Jack Albrecht
1 min readDec 22, 2020

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I would say that Hitler's greatest error was in not waiting 3 or 4 years. IIRC this was an important point in Kershaw's seminal Hitler biography.

Hitler felt that he was getting too old to be taken seriously as "the Führer." If he had waited a few more years after annexing Austria and the Sudetenland, while continuing to build armaments, the Wehrmacht would have had enough armaments to overrun Great Britain (for example). Yes, the use of slaves and lack of natural resources would have delivered ever diminishing marginal returns between 1938 and 40, but the rest of Europe and the US were not really arming at all.

IMO (and IIRC Kershaw's) that would have made the difference in the war. If after overruning the continent Hitler felt he had enough reserves to cross the channel by boat as well as continue the fight in the air, Great Britain would have been lost, making the war really, really difficult for the US.

Of course this is all speculation and I'm far from an expert. In any case, your list is excellent, in particular the attack on the USSR was a huge tactical blunder that possibly was a deathstroke no matter how long Hitler had waited.

Like Nick Popov, I would argue that Hitler was definitely not an idiot. A poor military strategist for sure. But definitely NOT an idiot.

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Jack Albrecht
Jack Albrecht

Written by Jack Albrecht

US expatriate living in the EU; seeing the world from both sides of the Atlantic.

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