Can you do better than Adolf?

Simple and effective Jim, if you are not Hitler…

The OP was asking how would you play it if you were Hitler.

Presumably you’d do the honourable thing and bump yourself off?

But “I” did in the end, didn’t I?………..:D
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Following Beermat’s scenario you have to wonder if Europe and some bits of Asia and Africa would have been enough. Or might he have pressed on with atomic research inb order to visit a Hiroshima and Nagasaki on an unsuspecting US, smug, dumb and happy in its isolationism?

Moggy

I didn’t know you had a sense of humour. Very good !

Simple and effective Jim, if you are not Hitler…

The OP was asking how would you play it if you were Hitler.

Presumably you’d do the honourable thing and bump yourself off?

“There is no sch thing as a problem, just a solution”

Problem. Hitler.

Solution..Bump him off before he could have started the war.

Simples, Eh?.

Jim.
Lincoln .7

Couldn’t resist this one!

Absolutely agree John, too many assumptions – and hard to avoid hindsight in decision making, as well.. but:

I would learn the lesson of history and not invade Russia at all. Cosy up to her. Maintain the pact, keep Stalin onside. Ultimately the Stalinist system was doomed to failure – and instead of a populace engaged in a unifying ‘Great Patriotic War’ (nothing like a war to increase popularity if you’re a bit dictatorially inclined), you get a frustrated population (including the millions of young people who in ‘real’ history were killed in the war) across an enormous and disparate country, and leaders who are quite used to the idea of revolution.. So just be patient and let Soviet Russia fall apart while maintaining my own (Germany’s) superior economic and industrial organisation, then go in and pick up the pieces (and the oil fields, and minerals, and Pacific bases, etc etc.).

Invading Poland? Well, I reckon if he had stopped there the declaration of war by Britain would not amount to much more. The phoney war would stay phoney – recalling the old hippy question ‘What would happen if war was declared but nobody showed up’?

So slowly the economic wealth, and therefore global power, of Germany increases. Maybe another soft invasion of another European country in a couple of years time. Exactly the way the Soviets did post war, in fact – but with a functioning socio-economic system able to make the most of new resources in each case. Once the USSR had faded and fallen under German control (after all, the countries would be ‘partners’, so why shouldn’t there be German ownership of the resources) whether in four or forty years, then there ya go, Global Superpower status. What would the UK do? Either form a counter-alliance with the US and China (maybe even Japan) – or duck the issue by going Swiss, becoming the world’s bank and specialist engineering workshop. Whatever, I doubt very much Britain would feel the call to go to war.

1. Bring into the German speaking union, Austria, and the Sudetenland plus any one else who would feel happier in union, with the intention of creating more cannon fodder plus a potential increase in weapons manufacturing capacity.

2. Don’t march into Poland. The intention is to avoid annoying the British who have a support treaty with the Poles.

3. Don’t annoy the British – see WW1. The intention is to avoid a war on two fronts.

4. Cosy up to Romania and Hungary. The intention is to secure Romanian oil.

5. Make friends with the Finns and arm them. The intention is that they don’t much like the Russians having just lost about 20% of their territory in the winter war.

6. Invade Russia in late Spring 1941. Attack from the South with a minimum of 10,000 aircraft, 10,000 tanks and six million infantry. The Finns to attack from the North. The intention is to destroy Communist Russia and acquire land for expansion of the German empire in the East and additional manufacturing capacity. Above all, treat the native population well. Do not antagonize them. They are our friends as you will see.

7. Having conquered Russia, we will reposition our forces for an attack down thru Persia. The intention is to seize and control the flow of oil and threaten only, the jewel of the British Empire; India.

8. This move increases tension with Britain. We will at once begin to train a 100,000 strong parachute army amounting to ten divisions plus transport aircraft. The intention is that if war with Britain comes then we will have a significant mobile spearhead available in sufficient numbers to seize vital British airfields and harbours.

9. Meantime the Japanese are at war with the USA. We do not declare war on the USA. The intention is to sit on the fence and see how the Japs get on against the Americans.

10. Anticipating war with Britain we have amassed a total of 1,000 ocean going submarines. The intention is to quickly sever the Atlantic lifeline of supplies from America and Canada.

Back to reality. There are too many assumptions implicit in the above to be of any real value in determining the outcome and the timescale.

Whilst echoing charlies comments as entirely sensible I would offer don’t start the war until 1945, as I believe was originally intentioned*, as the quickest way to achieve the aim.

*That may have been war with Britain; but I think if Germany had simply waited for Soviet Russia to tear itself apart some more, taking the time to build the warships and more developed weaponry under design in the late ’30’s the rest of Europe would have struggled, including Britain.

As I see it he has two ways to go East or West. Now we know he kicked off by heading East into Poland, but this didn’t seem to alienate Stalin much. However it brought down on his head the ire of Britain and France.

Romania and Hungary were largely pro German, so once Poland was subdued there was the making of a considerable power block which included oil fields.

If as much planning had been devoted to the possibility of an eventual Channel assault as was given to Overlord it might have been a good tactical move to postpone the westward blitzkreig until the Wermacht had at least some practical means of crossing the Channel with heavy vehicles. It didn’t look like the French were going to launch other than very local attacks over the Maginot line, so another year or two could have been devoted to the submarine blockade of the UK.

How is it going so far?

Moggy

The problem with “what if” questions is in separating the historical individual from oneself. Unless you were the megalomaniac Hilter was, amongst other unsavoury things, the sane purposeful individual would have no interest in world domination anyway.

To start.

By consolidating what had already been gained in mainland Europe, before moving on.
Not bombing the UK, so avoiding retaliatory attacks.
Not even thinking about invading Russia.