Why did Hitler choose to attack USSR in 1941 and not consolidate his strength 1st?

Answer 1

I have been looking at this question for a couple of days. Reading the answers already offered (some of them very good), they seem to be answering a question that you did not ask.

• You did not ask “Why did Hitler attack the USSR?” I think that you already knew the answer to that.

• What you actually asked is “Why did Hitler not wait until 1942 (or later) before attacking USSR?”

Your thinking behind that question is based (I guess) on the belief that Hitler’s war machine reached its maximum strength in 1942 ... and that in 1941 Germany’s armed forces had not quite reached that level of maximum strength. That may very well be valid: the Wehrmacht probably did reach its peak in 1942.

However, the question of “when would be the best time?” to attack the USSR had to be based not only on German strength and preparedness, but also on predictions about Russia’s defensive ability. Even if Hitler realized that his armed forces might be better prepared in 1942 than in 1941, he also had to decide whether the USSR might also be stronger in 1942 than in 1941.

German intelligence about Russia’s military capability was far from perfect. For example, the Germans did not know about Russia’s T-34 and KV tanks. But Germany did know about several very significant weaknesses in Russia’s armed forces ... weaknesses that certainly existed in 1941 ... but which Russia might well have begun to repair by 1942: -

• Stalin’s purge of the Red Army, that had slaughtered most of Russia’s most talented senior officers.

• The stupid Russian decision to disband its Mechanized Corps formations (the equivalent of Wehrmacht Panzer Divisions).

• And, above all, the Red Army’s staggering demonstration of chaotic ineptitude in its Winter War against Finland.

All of these indicated to Hitler and his generals that the Red Army in 1941 was in a terrible state of disarray, ripe for defeat. They were probably right to assume that the opportunity for a successful attack on Russia would never be better than in 1941.

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However, the other factor --- far more important than any intelligent analysis of the relative strengths of the Wehrmacht and the Red Army in 1941 vs 1942 --- was Hitler’s personal thirst to dominate the Slav lands to Germany’s east. Hitler did not even consider delaying Barbarossa until 1942. He wanted to attack the USSR at the very first possible moment, and was disappointed that he had to wait until 1941 to do so.

According to General Jodl, while the Battle of France was still undecided, Hitler expressed his determination to deal with Russia as soon as the military situation made it at all possible.

(Prior to that, Hitler had always made it a condition of any attack on Russia that Germany must first be secure against intervention from the west. For example, in a November 1939 speech to his generals, Hitler had repeated this condition, first laid down in Mein Kampf: 'We can oppose Russia only when we are free in the west.')

But by mid-1940, Hitler had changed his mind. Two reasons: first, quite simply because his stunning success in the West had gone to his head; second, because Russian moves in the Baltics and against Romania convinced Hitler that Stalin intended treachery.

As a result, in July 1940 (with Britain forced out of France, but still defiant), Hitler actually considered launching an invasion of Russia within two months. His generals dissuaded him, pointing out the impossibility of building up the forces required in so short a time. But Hitler’s insistence on an attack on the USSR was not abandoned – merely postponed to the first possible moment. He even rationalized the need for an attack on the USSR as follows (recorded by General Halder, July 31st, 1940): -

“Our efforts must be directed to the elimination of all factors that let England hope for a change in the situation. Britain's hope lies in Russia and the U.S.A. If Russia drops out of the picture, America, too, is lost for Britain, because the elimination of Russia would greatly increase Japan's power in the Far East.

Decision: Russia's destruction must therefore be made a part of this struggle. The sooner Russia is crushed the better. The attack will achieve its purpose only if the Russian State can be shattered to its roots with one blow. If we start in May 1941, we will have five months in which to finish the job.”

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So, more than anything else, the choice of 1941 for Barbarossa stemmed from Hitler’s crazed brain.

Answer 2

Hitler attacked the USSR for the following reasons:

1) He needed the oil in the Caucusses mountains.

2) He believed that the German Army would destroy the Russians quickly. In WWI, the Germans decimated the Russians because the Russians had outdated equipment and tactics and incompetent leadership. Comparatively, Germany was unable to beat France in four years of vicious fighting. In 1939, Germany rolled over the French Army was victorious in a matter of weeks. If you assume that the relative strength of France and Russia was maintained during the inter war period, it is logical to assume Germany would achieve a quick and decisive victory.

3) Eventually the Soviet Union would attack Germany. Germany posed a great threat to the USSR, and conversely the USSR posed a great threat to Germany. Both political systems were virulently opposed to the other. War between the two nations was highly probable.

4) It was part of a grand strategy the involved the conquest of North Africa and the Middle East.

Answer 3

That was the Original Plan that is why Rockefeller funded Him from 1924 and Warburg FDR Prescott Bush Rockefeller's Lindbergh used JP Morgan to set up the Hitler fund in 1933 to ensure Hitler won legally

Answer 4

Hitler was a very poor commander he would not listen to his advisers and certainly paid no attention to hes generals on the ground had he done the outcome of the second world war would of been very different, Russia had vast resources and he wanted them and the fact he hated Starlin, at that time the German army was the best by far and had he pulled hes troops out and regrouped then who knows what would have happened but that's what happens when you have a insane and erratic leader

Answer 5

Whatever his reasons were, we'll never know for sure, we can sit here and speculate.

Had he decided to build up his forces, what would have happen, had he developed his fighter jet, the one that scared the hell out of the bomber pilots that saw it. Had he developed a bigger tank then the "Panzer"
Had he incorporated and with promises forced the Polish and the other occupation armies to side with him over promises of freedom and a better future. What would have happen?
It makes a scary future doesn't it?

Hitler, I want to believe had syphilis and was already in the stages of a sick mind, he wouldn't listen to anyone, wouldn't trust anyone. Due to the "Bunker bomb" he had, how many of his top echelon generals and ranking people executed without question. It went into the hundreds. This is the thinking of a sick mind.
We can only thank a higher authority for the intervention that was to come or, what would have happen?

Answer 6

well he needed oil for one thing. I dont know if Germany is self dependent on oil in 1940's but the caucusses mountan oil fields was his main target.

Did you know that untill the minute he invaded, Russia and Germany were at peace with each other.
Before the start of world war II Germany and Russia actually signed a military pact. Both would invade Poland and share the occupation.

Germany broke the peace by invading russia.

Answer 7

Probably rotten intelligence and, like other leaders we can name, a refusal to acknowledge the strength of his enemy. He probably found out too late that Russia was gaining strength, and attacked when he thought he could still win. Napoleon made sort of the same mistake, but in this case, the error may have been magnified by Hitler's feeling that Communists couldn't do anything right. To an extent he was correct--they were inefficient as could be--but their numbers were great and their determination was strong.

Answer 8

Hitler knew that he could not hold Europe in subjection, as he wanted to, unless he had plentiful oil supplies.

The two nearest supply areas were in Arabia and around the Caspian sea. Rommel was supposed to reach Arabia by conquering North Africa then Egypt, except Montgomery stopped him at El Alamein. The attack on Russia was supposed to reach the Caspian Sea, except that the Russians stopped it at Kursk.

Hitler was a clever enough strategist to try them both together, ready to abandon one of them if the other succeeded. When both of them failed, he was doomed.

Answer 9

Because the man was an egomaniacal idiot, and because, as a historian once said, he wanted land and if you are in Europe and you want lots of land and resources and you look west, there is the water, but if you look east, there is Russia.

Anyway, the rest of Europe, with the exception of England, had been a walkover and he thought he had consolidated his strength; back to being an idiot there.

Answer 10

Hitler was like a meglomaniac he thought he could do any thing i'm sure he honestly thought he was making a good choice he thought he was so powerfull that he could defeat anybody at any time