1-Stalin trusted Hitler. To a very big point. He thought that Hitler was a maniac and one to be dealt with sooner or later, but he signed the non agression treaty with Germany and thought that it would last.
In 1940 the USSR purchased a half-finished german cruised of the Hipper class (the Lutzow). They also bought the German KM the optical rangefinder destined to Bismarck's Anton turret, along with the Bismarck's original drawings of the class design for a huge ammount of money.
In short, in 1940 german-russian relations can be called as a "friendship".
When Germans launched barbarossa Stalin felt deeply treasoned and took that as a direct and personal insult of Hitler towards him.
That's the reason he wanted at all costs to capture Hitler alive, and that is the reason that after the soviet troops found his remnants he was so suspicions and ordered so many investigations year after year. He was sure that Hitler had played another trick on him, escaping while making Stalin believe that he was dead. Today we know that Hitler commited suicide in his bunker and then was burned by SS troops, for sure. Stalin died still fearing that his archenemy was still alive.
2-Hitler really felt he could seize Poland with no response from the Western powers. After all he had played that trick...how many times?...Rhineland, Austria, Sudetenland, Chzekia (Spell?), Slovakia...He had broken the Versalles treaty with no problems, and he just had signed a non agression pact with USSR. He felt that he could do another step. But he was wrong,as we all know.
3-When France fell, it was surprising for all. For the french fer sure, for the British, too.
But the Germans may well have been the most surprised guys of all them. They were SO surprised that in effect for nearly month and a half they did not know what to do!...
There was no plans for anything, there was no clue of what to do...Hitler Figured that UK would sue for peace but he became angry when he saw that this was not the case.
Sealion was designed in a hurry, an ill-planed invasion that very likely would had been a german disaster.
Churchill wanted to keep the war on, as most british people. They did, they went through nearly a year of dark times waging war semialone against two countries (Semialone because for me USA was in the war as soon as in 1940 with the transfer of the 50 DDs and the lend-lease law). And they won the war.
And BTW, regarding the polish incident, the british cared nothing about the polish people. That was well shown later in 1943 when the Katyin massacre came to the light, and even more in 1944 when Warsaw rebellion happened, with the russian troops only a few dozens of miles away. The soviets didnt move a finger (surely they were smiling at the spectacle, as their most hated enemies were holding an insurrection from polish nationalists...so the germans were doing the work that the soviets would've had to do later...
)
The british never asked them to move a finger. Understabily the Polish government in the Exile was quite pissed. The reason for the 1939 Declaration of war was because France and England had agreed that they wont pass another Hitler trick.They felt treasoned because they truly thought after the munich talks in 1938 that Hitler's ambitions were fulfitted.
If Hitler had tried to seize, say, Txikitisland
instead of Poland, the result would've been the same: a war.
[This message has been edited by RAM (edited 11-23-2000).]
