Eatern Front: Mission Impossible?
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World War 2 ends (if you exclude the pacific theater, even though it was the Japanese who were the reason we entered the war in the first place) with the Russian capture of Berlin. Just to take the city alone, the Russians took 436,000 casualties, and over a million wounded. Over the course of the entire war, the estimated loss for both military and civilian go at 29 million. Many historians who look back on Adolph Hitlers vision of world domination say that it would have been possible had he not have invaded Russia. But was a conquest of the USSR possible?
First, why did the Germans lose? Thats depends on which angel you look at it. From the start, Germany did not have the natural resources or the industrial capacity to sustain a protracted war against the Russians. The mistakes they made from the very start slowed them from reaching Moscow before the winter. (Lack of knowledge of good roads, thinly stretched supply lines, and a relaxed time table). Also, the key battles of front also spelled the German defeat: at Stalingrad where the Germans lost control of the south, and some say the war; and, probably most importantly, kirks, where the Germans lost the initiative on the front, and also the war. Also, the factor the Adolph Hitler had his own strategy and often went against the advice of many of these top experienced generals.
Taking Moscow before winter. That was the strategy from the start. If the Germans could do that, then their lack of natural resources and lack of industry (compared to the Russians) would be irrelevant. Operation barbarous began on June 22nd of 1941. If the offensive began in March, or began a year later and started in March, the wehrmacht would be within striking of Moscow by September, or possibly even early august. Had that happened, and the