Hitler’s Fatal Miscalculation: Why Germany Declared War On The United States PDF
Preview Hitler’s Fatal Miscalculation: Why Germany Declared War On The United States
’ HITLER S FATAL MISCALCULATION Hitler’s decision to declare war on the United States has baffled gener- ationsofhistorians.Inthisrevisionistnewhistoryofthosefatefulmonths, KlausSchmiderseekstouncoverthechainofeventswhichwouldincite theGermanleadertodeclarewarontheUnitedStatesinDecember1941. He provides new insights not just on the problems afflicting German strategy, foreign policy and war production but, crucially, how they wereperceivedatthetimeatthetoplevelsoftheThirdReich.Schmider seesthedeclarationofwarontheUnitedStatesnotasanadmissionof defeatoragestureofsolidaritywithJapan,butasanopportunisticgamble bytheGermanleader.Thismovemayhaveappearedanexcellentbetat thetime,butwouldultimatelydoomtheThirdReich. klaus h. schmider has been with the Royal Military Academy SandhurstsinceMay1999.Heistheco-authorofVolume8oftheofficial German history of World War II, Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg(2007). CambridgeMilitaryHistories Editedby HEW STRACHAN, Professor of International Relations, University of St Andrews,andEmeritusFellowofAllSoulsCollege,Oxford GEOFFREY WAWRO, Professor of Military History and Director of the MilitaryHistoryCenter,UniversityofNorthTexas Theaimofthisseriesistopublishoutstandingworksofresearchonwarfarethroughout theagesandthroughouttheworld.Booksintheseriestakeabroadapproachtomilitary history,examiningwarinallitsmilitary,strategic,politicalandeconomicaspects.The seriescomplementsStudiesintheSocialandCulturalHistoryofModernWarfareby focusingonthe‘hard’militaryhistoryofarmies,tactics,strategyandwarfare.Booksin theseriesconsistmainlyofsingleauthorworks–academicallyrigorousandground- breaking–whichareaccessibletobothacademicsandtheinterestedgeneralreader. Afulllistoftitlesintheseriescanbefoundat: www.cambridge.org/militaryhistories ’ HITLER S FATAL MISCALCULATION Why Germany Declared War on the United States KLAUS H. SCHMIDER RoyalMilitaryAcademySandhurst UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,20thFloor,NewYork,NY10006,USA 477WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,VIC3207,Australia 314–321,3rdFloor,Plot3,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre, NewDelhi–110025,India 79AnsonRoad,#06–04/06,Singapore079906 CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learningandresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108834919 DOI:10.1017/9781108870405 ©KlausH.Schmider2021 Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished2021 PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyTJBooksLtd.,Padstow,Cornwall AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-Publicationdata Names:Schmider,Klaus,author. Title:Hitler’sfatalmiscalculation:whyGermanydeclaredwarontheUnitedStates/Klaus H.Schmider,RoyalMilitaryAcademy,Sandhurst. Othertitles:WhyGermanydeclaredwarontheUnitedStates Description:Cambridge,UnitedKingdom;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversityPress, 2021.|Series:Cambridgemilitaryhistories|Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. Identifiers:LCCN2020021818|ISBN9781108834919(hardback)|ISBN9781108870405 (ebook) Subjects:LCSH:Germany–Foreignrelations–UnitedStates.|UnitedStates–Foreign relations–Germany.|Hitler,Adolf,1889–1945.|WorldWar,1939–1945–Causes.|World War,1939–1945–Germany.|WorldWar,1939–1945–UnitedStates. Classification:LCCD751.S372021|DDC940.53/43–dc23 LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2020021818 ISBN978-1-108-83491-9Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyof URLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication, anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Days before he was due to leave Berlin for the United States, CBS corres- pondentWilliamShirerreflectedontheoddsofaUS–Germanwarbreaking outinthenearfuture: ‘Theclashisasinevitableasthatoftwoplanetshurtlinginexorablythrough theheavenstowardseachother.Asamatteroffact,itmaycomesoonerthan almost all Americans at home imagine. An officer of the High Command somewhatshockedmetheotherdaywhilewewerediscussingthematter.He said: “You think Roosevelt can pick the moment most advantageous to America and Britain for coming into the war. Did you ever stop to think that Hitler, a master at timing, may choose the moment for war with America–amomentwhichhethinkswillgivehimtheadvantage?” ‘ImustadmitIneverdid.’ —WilliamL.Shirer,BerlinDiary:TheJournalofaForeignCorrespondent, 1934–1941,entryfor1December19401 1 London: Hamish Hamilton 1941, pp 463–4. Excerpt reprinted by permission of Don CongdonAssociates,Inc.©1941,renewed1968byWilliamL.Shirer.Mythankstomy colleagueEdYorkeforbringingthissourcetomyattention. CONTENTS ListofFigures pageviii ListofMaps ix Preface xi Acknowledgements xiii ListofAbbreviationsandGermanandRussianTerms xv Introduction 1 1 Hitler’sPre-WarAssessmentoftheUnitedStatesandJapan 11 2 Hitler’sPhysicalHealthinAutumn1941 57 3 ‘AllMeasuresShortofWar’:theGermanAssessmentof AmericanStrategy,1940–1941 70 4 ForginganUnlikelyAlliance:GermanyandJapan, 1933–1941 163 5 FacingtheSameDilemma:theUSandGermanQuestfor Rubber 268 6 TheCrisisoftheGermanWarEconomy,1940–1941 298 7 TheEndofBlitzkrieg?BarbarossaandtheImpactof Lend-Lease 321 8 TheBattleoftheAtlantic 427 9 TheLuftwaffeontheEveofGlobalWar 484 10 TheHolocaust 523 Conclusion 543 Bibliography 550 Index 579 vii FIGURES 1.1 WernervonBlombergandtheservicechiefsreportingtoHitler page32 1.2 AmbassadorEugenOtt 53 3.1 EnvoyHansThomsenandAttachéFriedrichBoetticher 78 3.2 ChurchillandRooseveltatArgentia 131 4.1 YosukeMatsuokaonhisarrivalinBerlin 193 4.2 HitlerreceivesMatsuokainhisReichskanzleiapartment 200 5.1 FittingatyretothelandinggearofaBoeingB-17 296 6.1 OKW’sGeneralfeldmarschallWilhelmKeitelinconversationwithHitler 305 6.2 AircraftdesignersWillyMesserschmittandErnstHeinkeljoinHitlerand FritzTodtatapre-warreception 311 7.1 HitleratanOKHbriefingflankedbyHalderandBrauchitsch 322 7.2 WreckedSovietaircraft,June1941 327 7.3 WreckedKV-1tank 330 7.4 Germanpropagandaposter,1941 386 7.5 GeneralfeldmarschallFedorvonBock 393 7.6 OverturnedMatildatanksoutsideMoscow,winter1941–2 406 8.1 ErichRaederwithAdmiralAdolfvonTrotha 431 8.2 U-boatlaunch 436 8.3 BismarcksetssailforRheinübung 448 8.4 AKriegsmarineEnigmaoperator 451 9.1 ABoeingB-17CataflypastlaidonforWinstonChurchill 497 9.2 AnItalianairraidonMalta 501 9.3 Yesterday’sdeterrent:theMe-264prototype 507 9.4 Me-210inRAFcolours 509 9.5 HeinkelHe-274prototype 518 10.1 NSDAPceremonyattheFeldherrnhalle,Munich 535 viii
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