252 ChaPter^5
order to get more troops and equipment.
This delay gave the Soviets time to regroup and when the German offen-
sive resumed in November, Russian tanks were in position to attack and the
weather had become bitterly cold [temperatures dropped into the -40 range
and German soldiers were still wearing light uniforms because Hitler had
assumed the invasion would end quickly] so soldiers froze to death, diesel fuel
froze in the tanks, and food was in short supply, while the Russians were
better-equipped to handle the freeze. Germany did conquer the Ukraine, a
vital part of southern Russia just east of Poland, and laid siege to Leningrad
[formerly and again St. Petersburg], a major industrial city in the central part
of Russia on the Baltic Sea. The siege would eventually cost a million Russian
lives over 900 days, but in December 1941, despite the dire circumstances,
Stalin’s government rallied. The Red Army got new leaders, the Soviets
expanded production of tanks, planes, and artillery, Lend-Lease aid began to
arrive, and, most impressively, the Russians took apart entire factories and
shifted and rebuilt them across the Ural Mountain range, far from German
forces. By December 1941, even as Germany was approaching Moscow, the
Russians had effectively delayed the invasion and were safe from conquest.
With Pearl Harbor occurring at the same time, the lineup for the war was
now set: the Allies—the U.S., Britain, and the Soviet Union, versus the Axis—
Germany, Italy, and Japan.
Though the world was at war on 2 continents, the U.S. and Britain easily
decided on a “Europe First” strategy since that region was most vital to pre-
serving the Open Door, and thus creating prosperity. But it was an uncomfort-
able alliance, as noted, with the 3 powers having different goals—the Open
Door, Empire, and Security and Communism. Almost immediately the first
major disagreement between them emerged, the establishment of a Second
Front. Since the Germans had sent millions of troops into Russia in the East,
Stalin wanted his allies to establish a military front in the West, in France pref-
erably, to force Hitler to take a significant number of troops and equipment
away from the Soviet theater and shift them to the west, thus reducing the
Soviet Union’s losses and responsibility for taking on the Wehrmacht. In the
meantime, as the Allies debated the Second Front, the German offensive con-
tinued but the Russians prevented it from taking over the agriculture, industry,
and oil of the Caucasus, the area abutting Turkey and Iran on the Black Sea.
The Second Front controversy exposed divisions between the U.S. and