I agree with the later parts, and would only make a few comments on this part:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ta'Samsca'Rial  Also in Napoleons time you didn't have trains.
If Moscow had fallen (or atleast the bulk of it occupied) then the Soviets would be in a very poor strategic position since Moscow is such a vital railroad hub. Moving the same vast amounts of both people and supplies across the huge front without such would be very difficult if not impossible. If Stalin is captured or killed the political chaos (I don't buy the concept of Beria, let alone any General, taking over as if nothing has happened) may shatter the USSR. |
Although this was true for WW1, the rail net was becoming less dominantly important by WW2 as road transport -far less vulnerable - increased, particularly noticable in the vast flat areas of Russia. Even under the most hostile conditions it proved possible to keep a trickle of supplies going during winter to Leningrad using the ice road across Lake Lagoda, under the very noses of the enemy.
Its certainly the case that had the Wehrmacht captured Moscow it would have been a very heavy blow (I can't see Stalin being captured, though Hitler may have hoped to do so). Yet as Stalingrad showed, "capturing" a city isnt enough. The Red Army fought house-to-house and even room-to-room in Stalingrad. This would no doubt have been repated in Moscow and Leningrad if necessary.
And apart from that, Russia is vast and Stalin was clearly determined to fight on east of Moscow. The further east the Wehrmacht pushed the more tenuous its lines of comunication would be. They were already badly stretched at Moscow and just managed to hold their positions during the Moscow counter-offensive of Winter 1941/2.
Very telling of Soviet strategy is that a major evacuation and relocation of key Soviet industries (especially military) began almost as soon as the invasion started. This was a monumental achievement, moving whole industries from the Ukraine, Belorussia, Leningrad and Moscow to the Urals, Siberia and the far east - often under intense an continuous air attack.