Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this Island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science.

Winston Churchill June 18, 1940

 

Executive Summary

 

Introduction: Why did Hitler fail to conquer the world?

 

Adolph Hitler was probably the most evil person who ever lived. Despite his horrendous record, layman and historians have been fascinated by his rise and fall. The number of books about Hitler and the Holocaust are countless. Each year numerous books are written on these subjects. The obsession with Hitler is intertwined with our recognition that because of him less than 70 years ago civilization was tinkering on the edge of a precipice.

 

This essay attempts to provide an integrated overview of the main causes of his failure to attain world supremacy. His numerous errors from May 1940- December 11, 1941 fatally wounded the Third Reich. Each of these blunders standing alone might not have led to the Nazi demise. Why then did Hitler fail? We must recognize that their cumulative impact led to the German defeat.  Moreover, his decision to attack the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 and the Declaration of War against America on December 11, 1941 were significantly more harmful than earlier errors. In essence, Hitler was like a gambler who loses a few dollars initially. In order to get even he risks more and more until he goes bankrupt. Stated differently, until December 11, 1941, most odds makers would have made Germany a favorite to conquer all of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. The fortunes of war changed thereafter.  The allies clinched victory when they established a second front in Normandy in June 1944.

 

Similar to Stalin, the strengths and weaknesses of the Nazi regime resided in one person—Hitler. Hitler adroitly kept complete authority by promoting dissention among his followers. Thus, final resolution of important issues resided solely on the fuehrer. Starting in January 1933 when he effectively gained control over Germany, Hitler’s military and political gambles were effective. During this period, he attained mythical status because his instincts were correct. However, after May 1940, he made a series mistake. Many of these errors could have been modified or aborted if Hitler was surrounded by able independent advisors similar in quality that gave counsel to Churchill and Roosevelt. Instead, all of his close associates and senior military personnel passively accepted his decisions because either their status totally depended upon his approval or they were functionally incompetent.

 

Highlights of Hitler’s mistakes

1. In late May Hitler ordered his infantry to stop within a few miles of Dunkirk. This allowed hundreds of thousands of French and English soldiers to retreat back to Great Britain. Moreover, it promoted Churchill’s standing within the Conservative Party and the public at large. Only Churchill could have kept the British resolve to continue fighting almost alone for 13 months from May 1940 to June 1941.

2. Tripartite Pact (9/21/1940): This pact became a hindrance not a help to Germany. Hitler made several critical mistakes in fulfilling his pledges under the Tripartite Pact: Hitler supported his partners (1) although not contractually bound and (2) took actions inimical to Germany’s best interests. His willingness to keep or possibly exceed his commitments was at complete variance with his previous policies; that is, heretofore Hitler notoriously scrapped almost every other treaty or agreement. Secondly Germany did not need either Italy or Japan to dominate Europe. Therefore, Hitler was in a strong position to dictate the direction and pace of Japan’s and Italy’s military ventures. Instead, he acquiesced to their military adventures and priorities without raising serious objections. Thirdly, his traditional modus operandi was to demand complete subservience. In the Night of Long Knives, he killed many of his early followers because they threatened Hitler’s courtship with the German Army. Under umbrella of the tripartite pact both Japan and Italy took militarily independent steps that caused Hitler to make fatal blunders. The Italian failed efforts in Greece and North Africa required military assistance from Germany. While he could not “bully” Japan, he certainly could have made clear that he would only support Japanese aggression in specific areas.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor led to his declaration of war against the United States. Hitler got nothing in return. Specifically, Japan did not attack the Soviet Union and thus allowed Stalin to fight a one front war. Moreover, until Pearl Harbor Hitler had consistently opposed the advice of his naval leaders to retaliate against American attacks (“the secret war” carried on by the Roosevelt Administration). In declaring war against America Hitler unilaterally and without rational reasoning altered his previous beliefs and policies.

1. Balkan Intervention and African Campaigns (Spring 1940): These efforts diverted Germany’s focus from his primary enemy, the Soviet Union. Moreover, forming alliances and taking territory at the doorsteps of Russia made certain that ultimately Germany and the Soviet Union would go to war against each other. The issue was timing. These dictatorial regimes could not tolerate the other’s survival.

2. The launching of Operation Barbarossa against the Soviet Union (June 22, 1941): The decision to wage a three-front war: England, Soviet Union, and North Africa spread the German military effort too thin. Focusing on one strategic target at a time would have been far more effective. Victory in any one of these spheres could have made Germany virtually invincible.

3. Declaration of War against the United States on December 11, 1941. Hitler’s initiative of declaring war made possible Franklin Roosevelt’s decision to prioritize defeating Germany rather than Japan. Until Hitler’s declaration, Roosevelt would have been politically forced to focus on defeating Japan. Some historians even feel that it would have been difficult in the days immediately following Pearl Harbor for Roosevelt to get Congress to declare war on Germany. Until the Battle of Midway, June 4, 1942, the Japanese had scored a string of victories. Thus, many in Congress would have urged caution in pursuing hostilities in the Atlantic and Pacific theatres until we had clear superiority over the Japanese.

4. Wannsee Conference January 22, 1942 established a firm policy to annihilate Jews “The Final Solution to the Jewish Question”: My selection of this conference differs in several key respects from the prior points.                                                                                            First of all, since the inception of the Nazi Party, a primary mission was to make Germany Free of Jews. Initially, the program called for making Germany so inhospitable to their Jewish subjects that the later will emigrate. Over time this malignancy grew to incarcerating Jews in concentration camps, brutal physical harassment, and passing the Nuremberg Laws that effectively segregated German Jews.                                                                 Secondly, the Wannsee Conference was secret, although its policies were quickly implemented by Reinhard Heydrich in all lands occupied by the German forces in Europe and North Africa. Third of all, the idea of working Jews in slave conditions until killing them, expanded to incarcerating all “under people” in comparable slave like conditions.                                              Fourth of all, the emphasis on race impacted Hitler’s foreign policy decisions prior to the Wannsee Conference. He demonized both the Soviet Union and the United States feeling that their racial profile made them inferior to Arians. Hitler turned the Ukrainians against him even though they despised Stalin because he killed 10 million of their countrymen. In Hitler’s eyes, the Ukrainians fault was that they were also Slavic. 

Lastly we cannot overlook the contribution of European Jews to America’s atomic bomb effort. These refugees from Hitler’s persecution ultimately retaliated.  Einstein’s letter to Roosevelt initiated the Manhattan Project. Without émigré Jewish involvement, the United States and Great Britain could never have developed the atomic bomb in 1945. 

 

More Expansive Overview of Hitler’s Mistakes

 

May 1940

 

Hitler’s decision to halt his infantry some thirty miles from Dunkirk allowed the evacuation of hundreds of thousands English and French soldiers. Instead, Hitler chose to employ only aerial attacks. Hitler could have easily combined ground troop operations with aerial attacks to assure the capture of hundreds of thousands of allied troops. The rescued military personnel served as an important element in strengthening the British resolve to continue the war against Germany. 

 

We now know that independent of the successful retreat from Dunkirk; in late May Churchill narrowly prevailed in the British War Cabinet to not negotiate terms of surrender. 1) Churchill argued that any negotiations with Hitler would fatally undermine military support from the United States. 2) Churchill argued that those countries who succumbed after fighting diligently subsequently rebounded. On the other hand, countries meekly surrendering failed subsequently to return to great nation status. 3) Churchill argued that Hitler’s record of breaking pledges proved that a lasting peace with Germany was illusionary. 

 

After Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain, Roosevelt was able to push through important aid packages for Britain. We now know that starting in 1941 America began an “undeclared war on German military vessels.” America would have only embarked on this effort if they were convinced of British resolve.

 

Tripartite Pact (September 21, 1940)

 

The formal alliance of Japan, Italy, and Germany hardened American resistance to all three fascist’s regimes. This pact convinced a majority of the American public that they were in danger from attacks both from the Pacific and the Atlantic. While Americans by large margins still preferred neutrality, they understood better the perils.

 

The tripartite pact helped Roosevelt to prepare America for war. The signing of the tripartite pact and the passing of the Selective Service Act in September 1940 by one vote were contemporary events. 

Foolishly Hitler allowed his other partners—Japan and Italy—to take independent rather than coordinated military action. Failure to control Mussolini undermined his primary focus on England and the Soviet Union.

In the minds of the American people, the Italian invasions of Africa and Greece were perceived as a joint effort rather than merely an Italian escapade. Germany’s commitment of troops to support the flagging Italian military efforts made the later a co-conspirator.  

Alternatively, Americans presumed that Japan’s aggression against China, and the former colonies of Britain and France was encouraged by Germany. Americans could not distinguish between the independent actions of Japan and Germany’s military aggressions. Roosevelt believed that his blockade of shipments of important raw materials such as oil and steel to Japan would either undermine further Japanese military ventures or promote a military response. Without these basic materials, the pro war advocates in Japan undermined their moderate opponents. Until the summer of 1941 Japanese moderates narrowly controlled the militants. 

The failure to require Japan to join Germany in a war against the Soviet Union was an irreparable mistake. Specifically, if Japan had focused any effort on Russia instead of seeking conquest of Indochina, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore, Stalin could not have rushed reserved from Siberia to shore up his flagging efforts on his western front. Stalin’s ability to focus solely on Germany was pivotal in turning back the Nazi invasion in December 1940.

 

Tripartite Pact Impact on the United States

 

Because of the popularity of neutrality, Roosevelt pledged not to involve American troops in a foreign war in his 1940 reelection campaign. Nevertheless, he won election—an unprecedented third term-- because Americans felt that he was best suited to run the country during this dire time. 

 

Balkan Intervention

 

Fall 1940

 

German efforts to control Rumania, Hungary, and Bulgaria weakened his relationships with the Soviet Union. Stalin, always paranoid, saw the encroachment by Germany on countries adjacent to Russia as a precursor to war. Stalin foolishly thought that he could postpone war until 1943 when the reconstituted Russian military forces could withstand a German attack Hitler’s Balkan intervention accelerated Stalin military efforts. He even reinstated “disgraced” officers who had been purged in 1937-1938.

 

Spring 1941

 

Germany deployed significant number of troops to Greece, Yugoslavia and Africa. In the aggregate, these efforts delayed the German invasion of the Soviet Union from the spring of 1941 to the summer. This delay contributed to the ultimate German defeat by the Russians. Specifically, if Germany had attacked Russia earlier, they might have achieved their objectives of capturing Leningrad, Moscow, and seizing oil fields in the south beyond Ukraine. Instead, the severe Russian winter stymied the German initiative. German soldiers were not properly clothed for the harsh winter and German tanks could not operate effectively in the snow and slush of Russia’s inhospitable terrain. Hitler’s decision to divide his army to attain these three far reaching initiatives resulted in defeats in all of these areas.

 

Greece: Hitler invaded Greece in March 1941 to stop a rout of the Italian army. Hitler neither had no treaty obligations to help Mussolini nor knew in advance Mussolini’s intentions to invade Greece. Hitler unwisely deployed troops needed for the Russian campaign merely to support his fascist colleague. Stated differently, Hitler felt that Mussolini’s prestige and possibly his leadership of Italy could be compromised by an unmitigated defeat.

 

Hitler invaded Yugoslavia in April 1941 to overturn an anti-German coup d'etat. The anti-German sentiment was directly attributed to the German meddling in the Balkans in 1940-1941. Unlike General Douglas Macarthur who island hopped in the Pacific in order to focus solely on Japan, Hitler foolishly diverted key troops to insignificant war theatres such as Yugoslavia. Specifically, after a German victory over Russia, Hitler could have dealt easily with both Greece and Yugoslavia.

 

Fighting in North Africa started with the Italian declaration of war on June 10, 1940. The British army effectively counter attacked the Italians. German African Corps, commanded by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, was dispatched to North Africa, to bolster the Italian forces and prevent a complete Axis defeat. 

 

Hitler had two choices: 1) Allow a crushing defeat of Mussolini or 2) Postpone his attack on the Soviet Union and concentrate significant forces in North Africa. Germany could have conquered key oil resources in Saudi Arabia much easier than capturing the oil supplies of the Soviet Union. Without Arab oil, England probably would have sued for peace prior to June 1941. We need to remember that Britain with her Commonwealth allies fought alone from May 1940-June 1941, some thirteen long arduous months. The allocation of relatively small number of troops to the African theatre ultimately led to a complete German defeat by a combined American and British military effort (Operation Torch) in 1943.

 

German Invasion of Soviet Union June 22, 1941

 

Hitler felt strongly that the Bolshevik Soviet Union was led by a combination of Jews and Slavs, both inferior races. He stated that Bolshevik regime was so “rotten’ that all he had to do was “kick the door in” to defeat Mother Russia. Hitler mistakenly drew the conclusion from the miserable efforts of the Russians against Finland in 1939 that Stalin’s 1936-1937 purges of his armed forces had emasculated the Red Army. 

 

Moreover, Hitler coveted the Ukraine which he felt would provide the agricultural production capacity to allow Germany’s population to increase substantially. He failed to appreciate that France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark could provide all the food Germany required.

 

Instead, Hitler argued that withholding the Ukraine’s agricultural production from the Slavs would diminish the latter’s population. In essence, Hitler was obsessed that world domination required the subjugation of the Soviet Union with its numerically superior manpower. In essence, Hitler felt that without the Ukraine, Germany could not support the manpower necessary for world domination. In simple terms, in 1940, Slavs outnumbered almost two to one Aryans. Moreover, Slavs enjoyed a faster birth rate. Thus, in Hitler’s mind without the Ukraine, war with the Soviet Union was a ticking time bomb. In the short run he had to strike Russia while the later was still rebuilding her army. Otherwise, in the long run, the Slav population would overwhelm the Aryans.

 

Lastly, by September of 1940, Hitler had abandoned plans of invading Great Britain. Instead, Hitler felt that Germany could force Britain to make an accommodation with Germany by defeating the Soviet Union. Eliminating the Soviet Union, would undermine meaningfully Churchill’s “delusion” that the British Empire could successfully fight Germany.

 

German Declaration of War Against the United States, December 11, 1941

 

Hitler’s last mistake was probably his greatest folly. In essence, Hitler under the terms of the Axis Pact had no responsibility to support Japan if the later initiated a conflict. Moreover, Hitler would have preferred that Japan attack the Soviet Union and prevent Stalin from rushing troops from Siberia to the Western Front.

 

Germany had suffered a humiliating setback in Russia in early December 1941. Thus, Hitler should have recognized that he needed his military efforts directed solely against the Soviet Union rather than incurring American wrath. If Hitler would have been rational, he could have postponed declaring war against America until he knew completely the outcome of his troops in Russia. Only by the slightest margin did Germany prevent a complete military disaster in early 1942 when the Red army launched a surprise counter attack.  

 

Hitler failed to anticipate America’s productive capacity. He was wrong both in timing of America’s production capabilities and quantities.  Hitler felt that America could not offer meaningful assistance to Great Britain and the Soviet Union until late 1943. Instead, America’s production capability was so strong that we could commit significant arms and supplies to our European allies in 1942. We were the “arsenal of democracy.” Our airplane, tank, and ship building achievements far surpassed Germany.

 

Also, Hitler presumed that America would prioritize defeating Japan. Instead, Roosevelt emphasized defeating Germany. 

 

Conclusion

 

Hitler’s many errors starting in May 1940 ultimately led to Germany’s defeat. We should thank our Maker that Hitler made these horrendous errors. Otherwise, we would be living in a Dark Age.

 

Appendix:

 

Was Stalin Jewish? Assuming that Hitler’s scientific methods for determining Jews was accurate than Stalin was not Jewish. Let me amplify. In 1939 Hitler was most anxious to negotiate a non-aggression treaty with the Soviet Union to avoid a second front. There were economic, geographic, and historical animosities that caused significant road blocks to an accord. However, the major stumbling bloc was Hitler’s unalterable view that he would not do business with a Jew. Therefore, his secrets had a picture of Stalin’s ear taken. Hitler felt that he possessed “scientific” evidence that all Jews had the same ear features. Needless to say, Stalin passed with flying colors.

 

Fast forward, I have used Hitler’s scientific measurements to determine whether Bernie Madoff is Jewish. I expect to finish my analysis before submitting my next essay.