right from the start hitler and his generals never got along.
for the most part they were aristocratic prussians, and for them he'd always be a peasant austrian corporal.
hitler liked, and doted on, many younger, riskier, more easily indoctrinated officers but the old boys never warmed up to him.
von Manstein was the rising star that came up with the ardennes offensive, for example, and as it was an all or nothing crazy roll of the dice, hitler was all over it.
but guys like Guderian, who was probably the biggest contributor to blitzkrieg, and Rommel, were frozen out, implicated in plots (mostly because they were plotting...), shot, hanged, jailed, etc. by the end of the war.
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