意呆

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FUTILE ABYSSINIA AND RUSSIAN CAMPAIGNS!

In August,1940, Mussolini began his own war, attacking the neighboring English colonies from Abyssinia. But instead of easing Hitler's war load by diverting English forces,he soon got into difficulties and had to ask the Germans for assistance. On March 31,1941, General Erwin Rommel with his Afrika Korps in the battles along the Libyan coast, the English retreated to El Alamein,but by then the strength of German forces on front was exhausted.
    Shortly after the victory in France, Hitler relinquished his plan to invade England, hoping for an arrangement with the "Germanic Brother Nations". Instead he decided to the Soviet Union. He had planned his attack for spring,1941,but postponed it because Mussolini,on October 28,1940, suddenly decided to invade Greece.
   In April,1941, the Germans had to come to the rescue of the Italians there; and since Yugoslavia had just established an anti-German government, Hitler subjected both Yugoslavia and Greece to a Blitzkrieg.
   All this delayed the offensive against the Soviet Union, which was launched on June 22,1941.But in Russia, the blitz techniques did not work. The vastness of the country eroded the German forces. They reached the vicinity of Moscow in the winter, but insufficient equipment and supply difficulties forced a retreat.
   With sublime disregard for the extremely heavy casualties in Russia, Hitler ordered a new offensive in the south in 1942. By August, German troops had reached the Caucasus and the Vulga. But on November 19, the Soviet Army launched a massive counterattack in the Stalingrad sector, encircling the Sixth German Army. It's commander in chief, Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, surrendered on January 31,1943.Of the 284,000 soldiers originally constituting the army,34,000 were taken prisoners.
   Three months later, the German Expeditionary Corps in Africa and the allied Italian forces had to surrender;252,000 Germans and Italians were taken captive. On July 10,1943, American and English forces invaded Sicily and the conquest of Italy.

Heinrich Hoffman Archive
Adolf Hitler: Faces Of A Dictator.

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