One of the things that I've seen over time is that one of the mistakes made by Germany in the Second World War is that they did not pressure Japan to attack the Soviet Union.
Unfortunately, the Japanese did fight the Russians, two years before the Germans invaded the USSR. The Red Army defeated the Japanese at the Battle of Khalkhin Gol. The Japanese had pretty much over-extended their supply lines. The Red Army forces, commanded by Gen. Zhukov engaged them enough frontally to keep the Japanese in place, then struck from both flanks and surrounded them. (Three years later, Zhukov would use the same concept to cut off the German Sixth Army at Stalingrad.)
The Japanese signed a cease-fire pact with the USSR, then turned to fry other fish to the southeast.
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WWII what-ifs are a favorite pastime of mine. One of my conclusions that gets reinforced often is that after a certain point, Hitler was on our side.
Not really, of course. Not with the murdering of millions part. But the military decisions he forced everywhere, he shortened the war by years. Even his R&D decisions were poor, although that could have gone very badly for us.
All those assassination attempts... had one of them been successful, and installed Rommel or Guderian or someone equally capable... we'd have a different world today.
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