{"id":8135,"date":"2021-12-08T07:06:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T06:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=23967"},"modified":"2021-12-08T07:25:10","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T06:25:10","slug":"why-december-1941-was-the-most-important-month-of-the-second-world-war","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/why-december-1941-was-the-most-important-month-of-the-second-world-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Why December 1941 was the most important month of the Second World War"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Elinor Evans\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 08 December 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Winston Churchill instantly knew what Pearl Harbor<\/a> meant for the British. He later wrote that when he heard the news that now that the United States was \u201cin the war, up to the neck and in to the death\u201d he felt the \u201cgreatest joy\u201d because it meant that \u201cwe had won after all\u201d and \u201cEngland would live; Britain would live; the Commonwealth of Nations and the Empire would live\u201d.<\/p>\n

But while the benefits to Britain of the entry of the US into the war were clear, it is sometimes forgotten that Pearl Harbor also had an enormous impact on two other countries: Adolf Hitler<\/a>\u2019s Germany and Stalin\u2019s Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor affected the Soviet Union in two important ways. First, it confirmed that Japanese forces would no longer pose any foreseeable threat to the Soviet Union in the Far East. Indeed, reports two months earlier from Richard Sorge, the Soviet spy in Japan, that the Japanese intended to attack in the south rather than invade the Soviet Union, had informed Stalin\u2019s decision to move divisions from the Siberian border to help in the defence of Moscow.<\/p>\n

In early October 1941, Vasily Borisov was a soldier in a Siberian division in the remote east of the Soviet Union where, he says, \u201cwe were expecting Japan to attack\u201d. But on 18 October his unit received orders to board trains immediately and head west to face a different foe: \u201cIn the summer [of 1941] we knew the Germans were advancing very fast and were capturing Soviet territory and we knew they were technically more advanced than us\u2026 we knew that the situation was bad\u201d. As they travelled towards the west, Borisov and his comrades thought \u201cthat a lot of us would be killed. We knew that the war would be hard, and that\u2019s what it turned out to be. It was very hard\u2026 we felt fear\u201d.<\/p>\n

But in the freezing Soviet winter, all the Germans\u2019 technological advances counted for nothing. This was a more straightforward struggle \u2013 one in which the Red Army could compete on equal terms. And once Red Army soldiers began to counterattack against the Germans outside Moscow on 5 December, they became more and more confident. \u201cWe are very strong and very fit,\u201d said Vasily Borisov. \u201cThis is Siberian spirit. This is how people are raised from childhood. Everyone knows that Siberians are very tough\u2026 I am a true Siberian, everyone knows that we are tough\u201d. Vasily Borisov believed that he and his comrades held firm during the battle for Moscow because of this \u201cSiberian stubbornness\u2026 The commanders used to say that the Siberian divisions saved Moscow\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

The second reason that Pearl Harbor had an instant effect on Stalin, and increased the chances of the Red Army winning against the German Wehrmacht, was because it led almost immediately to Germany declaring war on America, and so brought Stalin an unexpected ally of colossal potential power.<\/p>\n

Hitler\u2019s decision to declare war on America, announced on 11 December 1941, has often puzzled people who are not aware of the details of the history. Why, as German forces faced the immensity of the challenge of the war on the eastern front, did Hitler voluntarily add such a powerful additional enemy to his list of adversaries?<\/p>\n