From the WHO Forum: Hitlers Underestimation of Russia – this is what members are saying

An excellent question was asked on the War History Online Forum last week; Why did Hitler underestimate the capabilities of Russia and invaded? How can Nazi Germany invade a country that had well over 160 million inhabitants, when their population had less than half of that. The odds seemed stacked well against you with those numbers.

When we are looking back at Operation Barbarossa we tend to see it as a foregone conclusion; when you invade Russia, you are going to lose. Napoleon invaded Russia and lost, Hitler invaded Russia and lost. So why the heck would you be stupid enough to invade such a country?

The simple thing is, Hitler didn’t know the outcome when he gave the order! All he had since September 1939 were smashing victories; he conquered every country he sent his tanks into. All Germany had to do was kick in the door, and the whole rotten structure will come crashing down, as he allegedly once said. He was confident he would win, and he very nearly did.

We’ve been discussing this question and here are the top comments!

Harry Walia thinks that the population size is not what matters most:

When a country wages war with another, the ‘population’ as a whole of the latter is not really of concern. The comparative military might at the time, the weaponry & battle readiness, along with the terrain configuration/obstacles facing the aggressor, are equally important.

The Russian ‘misadventure’ seems more a case of overconfidence on the part of (so-he-thought) invincibility of his Army! Perhaps, his Generals were too scared to keep him properly up-dated of the growing successes of the advancing Allies on the Western & Southern fronts. Of course, the severity of the Russian Winter, the tenacity of the Russians & the extended & failing logistics & morale of the Germans, finally, quashed Hitler’s dreams!

Original thinks that Hitler never was rational:

Well i think people overestimate the rationality of hitler ,and hitler never wanted to even listen to his generals who weren’t generals at all in reality from July 41 onwards just figureheads and people to blame when things inevitably went wrong The winter only became a problem because Hitler completely changed the Barbarossa plan in august 41 and the new plan delayed the Moscow offensive almost 2 months his army had been invincible before Hitler took total control but the secret of that invincibility was flexibility of movement something Hitler increasingly took away Its hard to even know what Hitlers dreams were as I don’t think he even wanted to win

Tore Heiret thinks that it was the Nazi’s mindset that invited disaster:

I think the Nazis worst mistake was their stupid belief that Russians were inferior subhumans, led by incompetent leaders, that would not be able to stand up against the Wehrmacht and SS. To some extent the winter war in Finland seemed to substantiate this view, but later events would prove them horribly wrong…. Besides this, the sheer size of the Soviet Union must have been underestimated, leading to supply-lines being stretched beyond the limit everywhere. Obviously, the problems caused by extreme weather conditions were not understood either.

Peter Smith points out that you don’t have to conquer the entire country:

We will see you there 🙂