Why didn't Germany run for it when it became clear they were getting crushed in Barbarossa...

Why didn't Germany run for it when it became clear they were getting crushed in Barbarossa? If they'd fallen back to their (original) border instead of inching back taking massive losses constantly, they could've concentrated their forces in a way smaller front and built up defenses. Plus they'd be fighting well supplied and on their own turf. And since Soviets would "win" land back so easily the allies would think D-Day is less crucial.

Attached: Eastern_Front_1943-08_to_1944-12.png (1201x921, 290K)

Because if they didn't take the Soviets out of the war the following year, they're done for. If they fought a defensive war against the allies they're done for. With number one at least there's a chance of respite for a while.

It was already over for the G*rmans at this point no matter what they did

But they realized they were fucked anyways, if they'd fallen back faster they could've saved thosands of soldiers and the Soviets would get slaughtered in Germany, even if they eventually win.

>But they realized they were fucked anyways

They didn't think they were totally fucked until after Stalingrad. Up until that point they were still deep in enemy territory and were convinced that the Red Army wasn't capable of launching any serious offensive actions at that point.

If japan NEVER attacked the US and the US never joined the war, Germany likely would have had only one major enemy, the russians and they probably could have conquered europe.

why was Hitler so fucking retarded?

He was Austrian

>They didn't think they were totally fucked until after Stalingrad.
they still thought they could win as late as kursk, where they gambled a final battle to destroy the red army

as for why they didnt just retreat back to germany
they still had many strategic assets that were required for waging war
the british blockade had hugely cut down their food supply, and they had already tapped occupied france for as much as it was possible, so they needed ukraines grain harvest to be able to continue the fight, there was no way they could simply give that up and let the russians have more bread while they starve

Vegan diet, desperate need for oil to keep his army alive

Only winning move for Germany was this:
-after taking France move more Luftwaffe assets & panzer divisions to North Africa
-focus on taking Egypt before Italy gets gank'd in Operation Compass and before Britain has opportunity to seriously reinforce Egypt
-use Fallschirmjager & Italian Navy to take Malta which was also poorly defended at that time (easing logistical pressure on supply lines to Libya
-take Suez Canal. Doable with considerably more Luftwaffe and German ground units, Italian Army not ganked by their failed invasion of Egypt.
-Ideally at this point, Britain loses hope due to so many consecutive defeats, seeks political settlement.
-If not, attempt to press on to Iraq. This would have been very difficult because of logistic issues but not totally impossible. Syria was still in Vichy hands & Iraq was very pro-German.

At best, this knocks Britain out of the war and scores oil for Germany. At minimum, this ensures that Germany can face Russia in late 1941-spring 1942 under the following circumstances (assuming Iraq can't be captured):
-significantly weakened Britain
-no need for deployments to Mediterranean, freeing many Uboats, multiple high-tier panzer divisions & extensive logistic train assets, between 25-50% of Luftwaffe
-more Italian manpower for Eastern Front
-increased stockpiles of oil and other raw materials due to continued ability to trade with USSR for another year

Certainly the USSR would have been much better prepared for war as well in this scenario, but seizing Egypt would have, IMHO, significantly increased Germany's likelihood of either winning in an eventual Eastern front war, or finding a political solution to end one of the fronts at some point in the future.

They didn't have the infrastructure to support larger operations in Africa than the one's they already had. It would require laying down brand new rail lines from Greece.

Germany shot themselves in the foot the moment they declared war on the United States.
It was a war of numbers they would have lost regardless of how long they would have held out against the Soviets.
The best they could have hoped for after 1942 was a negotiated peace.

Hitler was a retarded pompous meth addicted fool. He fucked up so many things, if he had just left it to his commanders things could've gone a lot better for them, this dude would sleep till 4 pm like a fucking neet, and he didn't allow troop movement during dday without his explicit orders. The German brass literally knew where to go but no one wanted to wake up the psycho junkie dictator early for permission. And imagine attacking the soviets! Biggest mistake of the whole war.

I was going to go back in time to meet Hitler. I'll pass your suggestions on to him.

>if he had just left it to his commanders
Hold the fuck up. He was trying to get to the oil fields in the Caucuses since he didn't want to cause a massive Soviet insurgency(Russians liked Stalin, but not communism). In the mean time, he rose nearly 2 million men indigenous to the areas to fight with the SS and slow down the rape army.

>Ideally at this point, Britain loses hope due to so many consecutive defeats, seeks political settlement.
britian could read a map as well as the germans

they would be unlikely to ever lift their naval blockade because they knew the germans would have no way to break it
taking the suez canal would have been a pipe dream
even if el alamein 2 didnt succeed, american landings during operation torch would have prevented a follow up attack

People often say this but I haven't seen totally solid proof, for the time period of May 1940-early 1941. In my scenario, joint German-Italian operation would succeed in taking Malta thanks to significantly more Luftwaffe/u-boats + Fallschirmjager, which would have dramatically increased the amount of supplies reaching Libya. Yes there is a hard cap on how much could be deployed to North Africa, but I believe they could have gotten a couple more divisions there, if they went with an entirely Med-focused strategy after the Battle of France, and that it would have been enough to defeat the comparatively meager British forces in the theater (who were also still, at that point, occupied with sideshows in Ethiopia and elsewhere)

>taking the suez canal would have been a pipe dream

In my opinion, if Hitler made it his primary aim after knocking out France, rather than trying to futilely attempting to bomb Britain into submission and trusting Mussolini to win in the Med, it could have been done in the 1940-early 1941 timeframe because Britain was very weak in that theater at that time. Sometimes I muse about bringing Spain into the war and seizing Gibraltar in this scenario but that has other implications.

Hitler had a decent grasp of Germany's strategic situation that was often better than those of his generals. Halder and Guderian were insistent on taking Moscow, but Hitler, remembering the German experience in WWI, correctly regarded Ukraine's coal, iron ore and grain as more important than Moscow. Hitler knew about the oil crisis and always conceived of getting oil as a primary objective of the war in the East.
Attacking Russia was disastrous, but that was really only apparent in hindsight. In 1944, he explained to Mannerheim that the Wermacht had assessed the USSR to have approximately 150 divisions. Barbarossa actually succeeded in destroying approximately 150 Soviet divisions and almost the entire Soviet air force. Hitler argues in the secret recording that it was unreasonable to think that the Soviets were deploying 300 divisions (which they actually did deploy); at the time that was probably right. In any case, German forces on June 22 1941 significantly outnumbered the Soviet forces on the Eastern Front. Barbarossa didn't appear as unreasonable when it was launched as it did shortly thereafter. Hitler indeed underestimated Soviet strength fatally, but it wasn't because he was "stupid" or "meth addled"

>Sometimes I muse about bringing Spain into the war and seizing Gibraltar in this scenario but that has other implications.

Iirc, Spain was supposed to join the Axis in 41-42 or thereabouts. Taking Gibraltar was going to be their grand entry. Problem was, Spain was still an economic basket case after the civil war. Germany would have had to equip any forces Franco brought to the table.

he was a junkie

>move more Luftwaffe assets & panzer divisions to North Africa
>let's make our coastline defenseless, I'm sure nobody will land there and invade us
Why couldn't anyone predict that a country with over 10 million potential soldiers couldn't keep handing them mosins and throwing them at the fight?