| I agree with those who say the Eastern front decided the war in Europe.
Up to 80% of total German casualties in the war occurred on the Eastern front.
Probably the only chance the Germans had to defeat Russia was in the first 6 months of the war.
It was logistically beyond them.
The Cambridge History of Warfare said that the German military planning for Barbarossa was ''a mixture of tactical and operational genius, with woolly headed political optimism and logistical imbecility.''
After the Germans were fought to a standstill at Leningrad and then Moscow, and pushed back in the Russian counter attack, they were always going to struggle to defeat Russia.
A simultaneous offensive by the 3 army groups was then out of the question.
After that, Russia had the chance to build up and equip their massive reserve armies and outproduce Germany from new factories behind the Urals, plus Hitler declaring war on America, committing Germany to a war on two fronts.
So my vote would go for the battle of Moscow, with the Stalingrad fiasco ruining their Southern offensive, and by Kursk, the largest tank battle of the war [Germany's last throw of the dice] starting so late, they were virtually kaput.
Mansteins ''Backhand'' plan, although a brilliant concept on paper, might have had less chance of success then Manstein thought it would.
The Americans were always going to defeat Japan once production was in full swing, even if they blundered along the way, and Germany had next to no chance of crossing the channel. |