Thanks for the synopsis mate. I vote for Pol Pot. Floating voter me.

I think you may be right there and Churchill was worried enough to ask his generals for a plan for war against Russia on July 1st 1945, this would meant the German army on our side.

The letter was discovered by Michael Portillo at the national archive but there the trail ends.

Probably they were all sh****d out by then.

"Tankengrad" in the Urals comes to mind.

They still needed two more monumental Hitler strategic howlers in 1942 to stay in the game. (Having the oilfields within his grasp but becoming fixated on Stalin(Volgo)grad and not going full-bore at either Murmansk with Finnish support or Leningrad without them.)

A bitter draw was still on the table after Stalingrad, IMO. After Zitadelle.....no chance.

Well I think Simon's head is large; always involved in espionage. (Name that tune)

By 1942 its all over for Germany, its just a question of when and to who. Whilst the Russian winter was definitely a factor, its important to realise just how over stretched the German supply lines were, and how effective pockets of soviet resistance and partisans were at harrying these lines. Plus the German treatment of the Ukrainians and Russians they overran pretty much encouraged partisans and resistance.

Zhukov's defence of Moscow is inspired in its use of both military and civil defence planning.

But even if the winter had been mild (by Russian standards) the German advance had ground to halt due to supply problems (food, ammunition, spare parts for transports).

Notably the later Autumn on the Eastern Front saw huge rain falls, which the German forces struggled greatly with (being a mechanised assault combined arms - they relied on rapid mobility).

But it wasn't just the Winter. The German Army advanced to far, too fast. The faced constant problems securing their supply lines, the mud ground their advance to a halt, and when they hit cities where the soviet army had dug in, they found it difficult to utilise their mechanised infantry effectively.

Plus the couldn't maintain the kind of casualties that the Soviets could. Zhukov managed to keep replenishing Soviet Armies at Moscow on an almost miraculous basis.

The Germans were never going to beat the Soviets once their Blitzkrieg had broken down, and in the case of the Eastern Front it was too effective, they advanced too quickly, too far to be reequipped.

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I don't think anyone was keen of a third world war, especially straight off the back of the second world war. Especially with the proposition being the soviet war machine, which had destroyed the German war machine (as well as being well supplied with US transport, aircraft, tanks etc).

"One Nation Under God, has turned into One Nation Under the Influence of One Drug"
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Once the Bomb was invented, conventional warfare was off the table between the big players.
Churchill was not happy about the Russians advances in Europe but Truman was never going to use more American lives in Europe after the German surrender. Also Truman would have known that the atomic age was close.
America could have won the War on their own with the vast resources at their disposal but a longer war with Germany might have meant a nuclear war. With heavy losses already, they dropped the bomb on Japan to save more American lives and in my view, to send a message to the Russians.