Loading...

Hitler's mistake that sealed the result of World War II

Hitler's mistake that sealed the result of World War II

¿Qué marcó el comienzo de la Segunda Guerra Mundial? La invasión de Alemania a Polonia, el 1 de septiembre de 1939 es la respuesta más común; para otros la mundialización de la guerra no sucedió hasta que Adolf Hitler rompió su pacto con Stalin y atacó la Unión Soviética, el 22 de junio de 1941, o hasta que Japón sorprendió a los Estados Unidos con el ataque de Pearl Harbor, el 7 de diciembre de 1941. Dos historiadores británicos, Brendan Simms y Charlie Laderman —de la Universidad de Cambridge y el King’s College London, respectivamente— proponen una nueva lectura.

Fue Hitler quien mundializó el conflicto que hasta diciembre de 1941 se concentraba en Europa, el norte de África y —recientemente— las afueras de Moscú.

Según su libro Hitler’s American Gamble: Pearl Harbor and Germany’s March to Global War (The bet de Hitler en los Estados Unidos: Pearl Harbor y la marcha de Alemania hacia la guerra global), Hitler aprovechó el ataque japonés para distraer a los estadounidenses en el Pacífico y así cortar su asistencia al Reino Unido y a la URSS.But by declaring war to the United States on December 11, 1941, he sealed, unintentionally, his defeat.

As Simms and Laderman synthesized: "Hitler committed suicide for fear of dying".

Se suele asociar el ataque japonés a la base estadounidense en Hawai, que dejó casi 2.500 dead and disabled valuable military resources, with the entry of the United States to the conflict. Sin embargo, Franklin Roosevelt no le pidió al Congreso que declarase la guerra contra Alemania, sino solo contra Japón: la opinión pública prefería que el país se mantuviera al margen y un gran lobby aislacionista operaba en el Senado.

Hitler recibió la noticia de Pearl Harbor con tanto entusiasmo que le arrebató a su jefe de prensa, Otto Dietrich, el cable de Reuters y corrió 100 metros, sin custodia, hasta el bunker del Alto Mando de la Wehrmacht (OKW) para dar la noticia en persona.

And to communicate his epiphany: now he would win the war.

I was going to force Americans to cut the arrangements of the Lend-Lease (loan and rent) for which they supplied from food to oil, from ammunition to airplanes to the United Kingdom and the USSR.Would have your own needs.And without the Lend-Lease, London would fall.And then Moscow.

The bet

"It is usually said that Hitler attacked the United States for ignorance or very much in spite of his immense power," Simms and Laderman recalled."It is not like this.[Hitler] declared war to the United States for its colossal industrial and demographic potential.At the end of 1941, the Führer saw a small margin of opportunity not to defeat the United States directly but to create a block of self -sufficient and strong axis to resist.Otherwise, he risked a gradual strangulation ”.

Seen the calamitous result of his bet, the hypothesis about Hitler's reasons usually fall into their megalomania.But at that time the result was far from being evident, historians stressed. En los cinco días que transcurrieron desde Pearl Harbor hasta el discurso en el Reichstag podrían haber sucedido muchas cosas, muy distintas.

“The world of August 1945 was only one of several that seemed possible at the beginning of December 1941.Japan could have attacked the USSR to avenge the defeats of 1938 and 1939, ”they proposed.“Russia could have declared war on Japan in solidarity with its western allies.Hitler could have ruled out the declaration of war against the United States.Japan could have attacked only the British empire, and not to Americans.Each of these alternatives, and its consequent variants, could have resulted in a substantially different world in 1945 ″.

History is made in uncertainty, eventualities happen. Y esa concatenación, según Simms y Laderman, alcanza incluso a la Shoah: “Nadie puede saber con certeza cómo le hubiera ido a los judíos de Europa si Hitler no hubiera declarado la guerra a los Estados Unidos el 11 de diciembre”.

In the east there were massacres, and a special force had even been created, the Einsatzkommandos, for the murder of hundreds of thousands of people;But in Western Europe the Jewish population was being arrested, not killed, they speculated. Auschwitz era un campo de tránsito; Birkenau estaba en construcción.Since October 23, Jews could not leave the Reich, in a hostage situation.

Hitler’s American Gamble estimated that it was precisely during the months of September to December when Hitler made “the connection between American politics and the destiny of European Jews” explicitly ”.And in January 1942 the Wansee Conference was held, which stipulated the extermination.

In the middle are those dramatic days of December, that the book develops hour by time.

Sunday, December 7, 1941

A las 8:30 de la mañana de Londres, Winston Churchill, en bata multicolor, tomaba un “desayuno colosal” mientras miraba los periódicos.The Japanese attack was expected in the Pacific, probably in the British colonies, perhaps in the Dutch. Le envió un mensaje al primer ministro tailandés, Luang Phibunsongkhram, asegurándole que el Reino Unido intervendría en caso de una invasión en Tailandia; una pérdida de tiempo, ya que el primer ministro se aliaría al eje.

En Berlín, Hitler promulgaba el Decreto Noche y Niebla, que en nombre de perseguir supuestas infracciones contra el Reich en los territorios ocupados iniciaba la desaparición forzada de personas y la decisión sobre su destino —o muerte o deportación— en una corte marcial.

El error de Hitler que selló el resultado de la Segunda Guerra Mundial

Horas más tarde, en el frente oriental, el Ejército Rojo hacía retroceder a las divisiones panzer del general Heintz Guderian en las inmediaciones de Lodz y el general Hellmuth Stieff le escribía a su esposa sobre lo que sucedía a las puertas de Moscú: “Si no se enfrenta esta crisis, el destino del ejército está sellado.The probabilities are scarce ".Stieff was bothered "the lethargy, almost the apathy, of the troops, which feel they have been abandoned in this terrible cold".And it bothered him that in Berlin the propaganda ignored them: “Nothing could matter less than a crusade.We are fighting for our lives, every day and every hour against an enemy that is superior on land and in the air ".

En Washington DC, el marino experto en inteligencia japonesa Alwin D. Kramer le dejaba una carpeta con información a la secretaria de Frank Knox, su superior, secretario de la fuerza: el gran movimiento de tropas japonesas en el Pacífico era para atacar Kota Bharu, Malasia.

El secretario de estado, Cordell Hull, estaba reunido con Knox y Henry Stimson, secretario de Guerra, para preparar su encuentro con el embajador japonés Kichisaburo Nomura, y un enviado especial de Tokio para avanzar en las negociaciones de un acuerdo de no agresión, Saburo Kurusu.It was going to be at noon, but the diplomats asked him to postpone him until 1:45.

They were decoding a cable at full speed, for the meeting, but they did not tell.

President Roosevelt finished his daily treatment for chronic sinusitis that afflicted him.Soon it would be lunch time.

Al noroeste de Hawai, distante unos 430 kilómetros cinco portaaviones se escondían detrás del más enorme, la isla flotante del Akagi, y reunían 183 hombres a cargo del almirante Chuichi Nagumo. Un grupo de oficiales brindaba con sake; algunos tenían pañuelos de samurai atados a sus cascos; Mitsuo Fuchida, el encargado del primer grupo de aviones que saldría hacia Pearl Harbor, llevaba ropa interior roja para que sus subordinados no se asustaran si resultaba herido.

"Tora, Tora, Tora"

A la 1 del mediodía en Washington DC, Roosevelt terminaba una cita con el embajador chino, Hu Shih, y le pedía a su esposa que lo excusara del almuerzo que había organizado con 31 invitados: se tenía que reunir con Harry Hopkins, su consejero.Eleanor sent them soup and sandwiches.

Ten minutes later, at 7:40 in the morning in Hawaii and at 7:10 in the afternoon in London, Fuchida looked over Pearl Harbor and warned Nagumo that they had managed to arrive inadvertently: "Tora, Tora, Tora" (Tora "(Tora" (Tora "(ToraTigre, Tigre, Tigre).While two other operations began in Asia, Fuchida gave the sign of starting the attack: it was 7:53, seven minutes earlier than planned.

La primera tanda de bombas cayó sobre los acorazados Oklahoma, West Virginia y California, mientras una decena de cazas atacaba la base aérea de Hickam Field.The second round was for the battleship Maryland and Pennsylvania, the destroyer Shaw, the Raleigh cruise and a supply ship, in addition to several airfields in the area. Al cabo del ataque quedarían cuatro acorazados y cinco barcos hundidos, además de otros dañados o encallados; 217 aviones destruidos y 159 en muy mal estado; cuatro submarinos hundidos.There were more dead, 2.466, who wounded, 1.247.

He had spent half an hour from the beginning of the attack when Knox called Roosevelt: "Mr. President, it seems that the Japanese have bombarded Pearl Harbor".The surprise left Roosevelt without words, barely articulated "No".He cut, looked at Hopkins.He managed to repeat the message that Honolulu had issued: “We are being attacked.It is not a drill ".

Escribieron Simms y Laderman: “Roosevelt recordó que Japón había iniciado la guerra con Rusia, en 1904, de una manera similar, al atacar su base naval en Port Arthur”, hoy Lüshunkou, China."He commented that this was‘ exactly the kind of things that the Japanese would do, at the same time that they discuss peace in the Pacific they are plotting to break it ’.He reminded Hopkins his ‘sincere desire to complete this government without war’, but if Hawaii's news were correct, the matter would no longer be in his hands ”.

Without knowing that his country had attacked the United States, Nomura and Kurusu presented themselves in the State Department with their transcript document: it was a blah blat on peace, a distraction.Although they were late, Hull received them.He read the text that he had and felt his hands were shaking."They are infamous falsehoods and misrepresentations, on a scale so large that until today I never imagined that a government of this planet was able to pronounce them!".While accompanying them at the door they gave them a quick course on how it insults themselves in Tennessee.

Nomura and Kurusu were confused.The little cloud of journalists gathered in front of Hull's office disoriented them even more with their questions about Pearl Harbor.Only when they returned to the embassy were informed of the facts.Nomura began to cry: his mission had failed.

Churchill did not understand, Stalin moved his pieces

En la casa de campo de Chequers, Churchill comía en un silencio preocupado, recordó su mayordomo, Frank Sawyers.He didn't even warn when he brought him a radio to listen to the news of the 9 at night. Sólo W. Averell Harriman, el enviado especial de Roosevelt para coordinar el Lend-Lease, le agradeció con una inclinación de cabeza.

The announcer read the headlines;The prime minister was still self -absorbed."The Japanese bombarded Pearl Harbor," he heard without listening.Harriman jumped from his chair: "What did they say about a bombing in Pearl Harbor?".

Diez minutos más tarde el embajador estadounidense, John Winant, debió convencer a Churchill de que no declarase la guerra a Japón. “No puede tomar una medida así a partir de una noticia, aunque la haya dado la BBC”, coincidió Harriman.

Al mismo tiempo que Churchill conseguía hablar con Roosevelt, el Foreign Office recibía el mensaje del embajador británico en los Estados Unidos, Lord Halifax, con las noticias."Now we are all in the same," said Roosevelt.

Maxim Litvinov, el embajador soviético, había llegado esa mañana a Washington DC, luego de haber entrado al país vía Hawai, precisamente, y haber recorrido las instalaciones de Pearl Harbor tres días antes.He immediately informed Stalin;His concern was for the new scenario to deprive the USSR of the resources of the Lend-Lease.

Stalin preferred to worry about that when the time came.At that moment the news took great relief: if the Japanese had not attacked the USSR, he could send the troops in the east to fight against the Germans in Moscow, and that did, at a speed that made a big difference. Alemania ya no se recuperaría en territorio soviético, aunque todavía tenía por delante el sitio de Leningrado y la batalla de Stalingrado.

While Hitler reviewed his proposal according to Japan and mentally prepared his declaration of war against the United States, Roosevelt prepared his speech against Congress: a brief and forceful text, in which Germany was not mentioned, although at the time nobody believedthat Japan could organize without help an attack of that magnitude. En Japón, al mismo tiempo, el príncipe Konoe, que había sido primer ministro hasta octubre, advirtió: “Realmente siento que se avecina una derrota miserable”.Accused of war crimes, it would commit suicide in 1945.

The eve

On Wednesday 10 eight Japanese planes attacked the British battle cruise repulse;20 minutes later, nine torpedoes reached Prince of Wales, which was believed to proof of everything. Los ataques alternados terminaron por hundir los dos navíos; entre los 840 muertos estaba el almirante Tom Phillips, a cargo de la Fuerza Z, las naves de la Royal Navy en el océano Pacífico.

The greatest tragedy of the Royal Navy marked at the same time the end of the Age of the battles and the decline of imperial power.But at that time Churchill could only think about the change in the balance of forces in the area: after Pearl Harbor, the sinking of the repulse and the Prince of Wales left the Asian corridor in the hands of Japan.Or Germany?Rumors about the participation of Hitler aviators multiplied."Japonazis: Tokyo's Air Force is equipped by the Nazis," titled an American newspaper.

En Alemania, el ministro de Asuntos Exteriores, Joachim von Ribbentrop, llamaba a su embajador en Roma, Hans Georg von Mackensen, para ultimar los detalles del pacto del eje y asegurar que Benito Mussolini no declarase la guerra a los Estados Unidos antes que Hitler, quien lo haría en un discurso ante el Reichstag el 11 de diciembre a las 3 de la tarde de Alemania. Joseph Goebbels, ministro de Propaganda, había elegido esa hora para que la presentación fuera global: el emperador Hirohito la podría escuchar en la noche y la Casa Blanca en la mañana.

Ribbentrop también ordenó al chargé d’affaires en Washington DC, Hans Thomsen, que no iniciara ni aceptara contacto con el Departamento de Estado hasta el día siguiente cuando, una vez comenzado el discurso de Hitler, debía darle a Hull, en mano, la declaración de guerra.

En la conferencia de prensa diaria con los medios extranjeros, el intérprete Paul Schmidt ordenó que los periodistas estadounidenses se fueran del salón y advirtió a los demás que ya no los considerasen colegas.Hours later the raids would begin to stop them.

The night before, in Washington DC, Roosevelt had resumed his radio messages to the American people after the Japanese attack.The president prepared the public for what seemed imminent, since German businessmen and journalists began to leave the United States.The Japanese had acted "in collaboration" with the Nazis;Even against his will, the government was in the war.He announced that industrial production would accelerate to have resources for their own and allies to end "the sources of international brutality" and prevent "a world directed by the principles of some gangsters".

While he came to say that little would be to defeat Japan if "the rest of the world continued to dominate by Hitler and Mussolini," Roosevelt knew that there was a great opposition to war, which exerted great influence in Congress through the lobbyANTI INTERVENTIONIST.

Thursday, December 11, 1941

Roosevelt retouched his response to Churchill's request on the Land-Lease.Where he said "it is being resolved according to our agreement," he corrected: "It will be resolved";Instead of "shipments will resume on January 1", "I hope that shipments resume", and thus.Your own needs would increase in the following days.

Pasada la 1 de la tarde en Berlín, la élite nazi empezó a reunirse en la Puerta de Brandeburgo para ir luego hacia la Ópera Kroll, donde se realizaría la reunión del Reichstag.

Herman Göering, número dos de Hitler y presidente del Reichstag, hablaba con Goebbels mientras la banda tocaba la marcha militar Präsentiermarsch y el himno nacional alemán. Cuando Hitler llegó con Heinrich Himmler, jefe de la policía y futuro ministro del Interior, cambió al himno nazi, Horst-Wessel-Lied.Were exactly three in the afternoon.

Göring was planted in front of the only decoration of the room: a huge golden gold swastika sustained by the claws of a giant eagle.He did not stole Hitler prominence: he asked for a minute of silence for the dead in combat and gave him the microphone.

A, the differences between the United States, with his New Deal de Roosevelt, and the great German power that he led to glory, began.The White House had launched an unjustified attack against Germany in 1917 and now it was about to do the same."The same force inspires the two conflicts," he said.

“El eterno judío”, agregó, “la fuerza detrás” de Woodrow Wilson antes y de Roosevelt entonces.In addition, the alliance that tried to "exterminate" to Germany had expanded: it included the "Anglo-Saxon-Jewish-capitalist world" and "Bolshevism".It already reached 90 minutes of speech.The logical conclusion was "an extermination war against the Anglo -Saxons, the Jews and their Bolsheviks puppets," he said.And so it became official.

When Hitler began to speak, at 8 in the morning of Washington DC, Thomsen arrived at the State Department.Three photographers were thrown over him;He protested: "This is little decay".The diplomats were not prepared to receive it and Hull was busy.He had to wait more or less the same time that Hitler took to speak.The announcement was synchronous.

From the Shoah to the atomic bomb

The anti -Semitic doctrine that Goebbels had stated in November - "each Jew is our enemy, be vegetating in a Polish ghetto or extends her parasitic existence in Berlin or Hamburg or announce the war in New York and Washington" - - he multiplied in the communication of the Reichduring the following days.Hitler announced his intention to "make a table" in the "Jewish issue";"World War is here and the extermination of Jews must be their necessary consequence". Su ideólogo, Alfred Rosenberg, difundió un texto, “La cuestión judía es un problema mundial”, con términos similares.

They wrote Simms and Laderman: “In Russia, it had long since treated the Jews of both sexes and all ages, with or without uniform, as enemies that should be systematically murdered.Now the Jews of Germany and Central and Western Europe were going to be killed also.The entrance of the United States into the war may have been the decisive factor or simply an accelerator, but it is clear that a motivation for Hitler's annihilation war against European Jews was their relationship with the United States ”.

El Ejército Rojo continuó imponiéndose sobre los alemanes; la aviación británica bombardeó e incendió Colonia, Hamburgo, Düsseldorf, con un altísimo costo de víctimas civiles. Algo similar ocurrió en Japón, donde las casas de madera ardían tras los bombardeos estadounidenses, y finalmente la bomba atómica aniquiló a la población de Hiroshima y Nagasaki.

None of that, said Hitler’s American Gamble, was predictable the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor;Almost all that was inevitable on the world stage that was established since December 12, 1941."This tension between determination and contingency is what makes these five days of December so dramatic," synthesized British historians.“Almost 100 hours after Pearl Harbor passed for the situation, five agonized days when the fate of the world hit a thread.In the end, it was Hitler who declared war on the United States, and not vice versa ”.

KEEP READING:

Bebedor empedernido, orador extraordinario y hacedor de historia: la increíble personalidad de Winston Churchill
Casi 80 años después, identificaron al hombre que habría traicionado a Ana Frank y su familia
Philippe Sands: “Sabíamos que los aliados reclutaban a científicos, lo que no sabíamos era que también reclutaban a asesinos de masas”

Related Articles