Smart Hitler
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Depends. If we are positing crazy, but more pragmatic Hitler we would probably have a very similar war up until the "no retreat" order of 1941...though even then I think the German retreat would ahve been roughly similar.
Stalingrad might fall on the march. I am unsure how the generals would ahve approached Sevestapol differently. Rommel's adventures in Africa are treated as intransigence, so he won't be supplied for an offensive or relieved. Malta can fall.
If Stalingrad is taken on the march and Malta falls, there is an off chance that Leningrad can fall too. Germany won't win the war, but conditional surrender probably remains on the table--Hitler will screw this up by fighting to the end, the a-bomb gets invented, and then we debate today whether a "sane" Hitler would ahve taken the western peace deals.
Stalingrad might fall on the march. I am unsure how the generals would ahve approached Sevestapol differently. Rommel's adventures in Africa are treated as intransigence, so he won't be supplied for an offensive or relieved. Malta can fall.
If Stalingrad is taken on the march and Malta falls, there is an off chance that Leningrad can fall too. Germany won't win the war, but conditional surrender probably remains on the table--Hitler will screw this up by fighting to the end, the a-bomb gets invented, and then we debate today whether a "sane" Hitler would ahve taken the western peace deals.
That's a pretty different Hitler, which means there may or may not be a WWII as we know it. What's the POD?
A smart Hitler wouldn't start a war with the rest of the world, wouldn't gamble on non-intervention in Poland even if he gambled and won in Czech Republic....
A smart Hitler would have not interfered much with military operations at the 'Operational' level (eg Op Barbarossa etc) and below and focussed on the strategic, economic and political aspects of the war, putting together a good team of people to run this big picture war.
This is where the Allies had it all over Germany, they were great at this strategic level of war which isn't as sexy as Panzer envelopments but far more effective at winning wars.
This is where the Allies had it all over Germany, they were great at this strategic level of war which isn't as sexy as Panzer envelopments but far more effective at winning wars.
The historical Hitler was pretty smart, and most of the current historians on World War II I have read take the view that the surviving generals used him as a scapegoat for what went wrong. Of course starting the wars in the first place was what went wrong, but the late twentieth century views on his being inept in conducting it are at least greatly exaggerated.
What you really means is "hands off Hitler" and that is worth discussing.
Consider Hitler as a sort of fascist constitutional monarch, or more believably posit that he was sort of a guru to the Nazi movement, and war really interested in German domestic politics and foreign policy, with the same ideas, but had no interest or aptitude in military matters. But he had the same philosophy as IOTL, so the wars still start. That is pretty believable and wouldn't require a personality transplant. Lets say that his reaction to his experiences in World War II is that he just doesn't want to deal with the military and delegates everything.
But even that has problems. Who does he delegate it too? The upper echelons of the army were fired in 1937-8 on various pretexts and replaced by generals much less willing to question Hitler's orders. So this POD implies that at least Blomberg and Frisch are still there, though Beck probably still resigns for the reasons he did IOTL. Maybe Blomberg and Frisch go anyway because of power struggles that our laid back Hitler doesn't step and stop. But then who is in control?
But you might be positing that Hitler is still hands on and involved, and just makes better decisions. If that is what you really want to discuss I will stay away from the thread, since I have nothing really substantial to add to that.
What you really means is "hands off Hitler" and that is worth discussing.
Consider Hitler as a sort of fascist constitutional monarch, or more believably posit that he was sort of a guru to the Nazi movement, and war really interested in German domestic politics and foreign policy, with the same ideas, but had no interest or aptitude in military matters. But he had the same philosophy as IOTL, so the wars still start. That is pretty believable and wouldn't require a personality transplant. Lets say that his reaction to his experiences in World War II is that he just doesn't want to deal with the military and delegates everything.
But even that has problems. Who does he delegate it too? The upper echelons of the army were fired in 1937-8 on various pretexts and replaced by generals much less willing to question Hitler's orders. So this POD implies that at least Blomberg and Frisch are still there, though Beck probably still resigns for the reasons he did IOTL. Maybe Blomberg and Frisch go anyway because of power struggles that our laid back Hitler doesn't step and stop. But then who is in control?
But you might be positing that Hitler is still hands on and involved, and just makes better decisions. If that is what you really want to discuss I will stay away from the thread, since I have nothing really substantial to add to that.
Assuming everything goes similiar until the invasion of France it...fails. The German military higher ups hated the Ardennes plan. They wanted a sweep more similiar to the WWI one IIRC, you know the exact attack plan the French expected to occur. If the Heer comes up against the main portion of French prepared defenses the attack will suffer far higher losses, and give more time for the Allies to get their shit together now that they are actually under attack.
For the first 2.5 years of the war or so Hitler rolled perfectly pretty much every time. It was only after the war that all the failures of the Nazis got pinned on Hitler. The reality was the whole rotten structure had serious problems.