Answer. Hitler possessed many powerful leadership skills that won victories for Germany, but he often blundered into making military mistakes. Also, it must always be remembered that he was personally responsible for the death of tens of millions of people. It is difficult to call someone a great leader who causes such devastation among the nations of the world.
No question who the number one leader of Nazi Germany was! Hitler (Der Fuehrer) was the leader! He was a fearless fanatic with charisma. He was a gambler and was fond of relying on boldness and bluff. Although, he had only been a corporal during World War 1, he had a better feel for strategic situations than many of his highly educated generals. And he could act decisively when decisiveness was needed. On the other hand, he would often waffle in critical situations and great opportunities would slip away. Hitler's major strong points were:
- Hitler had the ability to assemble and control a group of talented and ruthless individuals - Goering, Goebbels, Himmler, Bormann, and Speer - for his top echelon. These men were the leaders of Germany during World War 2.
- Hitler successfully used bullying and bluffing techniques to seize Austria and Czechoslovakia without a fight.
- Hitler successfully adopted innovative Blitzkrieg techniques, utilizing Germany's highly mobile Panzer divisions, to quickly overcome Poland, France, and other Western European countries. More conventional leaders would have used conventional trench warfare techniques and a World War 1 type stalemate might have occurred.
Hitler also had his share of failures as the top German leader:
- Failure to immediately invade Britain after Dunkirk. Many experts question whether this was a failure. See World War 2 Question 1 (earlier post) or World War 2 Battles.
- Decision to attack Russia before finishing off Britain. This left Britain, led by a determined Churchill, as a thorn in his backside.
- Holding back on all-out war production after the war started. He began the war with a substantial lead in armaments but let the armaments production slip apparently because he didn't want to tell the German people that sacrifices would be needed. (Yes, even Adolf Hitler worried about public opinion.) The problem was so bad that Britain was actually producing more aircraft than Germany during the Battle of Britain. This problem was corrected in the later years of the war largely through Albert Speer's efforts but, by then, it was too late.
- Misjudging the strength of the Russians. He almost got away with this one as Stalin, for some time, refused to believe that Hitler was actually attacking him. When Stalin finally unleashed his forces, several Russian armies and much of the Russian air force had already been destroyed. When given the go-ahead, the Russians fought back fiercely, and incredibly, were able to move their war plants out of the German army's path.
- Poor strategy in Russia. Hitler continually split his attacking forces - one column toward Moscow, a second toward the Caucasus, and a third toward Leningrad - instead of concentrating on what should have been the main target, i.e., Moscow.
- Flittering away resources on "secret weapons," e.g., death rays, long-ramge bombers, etc, instead of concentrating on more conventional weapons. For example, with more fighter planes, he might have kept air supremacy over Russia and also might have neutralized the American and British bomber raids over Germany.
- Unnecessary campaign against the Jews. During World War 1, German Jews fought bravely for Germany. Hitler should have know this because he was in the trenches with them. Had the Jewish men been available for service, manpower shortages would have been partly alleviated. Also, the many scientific minds, e.g., Einstein, that were lost to the German war effort were irreplaceable.
- Failure to better mobilize German women into the war effort as was done in Russia, England and the United States (Rosie, the riveter!). This would have also helped alleviate the manpower problem since male workers who could have been replaced would have been available for military service.
