WORLD WAR II- MASTER BLUNDER BY HITLER-ATTACK ON THE SOVIET UNION.

 

Now Stalin started making his moves. He did not trust Hitler and was trying to protect himself. He signed a Soviet-Japan neutrality pact in April 1941.As per this pact Soviet Russia and Japan cannot attack each other. This angered Hitler.

He turned towards the Soviet Union and envisioned “Operation Barbarosa” against it. This was a big blunder made by Hitler. Without taking care of Britain on one side, he is opening another front on the other that too with a very formidable opponent. Perhaps his inability to defeat Britain on account of his weak navy troubled him and he wanted to take out his frustration on the Soviet Union. 

On June 22^nd 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union despite the non aggression pact with them. Stalin did not trust Hitler but he never imagined that Hitler would violate the pact and attack him.

The army that Hitler moved on to take the Soviet Union was formidable and was the largest attack ever mounted by any country in the world. It consisted of 150 divisions with 38,00,000 troops, 3500 tanks, 3000 aircraft, 7000 artillery pieces. This army consisted of troops from Germany, Italy, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and Croatia. To the initial attack with 150 divisions, another 30 divisions from Finland and Hungary joined the attack. The Army attacked a border stretching 2900 Km.

The attack was mounted on 3 fronts. One on to Leningrad, one on to Moscow and one onto Stalingrad. The Soviet army was not even prepared to face this onslaught and were roundly defeated everywhere. Before the Russian air force could take off the Luftwaffe attacked and finished them off. Everyone thought that Soviet Union was going to get defeated in a few days. Stalin strongly believed that they can defeat the Axis armies and extolled his soldiers to fight on with his speeches.

Stalin knew that attacking the Axis army would result in certain defeat for his country. Before the Axis army approached them villages were asked to remove everything from the villages including food. All the fields were asked to be torched so that the Axis armies could not get any food. All the roads, railway routes and bridges have been destroyed so that the Axis army could not progress. The season also favoured the Soviets the monsoon downpours have flooded its land so much that it became difficult for the tanks to move on. Soviet Union mostly had red soil that become slushy with rains. So the Axis army got bogged down and Stalin had some time to recoup.

The army that progressed towards Leningrad surrounded the city and Stalin thought Leningrad is gone from his hands. But the siege on Leningrad continued for over 2 years. The people of the city were starving. The 2^nd army neared Moscow and Hitler felt it had come into his reach. Unfortunately for Hitler and the Axis armies, the winter set in early that year. The German army did not even have sweaters to wear. The petrol in the vehicles froze. So the troop commanders asked Hitler whether they should stop the war for some time.             .

But Hitler refused saying, no go right ahead. Now, the German armies have never fought when it is snowing in such cold terrain and are unaware of the problems that would be faced while the Soviet troops are well experienced in that. That was another of Hitler’s blunders. The soviet army then stopped the German army on the outskirts of Moscow. This was a morale booster for the Soviet army. They now felt that if they fought well, defeating the German armies was possible.          

At this point in time Japan made a stupid move. The USA deliberately kept out of the war and had no intention of entering it. Japan made a crippling attack on Pearl Harbour that tilted the war in favor of the Allies.

Both the US and Japan were always at loggerheads trying to show the strength of their navies in the Pacific Ocean. Japan wanted to take Southeast Asia into its own hands. In 1941 Japan occupied French Indochina and with that, the USA guessed what was on Japan's mind. From then onwards the USA imposed a trade embargo on Japan, completely stopped the oil supplies, and place restrictions on it. For checking Japan, the US transferred its Navy to Pearl Harbour in the Hawaiian Islands. The large US Pacific fleet was stationed at Pearl Harbour. 7^th December 1941, in the morning 7.48 the Japanese navy attacked Pearl Harbour.

In one and half hours time Japan dealt a crippling blow to the American Navy at Pearl Harbour. 19 naval ships have been destroyed of which 8 are battleships. 177 airplanes too were destroyed. 2343 American soldiers died and 2000 more were injured. On December 8 1941 the USA entered World War II. Japan had a chance of destroying Pearl Harbour completely but did not do so. If Japan finished off all the American US carrier force and Submarines then things would have been different but Japan left in haste when the defences of the base were totally down. These two are the arms that troubled Japan later in the war. Within 6 months from this date Japan brought all the colonies in the Pacific into its hands. By October 1941 it was threatening India and Australia.