Was invading the Soviet Union a stupid idea? - Barbarossa without Hindsight

[ChuckDyke]

Hitler was thinking of the Russia that Germany beat in WWI.

Hitler was a 'Gefreiter' aka a Lance Corporal or Private First Class and he got the Iron Cross for his efforts. It showed in the second-World War dig in and don't move. Maneuver warfare was just not his forte.

 

[Rico]

1) Germany defeated the Russians in WW I while fighting a 2 front war. The Germans were tactically superior and could not have been impressed by the Russian performance.

2) Stalin saw this and started forced industrialization and collectivization so this could not happen again. His reforms were brutal and immoral, but effective.

3) The Germans coveted more land.

4) Stalin gutted the Red Army officer corps with purges leaving the Soviets vulnerable.

5) Hitler ideologically hated the communists. He wrote in Mein Kampf that they needed to be exterminated.

6) By a combination of the 5 points above.....the Germans have motive and would rather fight SOONER than LATER.

As it turns out, the Russians were far more capable than Hitler realized. But we are looking back at history in hindsight. Hitler was thinking of the Russia that Germany beat in WWI.

Even more so the Red Army’s dismal performance in Finland.

 

[Bulletpoint]

Watching TIK videos on youtube, it seems his central argument is that a big reason Germany lost the war in the east was that Hitler and the German High Command had two different ideas about what the overall strategy should be.

Hitler wanted to take the oil fields first, while his generals wanted to take Moscow first. And while many have blamed Hitler's incompetence and micro-managing for the German defeat, TIK is claiming that it was actually the generals undercutting his decision. Both strategies could have worked, but it was the flip-flopping between two different strategies that caused the defeat.

Now, I am a bit wary of just believing anything I watch on youtube of course... but I thought the argument was interesting.

 

[ChuckDyke]

I had an Avalon Hill Board Game once. You won it for the German side if you could capture Leningrad, Moscow, and Stalingrad. I enjoyed that game and here are the 3 reasons Hitler lost the war in the east.