The plan would involve 120 divisions thrusting through the fertile Ukraine to the River Dnieper while the rest advanced through the Baltic states and on to Moscow. He told his military commanders of his intentions during a conference at his Berchtesgaden alpine retreat on July 31, 1940. ![]() Less than a month after a humiliated France had surrendered to Germany in the early summer of 1940, and while he was considering an invasion of England, Hitler had ordered the drawing up of plans for an invasion of Russia in the spring of 1941. This had been one of Hitler’s aims from his earliest preaching. An invasion of western Russia would also provide Germany with needed lebensraum (living space). So, the German leader calculated that he could isolate Britain with a rapid war of movement in the East, toppling Marshal Josef Stalin’s regime and crushing Russian Bolshevism, which he loathed. Hitler suspected that Britain was fighting on because she looked to the Soviet Union for eventual support. ![]() He dreamed of conquering Europe while the British Empire controlled the rest of the world. Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler had always admired the British Empire and still believed that he could bring it to the peace table. With time and effort, Britain could summon imperial reserves, but she had no means of meeting the powerful German Army in battle. The tiny island nation stood defiant, but was perilously vulnerable after a series of defeats in northern France, Norway, the Far East, Greece, and Crete. By April 1941, just over a year and a half into World War II, Nazi Germany was the master of Europe.Īll that stood in its way was Great Britain and her far-flung empire.
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