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Originally Posted by LeEnfield Russia did not seem to have any desire to go to war with Germany, as Russia was still in one hell of a muddle due to Stalin's purges. If Germany had taken out Britain first it would have released a huge amount of troops that they had stationed in Norway to prevent another British Invasion. Lets face it Hitler always thought that Britain would invade Norway and kept over 300.000 men there to prevent this. Also it it would have released a million men that Hitler had tied up to try and stop British bombers chewing up Germany. Now if these had been released to attack Russia there could have been a different outcome to the battle, Also he would not have lost any production due to the RAF bombing. |
The problem for Germany in 1941 wasn't a lack of manpower, it was a flawed operational plan that underestimated many facets of invading Russia. Because of this, the only viable strategy under the plan was to punch through to Moscow and grab it asap. As soon as the momentum towards Moscow was lost, the plan was already in trouble. As he did at Dunkirk, Hitler lost his nerve and played safety first. The decision to capture the Ukraine was a conventionality sound plan, but a realistic chance to capture Moscow was lost.