Four days after Pearl Harbor, in arguably the most insane and pivotal decision in history, Adolf Hitler needlessly declared war on the United States.
December 7, 1941, a distracted Hitler was at “Wolf’s Lair” his gloomy, dank Eastern Front field headquarters in Prussia, absorbing the reality that his Russian campaign, launched with stunning success and fanfare less than six months earlier, had permanently stalled within sight of Moscow, a mere five miles from the Kremlin’s Onion Domes—on December 2.
German soldiers lacked winter clothing and equipment since Hitler had promised a quick summer and early autumn victory over the Red Army. The temperature on the Eastern Front plummeted to thirty degrees below zero. Hitler’s tanks and trucks were immobilized by snow and motor oil as thick as caramel. Hundreds of thousands of “lucky” Axis soldiers were debilitated by frostbite requiring drastic amputations, while others simply froze to death.
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