Which of Hitler's key Mistakes Had the Greatest Effect on His Defeat in World War II - Research Paper Example

A-Plan of Investigation This assessment endeavors to deliberate on the primary reasons that lead to German leader, Hitler losing the Second World War. Hitler’s mistakes if they had not been made would have otherwise altered the history of the Second World War as is known presently. Most of the reasons discussed are researched from books and publications that put their focus on the matters surrounding the Second World War, especially those that pay keen attention to the fatal decisions made by Hitler leading to his defeat. The fact that Germany through their leader Hitler lost the war after having played a significant impact in the First World War makes the discussion of its failures interesting. B-Summary of evidence The German Navy’s principal mission at war was to cut the life of Britain’s maritime by means of a blockade. The blockade was arrived at because Britain was an island and the barricade would result in it losing out on metals, fuel, and other elements, which were imported by the merchant ships. It was expected Britain’s forces were to be crippled to the ground by the move and consequently they were to be hit by a consistent air bombardment movement that was anticipated would make Britain surrender (Bevin, pg102). This strategy against Britain would indeed work for the Germans, as in the World War I, the submarines owned by the Germans had succeeded in cutting the amount of British owned merchant ships which were sunk. Regardless of this fact, the German Navy constructed for the World War II was the same to the previous one. Germany’s failure to invest in additional submarines, instead choosing to undermine the British maritime strength hampered the success of Hitler’s force (Carolin, pg56). The German submarines were the greatest risk to the British, but were consequently extremely few, and the slow development of other submarines did give Britain ample time to adapt to the risk and survive with massive endeavor and terrible losses. By the time the German naval force had grouped itself better, the challenge posed by the British was enormous as the latter had a wholly developed antisubmarine force which overwhelmed Hitler’s men. Hitler may have won the war, supposing his strategists focused on constructing numerous submarines instead of the inconsequential battleships. The war could have been won in Hitler’s favor prior to the US and Russia joining in the war. There were numerous cases of murder by the regime, and the fear of severe punishment created fear in the criticism or even yet provides advices that were not favorable, or even to wake up the dictator late in the night whenever an emergency case presented itself. In such establishments, an individual formulates all the significant decisions and too numerous fewer decisions, and it is almost not possible to transform whatever is on the individual mind, such as Hitler prior to or after the individual formulates a foremost mistake. Deciding on Hitler’s failure or mistakes during the war is centered in the context of whatever his focal purpose and intentions were. Hitler’s original short term military aspiration was to overcome the regime of Stalin in the Soviet Union, by means of a highly concentrated but short war, and the lasting annexation of the Eastern European region land (Samuel, pg48). That included the Eastern side of Russia of the Urals for the objective of increasing the economic authority preferably by means of agriculture. The aspiration well articulated in the invasion of Poland, was Hitler’s primary propelling objective in the short term. However, Hitler decided on defeating France prior to taking on Stalin and his men. Hitler’s desire was to acquire a free hand to combat in the East. However, that did prove to be Hitler’s mistake. Stalin was at that time detested all throughout the Eastern and Western Europe. Therefore, Hitler would be able to mount warfare with Stalin, the only factor being Poland getting on the way due to its geographical positioning. However, the consequence of Poland invasion would only serve to provoke either Britain or France. Apparently that was no problem to Hitler as the invasion of Poland would bring Great Britain and France into confrontation with his country. However, that would also serve to alienate the US. Consequently, Hitler’s other undoing that lead to the defeat of his army was that he planned for short term warfare and not the long term warfare (Earl, pg67). The consequence of that planning would only lead to his force weakening immediately after the invasion of Russia commenced. The manpower generated by Germany was not sufficient to maintain the vast land forces it faced against the Soviets for a period of over six months. The application of the similar tactics against Britain also proved futile for the German forces. Hitler lacked a pragmatic plan and capability in overcoming the Great Britain openly through invasion. The resorting to the similar strategies akin to the First World War was directed at the shipping line, and they only served to stir up tension with the US. The tension prompted the US to come up with a plan to assist the British. Such moves were detrimental to the success of Hitler and his men. Hitler’s other plan of engaging Japan with an intention to respond to the geopolitics of the US by forming an alliance was meant to draw US resources and focus away from Europe (Thomas, pg42). The promise of a future military aid by Japan towards combating Stalin’s forces was also not given to Hitler by the Japanese who became reckless and aggressive towards the US, consequently, risking warfare with the US. The moves did not work for the goodness of Hitler’s forces. The assessment technique of evaluation provides a wider scope which carry on to the future use by other persons who will be looking to utilize the evidence provided by this methodology of evaluation (Marshall, pg82). The evidence it presents is in written format, allowing for critic in the present or future period. The assessment of the World War II situation, certainly presents sufficient information regarding the subject matter. The investigation looks into the circumstances that lead to the malfunction of one of the World’s most brutal dictators. The evaluation was designed to focus at the commanded entire control wielded by Hitler. C-Evaluation of sources The origins of the sources are books that were written by Horace Edward Henderson and Rafael Sheck in the year 2001 and 2008 in Indiana, U.S and Germany respectively. The purpose of the books was to give a historical account of the happenings majorly in the era prior to the world war and also thereafter, sin order to put into perspective the true happenings. True to the value of these books is that they present a viewpoint on the evaluation of the historical accounts and the assessment of the content particularly with regards to the topic under discussion. However, the limiting factor is on the exact timing and events of the period under focus, thereby making the approximation of the occurrence of the events guesswork. The assessment technique is concerned with the valuing and determination of the causative reasons for the defeat of Hitler. It depends on the written content. The overall aspiration of the assessment process is to present compelling information regarding the progress and accomplishment of the players in the World War II. That is so as the assessment process is founded on the heights of accomplishment and standards. These were developed for measuring the factors of the World War II (Rafael, pg56). The assessment source and evaluation determine or investigate whether or not the objectives of such persons as Hitler were accomplished (Horace, pg86). The process involves the collection of evidence of investigations and occurrences, as well, over a stage of occasion so as to establish the concerns under investigation. The evidence of the historical happenings has especially taken the form of written work, collections, along with numerous other forms of keeping or maintaining historical information. On the other hand, evaluation happens after the outcome of the assessment has been accomplished. Assessment carried out will keep going in the shape of review of the past written work, available journals, presentations, written stories, among many others and consequently illustrate a feeling of permanent analysis with clearer representation of the occurrences. Proficient research allowed for the technique of valuation to build up the information. The most significant element of evaluation and assessment is the provision of information to individuals who could do with responses. D-Analysis Hitler was cited as a brave and an extremely tactical soldier in his youth and for his vital part in the restoration of Germany after the First World War. Thereafter, Hitler was looked up to by his people who regarded him as an outstanding decision maker. Hitler was successful also in his political decision making process which laid the foundation for the world war two (Anthony, pg 26). During the battle of Stalingrad thousands of German soldiers lost their lives, and even when it was evident they were fighting a losing battle Hitler insisted that they hold ground to the last man. Hitler proclaimed that Germany was engaged in combating a total war. The pronouncement was factual in the battle line as the German military fought fiercely with the German inhabitants also viciously exploiting the occupied countries and committing prepared genocide against the population of the Eastern Europe (James, pg64). Unlike, the Allies, who engaged in an attempt of increasing, as well as, optimizing the production of military, in Germany no such effort was undertaken. Whereas the Allies generated massive figures of only few kinds of reliable, simple, and combat demonstrated products, the German military utilized an extremely large amount of forms, which not only led to the decline of the rates of production, but also needed mobilizing inventories of spare parts for everything (Joseph, pg73). The German military and the fanatic Hitler challenged the cardinal advanced weapons, even when not entirely developed, and endlessly challenged the improvements and extraordinary alternatives in their quest for the eventual weapons and that additionally led to the decrease of the German weapons production speed and reliability of some fresh kinds. German production and development were also gravely hampered by the political rivalries and chaos of the organizational structure and arrangement of Hitler’s regime. By the time Hitler nominated an organizational mastermind to run the military production, the move was rather late and even then, the newly appointed organizational leader charged with the military responsibility, could not assert his authority as Hitler had not given to him the entire authority (Joseph, pg73). With the fascination for weapons that were advanced, the leaders of Germany, as well as, the Generals also deserted fewer glorious but components that were crucial including items such as infantry vehicles, trucks, and readiness of winter. On top of its tank divisions that were formidable, the Germany army was still a massive infantry army which had to tread vast distances and dependent heavily on horses, and it was not outfitted for the unsympathetic Russian wintry weather. The German forces were outstanding and capable formidable army in history. Nevertheless, it was not balanced, and its ascendancy over the military industry led to the decrease of its effectiveness, and frequently resulted in it developing and producing insignificant outcomes. It was extremely impressive even though, frequently it was not mature and utilized relatively not effective weapons that were complex. Germany chose to use enormous amounts of vastly required weapons that were mature, as well as, other equipment. At the inception of World War II, the allied military planners were aware that the Germany military was vitally reliant on a lone source of oil. The Germans acknowledged their vulnerability, and consequently hatched and utilize expensive industrial procedures to manufacture an alternative fuel derived from coal and other components, but even so, Hitler’s men more so the air force still remained dependent on the Ploesti Oil, a fact that the Russians and British military planners were aware. Hitler was driven by the motivation to stamp authority as the super power in the European front during that period. He had interests and aspirations of ensuring that his goals are accomplished. That is evident by the serious warfare that he mounts. His major undoing was the inability to listen to advice from his generals and advisors. Hitler had the capability of being triumphant in the Second World War, had he listened to the reasoning of his advisors on some of the critical concerns touching on the warfare. Using the assessment technique for the evaluation process, presents a means through which comparison can also be carried out on the various chronicles that have been worked on by other writers. The various pieces can be used in the future as sources of reference. The written accounts also provide a mechanism through which information value can be stored for later uses. Comparison of the various written accounts can also be useful in building up an almost true picture of the chronological accounts by summarizing the different writers’ views. E- Conclusion Most of the reasons leading to the loss of the Second World War by Germany culminate around Hitler’s mistakes that could have otherwise been avoided. His decisions to send his troop into Moscow during the winter period without the necessary clothing dealt the first blow as it resulted in the death of numerous soldiers (Nicholas, pg62). By ignoring the advice given to him by his generals, Hitler created war fronts with most of the neighboring countries in his quest to expand his territory. Hitler’s decision making process was marred by procrastination and did not consider the opinions of his military generals in strategically grave matters. That created a fundamental problem as Germany simply did not have the means to fight the numerous war fronts at the same time. The German forces were dangerously short on supplies and reserves (Peter, 56). The battle of the Atlantic was extremely significant and lead to a serious reversal of most of success that Germany had previously achieved. On the Eastern border, deaths numbered more than all the other theater wars combined. Hitler’s misjudgment of the Soviet Union which he had termed as an unstable state largely contributed to these failures. The situation was further aggravated by the entry of US in the combat. The individuals seeking for the information can examine the presented evidence and utilize the information provided for their intended purposes. It is factual to articulate that had Hitler listened to the advice of his general and if he had not been too ambitious as to the extension of his territory then things would have turned out differently, and history as is presently acknowledged would have been totally altered. The mistakes Hitler committed have served up to make various nations, especially those that were involved in the World Wars to be extremely cautious with their dealing with other foreign countries. That is evident from the various foreign policies that the countries have developed. The evidence provided in the body text, highlight some fewer detail that were not taken seriously by Hitler, and had he focused on the issues adequately prior to the World War II victory would have been certain for Hitler and his men. Works Cited Anthony G. Williams. The Foresight War Authors. On Line Ltd. 2004. Bevin Alexander. How Hitler Could Have Won World War II: The Fatal Errors That Led to Nazi Defeat. Konecky & Konecky, 2006 CarolinBrooke .Moscow: A Cultural History. Oxford University Press.2006.Print Earl F. Ziemke Stalingrad to Berlin: The German Defeat in the East. (Paper) Horace Edward Henderson. The Greatest Blunders of World War II: How Errors Mistakes and Blunders .iUniverse.2001.Print James Giblin. The Life and Death of Adolf Hitler. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002.Print Joseph A Biesinger. Germany. Infobase publishing.2006.Print Marshall Cavendish .History of World War II. Marshall Cavendish Corporation.2004. Print. Nicholas Best. Five Days That Shocked the World. Osprey publishing. 2012. Print Peter Wyden. The Hitler Virus: The Insidious Legacy of Adolph Hitler. Skyhorse Publishing Inc.2012. Print Rafael sheck. Germany, 1871-1945: A Concise History. Berg publishers.2008. Print. Samuel W Mitchman, Jr. The German Defeat in the East .2007. Print Stephen G. Fritz. Ostkrieg: Hitler's War of Extermination in the East. University Press of Kentucky.2011.Print. Thomas B. Buell. The Second World War-Europe and the Mediterranean. Square One Publishers. 2002 Read More