Hello, fellow history student! The USSR beat Germany. There is no doubt about it. Germany came very close to overwhelming Russia. I read that if they had captured Moscow, the Russian state would have collapsed. And it would have been captured had the German forces not been sent south to fight the bulk of Soviet forces. So I think that Germany had the ability to take down Russia, but a series of blunders led to their ultimate failure and loss of the majority of their best forces. I do believe that Hitler's ultimate goal was taking over large parts of Eastern Europe and that he was not interested, at least initially, in long term dominance of Western Europe.

Although I know that my fellow Americans and I like to overstate our role in the war, I think the lend lease program is one factor that is often ignored.

Not a historian, but you are presupposing that the allies had the will to fight on regardless of casualties.

The Soviets probably were willing to fight on regardless of losses, the western democracies not so much.