WHAT IF...ADOLF HITLER HAD NOT SENT THE WEHRMACHT INTO THE SOVIET UNION?

Professor Evan Mawdsley tells Nige Tassell about the direction that World War II may have taken had the Nazis not turned eastwards

- Nige Tassell

The largest military offensive in history, Operation Barbarossa which lasted from 22 June 1941 until 7 January 1942 -proved disastrous for Adolf Hitler and arguably signalled the beginning of his decline from power. Germany suffered more than 750,000 casualties. It was a game-changer. The course of the war altered, ending in Germany's defeat. But what would have happened had Hitler not sent the Wehrmacht, the nation's unified armed forces, eastwards?

"The only military alternative to invading the Soviet Union would have been to knock Britain out of the war." That's the view of Evan Mawdsley, honorary professorial research fellow in the School of Humanities at the University of Glasgow and author of many books on World War II, including Thunder in the East: the Nazi-Soviet War, 1941-1945 (Bloomsbury, 2015).

"Of course, Hitler could have settled for the stunning successes of 1938-1940, which gave 'Greater Germany' control over western and central continental Europe, from the Pyrenees to the Vistula River in Poland, and from Norway to the Alps. There was also an alliance with Italy, and compliance from a right-wing government of occupied France. But Hitler was in a hurry. He wanted to keep the initiative and stay in control of events."

SEEKING PEACE

Had he refocused his attentions on Britain rather than the Soviet Union, Hitler had two options. One route was diplomacy, applying pressure on London to accept Nazi control of such a large swathe of Europe.