Despite being massively outnumbered, the Third Reich and the German Army made such a valiant effort to defeat the Communist Russians, that they were within the shadows of Stalingrad. Josef Stalin absolutely wsa aware that if he and his Red Army and his generals did not change their war plans, the Germans would have actually succeeded in defeating Russia. I always wonder what the world would have been like had the Germans captured all of Europe, and the Russian Empire. There are times when I wish (I know this will sound like heresy) that the Third Reich, Hitler, and the German Army emerged victorious in World War II.