Peter89 wrote: ↑03 Mar 2021, 22:44
ljadw wrote: ↑03 Mar 2021, 22:36
Peter89 wrote: ↑03 Mar 2021, 08:44
Germany and Japan both considered the SU as a threat, but in fact the SU would not attack either in the time frame when the Axis had to defeat the Western Allies, before they could muster their superior resources.
Stalin would join the Axis if certain criteria were met, especially if the Axis was winning.
The joint attack on the SU would mean that both the Japanese and the Germans shot their one bullet on the wrong target.
It is not so that Germany considered the SU as a threat .Hitler said that Stalin would attack Germany only if Germany was losing .
That Stalin WOULD MAYBE join the Axis on the condition that it was winning,was not benefiting Germany: Franco also would have joined the Axis if it was winning .As Turkey,or Sweden..
The point is that Germany was NOT winning .
That Germany was shooting its only bullet on the wrong target, is not correct : it was shooting its only bullet on the only remaining target, which was :the USSR .
The British Empire was the target, not the SU.
Germany was convinced that if the war against Britain lasted, it would be faced by a coalition of Britain and the US ,that it could not win against this coalition ,and that when its cities were destroyed and its armies were running away to the Siegfried Line, the Soviets would invade Eastern Germany .
The whole problem was to force Britain to give up before the US would intervene, but all the attempts to force Britain to give up had failed, thus to continue to focus on Britain was a wast of time .
As Germany had not the means to prevent the US to intervene and as it could not attack the US after a US DOW, only the USSR remained and the Germans convinced themselves that a quick defeat of the USSR would force Britain to give up and that such a defeat was possible .
If in Whitehall one became convinced that the Landser was invincible, one should accept peace at the German condition .
The USSR was the only target remaining at the end of 1940 that could give Germany peace and victory .
The attacks on Britain had failed.
An attack on the US was impossible .
Only the USSR remained .