re: What if Hitler never invaded the Soviet Union

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how a country the size of Germany could take on so much of the developed world and sustain it as long as they did

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Maybe they really were the master race.

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Terrorizing England and London, rather than strategically bombing them. (Churchill was never going to give up)

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The Luftwaffe lacked strategic bombers. The Germans were literally incapable of mounting anything other than the terror campaign they ran. The Luftwaffe was conceived of, equipped, and trained as a tactical force to support the Wehrmacht in the combined-arms effort we know best as Blitzkrieg. It consisted of air superiority fighters, dive-bombers for taking out enemy tanks, and light bombers for attacking rear areas, infrastructure like railway junctions, and gun emplacements. At the outset of the Battle of Britain they had nothing like a B-17 or B-29 for carpet-bombing, nor the bombing sights, nor the training. The Luftwaffe went into the war equipped and trained for one fight and was thrust into a completely different mission later for which it was not really capable. It's a bit like buying a Porsche 911 and then a year later deciding to start a contracting business using the Porsche to transport your tools and materials.

He invaded because he knew Stalin would eventually come into Germany.

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Goring was actually a very good fighter pilot in WWI. He was highly decorated, including multiple Iron Crosses and the Pour le Merite. And as a testament of his ability at that time he was selected to replace Manfred von Richthofen as the commander of JG1 after the death of the Red Baron. As for his addiction to morphine, that stemmed from the wounds he received during the failed Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. It was then that his nose dive started.

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Goering was not a great fighter pilot in WW1. He was NOT selected to replace von Richtofen. Wilhelm Reinhard was von Richtofen's successor.

Goering finished the war with only 22 victories. That's an indication that he was not aggressively seeking air combat. von Richtofen finished with 80 victories. They flew about the same number of months. I think Goering actually had more months of combat flying at the front.

von Richtofen demanded that his men aggressively seek air combat. He would not have tolerated a shirker like Goering. He would have kicked Goering out of Jasta 11.

Also, even in WW1, Goering's subordinates hated him. Goering was an arrogant rotten and toxic leader NOTHING like Manfred von Richtofen.

Richtofen died 21 April 1918. He was succeeded in command of Jasta 11 by Reinhard, who was killed in July. Goering was a bad choice to replace Reinhard.

Bear in mind that Goering had access to the best fighter plane by far in WW I, he had access to the Fokker DVII "F" with the BMW high-compression 185hp engine. That superior fighter made an average pilot a good one and a good pilot a great one. Really, no Allied fighter plane was even nearly as good as the Fokker DVIIF because that high compression BMW engine was truly superior by a wide margin. An aggressive Jasta leader would have piled up many victories in the Fokker DVIIF, but, Goering was no Richtofen.

Richtofen's months of combat flying never included an advantage like the Fokker DVIIF provided to Goering, who certainly should have racked up more than only 22 victories, if he were aggressive.

So, indeed, it is quite true and proven by Goering's WW1 record that he was not a good leader and not a great fighter pilot. You say he was a "very good" fighter pilot, which is not great, so, we are splitting hairs on this part. He was a bad leader though, that's clear.

Dumbest thing he did. Should have let him take over Western Europe. They'd be better off now.

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were it not for the massive aid provided to the russians by the Americans.

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True, we helped the Commies a lot with material aid, but I think Hitler's meddling was more influential in the collapse of the German Army in Russia.

LC

What is all this apologetic nonsense? I guess Hitler "had" to invade the Sudetenland, and Austria, and Poland, and France through neutral Belgium.

The only truth is that Eastern Europe would be much better off had Stalin and Hitler never existed.