re: 73 Years ago today: Battle of Stalingrad ends with the surrender of 6th Army

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This wasn't a blunder, it was a situational necessity for the Germans. Pretty much everything the Italians did in WWII was a blunder though.

But your point is an astute one that most people don't understand when they utter the cliche "Hitler invaded Russian in the winter" nonsense. Not only did he invade in the summer, but behind the original schedule and having to allocate combat resources to a campaign in the Balkans. The time lost possibly changed the entire outcome of the war. Pretty remarkable.

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I believe Hitler's Balkan adventure pushed Barbarossa back about 6-8 weeks. Imagine had the German's arrived at Moscow when it was still warm and dry and long before the Soviets had moved the Siberian reserves from the Far East. It's most likely the Germans would have taken Moscow which means the Soviets would either have to use for peace or try to set up a defensive line behind the Urals. And with the fall of Moscow, it's likely Leningrad, Stalingrad, and even more importantly the Baku oil fields would likewise have fallen. The importance of Moscow cannot be overstated. Not only was is the seat of Soviet power. More importantly it was the central north/south hub of anything and everything moving through European Russia.