Himmler (Peter Padfield's Second World War)

by Peter Padfield

The best guess about why, when the attack was launched, the Red Army and Air Force were caught completely off guard, many of the front-line officers even on leave in Black Sea resorts, is that the seed had taken root and Stalin was convinced there would be demands followed by an ultimatum.[130] There was none. The bolt was launched – in the first grey light of dawn – from a clearing sky. This was the ultimate surprise – on top of the surprise that Hitler could contemplate war with the three major world powers. Perhaps it should not have been: Hitler’s entire career and successes had been built on surprise and disregard of conventional thinking. It seems that Stalin with all his intelligence sources, perhaps because of them, failed to read the character of his enemy.