I was thinking about WWII, and I decided that if I had to go back in time and give Hitler one piece of advice, it would be not to start a war on the eastern front. But that got me thinking, was there any benefits to him going to war with The USSR that helped his efforts on the western fronts and semi-neglected the loss of manpower? Like, if Hitler ignored the east and focused on the west, do you think he could've won or at the very least faired better, or was there some resource in Russia that he wanted. Thanks!
P.S: I can already see it brewing in the comments, no I do not wish that the Germans won WWII, WWI maybe, but not WWII
But that got me thinking, was there any benefits to him going to war with The USSR that helped his efforts on the western fronts and semi-neglected the loss of manpower?
No, not really. Hitler's arrangement with the Soviet Union provided Germany with valuable oil and raw materials, allowing Germany to bypass the Blockade of the continent. With the Invasion of the USSR, the Blockade was now truly effective. There were certainly resources in the USSR worth taking, but what little industry and agricultural produce came into German hands was hardly compensation for the losses in manpower, and the tightening of the Blockade, as well as steadily declining strategic options from 1941 onwards.
David Stahel's books on the Battles of Moscow and Kiev, and Operations Bagration and Typhoon are good reads. Alexander Hill also has a document reader on the Great Patriotic War, which is valuable as a concise account of the Eastern Front. For economic, Adam Tooze's Wages of Destruction is the best book I'm aware of.
no I do not wish that the Germans won WWII, WWI maybe, but not WWII
Frankly, history is better off that they lost both
EDIT:
Like, if Hitler ignored the east and focused on the west, do you think he could've won or at the very least faired better
It's hard to imagine Hitler 'ignoring' the East; it was the center piece of his aims, the lebensraum for the Aryan race and the source of the resources that would allow Germany to achieve autarky and challenge Britain and America. With the Royal Navy still very much in control of Britain's territorial waters at least, and with RAF Fighter Command preventing the Luftwaffe from attaining the control of the air needed to launch Operation Sea Lion (to say nothing of how ersatz German preparations were for that invasion), there was nowhere else to look. North Africa was Italy's sphere, and Rommel was only sent there to assist the Italians in retaining their positions in Libya. After the defeat of France, the Soviet Union was the next logical (using that term relatively) step in Hitler's "programme" as Andreas Hillgruber or Gerhard Weinberg would put it.