Yes he underestimated the ability of the US to produce quality war material quickly and their ability to ship enough material across the Atlantic while being attacked by Uboats.
Hitler was well aware of the difficulties to fight a war thousands of miles away from home. Like fighting the war in North Africa or mounting and executing the invasion of England which was just 21 miles away.
He obviously thought that reaching Europe with enough material, while simultaneously fighting against Japan in the East, was going to be virtually impossible for a few more years, enough to settle matters with the Soviet Union first.
And even reaching the United Kingdom was no guarantee that the US could ever reach mainland Europe, as large scale amphibious assaults (on the scale required to bring the war into Europe) were thought to be impossible. At the end of the day, even the mighty German forces had to abandon plans to invade England.
But Hitler didn’t see things right.
Firstly the Soviet Union didn’t fall apart, as previously predicted.
Then the US were able to produce at a speed that was simply unthinkable for the Germans.
Eighteen American shipyard built 2,710 Liberty ships between 1941 and 1945 (an average of three ships every two days)
and finally Hitler didn’t obviously think that Germany could lose air superiority in1944, allowing the Allies to land in Normandy.
Credit: ( Zain Ali )
Related:
What proportion of German soldiers during the Nazi era were likely aware of the Holocaust?
As many know, during World War II, when Nazi soldiers killed millions of Jews at the Holocaust, many soldiers did not know what was happening. Nazi leaders despised Jewish people and, as a result, almost all soldiers knew it. This hate was taught to them and was clear. While they also knew the Jewish people were being treated terribly, most of the soldiers didn’t quite realize the full extent of the mass killings.( Read Full )
