Posted on 05/25/2010 10:28:33 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
The Soviet leadership had at least two real chances to assassinate Adolf Hitler, but Stalin cancelled the plans over fears that Nazi Germany could strike a separate peace deal with the West, a retired Russian general said on Tuesday.
"A concrete plan to assassinate Hitler in his bunker was developed, but Stalin suddenly cancelled it in 1943 over fears that after Hitler's death his associates would conclude a separate peace treaty with Britain and the United States," Gen. (Ret.) Anatoly Kulikov, the chairman of the Club of Military Commanders, told a conference on military history in Moscow.
"We have documental evidence confirming that these talks took place," he added.
He also said Soviet Union had a second opportunity to kill Hitler in 1944 when the intended assassin managed to infiltrate Hitler's entourage and had a high degree of trust among the German leadership.
"A detailed assassination plan was prepared, but Stalin cancelled it again," the former general said.
According to foreign historians, at least 17 attempts on Hitler's life were planned during 1939-1945. None of them was successful.
Kulikov said the Club of Military Commanders has collected a great number of lesser-known facts about Russia's participation in World War Two and planned to publish them.
The “Schlieffen redux” was the original plan to attack France in 1939/1940.
The “left hook” running the panzers through the Ardennes was the “radical” plan. Nobody expected the French and the Brits to cave so fast.
It's more focused on the internal politics of the US, but goes into some detail regarding FDR and "unconditional surrender". Apparently, Churchill wasn't even consulted prior to FDR blurting it out at Casablanca.
The left hook isn’t a radical departure of the Schlieffen plan. It’s a part of the plan.
They followed pretty much the exact same course they did in ‘14, except that they were able to execute the maneuvers properly with tanks and mechanised forces.
What was radical is rolling them through the Ardennes because the school of thought was that they were impassable to tanks.
we were nowheres near ready for a cross-channel invasion in 42 or 43 ... we were still fighting for the first vestiges of air superiority ... we were very in-experienced ... the germans would blown us away ...
That’s exactly why Stalin wanted us to invade in 42 or 43. We would have lost and would not be able to prevent the Soviets from swallowing the whole European peninsula.
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