Top 10 Reasons Hitler Was An Idiot 10. He Cancelled the Worlds’ First Assault
Rifle When the Germans invaded the Soviet Union,
a new weapon was needed to help soldiers deal with the vast expanses of the Russian tundra
and the millions of enemy soldiers inhabiting it – a weapon that could take the accuracy,
range, and penetrating power of a rifle, and combine it with the high rate of fire, quick
reload time, and maneuverability of a sub-machine gun. Developers went off to create such a
weapon and the MbK 42, the world’s first assault rifle, was born. And the initial results were astounding. Units
outfitted with these new weapons held a gigantic advantage over the hapless Russian defenders,
and used them to cut deep into Soviet lines. And then – during a political fight in Berlin,
Hitler threw a hissy fit and decided to scrap the whole project. He just threw it right
out the window, along with all of its massive potential. German commanders renamed it “MP43”
(maschinenpistol 43) and continued to produce it behind Hitler’s back for a time but,
when the Fuhrer found out about it, he cancelled it again. By the time he listened to reason and finally
brought it back, it was mid-1943 and the Russians were smashing the Germans back all along the
front. Too little, too late. 9. He Cancelled the Me-262 Fighter Jets Aviation in WWII was still dominated by propeller-driven
aircraft. But guess what? That didn’t have to be the case. The Germans invented the first
jet-powered aircraft, called the Me-262, and could have had it flying by mid-1943. However,
in its early stages, the plane was designed as an interceptor – a fast-moving fighter.
And that made sense, seeing as the main advantage it had over less modern aircraft was its tremendous
speed. But Hitler didn’t want interceptors; they
weren’t explode-y enough. No, he wanted fighter-bombers. And thus, the whole project
was, you guessed it, tabled. At least until he could get his fighter-bombers. Few things here. First of all, there’s no
reason Hitler couldn’t have allowed the Luftwaffe to make these jets instead of whatever
propeller-driven crap the Allies were smacking out of the sky with ease, even while they
developed his fighter-bombers. After all, the current models had been proven to be remarkably
superior to whatever the Allies were flying. But Hitler wanted it done his way and, by
the time these beasts saw the light of day in spring 1945, they were outnumbered ten
thousand to one, and the skies were blackened by the omnipresent swarms of American and
British bombers. Once again, too little, too late. 8. Never Allowed Retreat Hitler was not a military strategist, which
probably explains why he so fanatically enforced his absurd “no retreat, fight to the last
man” policy to ridiculous ends. Then again, you don’t have to be a military strategist
to realize that sheer willpower won’t do much good when stacked up against a freaking
howitzer, so maybe he was just insane. And we’re only half-kidding about that – Hitler
was living in a fantasy world. He truly believed that the battlefield was a sappy Lifetime
movie, where the honor and determination of his soldiers would see them through to victory,
even if the enemy was every bit as determined and had a lot more men and firepower to back
it up with. He was boasting this propagandic nonsense, even as the Russians were smashing
Germany to pieces. He first made the call at Stalingrad, when
he denied Frederich Paulus permission to fight his way out of a Soviet encirclement while
the Russian lines were still relatively weak. Instead, he told him to stay put and, as a
result, the entire 6th Panzer Army was lost, as well as all hope of a German victory. But even that didn’t teach Hitler didn’t
a lesson. He denied permission to his troops who wanted to fall back to and fortify the
eastern bank of the Rhine River in 1945, blow the bridges, and dare the western Allies to
cross. This was clearly the smart choice, but Hitler sent them that same old message
– “no retreat.” The Allies gleefully seized this opportunity, and neatly mopped
up a huge chunk of the remaining resistance in the west, making their job that much easier.
The Nazis that did finally retreat had no actual strategy in mind, aside from running
as fast as possible and avoiding becoming worm food. And not too much later, at Berlin itself,
Hitler screwed himself over directly, by forcing his men to hold a helpless line against the
Russians along the Oder River, rather than pulling them back to tighten up the inner
defenses of the city itself. When the Russians reached the city mere days later, there were
only about 80,000 Germans left to defend it, half of which were civilians. And that kind
of sucked for Hitler, because there were 1.6 million Russians outside, and they were not
in a good mood. 7. The German Army Was Unprepared for Winter
War. In Russia. When you hear the word “Russia”, snow
should be one of the first things to come to mind. Well, that and potato vodka, but
snow first and foremost. And that makes sense, since the Russian winter is notoriously violent
and lasts much longer than the American one. So needless to say, if you’re planning on
invading the place, at least bring a jacket, or some long johns, or something. Hitler could have used this information in
June 1941, when the invasion of Russia began. However, he didn’t feel like his mighty
Wehrmacht needed winter gear, what with all their being unstoppable Aryan supermen and
all that. He felt that all he needed to do was “kick in the front door and watch the
whole rotten structure come crumbling down.” He literally thought he could bring down the
Russians in as little as a month or two, and that everyone would be sipping tea back in
Berlin by September. Did we mention Hitler was insane? Six months later, the Germans had made some
incredible gains, but had by no means beaten the Red Army. But they were so close – the
German was at the outskirts of Moscow, and some forward positions even reported seeing
the towers of the Kremlin from their field glasses. If Moscow fell, Russia would follow.
And if Russia fell, the rest of the Allies would follow. The fate of the world hung in
the balance. But then, the advance stopped. Why? Old Man
Winter. The Germans were inexcusably unprepared for the harsh cold of the Russian north – tanks
froze in their tracks, men froze in their sleep, supply lines bogged down, and the whole
mess came screeching to a four-month halt. Meanwhile, while it was by no means easy for
them either, the Russians’ supply lines were much shorter, and they were fighting
on their homeland, meaning the Russians used the lull in the fighting to recover as much
as possible. By Spring 1942, when the Germans renewed their
offensive, it was too late – the Russians had recovered just enough during the winter
to hold them over for year, after which the tide turned and the Germans would never again
regain the initiative in the east. All because the winter stopped them outside Moscow. 6. He Misused the V1 and V2 Rockets The German army in WW2 was responsible for
a whole pantheon of revolutionary breakthroughs like the assault rifle, jet aircraft, and
yes, even ballistic missiles. All of these inventions, seeing as how we’re still using
variations of them 70 years later, would have been invaluable to the German war effort in
the 1940’s, had they been placed in the right hands. Unfortunately, they were placed in Hitler’s.
We’ve already covered how this genius undermined the mammoth potential of both the MP43 assault
rifle and the Me-262 jet fighter. But how could he take something as incredible as ballistic
missile tech, and piss it away? How can you not take advantage of the ability to rain
unholy Hellfire down upon your enemies from a control tower a hundred miles to the east? Well, for starters, you could not use them
against enemy troop formations or supply lines or other military targets, and instead use
them against civilian populations far enough away to render the machines’ primitive targeting
mechanisms moot. Which is exactly what Hitler did. Rather than striking at the Russian or
the American soldiers massing along Germany’s borders, Hitler thought it would be a good
idea to send them over to London, where they were either shot down with ease by the RAF,
or just exploded on someone’s roof and inconvenienced the fire brigade for an afternoon. Oh, the
sad, wasted potential. 5. Never Listened To His Generals Not listening to your generals is such a waste.
Why do you even have them if you don’t trust them to lead the troops on their own? Maybe,
just maybe, they know a little better about strategics than you do since, you know, they
put in years of hard work, and had the necessary talent and intelligence, to become a freaking
general in the first place! And the thing is – Hitler did listen to
his generals early on. France, for example, fell when Field Marshall Rundstedt brilliantly
tore through the Ardennes forest and circled around the Maginot line. A lot of people attribute
that move to Hitler, when in fact, it was his commanders. And that worked brilliantly
– France fell without much of a fight at all, and set themselves up for who-knows-how-many
decades of “coward” jokes. But as the war drew on, and Hitler grew less
and less confident in Germany’s ability to win, he began controlling every little
aspect of every little front. Keep in mind that he was not a military strategist, so
his micromanaging helped exactly no one. But not only did he micromanage – he didn’t
listen to his generals when they begged him for permission to do things only an insane
person wouldn’t do. Such as protecting Normandy – General Erwin Rommel suggested that the
Allies would strike at Normandy and not Calais and, when it happened, he wanted to move his
troops north to counter the attack. Hitler refused, because he moronically thought the
real attack was still coming, even though hundreds of thousands of Allied troops were
pouring ashore. By the time he finally listened to the generals that he hired, it was too
late. France was lost. 4. Gave Control of the Luftwaffe to Goering Most of you know about the Battle of Britain
– when the RAF miraculously beat back the mighty German Luftwaffe over England, and
saved the Allied cause. Well, it wasn’t just because the RAF were phenomenal pilots,
or even because whenever a plane went down in battle, it was on their turf, meaning they
could repair it and send it back into the fight, an advantage the Germans didn’t have.
These factors were monumental, but the real reason England didn’t get bombed into oblivion
is because Hitler let Reich President Hermann Goering take command of the Air Force. Goering, like Hitler, had exactly zero commanding
experience. So, when the time came and Hitler ordered him to bring England to its knees
from the skies, Goering royally screwed up literally every chance they had. He switched
targets too frequently, rather than concentrating on a single village or radar station until
it was destroyed. This allowed the British to repair nearly all the damage the Luftwaffe
did manage to do, before it become catastrophic. Even as the casualty list mounted, and even
as the British began outnumbering the Germans (due to the aforementioned ability to repair
downed planes on both sides and send them to fight for the RAF), Hitler never stripped
Goering of his command and hired a capable strategist. As a result, England beat the
tar out of the Germans, and stayed in the war. And that brings us to the next point… 3. He Blundered Germany Into A Two-Front War.
Again. One of the things that did Germany in in the
first World War was it being a two-front war, which was a scenario Hitler intended to avoid
at all costs. Unfortunately, he wanted to invade Russia a whole lot more. We just talked about the Battle of Britain,
which was a fight Hitler started in an attempt to bring England (the last of the Western
Allies) to its knees so he could concentrate on his primary goal – Russia. But then England
actually won the battle. What Hitler should have done was to learn from the mistakes that
were made, press the attack under improved leadership, and maybe even do what he hated
and train the Luftwaffe to attack the RAF so he could get a land invasion going. He
should have persevered until England was out of the fight completely. But instead, he said,
“meh,” and decided to invade Russia anyway. England might have won that one little battle,
but that didn’t mean they were a serious threat to Germany on mainland Europe or anything.
He’d just deal with them later. Of course, this didn’t work out – Russia
didn’t fall, and England got stronger. In other words – Hitler had a legitimate two-front
war, and it did Germany in. Again. 2. He Declared War on the United States When Japan attacked the United States in December
1941, Hitler followed through on his Tripartite agreement, and declared war on America as
well. This was an idiotic move. For one thing, he didn’t have much of a reputation to uphold
– he regularly signed contracts with countries and then stabbed them in the back. So honoring
a commitment he made to Japan didn’t help anyone. But of course, Hitler didn’t know that America
could turn its weak army into a colossal military juggernaut the likes of which the planet had
never seen, did he? So you can’t really blame him for taking that “oh, they’re
not much of a threat” approach to America, the same way he did to England and to Russia. Actually, you kind of can. America wasn’t
exactly a third-world nation, even in the midst of the Great Depression. It still had
tremendous industrial strength, and a gigantic resource pool to fuel it. Yes, their military
was as small as it had ever been up to that point, but it still shouldn’t have surprised
an economic and political genius like Hitler (this is true; we just said he was a military
moron) that the US turned on the war machine, combined it with master political marketing
and propaganda, and came out with a huge military advantage. Hitler, above all others, should
have seen it coming when the Americans entered the war, and soon drowned their enemies in
a sea of seemingly endless men and materials. 1. Obsession with Stalingrad In October 1942, Hitler slightly changed the
objectives for Army Group South in Russia. Their original destination was the Caucasus
oil fields to the south of mainland Russia. If captured, the gigantic oil reserves would
turn Germany’s already-formidable economy into an empire. However, the city of Stalingrad
(now Volgograd), the last bastion of Russian troops on the eastern front, still stood not
too far out of Army Group South’s way. Hitler decided to knock two birds out with one stone:
divert a large chunk of Army Group South to capture Stalingrad, and have everyone home
by Christmas. Unfortunately, and this seems to be a theme
with Hitler, his target did not give in to defeat as quickly or as easily as he thought
it would. The Russian 69th army took tremendous casualties in the battle, but they held their
ground and would not surrender the city. But rather than pulling his men back to capture
the far more important Caucasus region, with plans to return to the city once they were
re-strengthened, Hitler actually stripped troops already in the Caucasus away from their
positions and sent them to Stalingrad. It didn’t help – the Germans simply could
not break the Russian army in and around the city. Still, Hitler’s obsession with the
fight cost him the Caucusus, which was the entire reason he invaded Russia in the first
place.
If Hitler had listened to his generals, Moscow would have been Stalingrad.
I understand the point he is trying to argue, as Hitler did waste so many resources on ridiculous projects that never really panned out, but even without those, Germany still would not have a chance against the rest of the world.
Also 'Meddling' is wayyyy too innocent for describing Hitler.
"UH THE ME262 WAS PERFECT - UH SHITTY ENGINES DONT REAL DUMBSHIT"
This guy has no idea what he's talking about
10) Cancelled the worlds' first Assault rifle
9) Cancelled the Me 262 fighter because he wanted fighter-bombers
8) Never allowed retreat
From: The Soviet German War: Myths and Realities by David Glantz
From: Some Myths of World War II by Gerhard L. Weinberg
7) Unprepared for Russian winter
6) Misused the V1 and V2
5) He never listened to his Generals
4) Gave control of the Luftwaffe to Goering
3) Blundered Germany into a two front war
2) Declared War on the United States
1) Obsession with Stalingrad
Its almost like if the impossible happened, the impossible would have happend!
OK, a better historian than me should break this down. This guy is not a wehraboo, per se, but he does speak some bad history about the Germans.
Any sort of "ww2 without Hitler" scenario is a pretty clear indication that the poster has zero idea about how Nazi Germany functioned.
"cult of personality" was coined (I believe) mostly for Stalin but it 100% applied to Hitler as well.
"AND THAT DUMB DOG!"
Blondi: "ROG? RARE?!"
Snapshots:
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