User blog comment:SupcommMonroee/What was the Most Decisive Battle?/@comment-4140619-20120509191641/@comment-3155949-20120509222002

Well, Sevastopol couldn't have been accounted for. The siege of that city lasted for many months as well, and it kept the Germans from brining their full military might to bear against the Caucasus oil and the Volga cities. Fall Blau was the offensive slowed by Romanian and German forces being tied up in Crimea, and the large traffic jams of the German tanks forced to use a small handful of roads.

Also, the USSR was able to bring in more forces than the Germans. The VVS took a pounding at the beginning, but by the end of the battle, they outnumbered the Luftwaffe.

Many important Russian cities had been taken or besieged, but German forces were stretched to the limit. The Axis had 4.5 million men to conquer everything up to the Urals. That's a massive task.

Much of what Russia could not move into Siberia was destroyed. A mass industry migration occured in 1941 to Russia's heart, as well as much of the factory population. Had Moscow, Leningrad, and Stalingrad all fallen, the war would be protracted, but the most important material, man, and machine resources would still be in the far East.