How much did Hitler's decisions hinder the Wehrmacht from 1942 on?

How much did Hitler's decisions hinder the Wehrmacht and the Nazi war effort as a whole from 1942 on?

How better would the Wehrmacht have performed after 1942 if Hitler didn't make many of the bad decisions he did (no retreat orders, micromanaging battles and tank/aircraft designs etc) and how costlier would the war be for the Allies?
 

Deleted member 1487

Panther design and rushed, Tiger rushed, V-2 and -3, Napkinwaffe, breaking Case Blue's plan and firing von Bock, ignoring intel around Stalingrad, launching the Sevastopol assault instead of Leningrad, choosing to make a stand in Tunisia, launching the Kursk operation, approving multiple private armies, and so on. He probably helped speed the war up by 18 months in the Allies' favor. But it wasn't just Hitler, Goering too had a severely negative influence on the Luftwaffe, which also screwed the war effort. I mean you could probably ask the same question about Goering from 1936 on and get a long series of ways he screwed his power base up. But Hitler seriously did screw up the German military from 1942 on.

That's not to say the regular army generals were paragons of virtue either, but from 1942 on depending on who you're talking about they'd likely make a lot less mistakes.
 
Some things I've read suggest that even if Typhoon had been successful they still would have needed to follow up with Case Blue in 1942. With Typhoon having failed it was already pretty much too late, not to mention that by 1942 Germany was at war with the U.S.
 

Deleted member 1487

What is that?
A derogatory term for crazy late war German projects to keep engineers from being sent to the front; they propose weapons on a napkin (joking version of wunderwaffe) and get funding from a half mad Hitler desperate for anything. Things like the Me163 or Heinkel salamandar.

Are you referring to the Waffen SS?
That and Luftwaffe field divisions and numerous paratrooper divisions, plus HG panzer division.

How did you get this estimate?
WAG to a degree. Plus without the huge waste of resources the Germans could have dragged things out a fair bit, but it is probably an overestimate considering that Goering was still a factor and strategic bombing was hitting the pressure points by 1944.

You're saying the Reich could have dragged the war out into 1946?
Maybe.
 

Deleted member 1487

What major mistakes did Goering make?
Besides the late shift to fighters, putting Udet in charge, Goering ran the economy into the ground, all sorts of technological mistakes, letting subordinates get into massive bureaucratic wars that screwed up production, appointed unfit chiefs of staff of the Luftwaffe, having a private ground army, etc.
 
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