Adolph Hitler's Biggest Mistake

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Agreed, starting a campaign against Russia in mid-June was madness.  But I'm doubtful that waiting till 1942 to declare war would have helped him much, but it would have had some interesting knock-on effects.  Without Barbarossa, it's quite possible that the oil embargo against Japan would not have been declared.  Also the draft in the United States might not have been renewed and the 900,000 drafted in 1940 could have been sent home.  With troops and planes available to fight in the Mediterranean, Malta and Egypt could have fallen in 1941.  Or even Palestine!  Just imagine the "fun" Hitler could have had there.  I wonder if after the war Jews would have been that interested in going to Palestine if the Nazis had set up extermination camps there to deal with the Zionists.

However, the main problem for Hitler is that if he waits until 1942, Joe might well have beaten Adolf to the punch.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Hitler needed to attack Russia at the time of the first thaw in the early spring.

Not really. He needed to wait till the melting snow had largely run off unless he wanted his tanks to be bogged down in the mud.  The originally planned mid-May timetable for the start of Barbarossa was well chosen.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

I agree that Stalin certainly was not going to attack in 1941, but an attack in 1942 would have been quite thinkable, assuming that the paper strength of 1941 Soviet forces were by then also the actual strength.  The T-34 was just entering production, and without Barbarossa, it likely would have suffered from the same dithering over whether to produce what you had now or keep tinkering with the design to get something better.

Whether Joe would have considered an attack in 1942 would have depended on a lot of factors, but it would certainly have been possible.