Happy New Year and sorry about the awkward thread title.
Hermann Goering gave an interview to American journalists during the Nuremberg trial where he sketched out the strategy that he claimed he wanted Hitler to follow in 1940-41. The whole interview is worth reading and can be found here:
https://www.historynet.com/lost-pri...n-goring-the-reichsmarschalls-revelations.htm
Whether he actually recommended this is debatable but I think whether this was a feasible or desirable strategy for Germany is worth discussing. What if Hitler had actually tried this?
Goering essentially argues for giving into Molotov's demands, pushing a German-Soviet war off to 1942 or later, and using 1941 to destroy the British empire in the Mediterranean, with operations against Gibraltar, Malta, Alexandria, Dakar (!), and Cyprus. Of these, I think only the operation against Gibraltar and the u-boat bases in Spain was feasible, and Malta would have been feasible if they had not used up their airborne weapon in Crete. If the Germans had both given into Molotiv's demands and not done Crete, they could have taken Gibraltar and Malta and pursued the Atlantic part of the war with more vigor.
One consideration is that Hitler hit the Soviet Union at a time when the Red Army was both reorganizing and out of position for a defensive war, and this would not have been the case in 1942. However, another consideration is the possibility of the 1942 era Wehrmacht being able to fight a defensive war in Poland and Hungary against the 1942 Red Army, if it came to that.
Hermann Goering gave an interview to American journalists during the Nuremberg trial where he sketched out the strategy that he claimed he wanted Hitler to follow in 1940-41. The whole interview is worth reading and can be found here:
https://www.historynet.com/lost-pri...n-goring-the-reichsmarschalls-revelations.htm
Whether he actually recommended this is debatable but I think whether this was a feasible or desirable strategy for Germany is worth discussing. What if Hitler had actually tried this?
Goering essentially argues for giving into Molotov's demands, pushing a German-Soviet war off to 1942 or later, and using 1941 to destroy the British empire in the Mediterranean, with operations against Gibraltar, Malta, Alexandria, Dakar (!), and Cyprus. Of these, I think only the operation against Gibraltar and the u-boat bases in Spain was feasible, and Malta would have been feasible if they had not used up their airborne weapon in Crete. If the Germans had both given into Molotiv's demands and not done Crete, they could have taken Gibraltar and Malta and pursued the Atlantic part of the war with more vigor.
One consideration is that Hitler hit the Soviet Union at a time when the Red Army was both reorganizing and out of position for a defensive war, and this would not have been the case in 1942. However, another consideration is the possibility of the 1942 era Wehrmacht being able to fight a defensive war in Poland and Hungary against the 1942 Red Army, if it came to that.