Towards the end of the war, Hitler ordered Armament Minister Albert Speer to commence what was in effect a "scorched earth" policy in a similar fashion to what the Soviets had done during Barbarossa, in which industry and infrastructure not only in the Greater Reich but also the occupied territories such as France and the Low Countries would be destroyed before the invading armies. Speer simply ignored it, and rounded up numerous representatives of the Wehrmacht, numerous Gauleiters (under instruction from Martin Bormann, Speer's main political rival to obey Speer in a rare moment of co-operation) and industrial heads and went round preventing the scorched earth order. It was highly effective, and Speer is credited with saving numerous industrial and infrastructural flashpoints in France and the Ruhr, possibly even saving his life at Nuremberg.

Naturally, Hitler soon got wind that Speer was disobey his orders (eventually Speer simply came out and told him he deliberately ignoring it) and introduced legislation to bypass Speer and gave authority to the Gauleiters to carry out the destruction in their regional Gaus, but by that time the outcome of their war was a foregone conclusion. However Speer's (and others) disregard for the scorched earth order was an example of a group of industrialists and officers disobeying Hitler, though it has to be said it was very late in the war and the impact it had on the war effort was minimal.

(The Good Nazi by Dan van der Vat)