Hitler in 1943

Hitler's failed strategy on the Eastern Front, his hopes for his 'vengeance weapons', his personal ill health and his declining sex life ...

Hitler at an Eastern Front situation conference in February 1943.

When Hitler launched Fall Blau in the summer of 1942, he had said that “the war is lost” if they did not seize the Soviet oilfields. At the beginning of 1943, as the death agony of the 6th Army at Stalingrad unfolded and the Wehrmacht pulled back from its limited success in the Caucasus, he must have known - deep down - that the game was up.

A German prisoner of war at Stalingrad. Thousands would not survive their first few weeks in captivity.

He could not possibly admit this to anyone, perhaps not even to himself. Instead, there were increasingly desperate attempts to claim that the war could still be won.

Nazi rally on 18 February 1943 at the Berlin Sportpalast; the sign says "Totaler Krieg – Kürzester Krieg" ("Total War – Shortest War").

Hitler’s major offensive for 1943, at Kursk, came to nothing, and Germans were on the retreat in Russia from this point on.

He delayed his 1943 offensive at Kursk, arguing that the new Tiger Panzers would force a breakthrough. When they did not, he called off the offensive.

Hitler with Manstein - who wanted to continue fighting at Kursk.

… words expressing his unshakeable confidence in victory and succeeded in convincing his devoted listeners.

According to his closest aides, he then lost interest in the Eastern Front. The fantasies that various ‘vengeance weapons’ could win the war became the excuse for continuing the fight.

The A4 rocket was a true breakthrough. Over a decade of research had produced innovations in propulsion, stabilisation and guidance systems.

By November 1943 he was reduced to calling on Nazi party loyalists for the “fanatical faith that there can be nothing other than our victory.”

The strain of maintaining the illusion of confidence in final victory began to tell on him personally.

Hitler and his personal physician Dr Morell.

Spastic constipation caused by overwork over the last few days …

The cocktail of drugs that Dr Morrell gave him probably made things worse - and there was little solace to be found in the arms of Eva Braun.

Hitler’s physical deterioration was not yet fully evident. Adolf Hitler congratulates Heinrich Himmler on his 43rd birthday, 7th October 1943 - with Martin Bormann beside him.

Hitler was aware of his manly failings, and this made him even more irritable and aggressive than he already was.