What are plausible decisions Nazi Germany could have made to improve their performance in the War?

[Garrison]

So if the British invade Ireland via Plan W on false pretenses thinking a German invasion or worse an understanding with De Valera's government and the Germans has been reached with no evidence of a German agent to be found that might not tie up a lot of British troops while the Germans retain the initiative? This amidst low levels of civilian goods as British military forces base aircraft and ships on Western and Southern coasts, occupy ports, and don't inform the Dublin government of their intentions or movements?

I'll just repeat my earlier point, the idea the Ireland was willing to side with the Nazi's is utter nonsense and the British government of the day knew that. As others have pointed out they aren't going to invade Ireland based on nothing but some vague intelligence leaked by the Nazis.

 

[Garrison]

German investors/industrialists/advisors could help develop the Italian industry much faster and better, German technology (for guns, artillery, tanks) would easily outperform the Italian guns we saw in the war which were commonly discarded in favour for older WW1 rifles. Doing this for minor Axis powers like Hungary and Romania (even if later than Italy) would help a lot of the issues. Germany throwing his weight and soft power around to standardise the Axis' equipment.

Germany hasn't the economic means to build up other nations industries in the 1930's. It couldn't even meet its own needs without resorting to reckless financial manipulation to provide financing. Every Reichsmark invested abroad is one less for synthetic fuel/rubber, or steel, or Aluminium production in Germany.

 

[TheKennedyMachine.]

So from what I can tell, a lot of issues come from a lack of modularity/uniformity between guns, tanks, trucks and more when it comes to the German military. Standardising German production would help significantly reduce the strain on the German industry in the long term, making newer and older models able to both use the same type of ammunition, tank parts interchangeable, etc.

The Italian military and Axis at large also suffered this as well, here's a good video on what I'm talking about. If the Germans made up their mind on allying with Italy sooner or at least investing in Italy. German investors and German trade agreements, advisors, joint-training, etc could solve or at least alleviate many of Italy's own issues.

German investors/industrialists/advisors could help develop the Italian industry much faster and better, German technology (for guns, artillery, tanks) would easily outperform the Italian guns we saw in the war which were commonly discarded in favour for older WW1 rifles. Doing this for minor Axis powers like Hungary and Romania (even if later than Italy) would help a lot of the issues. Germany throwing his weight and soft power around to standardise the Axis' equipment.
Standardisation of equipment and perhaps even joint-research would significantly help with the equipment situation, make the subpar Italian troops much better due to their poor equipment being answered. Likely without the equipment shortages immediately visible on the war's start due to the newborn Italian industry, now fixed or alleviated by German investors, industrialists and German-Italian cooperation.

Germany subtly assisting, or perhaps even outright assisting the Finns in the Winter War rather than the Molotov-Ribbentrop pakt and choosing to go through Polska and continue into the USSR after a brief pause in Polska to prepare trains to transport gear to the frontline. Which, while implausible, could be interesting since the USSR would've just started its invasion of Finland and shown itself a fool. Jet fighters more used by 1942 could be interesting.
Even if it's just support and an exchange of commanders, strategists, etc, it could prove invaluable for the German war machine to begin stockpiling equipment and training with Finnish tactics in mind as the Winter War progresses in preparation to betray the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pakt. While not war-winning, in tandem with alleviating the equipment situation-could prove useful as snow becomes useful to the German soldier with Finnish:tm: skiis.

Tighter control of the SS and information by Herr Hitler and a diversion of SS funds to infrastructure and supply trains rather than death trains could free up a lot of resources, lower the amount of Partisan resistance. Save the liquidation for a later time, just (by NatSoc standards) starve them out at worst-the answer to the "Jewish Question" can come after the 'glorious Reich is victorious' after all. If not an outright delay, perhaps a gutting of funding to make its effect less known, since the German high command's fumbling as to what they should do could probably be exaggerated to delaying the question until a later date. Perhaps without liquidation camps and trucks, Poles, Ukrainians, Russians, etc would be more likely to join and fight for the Axis.
Like donanton mentioned, don't trust neutral nations like Sweden or Switzerland with anything-intel or otherwise. Perhaps it'd prevent a handful of disasters that could prolong the war and make the Reich more effective and speaking of foreign designers-perhaps the Germans could take more cues in designs for tanks from Czech and French counterparts.

Back to allies again, Italy. Italy outnumbered British forces in Egypt 10:1 - their binary divisions, while more mobile than the larger infantry divisions, were still easily outrun and surrounded by motorised British forces. A better Italian industry could mean better armed, more conventional divisions and perhaps even motorised battalions to assist a push into Egypt. If all goes well and Egypt is occupied, a push into Sinai and the Middle East could prove devastating to the British and very useful to the German war machine. Iraq seemed to teeter into pro-Axis alignment and even if neutral, could have her oil transported into North Africa and to the Italian fleet, army and also the Germans.
Speaking of oil, concentration on earlier synthetic oil factory, further development of Romanian oil fields and a secure line of trade with partners like Iran and Iraq could significantly help to oil the German war machine. Even considering all these factors and assuming the Axis is competent enough to make use of these, D-Day would likely still happen (Even if repelled, it's essentially an inevitable defeat with the USSR forever in the East and the Anglos in the West). So while not war-winning, could reduce the casualties significantly for the Axis and keep the USSR mostly out of Eastern Europe.

Not a bad idea.

 

[TheReplicator]

Germany hasn't the economic means to build up other nations industries in the 1930's. It couldn't even meet its own needs without resorting to reckless financial manipulation to provide financing. Every Reichsmark invested abroad is one less for synthetic fuel/rubber, or steel, or Aluminium production in Germany.

The Italian economy and industry were already growing as of 1920-1930, with German-Italian advisement and economic cooperation there could be even more mutual growth, as growth isn't linear and money invested into Italy and vice versa would be money not going towards the allies or USSR. Rather than an economic pact with the USSR, there could be one with Germany instead. German resources like Steel traded with Italy, weakening the USSR and strengthening a prospective ally.. The modular/interchangeable equipment both in industry and military would also relieve a lot of resource issues, ineffective newer rifles not being constructed and thus wasting resources/ammunition.
While Germany struggled, Italy grew. While Germany grew, Italy struggled. The deficits of their economies could be cushioned by each other to allow for competent and further growth than seen IOTL, seeing as Germany was reckless but Italy not much better. You get the idea.

 

[tomo pauk]

The Italian economy and industry were already growing as of 1920-1930, with German-Italian advisement and economic cooperation there could be even more mutual growth, as growth isn't linear and money invested into Italy and vice versa would be money not going towards the allies or USSR. Rather than an economic pact with the USSR, there could be one with Germany instead. German resources like Steel traded with Italy, weakening the USSR and strengthening a prospective ally.. The modular/interchangeable equipment both in industry and military would also relieve a lot of resource issues, ineffective newer rifles not being constructed and thus wasting resources/ammunition.
While Germany struggled, Italy grew. While Germany grew, Italy struggled. The deficits of their economies could be cushioned by each other to allow for competent and further growth than seen IOTL, seeing as Germany was reckless but Italy not much better. You get the idea.

Germany was not investing in the USSR, it was selling it's hi-tech stuff for raw materials, on good prices. Italy has no raw materials to offer, not in quantity nor in price, while German industry is in a lot of problems without the said raw materials.
Both Germany and Italy have had effective rifles.

 

[Garrison]

The Italian economy and industry were already growing as of 1920-1930, with German-Italian advisement and economic cooperation there could be even more mutual growth, as growth isn't linear and money invested into Italy and vice versa would be money not going towards the allies or USSR. Rather than an economic pact with the USSR, there could be one with Germany instead. German resources like Steel traded with Italy, weakening the USSR and strengthening a prospective ally.. The modular/interchangeable equipment both in industry and military would also relieve a lot of resource issues, ineffective newer rifles not being constructed and thus wasting resources/ammunition.
While Germany struggled, Italy grew. While Germany grew, Italy struggled. The deficits of their economies could be cushioned by each other to allow for competent and further growth than seen IOTL, seeing as Germany was reckless but Italy not much better. You get the idea.

I get the idea, alas it appears to be based on a complete lack of understanding of the state of the German economy in the 1930's. What Germany needed was Dollars and Pounds Sterling to pay for the import of raw materials that could not be produced at home. Germany barely had the means to invest in the build up of its own industries, never mind investing abroad. In 1938 Germany only staved off the collapse of its imports by the wholesale looting of Austria's gold and foreign currency reserves after the Anschluss. The only realistic way to boost the Germany economy is to dial back the ruinous expenditure on the military, come off the gold standard and focus efforts on bolstering exports and strengthening civilian consumption. Of course that would require the Nazis to not be Nazis so it is a non-starter.

 

[TheReplicator]

Germany was not investing in the USSR, it was selling it's hi-tech stuff for raw materials, on good prices. Italy has no raw materials to offer, not in quantity nor in price, while German industry is in a lot of problems without the said raw materials.
Both Germany and Italy have had effective rifles.

In one of my previous posts, it outlined that Italy had some especially bad issues when it comes to equipment-with examples of poorly made artillery hindering crews and poorly made rifles having many soldiers favour rifles from WW1 rather than the more modern ones which to paraphrase-jammed a whole lot and would probably be better replaced by the improved German designs. The Italian tanks seemed to be pretty ineffective as well, perhaps adapted German designs would work much better.

Also, I was talking about Italy towards the USSR, though if Germany and Italy lack the natural resources as you claim-it still may be better if they try to buy resources from elsewhere regardless where it would hopefully not go into the pockets of the Allies/Comintern. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italo-Soviet_Pact

The pact built on earlier economic relations (traditionally strong between the countries), seeking to ensure security in the Balkans and for a time mutual suspicion of German intentions.

In any case, even if the interwar economics aren't particularly changed via investment, I'd still say that some attempt to assist each other through advisement on military-industrial development/organisation could significantly help the Axis' constituents.

 

[Garrison]

Also, I was talking about Italy towards the USSR, though if Germany and Italy lack the natural resources as you claim-it still may be better if they try to buy resources from elsewhere regardless where it would hopefully not go into the pockets of the Allies/Comintern. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italo-Soviet_Pact

Nazi Germany can't buy the materials it needs by conventional economic means because it is basically broke throughout the 1930's. It has little in the way of foreign exchange and its economic practices have wrecked the value of the Reichsmark.

 

[marathag]

, make the subpar Italian troops much better due to their poor equipment being answered.

Much of the Problem was that the typical Italian Fighting Man didn't want to reestablish the Roman Empire like the Moose did. Morale is important, more so than gear at times.

 

[Femto]

Much of the Problem was that the typical Italian Fighting Man didn't want to reestablish the Roman Empire like the Moose did. Morale is important, more so than gear at times.

If they have had easy victories their morale would've skyrocketed.

 

[Deleted member 1487]

Much of the Problem was that the typical Italian Fighting Man didn't want to reestablish the Roman Empire like the Moose did. Morale is important, more so than gear at times.

Eh, not sure that was the problem. The Italian people, generally speaking, had little problem with imperialism or Mussolini's efforts that ultimately got the nation sanctioned for their invasion of Ethiopia. The bigger problem for the Italians was the poor performance of their officers, the class divide, the regional divide, poor planning that resulted in terrible logistics, bad equipment relative to their enemies, etc.
Despite that the Italian army did perform well in Africa in 1941-43 and in Russia in 1941-42, at least as good as they could given their material limitations. So morale was at very least variable and probably not all that much worse than the average for other major combatants.

 

[TheKennedyMachine.]

Gonna bring back this post back with an idea of mine of how Germany could improve it's decisions in WWII, while looking back on this thread, most of the ideas listed here aren't exactly war winning. So, this is more of a decision to help Nazi Germany not collapse after the war ends.

Co-operate with Iran, and increase trade of oil in Iran to Germany. While, this idea sounds far fetched. It could actually improve the resources the Germans were lacking in the war, and could aid them throughout 1944.

Another decision? Improve relations with the Soviet Union, maybe even extend on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact to aid the Russians and could help them invade Finland.

 

[tomo pauk]

Gonna bring back this post back with an idea of mine of how Germany could improve it's decisions in WWII, while looking back on this thread, most of the ideas listed here aren't exactly war winning. So, this is more of a decision to help Nazi Germany not collapse after the war ends.

If the war ends with Germany loosing it, it will collapse.
Not attacking Soviet Union and not declaring a war on USA buys far more to Germany than choosing this or that bullet for a fancy new rifle.

Co-operate with Iran, and increase trade of oil in Iran to Germany. While, this idea sounds far fetched. It could actually improve the resources the Germans were lacking in the war, and could aid them throughout 1944.
Another decision? Improve relations with the Soviet Union, maybe even extend on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact to aid the Russians and could help them invade Finland.

Co-operation with Iran is about far-fetched as it goes. Royal Navy and UK in general will not be twiddling their thumbs wile Germany attempts to deal with Iranians, neither will the Soviets if Germany attacks them.
SU-German relations were far better in from August 1939 to June 1941 than anyone in Germany could've expected.

 

[BlackDragon98]

Gonna bring back this post back with an idea of mine of how Germany could improve it's decisions in WWII, while looking back on this thread, most of the ideas listed here aren't exactly war winning. So, this is more of a decision to help Nazi Germany not collapse after the war ends.

Co-operate with Iran, and increase trade of oil in Iran to Germany. While, this idea sounds far fetched. It could actually improve the resources the Germans were lacking in the war, and could aid them throughout 1944.

Another decision? Improve relations with the Soviet Union, maybe even extend on the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact to aid the Russians and could help them invade Finland.

Send German troops to Iraq thru Vichy Syria in exchange for releasing some French POWs or some other concessions to Vichy government.
After the fall of Greece, troops are embarked at Athens and sail to Beirut.
Italian Rhodes can serve as supply point and provide airfields to the X Fliegerkorps so they can suppress any RN attempt to attack convoys.
Once the troops are in position, the Iraq coup occurs and Germans march into Iraq to help their allies together with air support operating from Syrian airfields.
There is already an oil pipeline that transports Iraqi oil from the fields to a Syrian port, and there are refineries that can supply Axis forces with fuel.

Iran is now accessible from Iraq.
And German troops can attack the USSR from Iran, which makes them very close to their OTL objective of the Caucasian oilfields at Baku.

 

[Cryhavoc101]

Send German troops to Iraq thru Vichy Syria in exchange for releasing some French POWs or some other concessions to Vichy government.
After the fall of Greece, troops are embarked at Athens and sail to Beirut.
Italian Rhodes can serve as supply point and provide airfields to the X Fliegerkorps so they can suppress any RN attempt to attack convoys.
Once the troops are in position, the Iraq coup occurs and Germans march into Iraq to help their allies together with air support operating from Syrian airfields.
There is already an oil pipeline that transports Iraqi oil from the fields to a Syrian port, and there are refineries that can supply Axis forces with fuel.

Iran is now accessible from Iraq.
And German troops can attack the USSR from Iran, which makes them very close to their OTL objective of the Caucasian oilfields at Baku.

The major issue I see with this plan is that it is a damn sight easier for the Allies to drive forces to Beirut (and they did around about this period to prevent this very scenario from happening) than it is for the Germans to not only sail there (and it being less than a day away from Alex and all of those annoying Grey Funnel line warships) but to then maintain an on going logistics lifeline.

And Rhodes to Beruit is about 450 Miles as the JU88 flies - so as far as covering the convoys with X FK goes Rhodes might as well be on the moon!

 

[BlackDragon98]

The major issue I see with this plan is that it is a damn sight easier for the Allies to drive forces to Beirut (and they did around about this period to prevent this very scenario from happening) than it is for the Germans to not only sail there (and it being less than a day away from Alex and all of those annoying Grey Funnel line warships) but to then maintain an on going logistics lifeline.

And Rhodes to Beruit is about 450 Miles as the JU88 flies - so as far as covering the convoys with X FK goes Rhodes might as well be on the moon!

DF MAS frogmen attack Malta in a night attack.
Blow up as much stuff before hopping in a MAS boat and sailing back to Italy.
Should get enough attention.
Negotiate with Vichy for them to DoW the Allies after they attack Syria and have them put all forces on full alert.
Vichy forces in Syria have the numerical advantage in all aspects.
Knowledge of German, Vichy, and Italian reinforcements should give them the will to fight on unless they arrive.

 

[Cryhavoc101]

DF MAS frogmen attack Malta in a night attack.
Blow up as much stuff before hopping in a MAS boat and sailing back to Italy.
Should get enough attention.
Negotiate with Vichy for them to DoW the Allies after they attack Syria and have them put all forces on full alert.
Vichy forces in Syria have the numerical advantage in all aspects.
Knowledge of German, Vichy, and Italian reinforcements should give them the will to fight on unless they arrive.

You do seem to put great store in DF Frogmen and MAS Boats

The problem is that they did try doing just this - The Decima Flottila attempted to attack Valetta harbour on the might of 26th July 1941 and was 'Decimated' in the attempt

Vichy forces in Syria lost to the Allies during this period!

And the Allied intelligence apparatus did tend to provide telegraphed warnings of many operations during this period so I would not count on the allies not being forewarned

Again...Geography - it wasn't on Germany's side.

 

[Histor32]

Not have a war would be a good start.

Now okay.. Great not a long term solution..

Okay. Surrender.. Eh okay.. I know..

Honestly the things that could or should have been done would make the nazis rational and not nazis

In reality if they played the cards right and were not hell bent on killing everyone they should have won. Unforthnaly or well fortunately they were and are now the dust heap of history l.

Really if they were legit on liberation of Eastern Europe and not replacing Satan with Satan on herion.. Easy victory.

They already won in the west, a compromise or truce could be found to create a balance. The nazis didn't really want war with England anyways.

Alas egos and pure out right evil thankfully were extinguished to be replaced by new forms of stupidity

 

[jacobk]

One thing to understand is that despite the much vaunted "efficiency" of fascist states the reality was the exact opposite. It was an incredibly inefficient system, with incompetence built into the economy and rife with corruption, to the point it can hardly even be called corruption rather than just a built-in way that the economy was supposed to function. Enriching the highest party officials and the wealthy industrialists was the way everything was supposed to work. And as such making things less messed up results in less profits for the people important for people making the decisions.

To put this into perspective, in 1940 Britain outproduced Germany in everything from tanks to planes, with the only exception being small arms. This despite the British economy being smaller.

The bonus round version of this was Hitler's habit of giving his subordinates overlapping portfolios so that they would spend time fighting with each other instead of potentially conspiring against him. This also allowed him to position himself as the referee of their battles. Which, given that he was managing the rogues gallery that was the top Nazi brass, may have been the best way to go about it, but it's not a very efficient management style.

Best case scenario for Germany, IMO, is for Hitler to fall down the stairs in 1938, most of the top Nazis to kill each other in an intra-party civil war, and the army to sweep out the rest of them. The army then blames the inevitable coming recession on the dead Nazis, ushers in normal elections after a year or so, and hopes nobody invades during the coming period of relative weakness.

Fifty years later after the fall of the USSR and the documentation of the horrors of Stalinism the world laments the accidental death of the visionary German leader who could have nipped the Bolshevik menace in the bud.

 

[Lee-Sensei]

Much of the Problem was that the typical Italian Fighting Man didn't want to reestablish the Roman Empire like the Moose did. Morale is important, more so than gear at times.

I don’t know about that. Mussolini was popular early on. I think that their problems were more in leadership.

The bonus round version of this was Hitler's habit of giving his subordinates overlapping portfolios so that they would spend time fighting with each other instead of potentially conspiring against him. This also allowed him to position himself as the referee of their battles. Which, given that he was managing the rogues gallery that was the top Nazi brass, may have been the best way to go about it, but it's not a very efficient management style.

Best case scenario for Germany, IMO, is for Hitler to fall down the stairs in 1938, most of the top Nazis to kill each other in an intra-party civil war, and the army to sweep out the rest of them. The army then blames the inevitable coming recession on the dead Nazis, ushers in normal elections after a year or so, and hopes nobody invades during the coming period of relative weakness.

Fifty years later after the fall of the USSR and the documentation of the horrors of Stalinism the world laments the accidental death of the visionary German leader who could have nipped the Bolshevik menace in the bud.

I don’t think that Hitlers salvageable. He’d already committed internal massacres by 1938.