No. Germany had no direct access to oil, that's what the eastern push was for. Not to mention the fact that Stalin had expansionist plans himself. If Germany didn't invade Russia, Russia would've simply invaded Germany sooner or later.
Sure, there are some things that could've helped Germany hold out longer or given them leverage for peace negotiations, but Germany was doomed the second they became a hostile middle entity in an already divided continent.
Agreed. There is no chance they could have won.
One of my favorite memories from undergrad was when our professor gave us a weekend writing assignment that was something to the effect of "How could the Nazis have won WW2?" Queue 8:45 Monday morning and he spends the whole class period tearing into everyone's paper explaining how bad the ideas were.
Basically, he said that "There's no argument to be made for the Nazis winning WW2 that doesn't rely on changing the meaning of the word(s) 'Nazi,' 'won,' and/or 'WW2.'" Barring a miracle for Hitler & co., the outcome was was decided in 1939.
Germany was doomed the second they became a hostile middle entity in an already divided continent.
You'd think they would have learned from the last time they tried that...
100%. Germany's ability to wage blitzkrieg was entirely dependent on oil, which it did not have and could not obtain sufficient amounts from Romania alone. The YouTube channel TikHistory does a great video explaining this:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kVo5I0xNRhg&pp=ygUVVGlraGlzdG9yeSBHZXJtYW4gb2ls
One of the main drivers for Hitler invading Russia was the desperate need the Nazi state had for money to keep itself solvent. Essentially, the Nazi state was what's known as a kleptocracy, by the time Hitler decided to invade Russia they were more or less insolvent. This was due to the enormous amounts of corruption, embezzling or misappropriating of government funds by the Nazi's themselves. They couldn't pay to import the desperately needed crude oil and other raw materials required for their military industrial complex.
To expand on my previous comment, another driver for the Russian invasion was the sure knowledge that Stalin was planning on invading Germany. Indeed, it's well documented that Stalin was so overcome by suprise by the invasion that he descended into a near catatonic funk for several days.
I remember being taught in A-level history 10+ years ago that on top of this the economy was being fuelled by remilitarisation.
The conclusion we were given was that the bubble could burst if the stuff was made, then not used or needed, so potentialay Poland and France, Russia etc were invaded or in the case of Russia attempted) 5 years early or something to that effect.
I haven't kept up with historical things for a while, and this take might have changed in that time. :)
Hitler could have never won WW2. Germany could have won had they not invaded Russia, finished England off, and if Hitler died in 1940. Hitler was an incompetent military strategist and it was a blessing that he lived as long as he did because whoever would have replaced him would have been far worse an opponent.
Russia probably would have gone after Germany eventually, but without the threat of Allied invasion from England, they could have put up a stronger defense to the west and Poland would be a no-mans that Russia tested for years. Germany would almost certainly attack Russia with a nuke and we would have another world war that probably would have killed us all.
In my opinion, no. The allies would have started dropping atomic weapons on civilian German cities just like they did to Japan. But I think it certainly would have lasted longer.
So if Germany had proceeded with operation Sealion - invasion of Britain- and succeeded, but not with operation Barbarossa - invasion of soviet union, could they not have won? There would be nowhere in Europe for North Americans to muster and USA would likely remain neutral (pre Pearl Harbor). Germany would get British colony oil and only have to defend against Soviet attack.
if Germany had proceeded with operation Sealion - invasion of Britain- and succeeded
But they didn't because it wouldn't have worked.
The battle of Britain was a very close thing and if the Germans had used a slightly different strategy, they could have won. Given that America was not yet in the war and there was an alliance with the Soviet Union, could you explain why the Germans could not have proceeded with operation sealion bearing in mind that the allies did essentially the reverse 4 years later?
