Hitler blew it. He offered modest resistance to the Brits and other allies in their bug-out back to England.
He blew that and he foolishly declared war on the US and even worse..... Russia.
He seemed the genius after Czechoslovakia, Austria, Poland, Belgium, Holland and France. His alignment with the Soviet Union was played so well, Stalin didn’t believe it when he attacked them.
Thank goodness he screwed up so Royally. Too bad we aligned ourselves with the Soviets so closely. Our big WW 2 mistake
“Too bad we aligned ourselves with the Soviets so closely. Our big WW 2 mistake”
Can’t believe you said that. 20M Russians died in WWII. Russia provided the bodies and we provided weapons, food, supplies. Because of the Russians we got off light. We had about 300K kia’s in the European theater and about 100K in the Pacific. Who knows how the war would have turned out without the Russian meat grinder. I know that we (U.S.) would not have accepted casualties anywhere what the Soviets did. Just as a side note, It was estimated that an invasion of Japan would cost the U.S. around 500K casualties, maybe more. And, Roosevelt and his staff were desperate for an alternative solution. Thankfully, the atomic bomb came on-line at just the right time.
General George Patton would agree with you! He saw the Communists in the former USSR for what they really were.
Hitler deep down never really wanted to invade Britain, he merely wanted them neutralized, so he could turn his attention to Russia.
FedGov under FDR was so heavily saturated with reds that the alignment was a virtual given after Hitler turned on Stalin; however, even if that had not been the case, I suspect we would have still allied with them in opposing Germany. In retrospect it was a mistake, but we have the benefit of 70 years of hindsight. While the war itself was raging the outcome was uncertain and one only need look at the news of the day. We didn't know the full capabilities of the German u-boat fleet. Many in our nuclear program perceived we were in a race against Germany to master the a-bomb and even after Midway, the extent of resources needed to fully crush the Japanese were a huge unknown.
Certainly, aligning with Uncle Joe and conceding eastern Europe to him after the war was a big mistake, but at the time, I suspect the decision made more sense than not.
I always figured that Hitler declared war on the US because he wanted to go after the US convoys supplying both the Brits and the Russians. The U boats took a terrible toll until we got convoys and ASW figured out. Had he been able to cut off that pipeline then things would have been questionable for both.
I’ve always felt that we should have supplied the Soviets just enough to keep them in the war but not enough to let them win. Let the Nazis and the Commies (two peas from the same pod) destroy each other. To borrow a quote from elsewhere “It’s a shame they couldn’t both lose”.