If Hitler had postpone the operation Barbarossa to January 1945, could it been a success?

Answer 1

No, this operation should have taken precedence over the invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece and went off earlier About June 1st would have been a good date. If the Germans went at this time they would ahve entered Moscow before the tough Russian winter would have had a foothold. It is interesting to note that the Germans were within 10miles of Moscow when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. which began the American involvement and we started to aid the USSR.

Answer 2

The Russian army was in a constant state of build-up, especially the Officer Corps which had been decimated over the last 5-10 years. They were an army without a head, so to speak by the time of Operation Barbarossa. The modernization of the Red Army and the development of a more stable/consistent Officer Corps would've been disastrous for the Germans in 1945.

Not to mention the Second Front opened by the Western Allies in 1944; however, i doubt whether the Western Allies would've done so with the numbers of Germans divisions that would've been available, since there' would've been no Eastern Front.

Too many 'would'ves'...i'm getting confused.

Answer 3

All is speculation, of course, but here is the analysis of one military historian, taken from Military History Online.com.

"Hitler moved the date for Barbarossa back to 22 June from 15 May because of "[t]he German invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece during April and May, 1941…also caused a series of delays in the attack on Russia itself."[42] At the time, it likely seemed the sensible thing for Germany to do; but by December, with their armies poised to finish off Russia and take Moscow, it can be seen as a key contributor to Nazi defeat. This delay of five weeks would prove to be crucial! Had Barbarossa started in May instead of June, they would have arrived in Moscow and Leningrad sooner and would have taken both cities. This was yet another in a long line of German errors and miscalculations that contributed to their defeat against the Russians in the war; but logistics might have been the key area that really broke the Nazis back. . . . . . . .

Despite all the limiting factors, failures of intelligence and logistics, the Germans came mighty close to defeating the Russians in a quick campaign in 1941. Had the Germans managed to overcome even just a few of these things; victory would have been theirs. Let us not forget that on 5 December, 1941, when Hitler ordered the offensive to cease for the winter, "…the Soviet military machine was so desperately and terribly strained, though not yet actually smashed, the conditions for the defense of the Soviet capital were all too disastrously plain: the reserves had vanished!"[56] Here then the crucial moment in Operation Barbarossa had been reached—had the Germans been able to make one last determined push on all fronts—victory would have been theirs!!

Both sides were staring into the abyss, and the Germans blinked first. This was a truly historical moment that maybe comes only every thousand years or so; and it sums up the whole Russo-German war. The loss of the initiative that ended on 5 December, 1941 was in actuality the end of the German war against Russia. That it took nearly 3 ½ more years to finish it off was inevitable. The Germans lost their one and only chance to smash the Soviet Union in the snows outside Leningrad and Moscow in that freezing December; and they would never have the chance to reclaim it. That Hitler made another huge mistake three days later by declaring war on America after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor is a story for another day.

Answer 4

Interesting question. Assuming that the invasion of France by the Allies had gone ahead in June 1944, the German army would have had a far stronger force to counteract this, and either the invasion would have failed, or it would have made far slower progress. Assuming the second scenario, to then have pulled troops and materiél out of that theatre to invade Russia would have been, imho, disastrous. No Russian ally would have meant no Russian convoys for the British, so a saving for them there, and also no supplies needed from the US, so again a saving.