The following essay appeared in the original mini-comic printing of “HypnoSpiral Comics Book Report: Rise and Fall of The Third Reich,” December 2017.
Before reading The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich I always held the idea that Adolf Hitler was a military genius. An evil genius to be sure, but a genius none the less. Reading a moment to moment account of his rise to power and execution of the war it becomes obvious.
Adolf Hitler wasn’t a genius. Adolf Hitler was a bad poker player!
If you’ve played enough cards you know the type. The guy who goes all in on every hand, regardless of how early in the game it is, regardless of the cards he’s been dealt. A perennial loser. As soon as he is recognized and the other players begin calling his ridiculous bluffs he is soon ejected from the table. There is only one situation where he looks like a genius. When he is playing with cowards.
The western democracies had every chance to stop Adolf Hitler while Germany was still weak. One of Hitler’s first military actions, the re-occupation of the demilitarized Rhineland on March 7, 1936, was performed by such a paltry force that the German commander in chief, General Blomberg, had planned to meet any French resistance whatsoever with a “hastily retreat across the Rhine.” (pg 291) The French did nothing. Even Hitler admitted that the failure of this insane gamble would have resulted in a loss of confidence of the Nazi government and it’s collapse. (pg 293)
Hitler’s greatest bloodless victory, the conquest of Czechoslovakia, had such a small chance of success and such a dire consequence for Germany if it failed, that his generals were ready to overthrow him!
[General Ludwig] Beck [Chief of Army General Staff] was convinced, he wrote in his May 5 [1938] memorandum, that a German attack on Czechoslovakia would provoke a European war in which Britain, France and Russia would oppose Germany and in which the United States would be the arsenal of the Western Democracies. Germany simply could not win such a war. (pg 367)
The conspirators were in contact with the British, feeding them information about the dates set for the attack but they were not willing to go through with the coup unless they had assurance of support from the Western Democracies. (pg 382) Unfortunately Britain was still in control of the conciliatory government of Neville Chamberlain.
Instead of supporting the rebellious German Generals, Chamberlain decided to avoid armed conflict altogether by signing the Munich Agreement on September 30, 1938, giving Hitler the heavily defended border region of Czechoslovakia. (pg 417) Humiliated, abandoned and denuded of their defenses the rest of Czechoslovakia didn’t last long afterwards. (pg 450)
Even after Hitler had invaded Poland in early September 1939 and France had reluctantly honored her treaties and declared war on Germany, the French sat passively on the Maginot Line. (pgs 618, 625) According to General Halder at Nuremberg:
“The success against Poland was only possible by almost completely baring our Western border. If the French had seen the logic of the situation and had used the engagement of the German forces in Poland, they would have been able to cross the Rhine without our being able to prevent it and would have threatened the Ruhr area [Germany’s industrial heartland], which was the most decisive factor in the German conduct of the war. (pg 634)”
The French paid for eight months of inaction with six weeks of destruction in the spring of 1940 when the Blitzkrieg, having finished off Poland, swung back west. (pg 720) Another inconceivable wager won and Hitler began to look like the smartest guy at the table.
A stupid bet is not brilliant just because the idiot who made it got lucky. It’s hard not to be furious with Neville Chamberlain and the pre-war leaders of France but you have to understand, everyone still had a hangover from World War I. Such destruction was wrought for so little cause that no one wanted a new war.
No one save for a lunatic Austrian corporal.
Before you jump to call his insane viciousness genius remember this: Every prediction that his generals made about a new war resulting in the destruction and disgrace of Germany came true. It just happened a few years later than they predicted.
After the fall of France, Hitler’s every decision appears foolish and suicidal. He stopped his tanks from attacking the seemingly doomed English and French armies at Dunkirk. (pg 732) He delayed the attack on Russia by four weeks in order to punish Yugoslavia for electing an anti-Nazi government. (pg 823-824) He reinforced Stalingrad rather than sending Rommel the troops he needed to capitalize on his success in Africa. (pg 911-912)
All of Hitler’s decisions beforehand had been foolish and suicidal as well, but being faced with opponents who back down at every opportunity can put you on a remarkable lucky streak. By the end of 1941 he faced three strong and competent opponents. Russia, Britain (now under Winston Churchill) and The United States were not the type to fold when raised. Unfortunately, Hitler’s previous victories had given him a big stack of chips that took The Allies several years to bleed away from him. While after the victories at Stalingrad and El Alamein the final result of the war was never in doubt, it is a tragedy that those chips, won and thrown away as recklessly as a lottery payout, all represented human lives. (pg 933-944)