[jboot]

Hitler had gone wobbly during the invasion of France by allowing the Luftwaffe to "destroy" the BEF at Dunkirk from the air rather than overrun them with the Heer. A small mistake, but costly. He followed this up with an even more costly bit of pandering to the Luftwaffe which we now know as the Battle of Britain. As a result, his air force was decimated and never really recovered.

Both of these decisions were based on political whim rather than sound strategy. Both resulted in avoidable debacles. Worse decisions followed. A shrewder man than Hitler could have easily destroyed the Soviets. But by 1941 Hitler was unable to construct an effective plan against them. He defeated himself.

[dfwgator]

Of course, always having to pull Mussolini’s chestnuts out of the fire didn’t help matters for Hitler.