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Same guy. Von Ribbentrop and Molotov negotiated the non-aggression pact (how’d that work out?) to divide Poland, and both countries invaded. It triggered WWII — then nothing much happened for seven months or so. The Germans invaded Denmark and Norway early in April, and then began the whopping month of fighting that bagged Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and France.

At Dunkirk, Adumph lost his nerve (as he did in 1943 at Kursk) and failed to close out the war in the west by capturing the 300,000-man BEF. Although it took four years for the UK to recover from that (and with a lot of US help), capture of the entire army would have resulted in the collapse of the ramshackle British gov’t coalition, with or without a cross-channel invasion.

Then, instead of finishing up in North Africa, the Austrian pinhead thought it would be a better idea to invade the USSR.

Imagine that — despite the recent experience of the Russian front in WWI, and Napoleon’s self-destructive debacle a century before that, and (going back a bit more) the Persians’ attempt to subdue the Scythians by marching all over what is now the Ukraine until they felt the first breath of winter, he thought it would be a good idea.

Prevailing in North Africa was easily within their grasp; elimination of the British hold on the Suez Canal and the oil would have scratched the British Navy off the to-do list, as well as given the Reich and Axis (including Japan) all the fuel they’d need.

IOW, no Pearl Harbor, no Russian front (until they were fully mobilized and had eliminated all other threats), no D-Day...

It’s remarkable to contemplate, and I’m grateful he was such a dumbass.

Thanks GOPJ.