By 1944, the total, unconditional submission of the Third Reich was inevitable. The war cannot last longer than a few extra months, because by then the Americans will have the Bomb, and be able to reduce Berlin to glass.
By this time the Kriegsmarine, the Luftwaffe, and the Wehrmacht have all been reduced to mere shadows of their former selves. On the Eastern Front, the Germans have not held the strategic initiative since the dismal failure at Kursk, and there is no way for them to re-gain it; the Red Army will inevitably be able to piledrive through resistance in any one sector no matter how elastic the defense is. The best that they can hope to do is to repeat the Italian Campaign - ie, a slow, orderly retreat across an entire front - all the way to Berlin.
And this is all assuming that he makes this decision on January 1st. If he gains this foresight, say, shortly before D-Day, Bagration will still sweep the last vestiges of a coherent Army Group Centre into the dustbin of history.
By this time the Kriegsmarine, the Luftwaffe, and the Wehrmacht have all been reduced to mere shadows of their former selves. On the Eastern Front, the Germans have not held the strategic initiative since the dismal failure at Kursk, and there is no way for them to re-gain it; the Red Army will inevitably be able to piledrive through resistance in any one sector no matter how elastic the defense is. The best that they can hope to do is to repeat the Italian Campaign - ie, a slow, orderly retreat across an entire front - all the way to Berlin.
And this is all assuming that he makes this decision on January 1st. If he gains this foresight, say, shortly before D-Day, Bagration will still sweep the last vestiges of a coherent Army Group Centre into the dustbin of history.