Hitler's Great Mistake: Not the Invasion of the USSR but the Declaration of War on the United States of America

Most historians of World War II accept with little analysis that Hitler’s great folly was to invade the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa in 1941. This is a flawed conclusion as from late-1940 onwards war between the Soviets and the Nazis was inevitable. Germany started the fighting at a time of its own choosing when it was at its strongest and the USSR at its weakest. Hitler’s attack was a gamble that failed, but it was a rational gamble that maximized Germany’s chances of victory.The true great strategic mistake of WWII - ‘Hitler’s Mistake’ - was his rash decision to declare war on the United States two days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. This unnecessary and unfounded error ensured Germany’s defeat and radically changed the map of the post-war world with effects that reverberate to this day.