good morning jack

  

A  F  T  E  R  N  O  O  N        P  L  E  A  S  U  R  E

love

   dad

coldValentine

Objective

  

Center of the Soviet universe.

Located here is the vast bureaucracy that enables

Stalin's rule.  Communications are governed from here.

Moscow is the nation's transportation hub.  It harbors

many industries.  German generals believe Russia's

capitol is indispensable to communist rule.  

Take it and your other objectives fall into place.

You win.

Not so fast.  Napoleon captured Moscow and still lost 

the war because he had not destroyed the Russian army.

This was Hitler's rebuttal to his generals' focus on Moscow.

The Fuhrer's strategy was to encircle the Russian army

nearby and then quickly destroy it.  Moscow and Hitler's

other objectives would be left relatively undefended.

It takes a lot of troops to restrain a couple of hundred

thousand armed enemy soldiers.  The biggest problem

was there weren't enough Germans to close the noose

because most Nazi soldiers traveled on foot.

They couldn't keep up with their tank force up front.

Rich in mineral wealth, industry and agriculture,

Ukraine was a treasure for resource poor Germany

to acquire.  Here was Hitler's lebensraum - true

living space for an expansive Third Reich.

Where does the Russian navy go when the Soviets

lose this vital Baltic port?  What does Moscow do 

when it loses the defense industries centered in

Leningrad?  The Nazis lay siege to the city when it

became clear their army couldn't capture it.

Leningrad's population became the bull's eye 

in a years long battle.

Energy problem solved.  A gusher of oil for thirsty Germany.

The area is a peninsula of petroleum products located

on the western coast of the Caspian Sea, just beyond

the Caucasus mountains.  Follow the Volga River south.

You can't miss it.

Kick in the door and Stalin's whole rotten structure

collapses like a house of cards.  That was the fantasy 

Hitler counted upon to conquer Russia in eight weeks.

Baku supplied Stalin over seventy percent of his oil.

If Germany captured Baku then Russia was hard up

for fuel while Hitler became a screaming dynamo. 

Defeat Russia and Germany became a continental 

power, like the United States.  Hitler's power would

span Europe, from the Urals of Asia to Gibraltar,

guarding the Mediterranean Sea.  Here was 

Nazi power capable of taking on Roosevelt,

anywhere across the globe.  Equals.  A fair fight.

It was just a matter of time.

*  *  *  *  *

©  Tom Taylor

 OVER   EASY

coldValentine