Hitler’s Balkans Invasion Myth
This myth has it that Germany’s invasion of the USSR in WWII, which ground to a halt because of Russia’s winter, would have succeeded if it had only started a month or two earlier than its actual launch date of June 22, 1941. The reason it did not start earlier, goes the myth, is because Hitler got entangled in the Balkans. He invaded Greece and Yugoslavia in April of 1941, which delayed the launch of invasion of the Soviet Union. The first flaw with this myth is that it gives winter top billing for stopping the German advance.
However, other factors such as fierce Soviet resistance, the overextension of German supply lines as the Wehrmacht plunged ever deeper into the USSR, and autumn rains, had already brought the German advance to a halt before the first snowstorms. The Germans had to regroup, which gave the Soviets a needed breather, before they resumed the advance on Moscow. Hitler’s soldiers were unprepared for the terrible Russian winter when it arrived, but that was only one factor, and not the main one, for the German advance’s halt.
