[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents World War II Plus 70 Years: Seminar and Discussion Forum
First session: September 1, 2009. Last date to add: September 2, 2015.
Reading assignment: New York Times articles delivered daily to students on the 70th anniversary of original publication date. (Previously posted articles can be found by searching on keyword “realtime” Or view Homer’s posting history .)
To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by freepmail. Those on the Realtime +/- 70 Years ping list are automatically enrolled. Course description, prerequisites and tuition information is available at the bottom of Homer’s profile. Also visit our general discussion thread

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Selections from West Point Atlas for the Second World War
Marcks’ Plan, August 5, 1940
Operation Barbarossa (Dir. 21), December 18, 1940
The Mediterranean Basin (Map 33)
The Far East and the Pacific, 1941 – The Imperial Powers, 1 September 1939

[Larry381]

According to the biography of Maj. Gen. Von Mellenthin, soon to be one of Rommel's staff officers in the Afrika Korps:

In January, 1941, I returned to the headquarters of First Army at Nancy. There I was informed by Colonel Röhricht, the chief of staff, that the conversations between Hitler and Molotov, held at Berlin in November, had ended in a complete fiasco.

Instead of entering the Tripartite Pact as Hitler had hoped, Molotov was said to have used blackmailing tactics and to have submitted impossible demands regarding Rumania, Bulgaria, and Turkey. Hitler's answer was to order the Wehrmacht to make[final] preparations for Operation Barbarossa— the invasion of Russia. D day was finally fixed for 22 June 1941—rather late in the year, but it was necessary to eliminate Greece first and then withdraw the panzer divisions from the Balkans to Russia