Hitler wasn't incompetent in the slightest, he ran circles around other European countries diplomatically getting major advantages for the axis before the war even started, he went from being homeless to bringing a country that was very much down and out to dominate almost the entirety of Europe, and it was his decision to follow the famous battle plan that was the German Miracle and Allied Catastrophe known as the Battle of France.
If you speak of his failure to recognize that the Soviet Union would not surrender then you speak with the advantage of hindsight. Japan, USA, Great Britain, French government in exile, and all axis minors thought that the Soviets would of given up after the pounding they were receiving it is a real credit to Stalin and the sacrifices and destruction of his own people that he was willing to put them through and the effectiveness of Soviet industrial mobilization that they not only stayed in the war but turned it around. As for the size of the country being a factor anything east of Stalingrad and Moscow did not hold much strategic value. True a lot of the industry was moved into the Urals because of the rapid German advance but this would not amount to much if they lost all the resources of western Russia, including the oil rich caucuses.
If you speak of Hitlers military decisions then you again speak with hindsight, as well as a lack of the knowledge of the approach Hitler had towards war, Hitler fought the war mainly concerned with the ground battles in Europe placing everything else in the sea and the air and land combat outside of Europe as secondary in priority. Even Churchill admitted that the United Kingdom would be fighting a losing battle and would have to come to terms with Germany (Favorable towards Germany) if the Nazis kept the pressure up on them and prioritized the Suez. He was BEGGING Roosevelt for help in the time period between the Fall of France and before Barbarossa was launched. He did not think England would be able to keep the fight up for the rest of 1941 maybe up until early 1942 at the latest ( mind you these were ENGLISH estimates not GERMAN ones ) And he very much through the Germans were going to keep the pressure up and were putting more effort into Africa than they actually were planning. Hitler was a Corporal and he approached the war as such he did not think on a global scale only a European ground scale. This is covered extensively in the book The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer and is often considered one of the best sources of knowledge on Nazi Germany (I highly suggest the book) if your interested in learning more.
As for Hitlers poor tactical decision making in Russia like the Disastrous Stalingrad, Kursk, and Case Blue in general that also can not be evidence of Hitlers Incompetence. At that time absolute power had corrupted Hitler absolutely as it does and he was definitely suffering from Megalomania which many a Warlord had also fallen Victim to. Add that with the crazy shit his personal Doctor was prescribing him ever since the launch of the Invasion, the stress of leading a country through such trying times, and his own personal delusions that started to form, mix all of these factors in with a man who holds absolute power over a modern powerful country and you have a recipe for disaster.
As a disclaimer I would like to claim that the disaster wasn't wanting to take Stalingrad, but instead how the Wehrmacht was ordered to take it and how much they poured into what was clearly a lost cause as well as ignoring obvious Soviet build up. Despite common western belief that it was a dick swinging content because of the name of the town taking Stalingrad should of been priority. Because of the railway system taking Stalingrad would of effectively HALVED the entire Russian front and closed off the Caucuses to the reds.
I agree that Hitler was immense boon in early years to Germany, but afterwards, he caused far more damage than did good. He was useful because he saw how decadent, weak willed and foolish allies were at the time, but without that, he was deluded. He imagined that he is a master in every field and micromanaged everything much to the harm of German war effort. Not only that, his idiotic decision to be the head of land and airforce sapped his strength, made him a shadow of a man he once was. I take joy in knowing that Hitler suffered greatly every day of his career even if that meant he started to ''talk with other world'' after failed assassination attempt.
No, I speak from pragmatic standpoint. It was obvious that USSR is a massive force. Yes, it had poor reputation as a fighting force, but Hitler should had known better than to underestimate Russian ability to catch up and to withstand suffering. He was student of history after all and this arrogance is unforgivable. It's a mistake with no excuses. Second, then you are about to start massive invasion which would decide faith of you nation, that you do? Do you focus on minor fronts and thus waste precious time and resources? Do you completely fail to invest in intelligence effort? At least get a single git in entire Germany who were in Russia and could tell you about poor state of infrastructure there? No, Germans did nothing like that and they completely failed in understanding that they are fighting against and this is the first principle of offense. Know against whom you are fighting against if you wish to win.
Thank you for recommendation, but once again, do not underestimate your enemies. Strike with ruthless determination, do not give enemy time for respite. These principles were basic of war long before Hitler even started WW2. If he would had studied Sun Tzu or as much other literature available, he would know that. His foolish choice to split his attention, was his downfall. Yes, time he attacked USSR was the best time available and his instincts were correct, but the problem is: he doomed himself with it. Germans did not considered at that massive danger they were since Stalin successfully outmaneuvered entirety of Germany and Germans were just too drunk on massive success they had achieved and without ever reading Sun Tzu, Machiavelli they had not idea how to treat luck factor in their campaign. Once again, poor education and discipline on nazies were their downfall.
I personally felt that because I have luxury of video games, but Germans had war planners. Just simulate game over game and you will learn eventually that focus on too many fronts brings highest risk possible, especially numerically superior foe which have superior production capabilities. I just say simple lessons that Germans had to know if they were competent as they often are seen. Personally, I would have kept pressure despite ''feeling'' that time to strike USSR is now. I would had risked Soviet invasion on a simple basis that I cannot beat USSR any way with allies still unbeaten. One year delay through which I would had tried to apply maximum possible pressure to Britain would had meant that I would had a huge chance in knocking out the war and thus beating allies. With open hands, Stalin might be afraid to engage such successful force, but in any way, Hitler would had been free to attack USSR. He did not thought much of them and war with them now would had been far harder, but its ultimate outcome far more uncertain. I on the other hand, would try to keep Stalin satisfied and try to redirect his attention to Asia or whatever. He did not had any real claims there anyways and it's likely that he would just changed his plans with mutual border disarmament. This is all speculations of course, but essence is clear. To overstretch your forces is extremely reckless and was a main cause of many great defeats through the history. In addition, Germans should have know better than to be defeated by victory and they needed to go that extra mile to achieve victory. And as Sun Tzu says, ones who cannot spare extra expenses to ensure victory do not deserve to win.
I do not care how you value Hitler's tactical decisions. I said that at later stages he went mad and was a detriment to Germany. I had explained why he was stupid before he actually went bat shit crazy like taking way too much responsibility, letting victory to defeat him and etc.
Stalingrad was essential town, I agree, but at that point there was signs that it won't be an easy pick as before. At that point we cannot blame Wehrmacht for actually trying to take it. It spend phenomenal amount of artillery and air bombardment upon that city and if Soviet resistance would had been as before, they would had taken that town. Ignoring it and actually going for oil fields left nazies vurlnerable to large scale counter attack which would trap entire army in unreachable territory. Stalingrad was a major Red Army staging post which ensured their operation in the region. Take it and not only you make Red army advance impossible, but also you have nice defensive line there which would allow for easy oil grab there. The problem was that nazies choose their last battlefield with Soviets there they had excelled and if you know anything about the war, it's extremely stupid thing to do. To allow yourself into final confrontation on your enemy's terms... But once again, victory had defeated Germany way before it had invaded USSR.
In the end, we agree upon many things.The only difference is in perspective if there is any. I just say that Germans needed to push for total victory, they needed to be prepared even greater price for victory, but that is the difference in mentality. In German culture during ww2 was a concept which should be avoided. To me, it's a necessity of any large and future defying war and it's likely that people like me at command of Wehrmacht would have ordered to cease all non-essential production and transfer factories to war production, but once again, Germans are not Slavs and thus they lack natural resilience and dedication to their goals. I hate splitting my forces and I advocate in finishing industrially and numerically superior allies before undertaking any other task and in my head, I would had been under mental clock to do it as fast as possible. Knowing that Germans should have known that threat USA poses and that they simply cannot win prolonged war at seas, it's only natural to go as hard as possible against them as soon as possible. If you do not agree with me, be free to say that. I merely express my opinion which often gets everybody pissed off. Probably because of how aggressive at discussing I'm.
