His biggest mistake…his ego n not listening to his more qualified generals.

The grandest error was the fact that the Germans were too arrogant to realize that the allies had broken their enigma codes and knew in advance every single thing they were going to do. This fact figures greatly in most of these other "mistakes" that are listed here.

Germany did not have a strategic view. In april 1941 OKW could have given Rommel 2 extra panzer divisions so to reach Suez and put an end to the Adrican campaign. Then, Barbarossa could have benefited from more aerial and panzer support that was wasted in North Africa. However, it is true that the declaration of war on America was completely nonsense and the real reason for the loss of the war.

Hitler got to Paris, Kaiser Wilhelm never did. The amazing thing is how close the Nazis came to victory, not the fact that they lost the war. Churchill thought Barbarossa was the end of the USSR and again thought that with Fall Blau in 1942. Roosevelt's military advisors agreed with that assessment. Hitler did not lose the war militarily so much as politically. The Germans were spread too thin. The Nazi racist attitudes on steroids were to blame. He could have brought back Poland in some form like Vichy France. He could have done the same with Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. That would leave only the need to occupy and garrison Norway and Northern and Western France. He could have done the same with Yugoslavia and Greece. Hitler should have attempted to keep his end of the 10 year Molotov/Ribbentrop Pact. Stalin was supplying Germany with oil and other strategic materials badly needed. When they did invade the USSR the Germans should have well treated the subject peoples such as the Ukrainians, the Belarus, and the Baltic States: Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Germany should have liberated these people and guaranteed them their own states, even if puppet states. Most of these people hated the Moscow Bolshevik government of Stalin and would have welcomed the Germans. Instead the Nazis treated these peoples as subhuman slaves. This was the biggest mistake. WLR

The Wehrmacht allowing Hitler to go forward with his hold-fast order was one of the biggest mistakes; it started at Stalingrad and never end until the end of the war. Divisions after divisions were cut off or crushed and if they were lucky enough, they had to make uncoordinated chaotic last minute retreats, losing their vehicles and heavy equipment, most of the time against Hitler's orders.

1. Attacking The Soviet Union without knocking Britain out of the war. 2. Declaring War on the United States. 3. These two things determined the outcome of the war right there. Nothing Germany could have done after those two points would have made any difference.

In my humble opinion, of all the mistakes, the most pathetic was declaring war on the US simply "out of solidarity with Japan"... which wasn't corresponded by the latter in any way, shape or form. It's true that the Roosevelt administration was already sending help to Britain and even the USSR before entering the war, but without the German declaration I doubt the American public would be willing to sacrifice American soldiers directly for another European war, while Roosevelt would have dedicated entirely to defeating Japan, at least for the first few years. There was no reason for Germany to declare war on the US.

Putting Goering in charge of the air force.

Basically the biggest mistake you could make in WWII was to bite off more than you could chew. Germany and Japan were on the victory train and thought they could keep it up forever.

I think not recognizing that the Enigma code had been cracked was a fatal error. It's what made the trap set by the Soviets in 1943 as effective as it was.

Mistake number 1: Starting the war.

We should all be thankful for their mistakes.

Not annihilating the Allies in Dunkerque and not allowing Paulus to break out of Stalingrad were the biggest mistakes Hitler made. Hitler considered himself as the best leader of the German army, he was a kluns, an idiot and he refused to listen to his excellent and experienced commanders.

Barbarossa the invasion of Russia was the one definitive mistake that Hitler made, " those who can not remember the past are condemned to repeat it, he basically made the same mistake that Napoleon made hundreds of years before, underestimating the fighting resolve and tenacity of the Russian people, the vastness of Russia itself, the deapper the invasion went the longer the supply line , the longer the supply line the more difficult to keep troops at the spear head supplied with food , ammo etc, a logistic nightmare, invading so late in the year and not taking into account of the russian winter, not allowing paulus to break out from Stalingrad etc etc.

IMO, the biggest fault in the German prosecution of the war was Hitler's racism, which lead him to underestimate the Russians because they were Slavs and the Americans because they were a mix of races. Fatal mistakes, both of them.

Hitler delayed Barbarossa 3 months to defeat the Greeks who were beating the Italians. It would of meant getting to Moscow by Autumn instead of Winter.

A severe problem was that the Wehrmacht was not properly equipped for a winter war in the Soviet Union. They lacked warm clothes and boots. Lots of troops were lost by freezing limbs.

If only Hitler hadn’t stopped Guderians panzers 220km from Moscow in September 1941. No Defense of Moscow was established yet and winter hadn’t come yet. Hitler was an idiot.

It was Runstedt, who suggested stopping before Dunkirk. Also the ground was overwhelmingly not suited for tanks there - they needed to wait for infantry to follow up. Also: bombing an area before attacking is absolutely understandable. The Germans knew they would meet fierce resistance. The break for several days was IMHO no blunder, but neccessary.

One more thing that could have been the most important. Germany started war time production only after Stalingrad in 1943. The allied did this from the moment they entered (or declared the war). One example of German armoured vehicles production: 1940 - 2154 pieces, 1944 - 27340 pieces. Had they started earlier (1939 or 1940), would have won the war.

Becoming allies with the Japanese but not the Ukrainians seems kinda stupid... Had he not declared War on America and made alliance with Ukraine, Latvians, and other countries who welcomed them was their biggest mistake.

After driving out the BEF, Hitler was convinced that he was a military genius.

Another great video again, thank you

The Germans were in a conundrum at the South-Eastern Front: Trying to cut the important supply route of Volga river as well as gaining access to the direly needed fuel resources of the Caucasus, which made them split their force, and resulted in not being able to decide either in their favor. Now it is arguable whether one should have been preferred. Preferring the Stalingrad direction might have hindered further operations due to fuel shortage, and maybe opened a weak flank in the South. Preferring the Caucasus option might have been preferable imo, but I am not sure what the consequences on the Northern flank towards Stalingrad would have been. AFAIK, there were major disagreements among the German command before the decision to persue both directions, and even before, whether the capture of Moscow was really of greatest strategic importance, and not merely a symbolic objective, and more troops should have been engaged in the South-East and other directions.

As Field Marshal Montgomery told the House of Lords: "Rule one on page one of the book of war, is: ‘Do not march on Moscow’. Many have tried and it doesn't work."

Not getting out of bed during the D-Day invasion .

Great discussion.

US would've likely joined the war against the Germany regardless of their declaration of war. Similarly Battle of Britain wouldve been lost regardless of whether they estimated RAFs forces correctly. The main mistake in my opinion is the general directive of Hitler to his generals to hold on to every inch of territory instead of giving his commanders operational freedom and letting them conduct mobile warfare of fighting retreats and counterattacks. In fact this is what the generals (Manstein especially) wanted. That strategical blunder was the cause of many others - Stalingrad, Kursk counterattacks, operation Bagration etc. Holding on to meaningless territory instead of recognizing that the point is to destroy enemy forces.

Apparently Hitler did not read the history of the Napoleonic-Russian struggles ...

What about not understanding that the code of the enigma machine was broken?

Don't forget another big mistake: the Tikhvin offensive in October 1941. If the 18th Army had concentrated it's efforts in the "Small Solution" for Leningrad - the capture of Volkhov - instead of the "Big Solution" to take Tikhvin, Leningrad would have starved completely and would have surrendered in January 1942. By not blocking the "Road of Life" in Lake Ladoga, the Germans let Leningrad survive with meager supplies, and thus never surrendered. Tldr: capture Volkhov= Leningrad falls.

Absolutely incredible, not even the War Academy knows about the significance of the british enigma program. They were feeding entire German battle plans to the soviets, and they still just barely held on.

You did a nice job of highlighting the worst mistakes made by Hitler in WWII. If I had been asked these questions I would've pointed out these. But I also would've added in how the Bridge at Nijmegen was defended. And also Hitler stopping the research and development of certain technologies that would've really helped German out until it was too late or close to it.

Hitler had war disease. After his first conquest, Czechoslovakia, he was incapable of not starting another fight no matter how the last campaign ended.

Great Video. What about 3 new videos on wars Americans lost: one about the American mistakes in Vietnam, another about those in Iraq and last but not least, American mistakes in Afghanistan.

When the Kingdom of Yugoslavia signed a peace agreement with Nazis and people in Belgrade rose against it, Hitler was pissed off. A few days later he ordered Belgrade to be bombarded and sent the German army into Yugoslavia. That took a few weeks from his planned attack on SSSR. If his army reached Moscow 30 days earlier (before the snow and heavy freeze), the result of the war in Russia may have been different.

It was a wonderful historical coverage video about 10 military mistakes committed by Germany during WW2... I think the video clearly pointed 👉 10 decisive mistakes .all those mistakes, one pursues the other one .that meant Germany was going on mistakes Road .I think Germany wasn't open 2nd front ( Barbarossa operations) before finishing England question .. When Germany left the British freely on theirs island .. Germany donated valuable time to the British to regroup its strength and focus on the northern Africa campaign and Italian invading beside the USA. Thank you 🙏 ( war academy) channel for sharing this magnificent video

This is what arrogance does 🤔

One of the biggest errors was the belief that very detailed work rules using craftsmen to build armaments was superior to true mass production . There was also a tendency to over build and over engineer . This led to high unit costs as well as unreliability and low production . It still happens to this day - compare the reliability of any German automobile to Honda or Toyota .

A pretty accurate list.

The biggest was not listening to the Generals.

What about not invading Britain immediately after preventing the evacuation at Dunkerque? Yes, German casualties, without mastery of the sea and air, would have been huge, but not as bad as those at the Battle for Moscow (1941 - 1942) and Stalingrad (1942 -1943). Of course, had Britain been subdued, the subsequent attack on the Soviet Union would have been greatly facilitated.

nothing is black and white, but my opinion on this 1. Dunkirk Hitler did not attack Dunkirk for two reasons * the environment was created by the front detachments of the tank divisions (the allies in the panic of fleeing did not realize that there were more of them than the Germans who were "pursuing" them if the Germans had attacked, they would have immediately received an "uppercut" in the chin and the tank division would have been massacred (and they are too expensive, they were kept for Russia) * While bringing in the infantry, Hitler offered peace, a truce, whatever Britain wanted, as long as they didn't go to war with each other, but Churchill wouldn't listen luckily for Britain they pulled out 400K soldiers, otherwise Africa would be in terrible trouble 2. Battle of Britain The fundamental mistake was that "aviation" defeated Britain what they needed was an invasion attack supported by aviation 30K paratroopers around a port in the south of Britain would be enough to capture the port while the infantry floats in under the "Luftwaffe umbrella" But then again, Hitler never had Britain on his list, and he saved the divisions for Russia an invasion would be expensive (loss of a division or two at sea, but the British Navy and RAF would not be able to stop everything), without the equipment and with the German bridgehead and Britain, the war would be pointless, no matter what Churchill said 3. Barbarossa Planning in the plans, they did not include two important factors, Britain and the USA, which were helping their ideological enemy against the Germans (the enemy of my enemy is my ally) and everyone forgets that German logistics was tied to railways and horses (fuel was saved for tanks, planes and submarines) * the commander of German logistics himself said before the war that they had fuel and ammunition up to Smolensk, and that they had to stop (refueling, ammunition replenishment, people's rest and service of the army) the phrase that "they didn't send winter clothes" is meaningless, because a) there is only one railway leading to the front, which has a limit on the number of trains that can pass (the north was a little better off because it had Baltic ports for support) but the center and even worse in the south the supply lines were very thin and long b) when you have limited space, there was no room for winter clothes, everything else had a higher priority and you should know that the trains had to be reloaded at the Polish-Russian border because Russia has a wider track spacing than the rest of Europe, another huge waste of time 4. United States Declaration of War definitely the biggest mistake if Germany had not declared war on the USA, the USA would not have turned to Germany until Japan was defeated, and even then it is very questionable because of the public who did not want war and read about the losses and wounded * if Japan had not attacked the USA, Roosevelt would never have received congressional approval for the USA to enter the war Every senior US officer (Army and Navy) said "stay out of it" when asked if the US should enter WWII

“Have you ever been asked what were the biggest mistakes Germany made during WWII?” Every damn day sir

Thank you for your well done vids! Please study Bletchley Park's impact on the eastern front. Stavka eventually began incorporating this British intel into their planning. In your own words "the resources used in Operation Citadel would have been better deployed on a section of the front where the Russians didn't have full awareness of German planning." Donitz was dumbfounded by the allies constantly showing up where his submarine forces were located. Love to see what you come up with!

The 'Halt Order' at Dunkirk did not come from Hitler, so he can't be blamed for it. After the British attack at Arrass alarmed German high command they ordered the halt to allow their stretched infantry and supplies lines to catch up. They were worried this attack could repeat the WW I 'Miracle of the Marne' when British troops attacked the very similar stretched lines of the German advance and along with the French pushed them all the way back to where they had started. Hitler only agreed to the Halt after they had already authorised it. However, while they rested, German army group B took over the attack from the North, so it wasn't really a Halt, more of a change of emphasis. Army group A needed to rest and regroup to attack further south, because they thought the BEF was trapped at Dunkirk and couldn't go anywhere, they were wrong !

Another was making the Italians use German encryption,which was broken, over their own which weren't.

Hitlers biggest mistake was allowing British to escape from Dunkirk. All his other mistakes are consequences of this error. In his war with the USSR, he had to live with a functioning enemy in his rear, which would also be the launchpad for inevitable US intervention.

The very first mistake was committed by Hitler and Hitler alone; after assurances he had no more territorial ambitions in Europe, he went ahead after Munich and swallowed up what was left of Czechoslovakia....THIS is what convinced England and France that the fool could never be trusted and led to their support of Poland's existence. It also led to an increase in military spending by both western powers...

The most important mistake was to invade the SovietUnion in 1941. First England

Good points, but you miss the most obvious one that was the biggest mistake for Germany AND Japan- they went to war 100% DEPENDENT on importing oil because both are barren of oil fields. Once we stopped the flow of oil to them, the wars were considerably shortened. For example: The Germans had 100s of tanks and planes (including the ME-262) all built and ready to go at the end of the war- but couldn't use ANY of them because we cut their oil supplies.

Great video. They should have never let the british and french escape at Dunkirk.

This is high school history. Hitler did not "seek peace" with Britain and did not halt the panzer units because of this. The German High Command had very specific reasons for pressing the attacks against Moscow in November and December of 1941 which are unmentioned here and negate this part of the video. Further, it is a myth that Hitler never listened to his clever generals. He did listen often, they just said this after the war to American interviewers and book writers -- a textbook example the retrospective rationality fallacy (making up things and changing decisions and beliefs to make oneself look better, which the German generals absolutely perfected after the war). This video and many comments here are 'high school history,' at the low level of the 2001 Pearl Harbor film.

Going to war with weak and remote allies which couldn't help them much. The Wehrmacht had to bail out Italian troops in Greece, North Africa, which delayed their progress. Japan was a world away and couldn't help them practically, they fought separate wars and couldn't coordinate like the Allies did.

One of Germanies biggest mistake was at the beginning of Barbarossa , the soviet people hated Stalin and their military wasn't that fond of him either and would have deserted to the German side , but the Germans turned the population against them with acts of brutality executing citizens and captured soviet troops ,burned villages and plundered the country, So if the Soviets people turned on Stalin and Russia collapsed in 1941, Stalingrad would never have happened or any of the other losses like Kursk and so on, and a Russia surrender would have negated all the other mistakes Germany made in the west like Dunkirk and left Germany in a excellent strategic position not having to fight a two front war, plenty of oil and other materials from Russia, and also might have drawn Turkey into the war on the German side as a axis member to help them defeat the British in the middle east

About the hold fast doctrine that Hitler had, fight to the last man, never surrender, etc. I read that this is because in the winter of 41 when the russians counter attacked he told them to hold fast, they did and they rejected the russian offensive so Hiter thought that was the way to go. So he stuck to that when it made no sense. Also read in a book that the Germans in the summer, early fall of 41 at two different times, had the soviets on the ropes close to causing the entire collapse of the red army but they didn't know it. They stopped to regroup not knowing the russians were in such dire straights and waited to attack, too late. This book said they came that close to having the red army collapse

There seems to be 1 Theme through most of these mistakes Hermann Göring...

This single greatest failure by the Germans was Dunkirk, and second, failure to defeat the RAF and subdue England. Had they captured these 330K troops, preventing them from defending England, and then destroyed the RAF allowing for invasion or at least widespread bombing of England, they might have succeeded in forcing the British to sue for peace. Once that was achieved the entirety of German might could have been unleashed on the USSR almost assuring victory there. This would also have allowed more resources to go to Africa. Other significant errors were their failure to stop daylight bombing raids by developing the jet fighters vigorously, entering the war too soon when the submarine fleet was not yet ready along with other branches like the Luftwaffe being under prepared as well as their atomic program. Lack of 4 engine bombers, clear plans and equipment with which to invade England, lack of range and firepower for early fighters, overly complex tank designs, reliance on bolt action rifles, all contributed. Declaring war on America instead of coordinating with Japan to invade the USSR was also dumb. Had the Axis put the USSR in a 2 front war it would almost certainly spelled the end of that country.

Dunkirk was pretty much a lose-lose situation for the Nazis; I can't remember which channel I got this info from but apparently the ground leading to the town was pretty marshy, which made is bad for tanks, which would have needed to go in without infantry or artillery support due to them being left behind by the panzers. Also, the panzer crews were pretty burnt out and their vehicles needed maintenance and repairs. With this in mind I'd say trying to use the Luftwaffe to attack the evacuating troops made sense (there was a ton of low cloud over the town and the German planes couldn't stay in the area for very long due to a lack of air bases near to the combat zone).

Not only was aircraft production at a respectable level during the Battle of Britain, but fast repairs returned many damaged aircraft back to the front line.

Germany's lack of Spam didn't help them either

11. Fuel Fantasy. Germany's conquest was based on robbing Austria of coal and converting it to gasoline. When the fuel ran low, Germany had weak knees for war. 12. Grosse Deutsch. The more territory Germany captured, the more enemies it had.

The Germans never should have attacked Russia until England was defeated. That one single decision was the worst one.

Barbarossa: They both ignored the reports from General Georg Thomas, which showed they did not have logistic capability for an operation this large, and the war games (run by Paulus) which showed the infantry could not keep up with the mobile divisions, nor could the supplies reach that far. It was not allowed to present Hitler with counter arguments. von Rundstedt had it right. He responded to Hitler's request for how to assist him with, "end this war." Got fired, again.

The first major, major blunder made by Hitler was Operation SEALION. The Luftwaffe failed its objective completely by abandoning the Operation and turning its focus on Barbarossa when in reality, Britain was at the tipping point of capitulation . Thanks to the RAF's determination against all odds. Germany turned her back on her most powerful enemy in Europe and that's Britain. The second major blunder was Barbarossa. They had a good start from the beginning. If I were Hitler I would just bypass the Ukraine and Stalingrad and concentrate a gigantic blow on the forces around Moscow. I would have army group North, Center and South capture Moscow before the Russian winter arrives. Operation Typhoon would have succeeded early on had Hitler listened to Guderians plea to take Moscow first. A major mistake. The time alloted had given the Russian forces to set up a defensive belt outside Moscow. Failing to capture Britain in the beginning germais doomed.

I'm confused. The video's title says it's about the Wehrmacht but the video's description says it's about the German Army (which was the Heer not the Wehrmacht). Before making a video about an organization please find out what they are called.

In his somewhat clumsily written, but seemingly well-researched book, “Hitler’s Panzers East,” the author R.H.S. Stolfi argues that the suspension of Army Group Center’s motorized drive on Moscow in mid-August, 1941 was THE turning point in the European theatre of WW II. The more strictly descriptive account by David Stahel, without Stolfi’s “what if” approach to the subject, also points to late summer of 1941 as the time period during which the German campaign in the east was lost (“Operation Barbarossa and Germany’s Defeat in the East” and “Kiev 1941”).

The Germans never took Malta. It remained a strategic obstacle between Italy and North Africa. Malta was heavily attacked, but was never taken.

The greatest failure in Kursk was that Hitler had holdet back the attack for 3 month while he wont that his new supertanks (TIger, Panther and Ferdinant) could participated. In this time the Sowjets had bolstered their defence to make it unpenetrable.

After occupying France, Germany should have focused on Mediterranean and North Africa. It means taking Malta and if possible Gibraltar and then push to Suez. After that it would be easy to reach Iraq over Syria, possibly with Turkish involvement. Follow up would be to help independence movement in India and set up trade route to Japan.

If we were talking of Hitlers biggest mistake’s then surely the fact that he more or less dismissed Churchill’s determination to continue the fight and perhaps more importantly his diplomatic efforts as the FDR whisperer pre Pearl Harbour, we don’t have the complete record / transcript of the trans Atlantic communications between the two but needless to say the rapport between FDR & Churchill cannot be overestimated.

Germany NEVER took Malta. Your other picks were spot on but the Nazi’s tried to take Malta and tore it up really bad, the Brits held on tight..

Prior to Japan attacking Pearl Harbor the US people were split about helping Briton in the war with Germany. After Pearl Harbor the US was fully committed in a declaration of war on Japan, IF Hitler had not declared war on the US (3 days later) the American People would have been less inclined to support a two front war and fight Germany and Japan at the same time. I believe that was Hitler's worst mistake. All countries underestimated, as I believe we did ourselves, the capacity of the US to produce the needed material to fight both wars. I do not forget the many brave men and woman who fought, and many died, but once we got our economy targeted, and we were united, there was no stopping the US from providing ourselves and our allies with material.

Is there a video that has the mistakes that the Japanese made? Such as the intense rivalry between the Japanese army and the Japanese navy. Was this a factor?

Ils n’avaient pas d’équipement d’hiver en 1941 parce qu’ils n’avaient pas anticipé que Barbarossa durerait si longtemps

Pride comes before the fall

I would put not delaying the Norway invasion until the British launched their own invasion. This would allow Germany to enter as an ally and savior. As British plans included a thrust into Sweden, they could also joined as an ally to German. This would have increased their overall Axis manpower and reduced the need for occupation forces for the Germans. The Swedish arms industry and its impact should not be underestimated.

The mistake of letting the British expeditionary forces escape Dunkirk lead to all the other mistakes that Hitler made during WW2. That combined with the fact that the Luftewaffe stopped bombing the planes and radar installations of the RAF and started bombing civilians instead. That was a catastrophic mistake which the Nazis never recovered from.

How about the Invasion of Poland in 1939??? Hadn't Hitler taxed the World's Patience in 1938 over Czechoslovakia??? He should have laid low and consolidated at least until 1945. If Russia makes a false move, say an invasion of Finland or Poland, Hitler could have quietly slipped over to join the Allies.

It starts with how the economy was mismanaged, and the lack of oil did not help. Add that to wasting resources that were already in ever decreasing amounts. No matter what forces you have you will fail without the resources to supply and resupply those forces.

I have heard that Stalin tried to make peace with Germany in early 1943, but Hitler rejected it. If true, this was one of Germany's biggest mistakes during the war.

It’s really 2 things when we boil it down. Hitler was way too over confident in Germany being the best and everyone else being 2nd at anything.. and the other is really not giving a shit about the German people and his solders. Making them go in the cold without the proper gear and later in the war with not wanting to surrender or realizing his plan isn’t working.. Hitler would be a terrible coach at halftime, never made an adjustment.

Hitler's insistence to make the ME 262 a bomber not a fighter is bad mistake

so many people have argued that the Germans could’ve beaten the allies back in the sea on Normandy BUT I do not think so and it’s because the panzer would’ve been blown away by the ships and American and British aircraft in addition to the fact that the allies would’ve continued to send more soldiers in with more bombing because the German Navy had been destroyed and the German Air Force was on its very last legs and so bad all they couldn’t hold the Russians back and they couldn’t hold Normandy if they tried. Ever since the days of George Washington, America and the United States have really been into trickier for deceitful warfare. General, Robert E Lee was really good with this, and especially when it came to union genera and I cannot think of his name right now except that he was an exceptional trainer, but he just didn’t want to risk being out numbered. He was definitely known general grant, or Sherman at all, and I think that several of them have their good qualities, but this one general refused to go on to be attacked until Gettysburg when he happened to get lucky, and the Indiana regiment found a note with two cigars wrapped with a red ribbon . 😂 these two soldiers thought they struck gold finding to cigars in the field. Then I got curious and opened the little piece of paper, which was one of the little letters with battle plans. That was one of the five which were supposed to go to the other five generals, but somehow the gentleman who was supposed to be delivering the apparently dropped one , and did not tell general Lee. Uh oh!! if the guy would’ve admitted that he lost one General Robert E Lee would’ve been able to alter the battle plans, but the guy was too scared to tell General Lee. That was the first time ever that this union general receiving the new in advance, actually went on the attack because he knew the confederate battle plans.

Thank you for the information..when you said germany had to station 50 divisions in the west instead of joining Barbarossa i jow knew Dunkirk cost Hitler the war..

Impatience. Consolidation of German gains after the conquest of France would have made the Reich almost impregnable. Effective diplomacy towards the United States could have forced the UK into peace, eliminating trade restrictions in the West. Remember that France fell in the summer of 1940, and before irretrievable investment from the US in Germany’s defeat. Once they went into Russia in 1941 with a hostile US and UK to their West their defeat was inevitable.

I always thought and still strongly feel that one of Germany's mistakes was not keeping their powerful fleet together. In one area was the Bismarck being all alone. I feel that if the Prinz Eugen and the Bismarck remained together. The Bismarck wouldn't have met the fait she did. The Eugen would have helped with her increase Anti-aircraft guns would have shot down the British planes that were equipped with torpedoes. This the Bismarck's rudder wouldn't have been damaged. Yes, both ships would have sustained some damage, but both vessels would have been able to maneuver and able to sail to breast for repairs. Thus allowing them to sail out again along side other capitol ships, including the German Pocket Battleships and would have been able to render help from the United States and Canada to nil... Thus, it would have drastically change the effectiveness of D-Day attack years later. In some way D-Day may have never happened. Why? Germany would have total dominance of the seas with their mighty fleet.

The German generals thought that a limited offensive in the Ardennes might have achieved something, and urged Hitler to only plan a much smaller operation. A spoiling attack might have been enough to make the western allies move more slowly and cautiously. Really, the Red army was advancing quickly in the east, and that's where the troops were needed

From Dunkerque 1940, 200k British, 100k French (many of whom chose to return to France).

He made only one mistake, like all the others before him!

1st and most important mistake - attack on Poland. 2nd mistake not to make the Soviets a friend.

Good history Channel

Germany didn’t learn from WWI and got involved in a two front war.

I also think they started the war way too soon. Many of Hitler’s generals, who’d been in WWI advised him not to go to war at all, but if he did, wait until at least 1943, if not 45 to do anything. Germany was just not prepared for war in 1939.

Hitler's refusal to grant Field Marshall Paulus' request to retreat and live to fight another day.

He went to war with the United States, Russia, and the British Empire. Do you really think he could’ve won war against those three giants?

Hitler had jet fighters ( Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighters ) that could have been widely deployed. Hitler, viewed fighter planes as defensive and gave priority to the production of bombers and the training of bomber pilots instead.

Also, not pursuing the development of a four engine heavy bomber was a big mistake!

Point one is wrong. Von Rundstedt, Guderian, Rommel and Hoth all agreed with the Second Haltbefehl, while they had ignored the first one. On 24 May only half of the German tanks were operational while the infantry needed to catch up. When the Second Halt Befehl was ordered the Wehrmacht was simply incapable of taking Dunkerque.

They split the 6th army into two groups A and B THAT WAS IT. YOU DONT SLIT YOUR FORCES IN THE TUNDRA