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Tom Hughes's avatar

The Third Reich came staggeringly close to knocking the Soviet Union out of the war. Had they started their assault when they wanted to, instead of on June 22 (midsummer) they very well might have done it; Stalin put the Soviets in a state of near-total unpreparedness, through a combination of officer purges and sheer blindness to what his intelligence told him, and the Nazi war machine was tuned to a high pitch of effectiveness -- for war in summer, not the muddy fall or freezing winter.

We can thank Mussolini for the delay. He attacked Greece and was bogged down, even humiliated by their defense, and Hitler felt he could not allow an ally to fail so miserably (and maybe leave his right flank exposed). So he delayed the attack on Russia for a few precious weeks to capture Greece and drive British forces out.

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Stefan Link's avatar

Hi Adam,

my recent book Forging Global Fordism: Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany, and the Contest over the Industrial Order speaks to comparative strategies of military-industrial buildup in the two regimes. I also argue that we should move on from our fixation on Speer! Would be interested to hear your thoughts eventually.

Stefan

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