Originally posted by Ice Cold
He was also extremely close to winning the war, if you didn't know. 20 km from moscow if you don't know what I mean... 
So your example contradicts itself
No sir.... I've done extensive personal research on the Battle of Stalingrad right up to the eventual fall of Berlin (I'm a bit of a World War Two History geek like that
), and Hitler had no chance, even if he had captured Stalingrad.
First of all, while it is true that Stalingrad was seen as the 'gateway to the Central Asian oilfields', it's strategic importance was overestimated. That city was simply a big deal to the Soviet Union because it bore the "Boss's" name (Stalin). That was all - the defense of the city was important because it was symbolic.
Furthermore, the Wermacht was ill-equipped for a war of attrition, as it was designed primarily as a lightning-quick fighting force that struck precisely and decisively. Hence it's amazing success in the Low Countries (Belgium, Holland) and France at the start of the war. Unfortunately for Germany it got slowed down in the boggy steppes of Russia and Central Asia, and the Russian Winter took care of the rest. The German 9th Army was eventually surrounded by the Russkies, and though it's leader Field Marschall Paulus repeatedly requested permission to break out of the encirclement and make a tactical retreat ("the Kessel"), Hitler stubbornly refused, no doubt fueled by his arrogant belief that his Aryan soldiers were invincible. Calling the decaying and trapped German army "Fortess Stalingrad", he held fast to his false (and logistically impossible) promises of relief that eventually never came. The mighty Wermacht was finished after the bitter Russian winter swept through the open and unprotected Steppes.
And in hindsight, the Wermacht was simply overmatched in terms of war materiel. I can't remember the exact figures, but the Soviet Red Army was simply caught off guard when Germany first attacked; it wasn't short-handed. The Red Army had something like 20 times the infantry, and 25 times the tanks and eventually 3 times the fighter planes that Hitler had. Once Russia gained her bearings after the initial sucker punch, it was only a matter of time. The Aryan-jackass had fvcked with the wrong sleeping bear.
And looking that the broader scope of things -- Germany used well over half it's military strength in her disastrous Russian campaign (Operation Barbarrossa), and the obliteration of the 9th Army left the Third Reich severely short of resources in a war that was now occuring on TWO fronts (in the meantime, the D-Day landings by the Western Allies had succeeded and Hitler now faced an enemy from the East AND the West - had his arrogance not consumed him he may actually have been able to save what was left of his 9th Army in Russia, and put up an effective overall defense in the East and the West.). That was the beginning of the end.
Hitler was a total amateur as a military tactitioner, but his blind belief that he was a God-sent savior of Germany (that was thus incapable of making mistakes on any level) let to his spectacular downfall. Had Hitler waited to destroy the United Kingdom before attacking Russia in 1941, we might still see a Europe united under the Nazi jackboot.
(LOL... sorry to ram all that down your throat, but as a war history buff I felt this overwhelming urge to defend my WW2-related analogy.
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