The reason why Hitler gambled everything on a massive attack in 1940 was not because he was worried about making excessive demands on the German population, but simply because he thought that this was the only way that Germany could win the war. Regardless of how intensively its home front was mobilized, Germany would lose a protracted war, because the combined economic might of its enemies was simply overwhelming. Germany therefore needed to concentrate all its resources on striking a single decisive blow at the earliest possible opportunity.
