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Supposing as a prerequisite that two more divisions sent to East Africa IOTL would have really tilted the balance in the north enough that the Germans could have captured Leningrad, what happens when the Germans carry out Hitler's plans to raze the city to the ground and slaughter the entire population, sparing absolutely no-one? They can't cover *that* up. What possible benefits tactically or strategically would it bring them, beyond depriving the USSR of industry it didn't really have much chance to use in the wider war anyway? Why after butchering and razing a city is this going to lead the Soviets to decide "Well, we absolutely must surrender to our invaders who are totally better at war than we are?" and thus end the war? How does this affect the democracies? The Germans did things like this all over the USSR, but they would literally have carried this out in 1941 when all was going well for them and been proud of it.

So, again, assuming Europe has its own version of the Rape of Nanking, what, besides the destruction of Russia's new capital, does it get the Germans in the long term?
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