@Twigley:
Just to say - do not be fooled by statistics.
The reality is that due to the purges and loads of other issues the Russian army was not an effective fighting force in June 1941. By December of that year Stalin had given plenty of lee-way back to his generals (unlike Hitler who tightened his control of the army yet further). The Germans lost half there forces by mid 1942 in Russia and they were still a long way from being booted out.
Yeah, Hitler was his own worst enemy; he was lucky throughout the majority of his career and it bred a sense of egotistical megalomania where he could do nothing wrong, which lead to his downfall in micromanaging his armies when they started encountering actual resistance in Russia. There was this alternate history novel I read back in the day called “1945” where Hitler got put into a coma from a plane crash in Nov. 1941 and it was the best thing ever to happen to Germany, since the generals were able to regain control and set up a defensive perimeter instead of going all out for Moscow in the winter. It was a pretty interesting read culminating in a Nazi sneak attack on the Manhattan Project in Tennessee in America, which isn’t entirely unplausible if Germany had won its war against Russia. (This is also how I view Axis and Allies, where essentially you’re taking over control at a certain point in history where just about anything is possible.)
What I’m saying about alliances is couldn’t it be possible for Germany, Italy, AND Russia to go after Britain and the US in 1940? Technically they were in a non-aggression pact but the US and Britain were the imperialist capitalists the Reds were eternal enemies against. I mean, its not impossible; the Cold War proved that Allies’ alliance during WWII was just a alliance of convenience to defeat fascist Germany and Japan anyway. Also like Germany and Japan’s alliance as the Axis powers, as their end goals would have had them squabbling over spheres of influence and control if they had taken over the world between them. If Russia helped in taking out Britain, wouldn’t that be end game scenario right there? (Of course, this would then end up like a big game of Risk, with Russia and Germany continually sizing up one another across Eastern Europe…)