The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was a great success and took advantage of everything, so why did the ally Germany turn away from anger?
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The change in the pattern of the Second World War was largely due to the famous little man.
Physically, Yamamoto was a short man, only 1.59 meters, and a little hunchbacked; but mentally speaking, he was also a giant, a brave man who dared to take risks, a gambler who dared to fight, a madman who did not play by the rules, and a wise man with a careful heart.
Yamamoto was not a traditional soldier who fought in a step-by-step and disciplined manner, he preferred to win by surprise, he worshipped the Japanese military god Ofo Heihachiro of his time, and Togo's idea of doing his best in one battle greatly influenced him, and he believed that to fight with the extremely powerful Britain, the United States and other countries, it was necessary to launch a surprise attack, defeat the enemy in one move, and win a complete victory - this was one of the ideological bases for his insistence on sneaking attack on Pearl Harbor.
Yamamoto's plan was unsupported, and everyone thought it was crazy. But Yamamoto's insistence and stubbornness on his convictions was astonishing, and he finally persuaded the Japanese military's decision-makers that the plan to sneak attack Pearl Harbor and raid the U.S. Pacific Fleet was approved by the Naval Command, and there were only 35 days left before the attack.
Pearl Harbor location map
Yamamoto's plan was so crazy that not only had his colleagues all opposed it, but even the United States, which had learned of its contents, thought it nonsense: it was appalling! This was one of the reasons for the success of the attack on Pearl Harbor, where a dream-like battle plan did not attract the attention of the U.S. military at all, while Yamamoto's plan was quietly and intensively pursued.
At 6:55 on December 7, 1941, Tokyo time, Japanese bombers suddenly appeared, almost close to the sea level, and threw a series of bombs on the US battleship "Nevada", at the same time, Japanese bombers and Zero fighters also appeared over the US airfield, us fighters were shot down by Japanese fighters just after taking off, and at the same time, the US heavy bombers on the airfield were blown to pieces by the Japanese!
Since it was Sunday, most of the warships of the U.S. Pacific Fleet were moored in the military harbor, and most of the aircraft were concentrated on the airfield, which became the target of the Japanese army, and the intensive artillery fire almost destroyed the entire Pacific Fleet. Pearl Harbor was immediately paralyzed, more than 2300 naval officers spilled blood in the Pacific, the Japanese army sneaked into Pearl Harbor to win, Yamamoto's madness and stubbornness brought him incomparable glory and supreme glory, he was a god in one battle, becoming the soul of a new generation of Imperial Japanese Navy!
Map of the Situation in the Pacific Theater
An hour and a half after the successful attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan declared itself at war with the United States and Britain. That afternoon, president Roosevelt, who was crippled, unusually went to Congress, and he was not in a wheelchair, but was helped into the hall by his son! He delivered a very brief speech to both houses of the United States Congress, which lasted only 6 minutes, but because of President Roosevelt's bravery and wisdom, he asked Congress to declare:
Since The time of Japan's despicable, unprovoked offensive on Sunday, December 7, 1941, the United States and Japan had been at war
！”
Subsequently, the Senate voted 82 to none and the House of Representatives to 388 votes to 1 overwhelmingly approved Roosevelt's declaration of war request, and since then, the United States is no longer a neutral country and bystander in World War II, and self-defense counterattack has become its most basic demand. In this way, Japan successfully dragged the United States into a world war! After hearing this news, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill actually wept with joy and forgot his feelings:
Well, we finally won
！ "Japan has done what Britain wants to do but can't do, and this is also a god assist given to Churchill by Isoroku Yamamoto!"
The success of the attack on Pearl Harbor made many Japanese military personnel dare not believe themselves, and the war maniac Tojo was overjoyed and celebrated with Yamamoto's fifty-six bullets - but in Berlin, thousands of miles away, the German moustache was "furious" and angry beyond belief. He scolded Tojo and Yamamoto for his stupid pigs, and this sudden neuroticism frightened the senior German generals in the base camp into shaking their clothes.
President Roosevelt
Germany is not happy, it is justified: for a long time, the German army has won the best in battle, but this does not mean that the German army is invincible, on the contrary, its weakness is obvious, that is, the country is not large, there is no strategic depth, and the resources are not rich, if not scarce. In other words, it has no strength, no capital or resources to wage a protracted war, and it will undoubtedly lose a protracted war for a long time.
Moreover, what most frightened the German army was its geographical location, the Balkans in the south, the British sphere of influence in the north, the old enemy France in the west, and the polar bear in the east. In particular, France and Russia, two super powerful neighbors, have sandwiched Germany, which has just been established for more than 70 years, and no matter how strong Germany is, as long as France and Russia are allied, Germany can only obediently surrender!
Therefore, concentrating forces first, crushing one side, and avoiding two-front or even multi-front operations have become the strategic bottom line since the birth of Germany. This can also explain why the German army likes to use blitzkrieg so much, this is actually a last resort, if not lightning to crush one side, wait for people to slow down, things to hit, the German army is waiting to be wrapped dumplings!
Germany's geographical location in Europe during World War II
This can also explain from one side why the German army in World War I so early decided on the "Schlieffen Plan" to crush France first and then conquer Russia, which can also explain why Germany wanted to destroy France in a month of blitzkrieg in World War II, in order to avoid two-front combat! Now on the face of it, the Germans seem to have gotten rid of this embarrassment, because France has perished, and only the Soviet army has not yet yielded on the entire European continent.
Just half a year ago, the Germans launched the Barbarossa Plan, which raided the Soviet Union. Although the German army progressed well in the early stages of the war, the Soviet army was gradually defeated, a large part of the country fell under the iron heel of the German army, and a large number of the Red Army was destroyed by the German army, because the defeat was too quick, Stalin was so angry that he sentenced the commander of the Western Front on the battlefield, General Pavlov, to death. But as of now, the Germans are still sober-minded, they are well aware of the terrible strength of the Soviet army, the tonnage is too heavy, it is difficult to move. Leningrad was not able to take it as desired, the Muscovite army was about to be defeated, and the moustache was very aware of the situation of the march, and if he could not take the Soviet army as soon as possible, he would face the disaster of destruction.
Therefore, the only hope for winning the Soviet Union lies in Japan. Because while the German army is attacking on the western front, if Japan can respond from the eastern front and send troops to Siberia, so that the Soviet army is caught on both sides, this is the only chance of victory, and the probability of victory is very high. At this time, we must not provoke the United States, because once the US army enters the war, the Japanese front will be infinitely elongated, and Japan, which originally lacks resources than Germany, will have to break the wrist with the world's first world, at that time, the Japanese army will not have time to take care of itself, how can it have the ability to send troops to Siberia against the Soviet army and reduce the pressure for the German army? This meant that the terriblely powerful Soviet army would concentrate its forces against the Germans alone, and the mustache of the mustache was cocked at the thought of it.
Barbarossa Plan
What is even more frightening is that once the United States is dragged into the war, with the strength of the United States, in addition to dealing with Japan in the Asia-Pacific war, it will definitely seek cooperation with Britain and France on the European continent, open up a second battlefield, and plunge Germany into a state of being caught between east and west, which is the last thing that The Mustache wants to see, and it is also the nightmare of the senior generals of the highest decision-making department of the German army, because this is the fate of the German army, and the German army lost in world war I!
It should be said that the mustache's insight into the strategic situation in the world is far superior to that of the Japanese, and his vision will never be so short-sighted, only to see that the attack on Pearl Harbor has caused the Americans to suffer a great loss. He knows that the United States is not easy to mess with, and if you provoke the U.S. military in Pearl Harbor today, that will undoubtedly mean that tomorrow you will be beaten to death by the iron fist of the U.S. military! This also means that Germany alone cannot knock the polar bear in one punch, and it also means that his dream of the Third Reich is almost over.
The moustache sent a fire and slowly calmed down, when Foreign Minister Ribbentrop came in and relayed the request of Japanese Prime Minister Hideki Tojo that Germany would immediately declare war on the United States. At the same time, as a professional diplomat, he added quite opportunistically: "According to the Tri-Power Treaty, we are obliged to assist Japan only when it is directly attacked." ”
The Big Three of the Allies
What Ribbentrop did not expect was that the moustache said unusually calmly: "If we do not help Japan, it will die!" So he instructed the Foreign Office to declare war on the United States on December 11. He explained his turn of thought to the senior officers of the German General Staff in this way: It is not a good thing for Japan to contain a part of the British and American troops in the Asia-Pacific theater, and the time when Japan chose to raid Pearl Harbor was exactly when we were about to fall into trouble in the Soviet Union, which was equivalent to giving us a shot in the arm, very timely, the United States joined the war sooner or later, it is better to come early, so this is not a bad thing for us.
The attitude of The Moustache was similar to that of Italy, whose initial immediate reaction was "we are finished", but soon he adjusted his thinking, thinking that by letting Japan contain British and American forces in Asia and the Pacific, he could dominate southern Europe and North Africa and relive the dream of the Roman Empire. Thus, on the same day that Germany declared war on the United States, Italy also declared a state of war with the United States.
This year became a watershed in the world war: the Soviet army was about to launch a strategic counteroffensive, the participation of the US military in the war changed the balance of victory and defeat of the Allies and axis powers, China's War of Resistance Against Japan was in a severe winter, but it was the darkness before dawn, and although the black fog was heavy, it was almost dawn...
second world war