Was this the biggest failure in the entire war? Why didn't it succeed?
German High command was too aggressive and confident that the Wehrmacht could achieve its goals before the weather got bad, Hence the didn't issue winter clothing and provisions. As a result, the Axis forces, frozen and starved, were beaten.
>>491499
The Soviet production capacity was WAYYYYY higher than Germany's. The Nazis banked on their super shitty military image after Japan, WWI, and The Winter War, and didn't take a sober logical look at what they would be invading.
>>491499
Why didn't the Germans take Leningrad and Sevastopol?
>>492276
What would it have profited them?
>>492276
They did take Sevastopol.
>>492284
Caucasus oil is nice.
>>491499
>>492281
Too much Soviet buildup combined with a narrowing of the quality gap and an overextended logistical machine. And city fighting erased a lot of the advantages the Germans held; that inter-arm coordination system breaks Dow when everyone's infantry is mixed together like ants in a bowl.
But Blue banked on the usual rapid advances to keep the enemy too off balance to counterattack over a huge and mostly undefended perimeter of new gains. When the advance stalled for months, they were badly out of effective position.
>>492284
Oh, I'm sorry, misread who you replied to;
In both cases, the cities are massive ports, home to significant chunks of the Russian navy. In Leningrad's case, the Baltic fleet has literally nowhere else to go besides.
And just in general, it's a bad idea to leave a significant enemy presence behind you; Leningrad took quite a lot of troops to keep invested, which should it fall, can be read singed elsewhere.
>>492300
>Caucasus oil is nice.
Yeah, and it's not in Sevastapol, and certainly not Leningrad.
They weren't eager to launch offensives to take the cities when all that would get them is urban warfare and angry slavs.
Why not leave the cities, until hunger at least weakens, until after more productive offensives
>>492284
There were several huge factories in Leningrad. Even though it was possible that they'd be blown up by the time they would reach them, capturing technicians and factory workers would still be golden, especially as Germany still lagged behind USSR when it came to for example welding techniques.
OP - they went into city fighting. If you don't know why was it bad for Germans do a simple research. Search "crazy russians" on youtube and watch the results. Now imagine giving those people weapons and telling them to go into city fights. Meanwhile their opponents have some instinct of self-preservation.
Going into city fighting against Russians was suicide.
Even then, this is the kind of "basics of warfare" thing.
Germans were less numerous than Soviets. They've had some minor allies to make up for it(Hungarians, Romanians) but it was not enough and if Soviets would put decently-equipped and trained soldiers against those, they couldn't do much. If you're outnumbered, you want to be mobile, so you can get at least local numerical superiority allowing you to attack or defend effectively.
During Fall Blau, quite big part of most mobile Axis forces engaged themselves in Stalingrad, while the remaining forces didn't had enough of mobile reserves to defend themselves effectively. The Red Army on the other hand could easily get numerical advantage required to overwhelm the defenders in any part of front they wanted, which allowed to both engage Germans in Stalingrad well enough to keep them busy and launch counter attacks.
Did I put it clear?
>>492332
they had that hole deep planning thing too
