Originally posted by parihaka
Adolf did make a strategic blunder by attacking USSR. He should have concentrated on getting the strategic oil reserves and other vital materials necessary to keep the war machine going on, meaning, he should have concentrated more on the Africa campaign and trying to secure the oil fields.
Once he had secured those vital strategic supplies, he could have taken his time and build his navy.
His other strategic blunder was declaring war on USA. I highly doubt that USA would have stayed out of the war even if Japan had not attacked USA. The war was coming to the point where it started affecting USA's trade overseas. No power in their right mind will allow restrictions on their trade. But still, that was some months or a couple years off. Hitler could have used that time to great effect.
Many generals who lost battles fail to realize that time is one of the most valuable commodities and need to be spent wisely. Often in studying battles and the outcomes of those, you will inevitably find those who did not use their time wisely usually comes out as the loser.
If I was in Hitler's shoes. I would have blockaded Britain, not to invade Britain. I certainly would build up an invasion fleet and pretend to use it against the British Isles but instead, use it against Iceland and Bermudas and Azores and Gibraltar and Malta to establish a more effective control over the Atlantic and Mediterrenean Sea. Then I would starve Britain out. Britain has the same problem as Germany, the lack of strategic materials to keep the war machine going. It was only the RN who managed to keep Britain going. If I could not destroyed RN, I would try to bottle the RN up by pretending to prepare invasion fleets and then entrap them between Iceland, Azores, whatever and just basically keep Britain from being resupplied.
Once Germany had Iceland and Bermuda and Azores in their possession, there was no way in hell that Canada would have a successful campaign in the Battle of North Atlantic Ocean. Canada was smaller than Germany in terms of power, materials, ships, etc.
As for USSR, I would make sure that we had the nonaggression pact intact until Britain was taken care of and its navy and army neutralized. That means winning the battle of North Atlantic and the North Africa fronts. USSR was in no shape in attacking entrenched German positions not without high costs and before Germany attacked, Stalin lacked the will of the people to fight at all costs. Even though Stalin was one of the most ruthless dictators in the modern history, he would never had the support necessary to win against Germany if he had attacked first.
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