Of course Hitler was not crazy.

There are several reasons why he chose to attack the Soviet Union at this time.

First of all, Hitler's misjudgment of the Soviet Union.

This is mainly based on the judgment made by the Soviet Union invaded Finland two years ago but only won a miserable victory. Therefore, Hitler believed that although the Soviet Union had huge military strength, it was extremely corrupt and the commanders were not ordinary experience... Seventy-five percent of its officers were officers with no command experience for less than a year. Many officers were unable to do their jobs at all. The reason why they could become officers was only because of their firm political stance.

So Hitler judged that if he assembled a large number of troops and suddenly launched an attack, he could defeat the Soviet Union and end the war within a few months.

The second is the resource requirement.

In the final analysis, this is the German army's "fight to support war" combat method... A large number of German laborers walked to the front line with guns, which made the war machine seriously lack labor, so it was necessary to occupy other countries to obtain a large amount of labor by enslaving the people of other countries.

However, the invasion of other parliaments was strongly resisted by other countries, so the scale of the war became larger and larger. The expansion of the scale required more material, and more material required more labor, which required a new war to meet the demand for labor...

At this time, Germany was caught in such a vicious cycle: because war lacked labor, the war had to be expanded for labor.

At this time, Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union would have at least the following benefits: Ukraine could provide a large amount of cheap food. Occupying the Soviet Union would have a large amount of slave labor. Defeating the Soviet Union would have further isolated the British Empire. Germany's war machines needed more oil, and this goal could only be achieved after capturing the Baku oil-producing zone of the Soviet Union.

More importantly, according to Hitler's plan, the German army could defeat the Soviet Union in a few months, and then there was no need for the German army to maintain another three million troops. Retiring most of them would be able to immediately supplement the German industry's labor shortage.

Finally, it was Hitler's arrogant arrogance.

Before this, many German generals had warned Hitler to solve the United Kingdom first and then attack the Soviet Union. Fighting on both sides would not be a good thing for Germany in any case.

But Hitler didn't listen to these suggestions at all... The series of victories he had achieved before made Hitler think he was a political and military genius, and the reason why genius could be called a genius is that he could stand on his right path despite public opinion.

The impact this has on the North African battlefield is to further draw North African air power... The German air power in North Africa originally had two air wings, one was the 24th Air Wing in Sicily, Italy, and the other was the 27th Air Wing in Tobrook.

The former is mainly responsible for bombing the island of Malta and protecting the maritime route from Italy to Africa, while the latter is mainly responsible for providing necessary air support to African regiments.

However, in order to gather enough power in the direction of the Soviet Union, Hitler transferred the 24th Regiment stationed in Sicily to the eastern line... This almost completely exposed the supply line of the African Legion to the attack of the British Navy and Air Force.

Rommel expressed strong opposition to this, because the war between the African Legion in North Africa had entered the final critical stage. It can be said that the situation was very good, especially after capturing Alexandria, it only took another step to drive the British out of the sea...

The most important thing at this time is air force, because Alexander's strategic significance is that it can bomb and block the Port of Said and the Suez Canal, thereby cutting off the British supply line.

But without the advantage of air power, there is no way to talk about it. Even the Germans dare not deploy fighter jets and bombers in Alexander... Port Said is too close to Alexander, with a straight line of less than 300 kilometers. The British Air Force only takes half an hour to reach the airport and carry out bombing.

In this way, it is not strategically important to the German army to capture Alexander.

But Hitler certainly would not weaken his offensive power against the Soviet Union because of an Africa considered a secondary battlefield, so Rommel's opposition was completely put aside.

And the British on the other side are actually not having a good time.

The main difficulty is in the air force. The British army originally had more than 500 fighter jets in North Africa, but lost more than 100 in the battle, and only more than 360 were left.

The 24th German Air Force Regiment turned to the Soviet Union and was indeed a good thing for the British army, but the British Air Force was in a dilemma...whether to re-arrange the air force on Malta Island?

From a strategic perspective, the answer is yes. Arrangement of fighter jets on Malta Island can effectively strike the German supply line and even reverse the situation.

but……

The quality of the British Air Force's fighter jets and pilots is generally inferior to that of the Germans. They need to use their number to maintain their air supremacy over North Africa.

If a portion of the fighter jets were distributed to Malta Island, the Luftwaffe would have the potential to control North Africa's air supremacy and then use Alexander as an air base to block the Suez Canal and Port Said... This is also fatal to the British army.

However, if the fighter jets were not deployed on Malta Island, the German army would be equally fatal to the British army.

So Churchill asked the United States for assistance.

At this time, Britain and the United States used a cheating method.

The United States had not participated in the war at this time. Although the United States signed the "Lease Loan Act" with Britain, the Soviet Union and other countries, the bill even stipulated that it would not be used for transportation by American merchant ships... Because if American merchant ships were used for transportation, Germany had the power to destroy American merchant ships, so the United States would inevitably be dragged into the war.

In other words, the United States used American merchant ships to help Britain transport supplies in the Indian Ocean and Suez Canal, which actually violated the contract and could not be said to be a neutral country.

But this is only the second...

In order to quickly deploy fighter jets on Malta Island, Churchill actually borrowed an aircraft carrier from the United States, and the United States actually agreed.

You should know that the United States is a neutral country that has not participated in the war. The German army cannot attack American warships. Of course, there must be no military operations against the German army if the American warships are used.

However, American warships are helping Britain transport fighter jets and pass through the narrow Strait of Gibraltar as a neutral country... If it is in a state of war, aircraft carriers will never be able to enter the narrow Strait, which is almost a death sentence.

As a result, 126 aircraft from the UK arrived at Malta Island safely under the transportation of the USS Hornet and Eagle aircraft carriers.
Chapter completed!