If Hitler had of been content to allow his generals to control the plans for the war, the outcome would likely have been drastically different. I believe one of

If Hitler had of been content to allow his generals to control the plans for the war, the outcome would likely have been drastically different. I believe one of the reasons he did not was because he saw that as one of the failures of WWI on the side of the Germans. Kaiser Wilhelm in WWI allowed his military to lead and Hitler did not want to sit on the sidelines as the Kaiser had once the war started. Germany had some of the most talented military leadership of the time[1][2][3] and were thinking on the bleeding edge of military theory/doctrine. It was basically von Manstein's plan (that Hitler took credit for) that pushed through the Ardennes and into France. However, following the campaign in France, Hitler assumed he knew what he was doing and generally ignored the advice and plans of his generals. Speaking of Germany's invasion of Russia, Germany would have been in a much better position to defend against the USSR if Hitler had not been pulling the strings. Paulus[4] could have broken out at Stalingrad and avoided encirclement if a competent leader (instead of Hitler) had been pulling the strings. Hitler also stonewalled many of the bleeding edge technology programs of Germany at the time because he thought he knew better than his military. One example was the Me-262 jet fighter[5]. It was scheduled for service in 1943, but was delayed until 1944, because Hitler felt it would be better suited as a fighter-bomber. Thankfully, Hitler was incredibly vain as well as insane and thought too much of his military leadership skills. We had many great military leaders on the side of the Allies (Patton, Bradley, Zhukov, etc) as well as overall manpower (and generally competent leadership[6] that delegated control), but the incompetence of Hitler's leadership allowed us to turn the war back to our favor after initial German Victories. In many ways, Stalin was also very much like Hitler, except much more paranoid[7] (and proved it by killing his shrink that told him he was paranoid)--a megalomaniac despot that mass murdered his people (though not as logically and coldly calculated as Germany) and thought more of his abilities than he should have. However, Stalin was smart/sane enough to know when he should let his generals do their jobs. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Guderian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinz_Guderian [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Rommel http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Rommel [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_Manstein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erich_von_Manstein [4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Paulus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Paulus [5] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me262 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me262 [6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_barbarossa#Reasons_for_initial_Soviet_defeats http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_barbarossa#Reasons_fo... [7] http://books.google.com/books?id=nA7YzQMzO9YC&pg=PA349&lpg=PA349&dq=stalin+paranoia+psychiatrist&source=bl&ots=VapmFUDWvT&sig=PZ-Uno8HZU-jfxLx6AOsP0zP0xM&hl=en&sa=X&ei=4pkxUaOeMsqprQGf3IGoBQ&ved=0CFgQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=stalin%20paranoia%20psychiatrist&f=false http://books.google.com/books?id=nA7YzQMzO9YC&pg=PA349&#...