If you had to point to the biggest Axis blunder of WW2 it would be that Japan never attacked Russia. Yes, they may not have gotten very far and the terrain did suck, but the real estate was improtant enough to Stalin that he had 100,000s of troops stationed there just in case it was attacked. Once Stalin found out that Japan had no intention of attacking they diverted those troops, and that was what made stalingrad possible. It can be argued that w/o that victory the Germans may have broken the Russians, captured Stalingrad and than than the oil fields. Hitler’s idea that was w/o oil Russia would lose the war (and he was probably right).
