Book Four: War: Early Victories and the Turning Point
- The Russians used Germany's warmongering to their advantage as they carried out invasions in the Baltic States and the Balkans.
- The Nazis had formerly agreed that some of these territories were in the Russian sphere of interest, but others were clearly in theirs.
- Hitler was humiliated by Joseph Stalin's crafty maneuvering, but for the time being he couldn't do much about it.
- Hitler had hoped to annex some of the Baltic states himself. Guess occupying the rest of Europe just wasn't enough.
- He also worried that Russia might cut off his essential supplies of Rumanian oil.
- Winston Churchill was by this time trying to warn Stalin that Hitler was as dangerous to Russia as he was to Britain.
- Hitler made his final decision in 1940 attack the Soviets in the spring of 1941.
Molotov in Berlin
- By the autumn of 1940, things were pretty tense between Germany and Russia.
- In November, the Soviet Foreign Commissar Vyacheslav Molotov had arrived in Berlin to discuss the two nations' affairs.
- Molotov was being relentless in his attempts to hold the Nazis to account, and at the same time, to advance Russian interests.
- The British put in an appearance, too. British bombers flew over Berlin on the night of a party that Molotov threw for his German hosts.
- This was the Brits' not-so-subtle way of telling the Soviets that Britain was still in the game.
- As the Nazi Foreign Minister Ribbentrop sat with Molotov in a bomb shelter beneath Berlin, Ribbentrop tried to convince Molotov that Russia should get in on the agreement that had been struck between Germany, Italy, and Japan.
- Part of Ribbentrop's hard sell was to assure Molotov that Britain was on the brink of defeat.
- Molotov replied something like, "Oh yeah? Then why are we in this bomb shelter and who's bombs are these?"
- Molotov quickly realized that the terms of the agreement weren't in Russia's interests.
- After Molotov returned to Moscow and reported to Stalin, the Russians told the Nazis that they'd agree to join a four-power pact with Germany, Italy, and Japan—but only under certain strict conditions.
- Hitler wouldn't even consider these conditions, and he moved ahead with plans for war with Russia.
Six Months of Frustration
- Hitler didn't seem to understand what would be needed on the international stage to defeat Britain, and he underestimated British power in the Mediterranean.
- Hitler believed that assistance from Spain, Nazi-occupied France, and Italy would be necessary in order to defeat the British in the Mediterranean, but his hopes were dashed in all three cases.
- The German Navy developed plans for assaults against the British in Egypt and Gibraltar, and for incursions into the Spanish Canary Islands, the Portuguese Cape Verde Islands, and French territories in North Africa.
- However, despite the fact that the top Navy brass insisted to Hitler that North African territories would crucial to the outcome of the war, Hitler wasn't convinced.
- Even after the British defeated Italian forces in Egypt, the Fuehrer wasn't that upset about it. He was more focused on Russia.
The World Will Hold Its Breath
- In this short section, Shirer offers brief accounts of two meetings that were held in the winter of 1941: one between Mussolini and Hitler, and the other between Hitler and his top generals.
- At the war conference between Hitler and German Army brass, the Fuehrer and his followers discussed their plans for Operation Barbarossa: i.e., the invasion of Russia.
- Hitler proclaimed to his audience that once the invasion began, the world would hold its breath and do nothing.
Balkan Prelude
- Before the invasion of Russia could get started, Hitler needed to secure the Balkans.
- Bulgaria decided to cooperate, hoping to get some territory from Greece. The Yugoslav Premiere and Foreign minister sneaked out of Belgrade to avoid protests, met up with Hitler and Ribbentrop, and signed on to the Tripartite Pact.
- The next day, back in Yugoslavia, the government was overthrown by a popular uprising led by top Air Force officers and supported by the army.
- Hitler flew in to one of the worst rages of his life—and that's saying a lot.
- He knew that the new government wouldn't accept being a puppet regime of Germany and he ordered the country attacked.
- Shirer argues that Hitler's decision to put down the coup was the biggest single mistake he ever made. It was a reckless decision sparked by Hitler's rage at the country's resistance.
- By sending German troops to the Yugoslavia, Hitler was forced to delay Operation Barbarossa by a month. That delay would extend the German invasion into the Russian winter, and, as history has shown, it would prove fatal to the German Army.
- Hitler crushed Yugoslavia and reduced its capital, Belgrade, to rubble. About 17,000 civilians were killed in the process.
- After describing the German assaults on Greece and Yugoslavia, Shirer turns his attention to the German Army's invasion of Libya, which the Italians had been trying, and failing, to secure.
- Next, he catches us up on the Nazis' ongoing propaganda war against the British.
- While Hitler was happy to insult the Brits, he continued to ignore the advice of the Army generals and naval commanders who were trying to convince him that Great Britain could only be defeated through war in the Mediterranean and Middle East.
- Hitler was still determined to focus on Russia rather than Britain.
- The Nazi Fuehrer seemed to have no understanding of the fact that at this very point in time, in the spring of 1941, and with a very small army, he could have caused severe damage to the British Empire and probably won the war right then and there.
The Planning of the Terror
- In this section, Shirer describes the plans that Hitler laid for the conquest of Russia, and he takes stock of the atrocities that Hitler had decided to commit against his former ally.
- Essentially, his plan was to starve to death the population of Russia. After the occupation, all the food produced would be sent to feed the Germans.
The Flight of Rudolph Hess
- In May 1941, Hess—the Deputy Leader of the Nazi party, stole a German fighter plane and flew to Scotland, apparently thinking that he'd be able to negotiate a diplomatic end to the war.
- Hess's actions convinced Hitler that his deputy leader and close confidant had lost his mind, and the Nazis soon spread that story to the German people.
- As for Hess, he was held in England as a prisoner of war. At the Nuremberg Trials, he was sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in the crimes of the Nazi Reich.
The Plight of the Kremlin
- In spite of all the evidence that Hitler was planning to attack, the Soviet leadership weren't prepared.
- Stalin had received warnings about the attack from the Churchill and the United States government.
- Not only did Stalin ignore the warnings, but the Soviets also broadcast and published a statement declaring that the rumors of an imminent German attack were totally groundless.
- But while the Soviets were denying the rumors, the Germans were busy preparing their invasion.
- Hitler had designed a brutal, terrifying war. The Fuehrer made a point of reminding his top Army brass that they would have to abandon traditional soldierly practices—the only ones permitted by international standards—in order to carry out a war against Russia that was unprecedented in its brutality.
- For example, a POW would just have to be brought to any officer, who would decide on the spot whether to shoot him or not.
- Even some of the Generals were appalled at this violation of international agreements.
- Shirer describes the justifications that Hitler gave to Mussolini as he informed him that Germany was about to launch an attack against Russia.
- Italy declared war against Russia, and the German troops moved across the Russian border.
- It's the third week of June, 1941.