Hitler was.. in the words of Danny Dyer 'a fackin' cant!'.

Yeah, that too. But remember, Hitler's soldiers started freezing when Russia's harsh winter started coming into effect.

i think it was more of a numbers thing. german tanks and equipment were way more advanced,but too complex and expensive. the american sherman tank was a death trap compared to the panzers and tigers. no to mention the sheer numbers of russian soldiers.
also,like its been said,hitler was a poor strategist and lost the moment he took on a two front war.

the japanese loss ,i think was partly due to their location and the issue of resources. they certainly were well enough trained and equipped.

True, true.

oh god yes, the Russian T-34 was easily the best tank of the war

Plus the Autobahn's really were ahead of their time. I mean it took the US 20 more years to get their Interstate Highways, & Eisenhower openly admitted to being influenced by the road system he'd seen in Germany during the war.

I really like reading about the Soviet Union. Would love to find a good book about the various purges in the pre-war era in the off chance that any of you guys can recommend one?

the aftermath of ww2 helped the usa immensely become what it is today. we had zero competition,since so much of the world was in shambles.

i cant say ive read much about pre war russia.so i cant suggest much.i work with a lot of eldery russian women,and i do love to hear their stories. the nation does interest me.

great book called the history of russia... deals more with the period between 1000-1800 ad though

I think Hitler's biggest blunder was invading Russia, especially when he did. He felt he had a large upper hand in the Western Front that he could risk the two-front war. He already had France under his grip, and Central Europe was under his control. Austria openly welcomed Hitler when he "invaded". He left Britain in a more defensive state. They only could bomb cities from above, and that wasn't as occurring until the US joined in. But Hitler didn't realize that America was still open to join in, and the British weren't destroyed. They played defense extremely well against the Germans. He wasn't finished in the West yet. He went on to attack Russia, and thought his men could withstand them, but his tanks and equipment were too weak in the Russia climate. I think also when he let the allies escape at Dunkirk was a major mistake. He could have easily destroyed the fleeing French, Dutch, and British troops in Dunkirk, but instead kept his tanks away from the scene because he "didn't want them to get scratches".

after thinking about this some more.....
Hitler should never have gotten involved in north Africa, it sucked too many troops away, and he kept on reinforcing them even up to one week before they surrendered. This would also have prevented him from diverting a major part of his submarine force to the medditeranean and enabkled him to keep the preasure on the atlantic convoys
He should have pushed his jappenesse allies to push into Russia though China, even after the disaster at Khalkhin Gol instead of expanding south across the Island chains, this would have prevented Stalin from sending troops from his eastern boarders to the western front, as well have prevented Japan from provoking the USA for at least another few years.
When he did invade Russia, he should have ensured he had enough motorised and wide track transports and tanks, instead of just relying on the equiptment captured in France. He should also have co-opted the Ukraines and SLavs into his army more, instead of terrorizing them and making them form partisan groups to harras his rear and supply chains.

i honstly think, if he had done this, the USA would have stayed out of the war for another few years, just providing help in the form of lend-lease, he could have pushed and isolated Stalin more (as Stalins only other ally would have been Britan, and he did not trust us one bit), maybe even managing to capture the oilfields. Forcing terms on Russia and then turning back to re-inforce his atlanic wall against the probable British and American invasion.

What Hitler failed to do most of all is learn from History and realise that Britain was always going to carry on and wage war the way it always has, on the periphery, weakening their enemy before finally send troops in near the end (to which WW 1 was a major departure, and a major disaster).