If you are Hitler......

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

Supposed you travelled back in time and find yourself assuming the role of Adolf Hitler (like in the TV series Quantum Leap). You start in January 1933, when you are just elected Chancellor. Your ultimate goal stays the same: conquering the world (or at least dominating the world). However, having learned from history, you decide to learn from Hitler's mistakes and be a more cunning world conqueror.

So what your strategy will be? Would you, for instance, keeping a peace with the USSR and concentrate on England instead? Or maybe you would keep the peace with the United States, and even trying to use your propaganda spies to gain sympathy? How will you formulate your strategy to conquer the world?

[Ace Pace]

Conquring the world is impossible, germany dosn't have the manpower, the best Germany can do is somehow knock england out of the fight and survive russia.

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

Conquring the world is impossible, germany dosn't have the manpower, the best Germany can do is somehow knock england out of the fight and survive russia.

Now there would be more interesting question: supposed Germany could knock out England (including taking the middle east from the British) and survive Russia, how powerful it would be? What world we would see now, if Germany had been successfull in doing both things?

And what is the best strategy to achieve them?

[Lord Stormbringer]

The brightest thing one can do, if the goal is world hegemony, is to cozy up to the US and England. It's often been overlooked but both were fairly sympathetic to Facism. Certainly FDR and the Chamberlain Government had some degree of good feeling and sympathy. Even better if I skillfully play the anti-Bolshievik card. Keep with them, expanding slowly, and Germany can probably have considerable standing with in a decade.

Don't make deal with the Devil aka Joseph Stalin. The USSR and pretty much every one were enemies. Facism and Communism were mutal enemies and could not peacefully coexist. So no deals with Russia but perhaps make a few deals regarding mutal protection against Russia.

Absolutely do not begin the ethnic and "moral" persecutions. Those only cost Germany PR, manpower, and brainpower. And we can all of course understand the moral situation. They were utterly insane, in every sense of the word. For that matter, don't engage in the odious internal repression and abuses. It's a wonder that the whole thing didn't collapse by infighting it was so vicious. And things like the Gestapo only made that sort of kill or be killed politics worse.

Another thing I would do is straighten out German Industry. I've seen analysis that suggest Germany only got about 20% of it's potential military-industrial capacity actually working. Largely through the faults of a lack of standardization, organization, and ironically, oversight. I'm not going to try and take by force, but when Russia comes calling a well equipped productive military will be a wonderful thing to have.

I'd also listen to my military commanders, and of course replace certain incompetents, instead of undercutting them or just cowing them into bad ideas. Hitler was a total idiot in that regard and the Nazi reputation for genius is overrrated. As a corrolarry, clean up or clean out the drug users. From Hitler on down a lot of the leaders had rather severe drug addictions.
__________________________________


But all that just goes to show you that any Germany that works won't be Nazi Germany. The Nazi Party was such that it would inevitably self-destruct by it's very corrupt and incompetent and evil nature.

[Scottish Ninja]

It was inevitable that Germany and the Soviet Union fight at some time, but I'd delay it, and most definitely knock out Britain first. I'd concentrate on wiping out the RAF, and make sure the job is done before I switch to other targets. The Battle of Britain was lost when the Luftwaffe started bombing London.

I'd work with the Japanese better and keep them from attacking the US too early; also, I'd communicate to them the necessity of launching that vital third wave to wipe out the fuel supplies.

So, after taking out Europe and Africa, regroup and hit the USSR hard, with everything I've got. Start in the spring, and make sure my troops are equipped for the Russian winter when it comes.

Once Russia has been conquered, Japan and Germany turn on the US...

[Lord Stormbringer]

The problem with that is it's a pure pipedream:

1) Russia has superior war making capacity and a greater ability to trade distance for time. Not to mention the Russias have the great General Winter to chew through Nazi numbers.

2) The Germans can't hit Britian hard enough to supress the RAF. Between their home turf and the British intergrated air defense network, there is no chance. The Luftwaffe never could win.

2b) Sealion was a pathetic joke. They didn't have nearly the transport capacity to get their troops across the Channel. They were planning to use barges! The Royal Navy would have slaughtered them. And there is no way at all that the Kreigsmarine could have taken the Royal Navy.

3) Start fighting the US and, there's no way the Germans can win with 14% of world industry compared to the US's 68%! If they had done well enough, it would have wound up with a nuclear offensive. The US had the Atom Bomb and the B-29, and worse case, the B-36. Germany is deeply fucked.

[Cynical Cat]

Its really quite simple: taking on the world's last great empire and the worlds two greatest industrial powers at the same time is asking to be curb stomped. You can tell the German's had a great military because it took them so long to lose. In order to win you've got to reduce the number of enemies you're fighting, as in Stormbringer's plan.

[Kreshna Aryaguna Nurzaman]

The brightest thing one can do, if the goal is world hegemony, is to cozy up to the US and England. It's often been overlooked but both were fairly sympathetic to Facism. Certainly FDR and the Chamberlain Government had some degree of good feeling and sympathy. Even better if I skillfully play the anti-Bolshievik card. Keep with them, expanding slowly, and Germany can probably have considerable standing with in a decade.

Would you keep conquering Europe (Austria, France, Belgium, but not USSR and not UK) anyway? How much the benefit (notably economic and industrial) you can reap from conquering Europe, comparing to the cost of enraging the UK?

Or alternatively, how difficult it is to conquer Europe (or some parts of it) without getting hostile stance from UK or US, considering their sympathy with facism during that time?

[frigidmagi]

Consider that Hitler already grabbed parts of Czechoslokia, all of Austria and the Rhinelands before WWII happened. In fact it can be agrued that Hiter just got greedy with the invasion of Poland and should have taken a few years to intergrate all his new territories into a single nation. Economy development also would only have helped later.