ABSTRACT
Hitler's invasion of Russia is regarded as his fatal mistake. Yet it was surely the moment to which all his career had been moving. The real mistake Hitler made was to have overestimated the importance and difficulty of the preliminary defeat of the west and, in consequence, to have attacked Russia at a time when his resources were already seriously strained and his armed forces already widely dispersed. If he had screamed less in the first place, he might have functioned against Russia as he had for a time intended, in collaboration with Poland, and thus perhaps eliminated the need for fighting in the west at all. The Germans recaptured Benghazi, and O'Connorwas sent from Egypt to advise Neame; on a dark night in early April 1941 they motored into the midst of an advance German detachment and were taken prisoner.
