Wasn't it a big mistake for Hitler to attack the Soviets?

[benbirüçgenim]

If Hitler had attacked the United Kingdom instead of attacking the Soviets, he could have destroyed the United Kingdom and won World War II.

[NamerOfStars]

Not really- the only question was whether Hitler or Stalin would break the pact first. Hitler's plan was never to conquer the Soviet Union- that was impossible, full-stop- but to push them so hard they broke, and offered terms of surrender, just like had happened in the previous war. It actually might've worked, were it not for two things, the lend-lease program of the other Allies to the USSR, and Mussolini's stupidity.

You likely know about the former; the latter gets overlooked. Mussolini was low-key obsessed with regaining the Mediterranean as a "Roman Lake", and so invaded... Ethiopia. Ethiopia, which was, and is, nowhere near the Mediterranean; which fully resisted all attempts at Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Egyptian, Persian, and Assyrian conquest (and would've whupped the Mongols, too, had they gone that far south); which fought off all European, Asian, and African imperialism. And which was, no disrespect to the nation or its people, not really worth conquering, except for bragging rights. Mussolini's misadventures in Africa wound up forcing Hitler to send a massive force- which could very well have made a difference around Leningrad- lead by Rommel himself, to stop the Allies, which delayed his invasion of the USSR by weeks.

Hitler's biggest mistake, of course, was declaring war on the US, which had entered the war to fight Japan after Pearl Harbor- but ONLY Japan. Then Hitler suddenly decided to have principles and be loyal to his allies. If he hadn't, the US probably would've stayed out, and things might've ended quite differently, at least in Europe.

[RebelinSteel]

He would not have, while the Battle of Britain did stop the invasion, one lesser known thing is the UK had circa 300 plus MTBs, any invasion would have been stopped not so much by the larger battle ships and cruisers but by very small fast attack craft ripping into any seaborne invasion.
as @NamerOfStars says the biggest mistake was deceleration of war on US, the US likely would not have declared war on Germany and Russia would have attacked Germany if Germany had not attacked first.

chances are if Germany had tried with the Invasion of the UK Russia would have taken that moment to invade Germany.

[AviatorTom]

Hitler's mistake was not in attacking the Soviets, it's when he did it. Hitler's generals told him that invading the USSR late in the year (started in September) was risky because of the harsh Russisn winters. But Hitler ignored them.

As for the UK, Goring convinced Hitler that the Luftwaffe would destroy Britain by air, which was totally misleading.

[AviatorTom]

Hitler's biggest mistake was declaring war on the US, after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Had he not done that, it is likely that the US would have stayed out of Europe, resulting in a much different ending to the European war.

[benbirüçgenim]

Do you think Hitler was a good leader or a bad leader?

[AviatorTom]

Good leaders pay attention to their advisors. Hitler did not.

[RavVid]

I don't think it was assured that if Hitler attacked the UK that he would have succeeded. It would have been necessary to transport troops over and the Battle of Britain failed to give German air superiority.

The Royal Navy could be expected to sink the transports as they only had 20mm armor.

[Avicenna]

After having lost the Battle of Britain (thanks to some extent to Polish and Czech pilots), an amphibious invasion of the UK wasn't in the cards and wouldn't have been successful. Had Hitler attempted it, he would have left himself open to a Soviet attack on his eastern flank. It was merely a matter of time before either he or Stalin would try to eliminate the other.

[Anonymous]

He wouldn't have won attacking Britain

Churchill had a scorched earth policy that if a nazi combat unit made landfall
We were set to blow up every moderate sized bridge, dockland area, airport and weaponry store
It was an open code that if issued told the commanders to set off their charges then kill their families, associates and themselves with whatever bullets they had

[OtterMan68]

Yes, he learned nothing from Napoleon.

Had he not done so, he could have held out and sued for peace with the British, French, and Americans.