Would Hitler have won World War II if he had left Russia alone?

[Deny and Shred]

88. Agreed.

You asked, so I answered. As others downthread elaborated, he didn't apply the same ruthlessness to Britain as he had Poland. The Brits were always pragmatic before, and no longer in the ascendancy in terms of Empire. They should be glad to keep their possessions went his thinking.

While Germany rearmed through the 30's, the same can't be said of the other European democracies. The Great War had claimed an entire generation of Frenchmen (I hate the misinformed American 'surrender-monkey' notion about the martial history of France) and many other Allied personnel.

The US was still staunchly isolationist as late as Dec '41, despite France & Poland falling, the remaining Western European territory conquered, England being bombed and Russia invaded all the way to the gates of Moscow.

Both Italy and Japan chose not to 'play the part that Hitler had cast for them' as Sir Alan Bullock said in A Study In Tyranny. Had he delayed Basrbarossa, had Japan not engaged the US, had he not dismissed the opportunities that Mussolini's African adventure created in '41, had he driven through Suez to his desired oil fields and consolidated his Western victories, things would be very different.

Within a year or two, a new reality would have dominated the European continent. America & Britian would have punted and done business eventually. It took Pearl Harbor to galvanize US opinion.