Nazi Germany: History in an Hour

and with the weather turning against them, the German juggernaut ground to a halt only fifteen miles short of Moscow.

On 7 December 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, bringing the US into the war. Four days later, Hitler declared war on America. The war was now truly a global conflict

Hitler visited Warsaw on 5 October and, casting a satisfied eye over the devastated capital, declared, ‘this is how I deal with any European city’. With another of his objectives achieved, Hitler could have made overtures towards peace talks. No such suggestions were made.

Hitler had no right to invade Czechoslovakia. Appeasement was dead and Hitler was not a man to trust.

‘That senile old rascal Chamberlain,’ he complained, ‘has ruined my entry into Prague

If he now goes over the abyss, he will drag us all down with him. There is nothing we can do.’

Werner von Fritsch, later wrote: ‘This man, Hitler, is Germany’s destiny for good or bad.

Speaking to the Reichstag in January 1939, Hitler was still referring back to the Jewish conspiracy that supposedly defeated Germany at the end of the First World War: ‘This day will be avenged,’

‘Guns will make us strong; butter will make us fat.’

Hindenburg congratulated his chancellor for having acted so swiftly. The army, relieved to be freed from its main rival, sided with Hitler, and Blomberg applauded the ‘Führer’s soldierly decision and exemplary courage’.

The British ambassador to Germany watched these developments with increasing alarm and, having seen Hitler rip up the constitution, wrote: ‘We are living in a country [Germany] where fanatics, hooligans and eccentrics have got the upper hand.’