I thought this was interesting because at a time when people believed Hitler to be continuously involved in spearheading the war effort, he decided to go on vacation. He visited Paris, toured WW I battlefields, and picnicked along the Rhine. It is obvious that he believed that England, and for that matter Europe, was his. As a person who not only admired himself, but also saw himself as an admired and exalted leader and hero of the people, he no doubt believed he and his German forces were unstoppable. The OKW, too, said that the final victory over Great Britain was just a matter of time. However, without Hitler at the command, military planning in Germany was almost non-existent. It is apparent after reading this that that his commanders did not have the drive or the ability to knock Great Britain out of the war. In this chapter, it is interesting to note that it was stated that the Luftwaffe intelligence failed to keep the German operational commanders apprised of the difficult tasks the military would confront when attacking Great Britain. It is almost like lack of communication between the high commanders resulted in Germany destroying its own defenses.
1 comment:
I was stocked too by Hitler’s actions after France fell. The military planners should have planned for the worst and hoped for the best. Instead German military planners and Hitler always seemed to plan for the best possible scenario and never considered that things might not go their way. It would be interest to see what would have happen if the German military would have planned their military campaigns like American and Britain did with the realization that things might not always go their way.
Post a Comment