It is because of how close he came to winning the atomic race that I put that reservation into the mix. Had Hitler not attacked the Russians at all, he would have likely won at El Alamein. This would have been a very serious blow as it would have solidified much of North Africa and supplies of Oil for Germany / Italy. The cascade effect would have been to deny the Allies a launching point into Italy.
Further, it was Stalin who kept pressuring to open up a second front on German. Had that not been in play, it would have taken at least another year before the Allies would have had the strength to push into Western Europe. Thus giving more time for the development of any number of technical advances including bombers that could strike the US (Amerika bomber program).
Had Hitler pulled off a Doolittle type raid and been able to strike at the docks of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, etc. I suspect that even if only minor damage occurred, the US would have pulled back some of it’s support for England to shore up defenses in the US. If the damage had been significant, it could have knocked the US out of supporting England for a good 6 months.
Had this happened, I’m sure that England would have had a second blitz and possibly even had to repel a ground attack by Germany. Significant damage would have far more likely had the atomic bomb been completed by the Germans first.
All of that’s true - and all of that would have forced us to do things differently. We might have never seen the demotions of Patton and McAurthur. The USS North Carolina, the first warship produced post Pearl, might have gone east instead of west.
Whole different ballgame…..anyway you shake it out.