“sometimes talk to on another website who’s father was an officer in the German army during World War II. He claims that the Germans got wind of a plan by Stalin to attack them, and so Hitler decided to preempt them by attacking first.”
Nazi propaganda. That they had no choice. The truth is that Hitler discussed his plans for Ukraine in Mein Kampf in the 20s.
England didn’t really fascinate the Germans, and some even thought England would settle into some kind of coexistence with them.
He just though the USSR would be fast and easy. That whole “kick in the door and the rotten house will collapse” thing. He Really faced no serious military in the early conquests and thought the USSR would be like France, Poland, etc,, a few months of blitz, followed by a collapse. Peter principle in military terms.
Whether you believe Viktor Suvorov or not is another question.
A few things that we do know and can verify: The Soviet War Plan from the 1920's onward never called for defensive war. This is a fact. The Soviet Geopolitical Plan for Europe envisioned Europe would become communist during and after a World War, just as World War I had made the Soviet Union itself possible. This is also a known fact. The Soviets regarded Germany as the main -- and eventual -- enemy long before the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact. And even in the writings of pro-Soviet authors like William L Shirer, it's clear that Soviet moves in the early Spring of 1942 in the Baltics and other places which the Germans and Soviets had agreed would be part of Germany's sphere of influence were increasingly aggressive and alarming to the Germans. These moves are also firmly established history. They might have amounted to nothing more than Stalin -- the great opportunist -- taking what he could get while [he believed] Germany was spread too thin, or they might have been indicators of more aggressive intentions.
Given how much of World War II history we've allowed the Russians to falsify, I wouldn't necessarily dismiss claims about Nazi concerns of a Soviet invasion out of hand.