WWII buffs: let's talk about Germany's biggest strategic blunder

Print the shirts.

USA would have kicked the shite out of anybody. It didn't really matter what they did.

If only those mean Jews woulda liked Hitler's shitty paintings...

Why is it if you make a thread about some super-specific Nazi stuff ("Who was Hitler's favorite barber?") you will get replies, but my general History Discussion threads never went anywhere?

Interesting perspective. I can send where you're coming from but to be honest, from a military capability standpoint, Spain would have been even more of a burden on the Germans than their Italian Allies were. Spain had just come out of a bloody civil war and was in no position to make any serious contribution to Germany.

And speaking of the Italians, I believe they actually were the Germans biggest blunder. I base my opinion on the fact it was the Italians collapse in North Africa that made it necessary for the Germans to divert much needed resources to the Med theater. On top of this it was also due to the Italian fiasco in Greece and Albania that forced the Germans to divert resources to the Balkans and more importantly pushed back the original start date of Operation Barbarossa from May to June. This delay meant that the Germans reached Moscow in a full blown Russian winter wile the Russians had time to bring reinforcements from Siberia along with evacuating a huge chunk if it's industrial capacity the safety of Urals. Had operation Barbarossa kicked off at the start of May as was originally intended, the Germans may have actually been able to take Moscow and force the Soviets to sue for peace. But by delaying it for that key month, they wasted any chance if victory they had.

I think the answer is fairly simple.

Germany should have captured the oil in the south rather than marching to Moscow/Stalingrad. They could have cut off the power in the country, rather than invading during the winter....which has never, ever been successful.

Their inability to keep the Americans out of the war.

Once the allied forces were in place Germany won no more victories. Bringing Spain along would have been problematic but easily overcome.

US would have amassed troops in Eastern Eupore/Russia and marched West. France would have been liberated last and probably left in ruins but I don't really care.

German was the key. A single objective of invading Germany and driving a stake into the Axis power heart would have killed off Italy and the African campaigns. Japan would still need to be dealt with.

Remember we had the A bomb first. We could have nuked Berlin as well.

In short, Hitler had no real chance. Too many fronts to defend against a superior enemy.

Declaring war on the USA.

I would argue the main reason and one that gets little play for not only Germany but also Japans defeat is oil. Hitler fricked up when he split his forces in Russia, sending the bulk to Stalingrad and the rest south to take the oil fields in and around Baku. They ended up getting tied down in the mountains and never made it to the oil. Hitler should have sent all his forces straight there and saved Stalingrad for after winter.

Also the main reason for Japan bombing PH was oil and there blunder of not hitting our oil storages when they did attack was a huge saving grace for us. They needed the British oil in Burma and the Indies and they assumed the US would be entering the war and knew that the pacific fleet would make it near impossible for them to transport the oil back to Japan.