@panzerzombie and
@Shatterfury
Adam Tooze has dis-proved the Speer myth that production increased hugely due to Speer's efforts alone, instead it increased due to the "efforts" made in the previous years, mainly due to the 4 year plan of Goering which started in 1936 but finished only in late 1941-early 1942, about 18 months delay in implementation which created a lot of capacities in production. Also "streamlined" benefits kicked in and Speer cut down on the wasteful products by some.
Now, to German production. It was always hasty improvisation rather than a well thought strategy like- USA which decided to pump out 50000 Shermans despite knowing they were somewhat outdated in terms of armor or USSR pumping out IL-2 Sturmoviks in tens of thousands despite horrendous losses in pilots so that it could put an end to the "Panzerwaffe".
In 1933, the Germans were already on the verge of re-armament and had the basics of tanks, combined arms etc in advanced testing time period, Hitler accelerated the process.
The result- the Germans built the PzII as a stop-gap measure till the IIIs and IVs could be researched, tested and produced (both were under R&D and achieved tests in 1936 and 1937 but full scale production started only by 1939). - these remained the 2 main chassis for tanks for Germany throughout the war.
The "theory" of using "tracked vehicles" and "tractors" as prime-movers (which benefited them a lot, despite the cost) vs the Western allied theory of TRUCKS also was in place.
The Bf109 was in full production from 1937 onward and was first tested in 1935, which meant it was already being considered pre-1933. (the main fighter of Germany)
Further, Aircraft procurement was a quagmire of politics and corruption, with the fastest aircraft in the world-HE100 not being procured by the Luftwaffe despite its speed records not being broken till 1944. The entire Luftwaffe top brass was corrupt/incompetent- Goering, Milch, Udet etc. Just see the way they played around with Ju-88, forcing Junkers to make the plane -"dive bomb capable" reducing its speed and carrying capacity. The only 2 competent technical people they had were- Waver and Richtofen (Wolfram von Richtofen was not only a flying ace but an engineering postgraduate with specialty in avionics, a person like him was best suited to command the "Technical Dept"), Walther Waver died and Richtofen was sidelined.
Now to the Navy, the Navy wasted precious Steel and other important commodities building "White Elephants" esp. the Z plan ships like - Bismarck and Tirpitz. Both did not achieve anything. The "STEEL" would have been enough to build 500 PzIVs by 1939-1940 additionally and several hundred trucks and Sdkfz's. Or could have been used to build some 100+ Ocean going subs, but there was no "proper direction". Irony here is - in my opinion Adm. Raeder was the best "Grand Strategist" in entire Germany.
Again in 1942-42, when Guderian was appointed Inspector-General, he wanted to build only PzIII and IV chassis and scrap all other projects, making hundreds of Stugs and PzIVs and using them in a mobile manner to inflict terrible casualties on the Russians, but "Tiger, Elephant, Panther" were all a waste of resources- all put together were produced at less than 10,000; instead some 20,000/25000 Stugs/PzIV maybe in a 2:3/3:2 ratio would have benefited the Germans immensely. (even with the FUEL COSTS, as those heavies were gas guzzlers and difficult to transport and liable to breakdowns).
Overall, a - PLAYER in HOI series never plays - "NAZI INTERNAL POLITICS TOTAL WAR" and this saves him a lot of energy and resources to crush the AI easily.
If, the Germans had not built so many useless white elephants and variants, they would have had much better production figures, certainly not equal to the USA but much higher than it happened.
