Russia
sign a nonaggression pact, which ensured that they wouldn’t attack Germany from the east. This
allowed him to focus his attention on western Europe and defeating Great Britain. However,
Hitler was not smart enough not to break his own pact. He launched an invasion into Russia,
which meant Germany now had to fight countries to its east and its west, defeating the
purpose of preventing a two-front war. This decision was a huge mistake and one of
the critical factors that cost him the war. At first, Nazi Germany seemed to have
the upper hand. Stalin was delusional and thought there was no way Hitler would
break his promise and invade Russia, but this was Adolf Hitler we are talking
about, and he obviously could not be trusted. The Germans amassed forces along
the Russian border. In fact, they weren’t even very discrete about it. Hitler
had always planned to invade the Soviet Union; he just wanted to wait until all of Europe was
under his control first. However, with resources running low and the need for a new source of
labor, Hitler launched his invasion early. He fully committed to this decision even though
many of his military advisors warned him that conquering the Soviet Union and fighting a
two-front war would be incredibly difficult, if not impossible. He ignored them and
launched the offensive into Russia anyways. At the beginning of the invasion, the
Nazis were winning almost every battle. Hitler patted himself on the back for a job
well done and scoffed at anyone who was still warry of sending troops deep into Russian
territory. History had shown that trying to take over Russia never worked
out well for the invading force. Nazi morale was high as they marched further
and further into the Soviet Union. The dirt roads were passable in the summer months, and
the Nazi uniforms provided enough warmth to stay relatively comfortable even at night. Hitler
was so convinced that the war in Russia would be over quickly that he held off on sending
more supplies and winter gear to the troops who were advancing further into the Soviet
Union. But as the winter months approached, the weather began to change. The tide
of the war in Russia was about to shift. Operation Barbarossa was a massive offensive with
three different attack forces spread out across approximately 1,800 miles of land. As all
three parts of the German army started to reach their objectives, they were slowed
down by terrible weather, lack of food, and depletion of resources. The Russian
people destroyed their own villages, farms, and factories as they retreated further into the
Soviet Union to get away from the Nazi invasion. Hitler’s original plan had been to resupply
his troops using Russian resources as they made their way across the country. It was too long
a distance to constantly be resupplying his forces from Germany. Plus the whole point of invading
the Soviet Union was to secure more resources. However, the Russian people left very little of
use behind due to their Scorched Earth Policy. When the northern offensive reached Leningrad,
they thought it would fall as quickly as the rest of Russia, but this was not the case. The
Germans couldn’t manage to secure Leningrad from the Russians, and resources were
running dangerously low. On top of that, the Nazi forces in the south also ran into
trouble. They were stopped dead in their tracks by entrenched Russian soldiers and
couldn't advance any further. Hitler was furious. He ordered the middle offensive to
send troops to the north and south, which weakened the middle force while not improving
the situation in the other regions by much. The slowing down of the German advance
allowed the Soviets to regroup. Over a million troops and a thousand tanks were
sent to Moscow to protect the capital. The Nazis were now stopped on all fronts. They couldn’t
manage to take Leningrad in the north and due to the Soviet reinforcements in the middle of
the country and the changing of the weather, capturing Moscow was a lost cause as well. It was becoming more and more clear that
Hitler’s decision to invade Russia was a huge mistake. The Germans had not brought enough
winter supplies due to Hitlers overconfidence. He also gravely underestimated the
resilience of the Russian people, and how many of them would join in the cause
to stop Germany from taking their land. Stalin had a huge population to fuel his
war machine, and the resources contained within the Soviet Union’s borders
allowed them to quickly resupply while the Germans struggled to get simple things
such as food and warm clothes to their troops. While the invasion of Soviet Russia was
failing, Hitler seemed to lose his mind. He started blaming everyone else for his bad
decisions. This led to another huge mistake. Rather than listening to his generals and
advisors who knew more about war than he did, Hitler decided to make himself
Commander in Chief of the Nazi Army. He couldn’t believe that his troops hadn’t yet
secured Russia. They would have to double their efforts, and anyone who even mentioned
the word “retreat” would be executed. Everyone who had been serving on the frontlines
of the war knew that trying to subdue Russia and take its capital was a lost cause, but Hitler
would hear none of it. He wanted Moscow to fall, and he wanted it bad. So, he put himself in
charge of the military to make sure that no one did anything rash like withdraw
and come up with a better plan. Hitler was going to take Russia or lose the
war trying, which is exactly what he did. He had put himself in an unwinnable position,
fighting on two fronts while also bringing the United States into the fray. And he was
quickly running out of resources. Things were about to go from bad to worse, and it all
had to do with Hitler’s next few decisions. Hitler often let his feelings get in the way of
making good wartime decisions. And perhaps there is no better example of this than the Battle of
Stalingrad, which began in August of 1942 as part of the Nazi’s southern advance into Russia. This
city was a manufacturing hub for the Soviets, which meant it had great strategic importance.
The Nazis did not necessarily need to secure the entire city in order to disrupt the Russian supply
chain. Instead, all they really needed to do was blockade Stalingrad to make sure nothing got in or
out. However, Hitler had something else in mind. For Hitler, there was almost nothing
more important than taking the city of Stalingrad. Not because of its importance
but because it was named after Joseph Stalin, the then leader of the Soviet Union. Hitler
believed it would be a huge blow to Russian morale and a huge boost to his own ego if the Nazis took
the city bearing the leader’s name. To be fair, Stalingrad would have provided the Nazis
with desperately needed fuel and supplies, but Hitler couldn’t help but let his feelings
get involved in this wartime decision. For three months, the Nazis tried to take the
city. They were unsuccessful due to Hitler’s obsession with conquering Russia on all fronts
rather than focusing his troops on one location. The Nazis had even taken much of the oilfields
and resource-rich areas of Ukraine and Crimea, but rather than holding the line
and coming up with a better plan, Hitler ordered his troops forward
into the meatgrinder of Stalingrad. This was a huge mistake because it left their rear
flank vulnerable to counter-attack. Whether Hitler realized this and just didn’t care or he was too
focused on taking Stalingrad to notice is up for debate. Regardless, Soviet generals did notice,
and they sent a force to attack the rearguard of the Nazi army. The Soviets managed to break
through the Nazi defenses and surrounded them. This allowed the Soviets to cut off desperately
needed supplies by capturing military bases and airfields as they tightened their hold on the
region. Hitler ordered General Friedrich Paulus, who was in charge of the Nazi forces in
southern Russia, to continue fighting or be court-martialed and let someone else take
over. Paulus decided to take a third option and save the lives of as many of his men as
possible by surrendering to the Soviets instead. Due to Hitler’s crazed attempt to take Stalingrad,
which was done mostly because of its name, the Nazis lost hundreds of thousands of
men in southern Russia. After Stalingrad, there was no hope of Hitler
turning the war around. The Nazi forces were now retreating back towards
Germany. The Soviets captured anything left behind and wiped out Nazi forces that got in their way.
By the beginning of 1943, not only had Hitler lost millions of troops and vehicles, but he was losing
the confidence of his people. The low morale of civilians and military personnel alike would
cause the Nazi war machine to be less effective. Early footage of Nazi rallies shows huge crowds of
enthralled people hanging on Hitler’s every word. However, after the Eastern front began to
collapse and the threat of a Soviet invasion loomed on the horizon, the German people started
to panic and lose faith in their fearless leader. The final nail in the coffin was the failed
attempt to invade the Soviet Union and secure Moscow and Stalingrad. This wiped out any
remaining morale left in the German people. To make matters worse, Winston Churchill and
Franklin D Roosevelt had just met in Casablanca and decided it was time to commence bombing
runs on German soil. This led to death and destruction at home, which the German people
had not experienced up to this point. It was a real eye-opener that their Fuhrer might not be
able to deliver on all of the promises he made, and the war might in fact be a total loss. At the end of the summer of 1943, incendiary
bombs were dropped on Hamburg. The destruction and fire they caused destroyed practically the
entire city and killed around 40,000 people. After the bombing run, approximately 900,000
Germans were left homeless. The war had now become very real for the average German citizen. It also
became clear that many in the military were losing faith in their Fuhrer. Over 20,000 Nazi troops
were court-martialed and executed for various reasons, most of which stemmed from their lack of
confidence in Adolf Hitler. Without the trust and enthusiasm of his people and military personnel,
there was no way that Hitler could win the war. The only thing worse for Hitler than having
the Russians closing in from the east, Italy falling apart in the south, and military
supplies running low on all fronts would be if the British and Americans somehow managed to land in
France and secure a foothold on mainland Europe. On June 6, 1944, Hitler’s worst fear
came to be. On top of being a crazy, egotistical, power-hungry monster, Hitler was
also gullible. He allowed the Allies to trick him and his generals into deploying troops at
the wrong locations along his Atlantic Wall as D-Day was carried out. The Allies knew
they would be landing at Normandy, but they definitely didn’t want Hitler to know that, so
they used false radio broadcasts, dummy aircraft, and misinformation to trick Hitler into moving
his forces away from the actual landing zones. The plan worked, and when allied forces
stormed the beaches, they met much less resistance than they would have otherwise. There
is no doubt that the D-Day invasion was a gruesome and terrible moment in World War II history that
cost the lives of thousands of allied soldiers, but it ended up being successful because
of the allies' ability to trick Hitler. With Allied troops now on mainland
Europe, there was nowhere to run. Nazi forces were recalled back to the Fatherland
as an invasion of Germany was now imminent. All of the key events mentioned so far were
not the only reasons Hitler lost the war. There were also some factors that Hitler handled
poorly throughout the entire conflict that led to his demise. These can’t be pinpointed
to a specific event or battle but instead, show how a bloodthirsty tyrant can let his
vision for world domination get in his own way. Perhaps the biggest mistake that Hitler
made was overextending his forces. This was such a problem because, throughout
the war, maintaining supply lines was a huge problem for the Nazis. They constantly
found themselves in need of more resources, the most important of which were fuel and
food, to supply their vehicles and troops. In the initial months of the war, Axis
powers secured vast amounts of land across Europe and North Africa. However, this
meant that supplies and resources needed to travel incredibly long distances to
reach troops. Vehicles and ammunition that were made in Germany could take
weeks or months to reach the frontlines. It may sound crazy, but Nazi Germany even
had to rely pretty heavily on horses to transport supplies to some regions due
to a lack of vehicles and the landscape. This meant that Hitler’s war machine moved quickly
at first but then came to a grinding halt as supplies took forever to get to where they needed
to go. If he was somehow able to quickly move the resources his troops needed throughout the entire
war, it is very likely that Hitler could have won. The German supply line also forced Hitler
into one of his biggest mistakes in World War II. Nazi forces needed oil, and they needed a
lot of it. This was the main reason why Hitler invaded the Soviet Union. If he had been able to
secure oil, steel, and food from any other source, he could have avoided starting a war with
Russia, which would have meant Germany wouldn’t have needed to fight a war on two fronts.
Therefore, it was the lack of resources and supply line issues that were the overarching cause
that led to Adolf Hitler losing World War II. Perhaps the most surprising factor that
led to Hitler’s defeat wasn’t anything to do with the military or supply chain
at all. Instead, perhaps his obsession with magic and the occult was a driving
factor behind some of his worst decisions. The Nazis’ fascination with the occult wasn’t just
made up to create Indiana Jones movies. Instead, mysticism played a pretty important role
in Hitler’s decision-making policies. For example, the Nazis were constantly
on the search for the Holy Grail as the promise of everlasting life was a huge draw
for Hitler and his entourage of occultists. Hitler and the rest of the Nazi
leadership were not Christians, but they still believed certain relics
were imbued with mystical powers. But the search for mystical relics was only
one aspect of Hitler’s use of the occult. He actually used pretty strange practices to
help make some wartime decisions as well. Some accounts report that the Hitler and Nazi
military leaders frequently used a pendulum and dowsing rod to determine the location
of Allied warships on maps of the ocean. These devices have no actual
magical properties or any measurable effect on determining the location
of an object, including naval vessels. So, any decisions made using these techniques would
be as good as if Hitler had just closed his eyes and randomly pointed to an area on a map with
his finger to determine where Allied forces were. Other important military decisions were made
under the advisement of astrologers, magicians, and tarot card readers. Again, there is no
scientific basis that any of these practices can have a positive effect on wartime decisions.
Belief in the occult and mysticism definitely played less of a role in Hitler losing World War
II than the other factors discussed in this video, but you can’t help but wonder how many
of his bad decisions were actually the result of following the advice of psychics
or in pursuit of some magical artifact. Now watch “Last 24 Hours of
Hitler's Life.” Or check out “Hitler's Actual Plan for Taking Over America.”
