Talking About Military History: Why did Nazi Germany concentrate her armed forces on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union in World War II?
Why did Nazi Germany concentrate her armed forces on the Eastern Front against the Soviet Union in World War II? Aside from the fact that to the Nazis the Soviet Union was the principal enemy? There were several reasons, really. First, you must remember that by Adolf Hitler’s calculations, Great Britain was on the ropes and unable to reverse her defeat in Western Europe a year earlier. Yes, the Royal Air Force had defeated Germany’s Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain and the Royal Navy was still a force to be contended with. But with Britain’s army scattered hither and yon in North Africa, India, and its Imperial holdings everywhere, it would take years for Churchill to field a land force strong enough to open a Second Front in the West. (Hitler was a land-bound “strategist” and failed to recognize that if he lost the air war and the Battle of the Atlantic, his Reich was doomed.) Second, Hitler was counting on continued American neutrality (even though by June