Hitler lets the Generals fight the War in Russia

Leaving the campaigning to the generals would have only changed the way in which Germany was defeated. Barboross failed because of politics; insufficient production, poor allies, bad relations with conquered peoples etc. Moving the odd army from here to there doesn't give the Heer any more trucks any earlier, or the Luftwaffe any more planes, than OTL.
 
Leaving the campaigning to the generals would have only changed the way in which Germany was defeated. Barboross failed because of politics; insufficient production, poor allies, bad relations with conquered peoples etc. Moving the odd army from here to there doesn't give the Heer any more trucks any earlier, or the Luftwaffe any more planes, than OTL.

The whole macroeconomic answer for why wars are won and lost is kind of.. simplistic.
 

burmafrd

Banned
It is known how close Moscow came to falling, or being surrounded in the OTL. If you add one more month of campaigning by either starting the whole operation at the end of may, or driving right to Moscow from the beginning, it falls. And if it falls pretty much everything will change.
 
It is known how close Moscow came to falling, or being surrounded in the OTL. If you add one more month of campaigning by either starting the whole operation at the end of may, or driving right to Moscow from the beginning, it falls. And if it falls pretty much everything will change.
You can't start earlier than late June without a very large POD.
Not only is the weather terrible (mud, mud and mud), but not enough logistical units have arrived from the Balkan-front.
 
Sorry Earling, to be more specific most of the transport required for Barbarossa didn't arrive until May and June 1941, this was partly because of the Balkans and mostly because there was a lack of trucks produced in Germany in the 2 years prior to Barbarossa. Germany produced 168,000 trucks in 1940-41 whereas Britian with a much smaller industrial base and supplying a much smaller army built 213,000 in the same period.

Hitler feared the political consequences of pushing the German people too hard with demands for work and tax in 1940 so Barbarossa was launched on a firepower (only 3500 tanks to take on 12-15000) and logistical shoestring. This left no margin for the errors which were bound to occur, they simply cannot be avoided.

With double the OTL tanks/AFVs and perhaps more than double the OTL trucks available in April/May 1941 a margin of error in time and combat power/sustainment is introduced which allows strategies/operations/tactics to become effective. Give the Generals enough tools and they'll get the job done. What's more if the Generals had the tools Hitlers meddling wouldn't have amttered, the time and endurance of the Wehrmacht would have been cut so fine as IOTL. This is why I don't think the SU victory is certain the way many people do, Germany did what she could to lose before even starting.
 

burmafrd

Banned
Greece and the Balkans was a side show=Churchill was obsessed with the Balkans and Hitler took his eye off the ball and let it get to him as well.
Ignoring all that and doing everything possible to get ready for Barborossa was the most important thing to do and he blew it.
That was not even his first big mistake of the war but maybe it was the biggest.
 
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