"The 5 Key WWII Campaigns in the European Theater (Final Round)" Topic

Of that list, France 1940 and (maybe) Barbarossa fit the 'both sides had a chance' criteria. The others, not so much: discuss.

No, I do not believe the French ever had a chance at defeating the German blitzkrieg. They were too hidebound with their WW1 mentality.

And Stalin had killed off to many of his better senior officers for the Soviets to have a chance. The only thing that saved them was Hitler's interference.

Jim

1940: the French and British just needed to trust the arial reconnaissance as they did in 1914, and send the airforce in strength to attack the German columns whilst they were jammed in the Ardennes. And that could have given them time to slowly bring up reinforcements to the critical point. Likely? Maybe not. But definitely possible.
Germany had lost in Russia by Kursk, British air defences were well in hand for the Battle of Britain; but I'm not sure at all that a German victory would have enabled Sealion (unless they won with absolutely minimal losses – how would that have happened? Poland was going to fall. Barbarossa would only have been won by a political collapse of Stalin's government, but I'd say that was a (very) outside possibility. By waiting until 1944, Normandy was a pretty sure bet: all Germany could have done would have been to slow the Allied victory somewhat.

As for Barbarossa, I think logistics had more to do with the German failure than Hitler's interference. But that is another discussion.
One interesting point is that the Soviet Union was fighting a war to the death, like Germany did from 1943 on. The Germans couldn't understand how the Soviets could keep fighting when by all measures they had been defeated; and yet Germany did exactly the same later in the war. In the same way as Bomber Harris thought that an arial campaign could drive Germany to surrender, when the same thing had palpably failed against Britain.

Interesting list – while I think Normandy was important, there was a good chance that even if the landings had not taken place/failed the Germans would still have been defeated – except the Iron Curtain would have been at the English Channel

So, a poll where, in theory, each option should see either side having an equal chance of victory. And yet in none of the options is that the case. Bizarre.