The Battle of Britain Five Months That Changed History, May—October 1940 by James Holland (z-lib.org).epub

other hand, he had to consider the possibility that results might not be as
hoped, in which case, an invasion would be put on hold.
But Britain had to be taken out of the war. That was key to all future
plans, so alternative means of achieving this now had to be considered.
Britain was clearly placing her hopes on Russia and the United States, he
told them. This was the old paranoia returning: East and West; the fear that
Germany would be penned in either side, consumed by the Western powers
and the Soviet Union. However, he now argued, if Russia was out of the
picture, then America would also be lost for Britain, because elimination of
Russia would increase Japan’s power in the Far East. This would threaten
both British and American interests there. War between Japan and America
would distract the United States from Europe.
Hitler had already begun to feel a little twitchy about Russian
intentions. The Soviet Union had recently absorbed the Baltic States, as
agreed in the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, but she had also occupied
Bessarabia, an area to the south that bordered Romania. Intelligence also
suggested that Russia was alarmed by the speed of Germany’s victories.
Britain knew this, he claimed, which was one of the reasons she now held
so much faith in Soviet intervention. ‘With Russia smashed,’ Hitler told his
assembled commanders, ‘Britain’s last hope would be shattered.’ Germany
would then be master of Europe and the Balkans. Therefore, Russia’s
destruction had to be part of the struggle to defeat Britain, and the sooner
the better. Such an attack would only achieve its purpose if the Soviet
Union could be ‘shattered to its roots with one blow’. He now ordered
planning for an attack on the Soviet Union to begin. The provisional date
for this assault was May the following year.
Incredibly, Hitler was now dramatically suggesting that Germany turn
on Russia far earlier than he had ever envisaged, purely to hasten Britain’s
exit from the war. General Halder, for one, was not convinced by this
argument and believed a decisive blow could also be achieved in the
Mediterranean and Middle East along with the Italians. At any rate, either
option meant the continuation of war beyond the autumn, and would lead to
a war on two fronts, which was precisely what Hitler had always feared; it
was why he had gone for the all-out gamble against the West that May.
Britain was frustrating his hopes, wrecking his plans. For Germany’s sake,
the Führer and his commanders had to pray that these new ideas remained