What is history: it is the echo of the past to the future, the reflection of the future on the past. - Hugo
Was it wrong for Germany to abandon the attack on Britain in favor of the Soviet Union during World War II?
This topic has always been debated endlessly, and even many historians believe that Germany should not attack the Soviet Union, but should attack Britain with all its might.
First of all, we see that not only did Germany not attack Britain, they also tried, but the attack had no effect!
After Germany conquered France, they chose not to conquer Britain by force, but to make Britain submit and forced to make peace with Germany.
Even a man so arrogant as Hitler, in his autobiography Mein Kampf, said that if there was no military hostility with Britain, it was better not to have a confrontation with Britain.
However, Britain had a Churchill, and in the face of Germany's fight or peace, Churchill chose to fight.
What about Germany in the face of all this? There can only be one way out, facing Britain and the Soviet Union on both the east and the west, it can only seek a quick victory in order to be invincible.
There was no quick victory in the Soviet Union, after all, the population and territory were huge, and even if the German general staff thought that the Soviet Union was weak, there would be no months to settle the battle.
The chances of conquering Britain are also slim, but from the perspective of gambling psychology, if any point of British air and sea can be solved, then Germany still has a chance.
Unfortunately, in the Air War in Britain, Germany fought more and lost less, and the loss was unbearable, and even the capital was blown up.
At this critical juncture in 1941, did Germany still have the opportunity to continue to choose to attack Britain?
He had no choice, because in 1941 the Soviet Union had completed the preparations for the German offensive, according to the archives after the collapse of the Soviet Union: in 1941 the Soviet Union gathered 3.3 million troops on the eastern border of Germany and Romania, a total of 258 divisions, including 58 tank divisions, 30 mechanics, the number of tanks under its jurisdiction was 14,700, 34,695 guns, and about 9,000 aircraft.
Was the Soviet union's presence on the Soviet-German border really a defensive preparation?
Just look at the post-war dictations of the Soviet army Petrovin: those unrealistic offensive plans began to be simulated in 1941!
It can be seen that the Soviet high-level has a planned deployment of troops waiting to deal a heavy blow to Germany, but the generals in the Soviet army have doubts about whether the German army that swept through western Europe the previous year can be dealt with.
However, it is one thing to deal with it or not, and it is another thing to have the intention of dealing with it.
Many people argue that the Soviet Union is not stupid, why should it attack such a powerful Germany at that moment.
So the question is, why did Japan in the same year attack The United States' Pearl Harbor, and did Japan really think that it could beat the United States?
Therefore, this logic is not correct, and it is difficult to argue that it will not be fought if it cannot be fought.
According to the actions of the Soviet Union at that time and the archives released after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the strategy determined by the Soviet Union at that time was to attack Germany while the German army was attrition in Britain.
Of course, before this idea could be realized, it was preempted by the German army.
At that time, many German generals thought that this decision came from Hitler's stubbornness and madness, but history is so interesting, it is Hitler's stubbornness and madness that saved Germany.
For if Germany had continued to attack Britain in 1941, it would have had to transfer its forces on the Eastern Front to France and then put it into the Air Force, when the Air Force was depleted in the British Channel.
The German air superiority in the early stages of the Eastern Front was gone, and it would lose its lead when faced with a Soviet attack.
In fact, if we look at the later Barbarossa Plan, the German forces prepared for this offensive were similar to the Soviet Union's troops on the border in the early days. The Germans launched the Barbarossa plan with a strength of 3 million people, 3468 tanks, 2510 aircraft, and unlike everyone imagined, the German army did not have an advantage in equipment.
Many people think that the German army was more advanced than the Soviet army, which is a wrong historical concept, and many people naturally think that the German army can achieve the initial victory, then it must be that the equipment advantage is obvious!
In fact, it is not, the equipment technology of the two sides is very different, and the quality of the Soviet equipment is better, the German army won in tactics, very reasonable and strong siege of the Soviet troops, resulting in the Soviet front troops did not react at once, and finally swallowed the bitter fruit of the defeat of a million troops and the surrender of a large area.
In fact, from this point of view, if the Soviet army was the first to attack, the German army was in a passive situation, and in the case of a small difference in strength but obvious equipment superiority, then Germany may have to taste the taste of defending the mainland in 1941.
Once the German army lost its first hand and was in a passive position, Germany could not establish the Atlantic barrier, and the British army could only rely on American material support to achieve a counterattack on France alone, because once Germany fell into war on its own, it would inevitably bring the major aces on the Western Front back to the mainland.
As a result, Germany would have faced the situation of 1944 in 1941, and was caught between the British and German lines, and finally ended early.
So to ask whether Germany in 1941 chose the wrong choice, in fact, no, continue to fight Britain, Germany lost in advance, and fighting the Soviet Union is the result of the game, the result is to hold out for a few more years, but only for a few more years.