Posted on 05/03/2015 3:27:19 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
Stalin wanted the war in the West, to bleed the British, French and German armies dry, making all of Europe easy pickings for the Red Army.
The one thing Stalin didn’t count on was France falling so soon, which may have turned out in the end to be a blessing in disguise.
The worst part of it was their non-aggression treaty with Japan; they wouldn’t help in the east while Americans were dying in the Pacific.
“The one thing Stalin didn’t count on was France falling so soon, which may have turned out in the end to be a blessing in disguise.”
Stalin also did not count on Hitler failing to attempt the invasion of the British Isles, which would have tied up a substantial part of the Wehrmacht for an extended period of time. Of course, Stalin also failed to recognize the Red Army was a broken reed in 1941 in the aftermath of the purges, so the Red Army would have failed in its offensive against Germany in Poland and along the frontier of the Third Reich in 1941 just as they actually did fail in the defensive campaign and previously in Finland.
Stalin was counting on being ready by 1943, so he was anxious to try to avoid doing anything to rouse the suspicions of the Germans before then, which explains why he chose to ignore the intelligence reports saying that a German invasion was imminent.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.