ready to give him. Essentially, the war was "lost before it began" (Fuller, "Military lesson..." 68).

German Commander Hans Delbrück simplified strategy into to two forms: annihilation and exhaustion. Annihilation is the quick and forceful defeat of a foe, e.g. D-Day. Exhaustion is the wearing down of one’s opponent to weaken him and then attacking, essentially playing defense until the optimum attack time. The important difference is that annihilation requires vast resources; exhaustion does not. At the beginning of the war, Delbrück backed annihilation for the German forces. However, he quickly changed his mind following their defeat at Marne. Their only choice left was exhaustion, but Hitler did not heed this warning.

Hitler was right about one thing: England was the key to the war in Europe. With the 1939 armistice with Russia, England was the only threat; everyone else had fallen. "It was imperative to win he war before America was ready; America needed a turn around time because they were just coming out of a depression. This meant all of Europe – less Russia – must either be overrun of neutralized in the shortest time possible" (Fuller, "The Blunder..." 35). Hitler knew this and decided to attempt to annihilate Britain quickly, a fatal error in judgment. Hitler had neither the strength nor the intelligence to accomplish such a feat. His attack on Britain was both poorly planned and poorly executed. Hitler did not attack the island correctly; he attempted to

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