German possible strategies

[coe]

I'd be interested to know what type of strategic or even tactical level doctrines the Germans would have used/considered if lets say Hitler decided to be hands off (i.e. saying, ok ok my stand and hold strategy or whatever hasn't worked, General staff: do what you need to do to make the best of things - just no surrender).

For instance I guess the relevant jump off point would be somewhere around Spring 1944.

Conan

[Loaf]

I'm far form the most knowledgable guy on this board, but my impression is that Hitler's influence consisted largely of A)Forbidding tactical withdrawals to more suitable defensive positions; and B)Ordering ill-advised counterattacks. To my knowledge the only actual defensive strategy that Hitler invented was his ill-advised "fortress" notion (i.e. turning cities into defensive islands behind enemy lines rather than retreating). This was ineffectual and German commanders hated it...

IMO perhaps the biggest impact of Hitler's meddling on the war's outcome was his decision to reserve control of the Panzer divisions being held to counter the D-Day landings to himself. The delays that this imposed meant that the Germans missed their best chance to attack the Allied lodgement in Normandy when they could conceivably have broken through to the sea and put the whole landing in jeopardy.

I'm sure there are lots of other good examples, but I think the Normandy one is significant because this was the only point in the German's defensive campaign where a decisive victory could have caused a really serious setback to the Allies... If D-Day had ended in disaster it would have been a real blow to the western Allies and it would have allowed the Germans to move a lot of their western units to the Eastern front.

Overall, though, I don't think the German approach to defensive warfare would have changed much without Hitler. German commanders followed established doctrines as best they could in between getting over-ruled by Hitler - so if he had left them alone they would not have used totally different strategies, just used their existing systems more intelligently.