Could Imperial Germany have beaten the USSR

It's all dependent on:

- Which WW1 tactics you mean (they didn't stay static)

- If Imperial Germany still has all that Brest-Litovsk land or not

- Whether either power is in Poland, and how Germany's gonna get to the USSR if not

- What Germany intends to do

- How German troops are treating the Lithuanians, Ukranians, Russian Jews etc

- If Stalin is still going "THEY TOTES WON'T INVADE" here

Lots and lots of factors.
 
You can't replicate Barbarossa with a surviving Imperial Germany. You can have an operation of similar proportions, but the geopolitical circumstances that existed in OTL 1941. cannot be fully re-created if the German Empire still exists.

THIS

I might be evil and postulate the Germany COULD have suceeded with Barbarossa OTL if they had not incents so many troops and assets against Britain (don't Count France for that).

Imperial Germany vs USSR in the late 30s or early 40s is only possible with Germany somewhat wining WWI - that means Germany has a friendly Poland (at least a oderate willing ally). Finland and the BAltics would also be in Germanys sphere (more so than OTL). Lets assume in the West it was a stalemate - even maybe with A-L being the price for the Entente accepting B-L. But Germany is not crippled by reparations and restriction on weapons and Technology. We may even assume the Ukrainean state failed and was incorporated into the USSR somewhat.

Assume A-H survives but is NOT an automatic ally of Germany (even if it collapsed Galicia/Bukovina might be Polish Hungary might have lost (maybe even not) to Romania which might be opposed to USSR (allied to Entente, but not USSR at worst).

So Overall Imperial GErmany is stronger that USSR (and the Entente might see USSR as greater evil) while the USSR is certainly weaker.

result - I bet 9-1 on Germany
 
I would disagree that the Soviet state would get to keep the Baltic states as well as Poland. Both areas had been taken by German forces in World War I. If the Central Powers won WWI then Imperial Germany is going to have the same borders as it did in 1914. Poland might be further to the East territory wise. Even in a compromise peace Poland and the Baltic states would be independent.
Now it is likely that the Soviet Union would follow the same series of Five year plans meaning that it would be more industrialized than was the case of Imperial Russia but that doesn't mean that it would be militarily stronger than was the case in 1941.
Imperial Germany would probably reach out to the people of Russia to help overthrow the Soviet State. With a totally different attitude the Germans would not only be welcomed by people of the Ukraine but they would seek to join the Germans in getting rid of Stalin.
As far as Military tactics it was German troops in WWI that developed the Storm truppen tactic and the Blitzkrieg was used in the war by people like Erwin Rommel in Romania and Italy.
 
No, that is not a given at all. In fact since Reich Germany did got to war with the Soviet Union and lost big style (not by a small margin) then the assumption would be that provided the USSR has associates and the same strategic criteria then likely it will win.

The Soviets had massively improved their internal communications infrastructure over that of the Tsarist Empire. That is why Lend-Lease worked while Entente efforts to supply the forces of the Tsar failed. The port of Vladivostok was a major hub in the Second World War while being an ineffective route due to ongoing inadequacies in the Trans-Siberian Railway in the 1914+ Wars.

Forget the tactics, it is the logistics that matter and the Soviets barring Trotsky being butterflied into power are certainly going to be better.

That said, things might be better for an Imperial German Army in that at least in theory it has had more time to build up its transport assets than the Wehrmacht and so should not be as reliant on a cobbled together menagerie of a motor pool. It might even have better trained drivers...hell trained drivers would be a start. It should be noted however that service and support arms were never a priority in the Imperial German Army and that was one of the factors that hurt them in World War 1, given victory though they are even less likely to learn from their mistakes.

Over all the terrain advantage is likely to remain Soviet so long as we are assuming German invasion. So while Imperial Germany might stand a chance unless the world is very, very different from OTL Twentieth Century the odds are Soviet.

Yes the Soviets were much more powerful than the Tsarists but the Nazis were much weaker than Kaiser Reich. This greater power over 2 decades will be enough to give Germany the win.
 
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