Why didn Hitler attack Russia before he raid the France?
Well.., in 1940 Germany was not yet enough prepared to deal Soviet Union… So, it was “West first” strategy… And it might have been better if Germans had performed “Operation Seelowe” (Invasion to conquer Britain) July/August 1940, before proceeding to Africa, Balkans and later to Russia. Stalingrad had STZ (tractor) factory producing T-34 tanks, and artillery tractors, and also a fertilizer/TNT factory, so it was industrial town… A strategic target… However.., instead of going into street fights, Germans themselves should have just surrounded the city themselves, and kept Russians starving there during winter 1942/43 If Germans had deployed Romanian and Italian volunteer divisions to deal Caucasus (Maikop/Baku sector) front and with that arrangement avoided weak spot (which caused the Russian breaktrough in November 1942) in their frontline “northern flank” of Stalingrad, and used “southern flank” panzer (&panzer grenadier) divisions to push all the way to town of Astrakhan (in
