[Raptor1]

Originally Posted by Catfish

You are kidding, right ?
Hitler wanted to go for Russia all the time, this is why Poland had to be overrun - b.t.w. with the help of England's later ally, Mr. Stalin (who was not so shy in killing millions of civilians and jews himself). Since Poland was divided, between Hitler and Stalin, England (and France) declared war to Germany because of this, but not to Russia. Astonishing, isn't it.

That may be so, but if Hitler had wanted to invade the Soviet Union from the start, he must've been willing to start a world war, which he did. Britain's declaration of war has little to do with the global nature of the war.

Originally Posted by Catfish

So England had declared war to Germany along with France, after the invasion of Poland, because of the treaties undersigned. But France and England did not do anything to help Poland, they were not able to, in this so-called phony war.
FInally, to evade a trench situation like in WW1 Hitler then used the Blitzkrieg tactics to go for France right away - while overrunning Belgium and the Netherlands - strategically right but tactically impossible as his own generals said - but he succeeded. And his own generals were just muzzled, by their Fuehrer's victories.

I'm aware of the history of the start of the war. You are both grossly overestimating the effect of the Blitzkrieg itself and Hitler's involvement in it. While the Blitzkrieg was very important to the outcome of the campaign, it was France's highly dubious operational decisions that left them completely exposed that were the most decisive factor in the success of the German invasion. As for Hitler, he had very little to do with the development of the doctrine associated with Blitzkrieg or with the success of the invasion. Hell, there were times when the German field commanders had to deviate from the plan and circumvent or even disobey orders because they had been told to halt, largely because of Hitler's meddling, when the French lines were collapsing.

Now, when Hitler did take direct command of the German army's operational planning, then you get disasters such as Fall Blau, Operation Citadel, Normandy and Operation Bagration.

Originally Posted by Catfish

Norway was invaded because England had exactly this in mind, to get the iron mines and steel factories, only Germany was a tad faster.
England AND Germany had been good trade partners to Norway, but it would not have liked either invasion for sure.

That's a really long debate which I will not get into at the moment. Regardless of Norway, Hitler did a very poor job at preventing the European war from expanding massively.