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Originally Posted by Johnny199r
I agree with a good deal of what you say here. However, the problem for Hitler was always going to be what the Soviets were going to do once their army was modernized and re-established.
The USSR armed forces in 1940 were a farce. The war with Germany taught Stalin and his army some tough lessons.
I don't believe that the USSR was going to quietly sit there and do nothing while Hitler conquered half the world on their doorstep. While it was obvious that Stalin wasn't in a position to attack in 1940, a few years later he definitely could have.
Many people speculate that Stalin could have been placated with diplomacy in the long term. Let me ask, if the allies invaded in the west, or the south of Europe, people really believe the USSR wouldn't have declared war in the East in an attempt to take as much territory as it possibly could?
Obviously pushing into Russia cost the German army dearly. It stretched them way too thin, and they were not prepared. However, I don't think even if that had been avoided forever that Stalin would have allowed Hitler to just sit on his doorstep.
"Ivan's War: Life and death in the red army 1939-1945" - is a great book on the Soviet war effort in ww2. I highly recommend it.
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If Hitler had had any real sense he would have handed back France and the other invaded territories with puppet fascist governments firmly in place in '41 made peace with the UK, kept the US out of the war and turned his whole attention to Barbarossa without needing to leave forces in France or Africa, he would probably have had considerable 'allied' help at that point, the fight against communism being seen as the real threat in '39 through most of the world.