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Originally Posted by MontyB Russia was never going to be a successful campaign until Britain was out of the war as Hitler was always going to station large numbers of his assets on the western front to prevent british intervention.
When it comes down to it the germans best chance was to have crossed the channel on the heals of the Dunkirk evacuation (if not during the evacuation) and perhaps sacrificed their navy to do so.
I believe given that Britain was still in the war and he still had to deal with the balkans and Greece the germans perhaps should have completed these campaigns and then waited until the following year to attack Russia (although this in itself would have been a problem) that way they could have replaced BoB and balkan losses and not lost the time invested, perhaps then they could have reached beyond Moscow before the first winter and if Stalin was as good as his word he would been lost in the battle of Moscow and I believe the Russians would have sort peace.
As I have said before I believe the failed Italian campaigns cost germany the war. |
Hi Monty.
I have to disagree with you here. The Russian campaign as success or failure was entirely unrelated to what happened in the Battle of Britain. There was little danger of any British-only invasion of Europe and thus little need for Hitler to station anything other than garrison and 2nd line troops in the occupied territories. Although the 'miracle' at Dunkirk did save 330,000 Allied troops, it was more of a political, morale-boosting victory than a military one. The BEF left almost all of its heavy equipment behind for example. The main legacy of Dunkirk was that it ensured that Churchill, and thus Britain, remained in the war. Otherwise there was the possibility that Lord Halifax could have ousted Churchill and then settled for a seperate peace with Hitler.
The biggest fallout for the losing the Battle of Britain was the loss of fighter planes and trained pilots. The Luftwaffe could certainly have used the extra fighter planes for 'Operation Typhoon', the codename for the German assault on Moscow. Other than that, aside from any morale loss, the Battle of Britain had little impact on why Germany lost in Russia. The Germans lost for other reasons.