Why did Hitler declare war on America?

Why did Hitler declare war on America?

 

Hiter himself was planning to go to war with the States eventually. The fact that Japan, had attacked the very same country that Hitler was planning to go to war with might have given him the excuse that he was looking for. Not to mention that Hitler might have thought that if he declares war on the U.S., then Japan might declare war on Russia.

Or it could have simply been the fact that Hitler was delusional and truly believed that the German race was invincible and that it should and would rule the world. After all, Germany was doing pretty well so far.

 

Why did Hitler do all of the other things he did?

I don't think anyone will ever really know.

 

Personally I think mostly because he trusted the Japanese would attack the Soviets in the back and help Hitler thus in order to destroy the USSR. The Japanese however had no such ideas after Hitler had made a pact with Stalin in Aug 1939 ( which was a huge disappointment to the Japanese ) and also by August 1941 the Japanese military had noticed that the war is not going Germany´s way.

Hitler also thought that even if he declared war he would have 1-2 years time to settle things in Europe first.

 

Now that is one of the most boggling questions of all the surprises that Hitler has sprouted. Usually, anything that Hitler committed to, you can guarantee that there was something in for him. What declaring war on the US would do for him ??????????????

 

its called being over ambitious. maybe he felt that since taking over france and other parts of europe was so easy...that the US would fall just as quick?

 

im pretty sure that after America declared war on Japan, as Germany and Japan were allies, Hitler had to back Japan in the war. so maybe thats another reason Hitler declared war on America.

 

Didn't Hitler make the remark that Japan has never been defeated in a 1000 years on hearing there attack on Pearl Harbour.

Most likely ego got the best of him as the war on the whole was going his way, granted the odd hip-cup on the way.

 

That's not a good argument. Did Japan declare against Poland, France and Britain in Sept. 1939 in Germany's support? No.

 

Yes, other then sharing information, Germany and Japan never really did anything together. They never fought along side each other in any battles and rarely agreed on anything. They had mutual enemies and similar ambitions that is what brought them together.

 

There were several reasons that Germany went to war with the US:

1. Dönitz and the OKM in general were in favor of fighting the US as they were already in a defacto war as a result of their U-boat campaign. But, their view was a very narrow naval one based on their need for unrestricted submarine warfare. The OKM had pushed further out into the Atlantic despite Hitler's orders to avoid incidents with the US.

2. Hitler wasn't thrilled with the US selling huge amounts of war materials to Germany's enemies while persuing a near embargo against Germany.

3. There was a general misunderstanding about the capacity of the US to wage war. From the Nazi point of view the US was an impotent nation far distant from Germany that could only produce consumer goods.

4. Germany felt obligated to support Japan and probably hoped that Japan would recriprocate.

 

Hitler did not have to declare war on the US. The alliance with Japan was in effect only if Japan was attacked. Japan was the one doing the attacking so Hitler was under no obligation to declare war on the US. So why did he?

T.A. Gardner has already pointed out that the Germans, especially the navy, were already itching to get at the Americans since the Americans were openly helping the British and unrestricted submarine warfare against even American ships heading to Britain would help their battle with the British. And cutting off of Britain's lifeline was obviously necessary since Germany could not cross the Channel and finish them off, nor could their planes defeat the RAF over England.

And T.A. Gardner is also correct that Hitler underestimated the Americans. However, I think there is yet another reason to consider, that again is tied to Hitler's unique position as military and political leader of Germany. What was going on with Germany when Pearl Harbor occurred? The German army had stalled in front of Moscow as winter set in and suddenly the public realized the Nazis had bungled Barbarossa and had not planned on the war extending into the winter. And at the beginning of December the Russians launched their own counter-attack that was throwing back the Germany army and threatening it with complete collapse. Hitler and his Nazi cronies were looking bad. By declaring war on the US Hitler achieved a diversion from his failings in Russia. In addition, since the US was greatly aiding Britain and thus thwarting Germany's war aims, the declaration of war was revenge and allowed the German army to finally openly attack this subversive "neutral" country.

Hitler in early December of 1941 was facing his first real military setback of the war. Hitler was an emotional man and emotional people can make impulsive and less than rational decisions. Declaring war on the US was one of those moves. While a US declaration of war on Germany was pretty much an inevitability, by declaring war himself, Hitler managed to unify Americans against Germany. However, Hitler wasn't thinking entirely rationally at the time, and he certainly wasn't thinking in purely military terms either.

 

At that point, Hitler didn't want to go to war with the USA even if he was very annoyed because of American help to the Allies. He was more than aware of American industrial power.

Making alliance with Japan, he eventually expected Japan to attack to the SU and he was quite surprised when Japan attacked the USA. Obviously he had to take the first step and declare war on USA before they did it on Germany. At that point, Hitler was basically drawn to war against the USA.

Obviously, German U-boats had attacked also American convoys all the time, so war between the two would have been inevitable at some point.

Here is some good information and background about this subject:

Why did Hitler Declare War on the United States of America?

 

Adolf realised that the U.S. would eventually prevail. If he didn't declare war soon after PH, Germany would be swallowed up by Stalin....

So...

For access to the reconstruction money that was sure to flow from defeat, Adolf did Germany a huge postwar economic favour by declaring war...!!!!

 

Sorry OP...couldn't resist trotting out the essential plot behind the Peter Sellars movie, "The Mouse that Roared"....

Since Carl Evans started to slag off at me, I've been unable to take the forum with anything more than a large pinch of salt.....

 

Having read through this thread, I think some of you are missing the essential point.

On December 13th, 1941, Hitler was quite convinced that "the Russian bear is finished." (Translated quote, supposedly from Hitler himself.) His view of the situation was mostly through sycophants who were afraid to tell him the truth. He ordered Operation Typhoon despite the fact that the Wehrmacht in the east was exhausted and short of equipment and supplies because he was convinced that the Soviet Union just needed one more push before it toppled. He expected to capture Moscow any time soon, which would have split the Soviet forces in two, since Moscow was a BIG transportation hub in road-poor Russia.

At that point in time he controlled all of continental Europe except Spain and part of Russia. His armies had not only never been defeated (Except in north Africa,) but they had made their victories look easy. England and the Empire were looking pretty impotant at this point.

Hitler was on top of the world. What better time to take on the U.S. than before they were ready?

As I have been involved in speculative thinking regarding different aspects of the Second World War on this and other forums, I propose this question:

What would have been the course of the war if Hitler had not declared war on the United States?