9/20    Hypothetical question. Let's say it is year 1930 again and you are
        Adolf Hitler II. You have a dream to dominate Europe and more in
        a mere decade or two. What would you have done that's the same
        as before, and more importantly what would you have done
        differently, be it politically, militarily, economically? Please
        don't delete this thread, I'm curious what motd historian buffs
        have to say.
                         \- "I have a dream ..."
                                \_ Stop interrupting you Bengali shit
        \_ not try to invade Russia until the rest of Europe was polished off
           \_ How about "don't invade Russia, period." Winter is so cold
              there that motoroil actually freezes, rendering your highly
              mechaniszed units useless.
           \_ Yeah... Hitler underestimated the size of the Soviet army. I
              wonder if he thought he would avoid war with the US. Or maybe
              he hoped to crush the Soviets really quickly. Anyway once that
              failed and US was involved it was over. In retrospect they needed
              to knock out Britain. But they screwed up the air war there.
              Knowing what we know now, different tactics might have allowed
              them to take out either Britain or USSR quickly. In the first
              place I think Hitler hoped to get Poland without the British
              war, which would have let him focus only on the east. And when
              Barbarossa began the "fortress Europe" had been established,
              USA wasn't at war, so Hitler probably felt safe with that.
        \_ Don't trust the Italians, they're utterly incompetent.
        \_ Forget about heavy water.  Listen to the jews and go uranium
           instead.  And don't piss them off by putting them in concentration
           camps until after they've invented the A-bomb.
           \_ HAHA my thoughts exactly. Rule #1 in business-- never treat
              people badly until they give you want you want. The Jews are
              smart. Treat them well at first, concentration camp later.
                \_ Are you sure this would have worked for Hitler?  Part of
                   Hitler's route to power was by scapegoating the Jews.
                   Face it, persecuting and blaming a minority for all your
                   problems is an effective way of getting power.  --PM
                   \_ I see.  Was there another minority he could use as
                      scapegoat at that moment?
                      \_ He could have used the Poles. I mean, there are so
                         many Polish jokes to tell and they don't seem to mind
                         \_ He wouldn't have needed the whole anti-semitic
                            shpiel.  The krauts were falling apart at the
                            seams politically and screaming for stability and
                            strong leadership, and still bitter enough about
                            being stomped on militarily during and diplo-
                            matically after WWI that the nazis were a shoo-in
                            to run the joint.  Remember that WWII only came
                            along after a pretty spectacular, virtually un-
                            opposed run of aggression in the name of anti-
                            communism and reuniting all Germans into one big
                            happy fatherland.  -John
                            happy vatherland.  -John
                            \_ Apparently you flunked history. The Nazis
                               were not "shoo-ins" to run the joint. They
                               got into power with less than the majority
                               vote. It was because Hindenburg was weak
                               and the opposition was fragmented that lead
                               to Hitler's appointment to be Chancellor in
                               an attempt to create a coalition government.
                            \_ That, and also the effects of the Great
                               Depression which affected Germany as much,
                               if not worse, than the US.
        \_ Rape and plunder doesn't work well for long periods. Treat the
           stinking Frenchmen and poor Poles nicer. Give them a sense that
           they belong to something of great importance instead of just
           beating the shit out of them. After they assimilated and
           contributed, THEN beat the shit out of them. Oh and don't
           screw around with French women, most of them have STDs and
           will incapacitate your Waffen-SS Wehrmacht.
           \_ Or join it... -John
        \_ ULTRA is compromised.
           \_ More to the point, if everything goes according to your
              expectations, it means they're feeding you bad intel; it does
              NOT mean you're a genius.
              \_ You misunderstand ULTRA. If the other side knows every major
                 move you're making, it is harder for you to win.
                 \_ On the contrary, I understand ULTRA very well. However,
                    in order to keep Hitler from knowing that ULTRA was
                    compromised, the Allies waged a campaign of misinformation
                    that relied primarily on Hitler wanting to believe that
                    his predictions of enemy movement would be accurate. Cf.
                    Bodyguard of Lies by Anthony Cave Brown.
                    \_ So communicating factually through a compromised system
                       would be okay even if Hitler knew it was compromised
                       and his predictions came true. That's even more occult
                       belief than I want to deal with.
                       \_ Sigh. Call me old-fashioned, but I'm trying to keep
                          this within the realm of the knowledge that he might
                          have gained under the circumstances. If he realized
                          that things were running too impossibly close to his
                          expectations, he might have realized that he was
                          being played. He might also have been able to seed
                          ULTRA with false intel while speeding up R&D of
                          Enigma. Thank god he was a paranoid, megalomaniacal
                          pillock.
        \_ Donate to Charles Lindberg's Presidential campaign and convince
           the Japs to hold off on Pearl Harbor until all the Carriers were
           back in port. I would have won the battle of Britain prior to
           opening the Russian front and then I would have got the Japs to
           help me take out Russia. Then I would send the Kreigsmarine to
           take out the US from the east coast while the Japs took out the
           US from the west coast.