I am surprised sometimes that Hitler didn't loose the war a lot sooner. After the presentations this week, it seems amazing to me that the war lasted as long as it did. Hitler didn't trust his soliders and military leaders who had some idea of what they needed to do in order to make Hitler's plans reality. This leads to some really big communication issues. Rommel is a great example of this lack of trust or communication that existed between the German military and Hitler. In the Battle of Tobrok, Rommel goes to Africa to take control of the troops. He manages to push the British back. After this Hitler tells him to leave. He disobeys and is defeated by the British.
We see a similar situation with the Battle of El Alamein. At the Battles of Kursk and Rzhev the german officers want to pull out but Hitler tells them to stay. It is ironic that the Germans loose this battle, giving Hitler a reason to trust his men less. In reality, if he had listened to them in the first place and pulled the military out, they might have fared better.
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Had an increased level of trust been provided to the German High Command, their operations and ability to execute could have been more successful. It can be very damaging to any organization, especially a military, if the person at the top feels that they must constantly keep a scrutinizing eye over their subordinates. This easily conveys to the subordinates that there is a lack of trust in confidence in their abilities to carry out their jobs which in the long run was damaging to the German's performance in the war.
the ability of generals to make their own calls in action and change plans to adjusting battles was a key difference between allied and german commanders. unlike the allied generals who were free to make their own decisions, german generals had to have hitler's permission. as you can imagine this help germany loose.
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