The decisive battle against the Third Reich

Hitler was certainly not crazy.

There were several reasons why he chose to attack the Soviet Union at this time.

The first was Hitler's misjudgment of the Soviet Union.

This was mainly based on the judgment that the Soviet Union invaded Finland two years ago but only suffered a disastrous victory. Therefore, Hitler believed that although the Soviet Union had a large military force, it was extremely corrupt internally and its commanders generally lacked experience... 70% of it The five officers are all officers with no command experience who have served for less than one year. Many officers are simply unable to do their jobs well. The reason why they can become officers is simply because of their firm political stance.

So Hitler judged that if he assembled a large number of troops and launched a sudden attack, he could defeat the Soviet Union and end the war within a few months.

Second is the need for resources.

In the final analysis, this aspect is the German army's "fighting to support war" combat method... A large number of German labor forces are carrying guns and going to the front line. This makes the war machine seriously short of labor, so it needs to occupy other countries and enslave the people of other countries. Get a large workforce.

However, invading other countries will encounter strong resistance from other countries, so the scale of the war will become larger and larger. The expansion of the scale requires more materials, and more materials require more labor, which in turn requires the launch of new wars to satisfy the labor force. need……

At this time, Germany was trapped in such a vicious cycle: because the war lacked labor, the war must be expanded for the sake of labor.

Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union at this time would have at least the following benefits: Ukraine could provide a large amount of cheap food. Occupying the Soviet Union would provide access to a large slave labor force. Defeating the Soviet Union would further isolate the British Empire. Germany's war machine desperately needed more oil, a goal that could only be achieved by capturing the Soviet oil-producing Baku region.

More importantly, according to Hitler's plan, the German army will defeat the Soviet Union in a few months. Then the German army will no longer need to maintain an army of three million people. Retiring most of them will immediately replenish the German industry to solve the labor problem. shortage phenomenon.

Finally, there is Hitler’s arrogance.

Before this, many German generals had warned Hitler to deal with Britain first and then attack the Soviet Union. A two-front war would not be a good thing for Germany anyway.

But Hitler simply refused to listen to these suggestions... The series of previous victories made Hitler think that he was a political and military genius. The reason why a genius can be called a genius is his ability to persist in his own right path despite all opinions.

The impact this has on the North African battlefield is to further mobilize air power in North Africa... The German air power in North Africa originally had two air wings, one was the 24th Air Wing in Sicily, Italy, and the other was in Sicily. 27th Air Wing in Tobruk.

The former is mainly responsible for bombing the island of Malta and protecting the sea routes from Italy to Africa, while the latter is mainly responsible for providing necessary air support to the Afrika Korps.

However, in order to gather enough power in the direction of the Soviet Union, Hitler transferred the 24th Wing stationed in Sicily to the Eastern Front... This almost completely exposed the supply lines of the Afrika Korps to the attacks of the British navy and air force.

Rommel expressed strong opposition to this, because at this time, the Afrika Korps' war in North Africa had entered the final critical stage. It can be said that the situation was very good, especially after the capture of Alexandria, it only needed to add more force to defeat the enemy. The British drove down the sea...

The most important thing at this time is air power, because the strategic significance of Alexander lies in its ability to bomb and blockade Port Said and the Suez Canal, thereby cutting off the British supply line.

But without the advantage of air power, it would be impossible to talk about it. Even the German army would not dare to deploy fighters and bombers in Alexandria... Port Said is too close to Alexandria. The straight-line distance is less than 300 kilometers. The British Air Force only takes half an hour. can reach the sky above the airport and carry out indiscriminate bombing.

As a result, the German army's capture of Alexandria did not make much strategic sense.

But of course Hitler would not weaken his offensive power against the Soviet Union because of Africa, which was considered a secondary battlefield, so Rommel's objections were completely brushed aside.

The British on the other side are actually not having it easy either.

The difficulty lies mainly in the air force. The British army originally had more than 500 fighter planes in North Africa, but more than 100 were lost in the battle and only about 360 are left.

It was indeed a good thing for the British army that the 24th German Air Force Wing turned to the Soviet Union, but the British Air Force was in a dilemma...whether to re-deploy the air force on the island of Malta.

From a strategic perspective, the answer is yes. Placing fighter planes on the island of Malta can effectively attack the German supply lines and even reverse the situation of the war.

but……

The quality of the British Air Force's fighters and pilots is generally not as good as that of the Germans. They need to use their numerical advantage to maintain their air superiority over North Africa.

If even a small part of the fighter planes are sent to the island of Malta, the German Air Force may gain control of the air in North Africa and use Alexandria as its air base to block the Suez Canal and Port Said... This will also have a negative impact on the British army. Also fatal.

However, if fighter planes were not deployed on the island of Malta, the German army would be equally fatal to the British army if they received sufficient supplies.

So Churchill asked the United States for assistance.

At this time, Britain and the United States used a cheating method.

At this time, the United States had not yet entered the war. Although the United States had signed the Lend-Lease Act with Britain, the Soviet Union and other countries, this act even stipulated that American merchant ships should not be used for transportation... because if American merchant ships were used for transportation, Germany would have the power to destroy American merchant ships. , so the United States will inevitably be dragged into the war.

In other words, the United States has actually violated the contract by using American merchant ships to help the United Kingdom transport supplies in the Indian Ocean and Suez Canal, and it cannot be said to be a neutral country.

But that’s just the second thing…

In order to quickly deploy fighter jets on Malta Island, Churchill actually asked the United States to borrow an aircraft carrier, and the United States actually agreed.

You must know that the United States is a neutral country that has not participated in the war. The German army cannot attack American warships. Of course, American warships cannot take any military actions against the German army.

However, American warships are helping the British transport fighter planes and pass through the narrow Strait of Gibraltar as a neutral country... If it is at war, it is impossible for the aircraft carrier to enter the narrow strait, which is almost asking for death.

As a result, 126 aircraft from the United Kingdom safely arrived at the island of Malta, transported by the USS Wasp and USS Eagle aircraft carriers.

The supply lines of the Afrika Korps over the island of Malta were cut off almost overnight.