In early December 1941, as World War II reached its white-hot stage, Guderian and his invincible armored group encountered the enemy for the first time and were caught in a battle with the Red Army under the icy city of Moscow.
Hundreds of thousands of Red Army troops from Siberia were beginning a powerful counteroffensive against the Nazis.
In the Pacific Ocean, thousands of miles away, the news of the Japanese air raid on Pearl Harbor suddenly came.
Four days later, Hitler couldn't wait to declare war on the United States at the Reichstag!
Since then, the world's major powers have joined in this unprecedented war.
It is quite puzzling that at this time, the main German forces have been unable to move on the cold Russian land, so why should Hitler take the initiative to provoke the superpower with the strongest war potential in the west?
You know, according to the fascist trilateral agreement, if Japan takes the initiative to attack the United States, it does not mean that Germany has an obligation to go to war with the United States.
Had Hitler forgotten the lesson of the defeat of the two fronts in World War I? Obviously, the Soviet Union and Britain made Germany unable to catch it, so why did they still tie the United States to the enemy's chariot in a frenzy?
Behind the seemingly accidental declaration of war on the United States, there may be traces of some artificial manipulation.
On the eve of Pearl Harbor, a leak of top-secret U.S. military intelligence allows historians to discover the reasons behind Hitler's suicide.
(i) Roosevelt's war plan! 5 million people landed in Western Europe in 1943
Three days before pearl harbor, the chicago tribune, a well-known isolationist newspaper in the United States, published an explosive message - "Roosevelt's war plan!" ”（FDR’s War Plans）。
Manley, the author of the article, wrote vividly that President Roosevelt had drawn up a plan for war against Germany, the Rainbow Five.
The plan called for the United States to organize a force of 10 million to wage war against the fascists, 5 million of whom would land in Western Europe by July 1, 1943, in order to launch a huge military campaign to eliminate the Nazis.
（FDR’s War Plans）
Should this be the "fake news" of the American gossip reporters?
Judging by the completeness of the plan and the reaction of U.S. officials, this is clearly not.
Washington was furious at the leak, and the FBI immediately launched an investigation into hundreds of people.
The attorney general believed that journalist Manley had been suspected of violating espionage laws, and the Minister of War and the Minister of the Interior demanded the reporter's arrest.
in Roosevelt
Apparently, U.S. officials acquiesced to the accuracy of the message, lest other countries not be aware of the intelligence that should have been kept strictly confidential, such as the War Information Office, which radioed the message to other parts of the world.
As soon as the news was published, the entire American public opinion exploded, and various voices that were deceived by Roosevelt rose and fell.
Because in the presidential campaign a year ago, Roosevelt also vowed to voters that he would never send American boys to the front lines of the war.
It's only been a little over a year since the president has turned the public around.
The enraged Republican Rep. George Holden bluntly said that the country was "betrayed"! All kinds of protests are raging.
As the Americans rattled up about who leaked the document, the bad news of Pearl Harbor came, and a few days later the Germans' declaration of war had arrived in Washington.
There was no point in accusing Roosevelt of deceiving voters, and the whole of The United States was twisted into a heart at this moment, everything in the service of war.
(Pearl Harbor)
Is it a coincidence? As soon as the news of "Roosevelt backstabbed fascism" came out on the front foot, Japan and Germany officially went to war with the United States on the back foot. Is there a possibility that the newspaper's revelations have greatly stimulated the desire of Japan and Germany to declare war?
Of course, the Japanese had planned their attack plans long before this, and it was unlikely that they would be affected by it.
What about the Germans? Did Hitler, who had always been cautious and restrained against the United States, make up his mind to declare war on the United States because of this plan?
(ii) The Stimulated Germans – The Anglo-Saxon Plan was urgently formulated
As we all know, the last coffin board of the Second German Empire in World War I was added by the Americans, and the British, French and Germans were already evenly matched, until the Americans entered the war that made Germany's defeat irreparable.
For Hitler, a veteran of World War I, this history is no stranger, and he knows very well how terrible the comprehensive national strength of the United States is.
(World War II situation map)
So for quite some time, Hitler sought to avoid conflict with the Americans and ordered the ships of the front-line navy to avoid attacking American ships.
He hoped that at least after the war on the Eastern Front had been settled once and for all, he would return to the United States on the Western Front.
When "Roosevelt's War Plan" spread throughout the United States, German diplomats in the United States unsurprisingly transmitted the information to Berlin.
The Americans want to stab the Nazis in the back, what should the Germans do?
On the face of it, the Nazis were dismissive of this information. The German spokesman derided that this was nothing more than a general's whimsical and crazy plan.
Judging from the comparison of the military strength of the two countries in 1941, it seems to be true.
After three times the expansion, the total number of the U.S. Army is only 1.5 million, which is really incomparable to the more than 5 million well-trained and well-equipped German Army.
Not to mention transporting 5 million people to Europe in 43 years, the logistical conditions are extremely harsh.
But there was an unusual amount of attention within the Germans to this intelligence.
According to the research of the famous historian Thomas Fleming, the U.S. military plan deeply touched the German high command, including Hitler, and the Nazi General Staff carefully studied it as a plan being implemented by the U.S. army, and for this purpose produced a temporary operational report called "Anglo Saxons".
The report mentions that in order to prevent a large-scale Landing by the Americans, the Germans should switch from offensive to defensive in the direction of the Soviet Union, adjusting their strategic focus to the Atlantic Theater on the Western Front and the Mediterranean region.
These included the intensification of forces to occupy vast areas of North Africa and the complete expulsion of the British from the Mediterranean; the establishment of strong Atlantic forts from Spain, France to Norway; and the granting of more air and sea blockades to the British Isles.
At first Hitler agreed to the staff officers' plan, but the fiasco on the battlefield in Moscow immediately changed his mind.
Under the order that no one step back could be retreated, the Germans on the eastern front were firmly crucified to the Slavic positions, and the fascists permanently lost the possibility of turning the Mediterranean Sea into an inland lake.
(Atlantic Fortifications established by the Nazis in the late Second World War II to defend against Anglo-American landings)
Although the Nazi "Anglo-Saxon" plan was aborted, at least this incident clearly showed that the "Roosevelt War Plan" really changed Hitler's will to war and stimulated Germany's desire to go to war with the United States.
Since the so-called neutrality of the Americans was unbelievable, and there would be a large number of American troops pouring into Europe around the summer of 1943, instead of waiting for them to be ready to attack themselves, it was better to attack themselves before then, and take advantage of the opportunity of Pearl Harbor to go to war against the United States.
Of course, for Hitler, the U.S. plan to go to war in 1943 only made Germany fully aware of the inevitability and urgency of declaring war on the United States.
Declaring war was not just a diplomatic rhetoric, but two crucial weights that made Hitler optimistic about the prospects of victory.
(iii) Hitler's wishful thinking of attacking the American fleet forced Britain to make peace
Hitler believed that the key to Churchill's confidence in opposing the German Empire was that Britain could draw a steady stream of strategic resources from colonies and friendly countries (mainly the United States) all over the world, especially the supplies transported by American merchant ships to give charcoal to the narrow British mainland.
According to statistics, an average of 2,500 ships sailing in the Atlantic Ocean every day bring food, oil, iron and other resources to Britain.
in Dönitz
Just at this time, the German Navy, represented by Dönitz, had discovered a very effective tactic of attacking merchant ships - wolf pack assault.
With the mysterious U-boats, the Germans could unexpectedly fire dense torpedoes at their "prey."
In October 1941 alone, the Germans sank 217 merchant ships with a gross tonnage of more than 1.1 million tons, and they themselves suffered only minor casualties from 6 submarines.
According to this casualty ratio, it may not be long before the British will slowly be trapped on the island.
Unfortunately, due to the fact that the United States was neutral, the Germans could not freely use American merchant ships as the main target.
And since the meeting between the leaders of Britain and the United States in August 1941, the Americans have increasingly sent armed fleets to participate in merchant convoy operations.
This made the German Navy more and more annoyed with the Americans, watching the prey in hand be safely transported by the Americans.
(World War II Nazi submarine attacks on areas of high Allied fleets)
On the contrary, the United States and Germany are now officially at war, and the German submarine pack can finally bring the American fleet to their own table in a fair way, thus more effectively attacking Britain's maritime supply lines and even forcing Britain to the negotiating table.
Japan, on the other hand, which has just given the U.S. Navy a slap in the face, looks like a strong reinforcement that can be relied on.
The Combined Japanese Fleet had considerable power to concentrate at least the Americans' energies in the Pacific.
Even if Germany declares war on the United States, the combat effectiveness of the other side will be implicated in Japan.
Judging from later history, Hitler's wishful thinking was all empty.
The mighty United States beat Japan on one hand, and together with Britain launched the largest landing in history in Normandy (only nearly a year later than the aforementioned Roosevelt war plan).
(Normandy landing)
It is conceivable that if the Americans had not announced this plan, perhaps the uninvited Germans would have chosen to stop pressing the declaration of war button, sever their alliance with the Japanese, and continue to maintain neutrality with the United States, so that the latter would turn their guns on the Japanese.
Looking back, the mystery of the whole thing has not been answered.
The TOP-secret war plan of the United States was leaked, and it is reasonable to say that a large number of parties should be seriously dealt with, but in hindsight we look at the handling of the after-the-fact situation and it is strangely dismissed.
(4) Who secretly exposes to the outside world? Historian: President Roosevelt
How did a newspaper reporter steal top U.S. secrets and dare to publish them? This would have been almost impossible without the help of the Inner Ghost.
The FBI and the military first launched an investigation into the Chicago Tribune, and the person in question, Manley, closed his mouth tightly and refused to reveal how he obtained classified documents.
Other newspaper personnel also tacitly concealed sources, and even speculated that they were being tapped and cautiously talking when they were talking to each other on the phone, which led to an impasse in the investigation.
(FBI)
But not all in the media agree with the Chicago Tribune's practice of leaking state secrets.
Joseph Patterson, publisher of the New York Daily News, anonymously revealed the leaker behind the scenes— a certain congressman. He said the senator got the plan and went around looking for media to spread it widely.
Just as FBI officials were about to dig deeper into the clues, Attorney General Biddle called a halt.
The explanation he gave was that now is a wartime, US politics should focus on unity, and the investigation will inevitably involve the current senators and some senior generals, threatening the political stability of the United States in wartime.
So an investigation ended in a huff, and the case was officially closed in about half a year, and a large number of relevant personnel, including reporter Manley, were safe and sound.
It wasn't until 1962, when isolationist Senator Burton Wheeler confessed in his memoirs that the mystery was partially solved.
Wheeler says in the book that a mysterious senior official handed a document to an army captain, who in turn handed it to him.
Because his political position was firmly opposed to the Entry of the United States into the War, he did not hesitate to poke the document into the media at the first sight.
(Thomas Fleming)
Who is this mysterious senior official? Who is behind the scenes?
Thomas Fleming offers an interesting point:
President Roosevelt was the leaker, and it was precisely to provoke the Germans to declare war on the United States that Roosevelt deliberately let the war plan circulate in the newspapers.
From the analysis of a series of events after the outbreak of World War II, Roosevelt's view of forcing Hitler to go to war is not empty.
Contrary to his rhetorical opposition to the "sending of American boys to Europe," Roosevelt had been making various provocative moves against Hitler to fan the flames of war on Virtue.
According to the Chinese legislation enacted in the 1930s, no one or organization in the United States was allowed to deliver arms to belligerents, but Roosevelt took the initiative to violate this law.
For example, in 1940, an agreement was signed with Britain to provide Britain with dozens of much-needed warships to counter Nazi submarines by exchanging destroyers for Atlantic military bases.
(Roosevelt and Churchill)
By March 1941, U.S. aid to Britain had escalated further.
In view of Britain's stretched finances and difficulty in purchasing American supplies in cash, the United States decided to adopt a free or paid lease to supply the British with a large amount of raw materials, weapons systems, and industrial equipment.
After the outbreak of the Soviet-German war, the United States also made extensive leased blood transfusions to the Soviet Union, including providing up to $1 billion in interest-free loans to the Soviet Union in the winter of 1941 to pay for raw materials and weapons.
It can be said that in the minds of the Germans, there is probably no country more hypocritical than the so-called neutral country of the United States.
It is worth noting that 3 months before Pearl Harbor, there was a symbolic provocation between The Virtues and The United States.
Earlier that month, a U.S. warship, the Grimm, tracked German submarines in the Atlantic Ocean for hours and provided submarine positions for British warships.
Enraged, the German submarine fired a torpedo at the Greer.
Roosevelt took this as an opportunity to portray the whole thing as a German attack on a normally operating American warship, setting off an anti-German sentiment among the populace.
A week later, he also directly ordered the U.S. Navy to fire immediately on any German submarine.
It has come to this point that there is only one layer of window paper left before the formal war between the virtues begins.
The Chicago Tribune's revelations added fuel to the deterioration of Relations between Germany and Germany, making Hitler's anger even more intense.
In Churchill's memoirs, we can also see historical materials that confirm this view.
Churchill said that Roosevelt had privately stated about his relations with Germany, "In order to provoke a problem, you must do whatever it takes." From this, it is not difficult for us to understand why a major case of earth-shattering information leakage will end hastily and fail to end later.
Editor: Lu Lijin
Editor-in-Charge: Thalia