World War and the Growth of Global Power 241That did not mean, however, that the war was over—far from it. One
major reason Hitler called off the attacks on Britain was to shift his attention
to the East and begin fighting there—in retrospect his gravest error. On June
22nd, 1941, the German Army, the Wehrmacht, invaded the country it had
allied with in August 1939, the Soviet Union, code-named Operation Barbarossa.
The Soviets were not well-prepared for the invasion. Hitler had moved well
over 3 million German and other Axis forces to the East and invaded with
about 130 divisions, while holding 70 or so more in reserve for future use.
The Germans, however, did not have huge numbers of trucks, tanks, and other
supplies that would be crucial for an extended invasion of a country as vast
as Russia. Even though the Nazis had been massing troops and equipment on
the eastern front, Stalin seemed surprised by the invasion, especially since their
non-aggression treaty was not even two years old. He also believed that
Germany would try to finish its British campaign before turning eastward, and
he ignored warnings from Soviet intelligence officials that Germany was plan-
ning to attack them, saying it was just British propaganda to make him and
Hitler distrust each other. He was wrong and the initial German invasion cut
through the Soviet lines and made steady progress. But the Soviet military,
especially the Red Army, was a formidable force. By mid-1941 it had 5.7 mil-
lion troops, 4.6 million of which were ground forces, in 316 divisions. It had
about 120,000 guns and mortars, and over 18,000 aircraft. Perhaps its great-
est advantage was in tanks, with over 25,000. Though in the initial phases,
Germany was quickly destroying Soviet defenses, again alarming the West, the
Russians would rally. By mid-1941, Hitler had now gone to war across all of
Europe, from Britain in the West to the Soviet Union in the East. The U.S.
and Britain, though hardline anti-Communist, offered aid to Stalin because
they sensed, correctly, that Germany was a much greater threat. As the British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill explained, “if Hitler invaded Hell, I would
make at least a favourable comment to the devil in the House of Commons.”
Stalin, from then on, would be America’s “devil” and the Red Army would
play the decisive role in Europe in the Second World War.
Asia and Japanese Aggression
If America were to establish an Open Door world, Asia would be its most
important target. Hay’s notes, the Great War, the 21 Demands, the Lansing-