For most people, the name Adolf Hitler represents the darkest, most abominable possibilities of human nature. Yet in just seven years of dictatorship, he occupied the vast majority of Europe including Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary, Belgium, and even France. What were the reasons for Hitler's success? Hitler was successful during the early part of the war because he was a military genius, he eliminated his opposition, and knew how to use propaganda to please and impress people with whom he wanted support.

Hitler was a military mastermind. He paid a lot of attention to military research and the selection of the military equipment. Since the majority of Germany's conquests were on land, Hitler invested enormous amounts of money into tanks, and to support the invasion he also supplied a huge fleet of bombers. To hold off sea and air attacks, Hitler equipped his military with hundreds of anti-ship...