Hitler's forces now become focused in
        their hunt for Jewish "undesireables"

Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor brings
        America into the War (December 1941)

Three days later, Hitler declares war
        against America

The formation of the "United Nations"

The textual material on page below is drawn directly from my work A Moral History of Western Society © 2024, Volume Two, pages 168-171 ... although the page below generally goes into much greater detail.

By September of 1940, with the British Royal Air Force still in the air and able to fight off German air cover needed for any invading ground forces, Hitler came to the conclusion that he would have to ‘postpone’ the planned invasion of England. With this humiliation of not being able to deliver on a promised conquest of England, Hitler felt the pressure to strike elsewhere in testimony of Aryan greatness. By December of 1940 he was making plans to make good on a long-standing promise to convert the Slavic lands to the East (principally the Ukraine) into a "breadbasket" for Germany – and Lebensraum ("room for living") for an expanding Aryan German society and culture. Germans could also use the inferior people (Untermenschen) of the Slavic lands as a source of slave labor to strengthen Germany’s industrial capabilities. And seized oil fields of Azerbaijan would also aid in this strengthening of Germany. Also, Hitler was certain that in seeing Russia defeated, England would finally lose heart and accept any kind of peace deal with Germany it could get. Some of Hitler’s generals prepared a study that demonstrated that the venture would cost more than it would gain. But Hitler, by this time positive that he had special (almost mystical) skills to see possibilities where other mortals – including importantly his generals – were blind, ignored their arguments. Plans were set for invasion of the East in mid-May of the next year (1941). Through the winter of 1940-1941 the Germans began massing huge amounts of troops along the German-Russian occupation line in Poland. The Yugoslav diversion.  But Hitler did not get the operation underway as quickly as planned because the movement of his troops through Yugoslavia on their way East was dismantled when a Yugoslav poliltical coup overthrew the Yugoslav King, who had been cooperating with Hitler.  Consequently, Hitler in April turned his troops South in the heartland of Yugoslavia in order to bring Yugoslavia back under "cooperation" with him and his operation. But the delay would prove costly, because it would begin his operation much later into the season ... into a deadly winter in fact, one that would cripple the momentum of the operation.  Ultimately this delay proved to be disastrous for Hitler. Stalin's response.  But Stalin also seemed slow to respond.  Actually, he had vastly more tanks and planes at hand than did the Germans, although because of his purges of the Red Army in 1937-1939, his officers were young and inexperienced. But still, Stalin was not really ready to face the possibility that war with Germany was at hand. Churchill warned Stalin that through his military intelligence he had every reason to believe that Hitler was indeed about to attack Russia. Stalin would not hear of it, claiming that Churchill was simply trying to start something between the Russians and Germans just to get the Germans off the English backs. But indeed, on June 22nd, 1941 Hitler sent his troops rolling into Russian-controlled Poland. Their momentum soon had the Germans on Soviet soil itself. Part of Hitler’s army raced toward the northeast, trying to seize Leningrad (St. Petersburg). Hitler's arrogant stupidity in Ukraine.   Another section of his army made a lunge toward the southeast, through the Ukraine. Amazingly, the Ukrainians came out to greet their "liberators" with flowers and cheers (the Ukrainians hated Stalin and his Russian Communists); equally amazing (not really!) Hitler was furious when he heard that his soldiers were fraternizing with the Ukrainians, and ordered them instead to start rounding up the Untermenschen for slave labor service. This bit of arrogance was another key factor in crippling Hitler’s plan to overrun the Soviet Union – at least in the south. Rather than surrender, the Russians employed the same strategy that had worked so successfully when Napoleon and his French army invaded Russia back in 1812. The Russians fell back, burning their own lands to keep crops and herds from being of use to the invaders. Back they went, and then further back. German supply lines became overstretched – and supplies lacking. Russian partisan groups began hit-and-run sniping and skirmishing with Germans patrols. Even the Ukrainians began to join the Partisans attacking vulnerable positions in the German lines. The Germans retaliated with incredible acts of cruel revenge enacted on the conquered civilians. The hatred between the two sides became intense. Then the cold weather of Russia began to set in. Blitzkrieg soon lost its momentum. Hitler’s troops were now entangled in a draining war in the East. With ammunition, fuel, food and warm clothing in very short supply, and the diesel engines in Hitler’s tanks and trucks frozen up, the Germans found themselves unable to continue their advance. The offensive would have to wait until the spring thaw of 1942 before it could be resumed. But by that time Blitzkrieg would have lost its momentum and the Russians would be preparing a strong counter-offensive against the German invaders.