Hitler's Fatal Miscalculation: Why Germany Declared War on the United States

Cambridge Military Histories

by Klaus H. Schmider

"In the last days of November 1941, Nazi Germany's strategic situation was ambiguous: her armies were in possession of most of continental Europe and fighting deep inside the USSR, but the momentum of the Wehrmacht's war machine appeared to be spending itself. In relation to the numbers of U-boats available, sinkings had been dropping since June; her surface fleet was unlikely to pick up the slack, since it had just had fuel restrictions imposed on it which all but ruled out a resumption of Atlantic operations. In the air, nighttime RAF bombing raids were becoming a feature of everyday life, and reaching deeper and deeper into areas of the German geography thus far untouched. On the Russian front, which consumed most of the army's and air force's assets, operations aimed at rendering the situation of the defenders of Leningrad and Moscow untenable and force the surrender of those of Sevastopol, were still in progress. On the downside, Army Group South had just been forced to abandon its most recent prize - the city of Rostov - to the counterattacking Red Army, an event that definitely had to be rated as a 'first' in the annals of the Russo- German war. Crucially, the war economy which needed to deliver a maximum output if the armed forces of the Third Reich were to have even a remote chance of meeting the conflicting priorities set by their warlord, had entered a period of crisis, with neither enough labour nor raw materials available to meet the demands for 1942"--

Genres: History, World War II

610 pages, Hardcover

First published January 31, 2021

Reviews

[The White Tiger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thesis: Hitler's decision to declare war on the United States was a momentous strategic miscalculation based on the information he had available to him before the attack on Pearl Harbor, challenging existing explanations in the historiography that he was either a madman or desperate. Key elements of Hitler's decision: (1) U.S. rescinded Neutrality Act in late '41; (2) Hitler believed that it was only a matter of time before Germany and America would be at war and that U.S. economic-industrial-military potential would surpass Germany's eventually; (3) Hitler was not aware of how badly the campaign against USSR was proceeding; (4) Hitler believed that recent and emerging aviation technologies and defenses would hold RAF bombing campaigns in check; (5) Italy had proven to be a catastrophic liability, shifting Nazi ally politics East; and (5) Hitler (possibly) and Nazi economic and military intelligence analysts believed that Japanese territorial expansion into SE Asia would capture 90% of the world's natural rubber supply, severely hamstringing American rearmament and Lend-Lease.

Style: Analytical history organized thematically to address key questions and unresolved issues in the literature. Prose is clear and direct.

Thoughts: This is a great example of superior scholarship within a very mature historiography. Schmider's methodology and analysis are sound. This work deserves more attention, particularly because it is likely to be overshadowed by Simms and Laderman's Hitler's American Gamble: Pearl Harbor and Germany’s March to Global War.

[Mathieu Gaudreault · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this great book the author explain on the why's Hitler decided to declare war to the USA and that at the time the decison was take(Decembre 11 1941) Hitler empire situation looked good and that even Hitler health wasn't in terminal decline. Hitler would show signs on parkinson only the next year in 1942 so declairing war on the USA wasn't nihilistic death wish.

In several chapters explians that in the fall 1941 the USSR was severly mauled(lost of the Donesk region that is were most of the coal of the USSR is), severe manpower lost at Kiev and Vyzma. The Soviets lost in 5 months 10 millions soldiers(5 millions POW and 5 millions deaths) plus the were millions of woundeds. The germans were used to soviet counter attack and the winter conter offensive at the time of December 11 1941 didn't put the Heer in a critical position. The artic sea was frozen so they would not be enoufg supply to prop out the soviets.

Also the Luftwaffe with the Flak were takin a heavy toll on RAF night bombers and the raids weren.t as severe at they woule be in spring 1942. The Luftwaffe had2 new airplanes in devlopping that showed good promises, the heavy fighter ME 210, the heavy bomber He 177.

Germany would have an allied in Asia that would seize the main source of rubber in the Word and since it was assumed that the US production of synthetic rubber was too small there would be a shortage of rubber in late 1942 or early 1943 in the USA and the gigantic industrial machine of the USA would ground to a halt.

Last, the author mentions that FDR wasn't a dove and took step by step process to get his contry on the road to war to destroy Hitler empire. First in summer 1940 the deal Destroyers for naval bases. Second the US occupation of Iceland in July 1941, last the repel of the neutrality act in November 1941. Even with further restrain war would have been inevitable with US navy ships escorting british convoys all the way to England. The Kriegsmarine had 97 new U BOATS training in the Baltic in fall 1941 and two dozens built every months so from the german dictator view theKriegsmarine would be able to sink enoufg merchants ships.


The authors , afterward show how events that seemed promised soured later and in one case , the syntehic rubber , the USA was able to avert a rubber shortage because IG Farben had sold in 1939 their formula of Buna to a major US oil company. A really well researched book, with lots of endnotes and an exhaustive bibliography.

For conculsion a book that dispell many myths and that is well reaserched(lots of endnotes and an exhaustive bibliography).