Miningman Just that low key, seldom mentioned and poorly understood NYC line directly into Ottawa must have a thousand and one stories. Generals and Senators from both sides, attache's, secret shadowy nobodies, industrialists, maybe baggage cars of cash and gold!
Just that low key, seldom mentioned and poorly understood NYC line directly into Ottawa must have a thousand and one stories. Generals and Senators from both sides, attache's, secret shadowy nobodies, industrialists, maybe baggage cars of cash and gold!
A hidden backwoods route may be the most secure, if no one knows about it.
I wonder how many important officials travelled on the Montrealer/Washingtonian (in private cars sometimes too), with connections to Ottawa it was THE swanky way to travel between from capital to capitol.
Greetings from Alberta
-an Articulate Malcontent
Miningman Everything for nothing, irresistible I suppose: The Labour Party ran on promises to create full employment, a tax-funded universal National Health Service, the embracing of Keynesian economic policies and a cradle-to-grave welfare state, with the campaign message 'Let us face the future'.
Everything for nothing, irresistible I suppose: The Labour Party ran on promises to create full employment, a tax-funded universal National Health Service, the embracing of Keynesian economic policies and a cradle-to-grave welfare state, with the campaign message 'Let us face the future'.
After 6 dreadful years of war that sounds pretty good. I'd have voted for him.
War hero Winston could not even continue on with the war against the Japanese. I think that would have made Josef Stalin smile ear to ear.
But....I really want to understand what happened Sept. 39 to Dec 41 on those American railroads operating in Canada.
Did we here in Canada view this with suspicion? Did we give you folks a hard time? Were the railroads billed for security measures that must have taken place, ie..key yards, bridges, back shops, stations and such? Did the American customs agents inspect with great rigor every train and all cargo on their own trains that crossed into and across Canada?
I suspect there was a lot of very very hush hush top secret co-operation going on and a lot of pretence and show pointing to the exact opposite.
Must have been exciting nonetheless.
Overmod Firelock76 I suppose Gary Oldman who plays him in "Darkest Hour" said it best. "It was an honor to play Churchill, he's our Lincoln!" And almost as soon as the war was ended, they chucked him out and replaced him with that Attlee character.
Firelock76 I suppose Gary Oldman who plays him in "Darkest Hour" said it best. "It was an honor to play Churchill, he's our Lincoln!"
And almost as soon as the war was ended, they chucked him out and replaced him with that Attlee character.
Johnny
First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, on the radio, March 31, 1940:
It seems rather hard with Spring caressing the land, and when after rigors of Winter our fields and woodlands are reviving, that all our thoughts must be turned and bent upon sterner war. When I spoke to you six months ago I said that if we reached the Spring without any great events occurring we should then have gained an important success. I still feel that this additional period of preparation has been an invaluable help to the Allies.
Peaceful parliamentary nations have more difficulty in transforming themselves into vast war-making organisms than dictator States who glorify and feed their youth on dreams of conquest. The British Empire and the French Republic are now joined together in indissoluble union so that their full purposes may be accomplished. An immense progress has been made in almost every direction, in strengthening our forces, in improving our defenses and in adapting our whole economy and way of life to the credit of the common cause.
Up to the present, time has been on our side, but time is a changeable ally—he may be with you in one period and against you in another, and then if you come through that other he may return again, more faithful than before. It seems to me, in giving a general view, that an intensification of the struggle is to be expected, and we are certainly by no means inclined to shrink from it. We must not boast or speak in terms of vain conceit and over-confidence. We have never underrated the terrible nature of what we undertook when, after striving so long for peace, we set ourselves to the task of dealing with the Nazi and German menace, and of dealing with it in such a fashion as would clear a path of progress and enable all countries, the great and small, old and new, to breathe freely for a long time to come.
We do not minimize our job, but we can now measure it in its enormous magnitude more exactly than we could before we came into contact with our adversary on the sea and in the air. We do not conceal from ourselves that trials and tribulations lie before us far beyond anything we have so far undergone, and we know that supreme exertion will be required from the British and French nations.
We know all this, but we are entitled to recognize the basic facts. Our resources and our manpower, once they are fully developed, match and exceed those of the enemy. The British and French races together amount to 110,000,000 against less than 70,000,000 of Germans who cannot count the 16,000,000 they are holding down by brute force.
Through our command of the sea, which is becoming considerably more complete, the resources of the whole world are to a very large extent open to us, and on surveying the whole scene we may rightly feel a good and sober assurance that if we do our best we shall not fail.
Some people often ask me: "Will the war be long or short?" It might have been a very short war, perhaps, indeed, there might have been no war, if all the neutral States, who share our conviction upon fundamental matters, and who openly or secretly sympathize with us, had stood together at one signal and in one line. We did not count on this, we did not expect it, and therefore we are not disappointed or dismayed. We trust in God, and in our own arms uplifted in a cause which we devoutly feel carries with it the larger hopes and harmonies of mankind.
But the fact is that many of the smaller States of Europe are terrorized by Nazi violence and brutality into supplying Germany with the material of modern war, and this fact may condemn the whole world to a prolonged ordeal with grievous, unmeasured consequences in many lands. Therefore, I cannot assure you that the war will be short and still less that it will be easy.
It is, I think, our duty to try, so far as our strength lies, not only to win the war but to curtail, so far as possible, its devouring course. Some few weeks ago I spoke about the action of the neutral States who have the misfortune to be Germany's neighbors. We have the greatest sympathy for these forlorn countries, and we understand their dangers and their point of view, but it would not be right, or in the general interest, that their weakness should be the aggressor's strength, and fill to overflowing the cup of human woe. There could be no justice if in a moral struggle the aggressor tramples down every sentiment of humanity, and if those who resist him remain entangled in the tatters of violated legal conventions.
Hardly a day passes without fresh outrages of a barbarous character being inflicted upon the shipping and sailors of all European countries. Their ships are sunk by mines, or by torpedo, or by bombs from the air, and their crews are murdered, or left to perish, unless we are able to rescue them. Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, and even Italians, and many more I could mention, have been the victims of Hitler's murderous rage.
In his frenzy, this wicked man and the criminal regime which he has conceived and erected, increasingly turn their malice upon the weak, upon the lowly, and above all, upon the unarmed vessels of countries with which Germany is still supposed to be in friendly relations. In the British and French convoys there is safety. Only one in 800 neutral ships which have resorted to our protection has been sunk; only one in every 800. It is 800 to 1 against a sinking at the present time. But outside the shelter of the Allied navies, merciless, baffled, pent-up spite is wreaked upon all who come within the Nazi clutches.
More than 150 neutral ships have been destroyed and over 1,000 neutral seamen have been slaughtered in Hitler's frantic endeavor to terrorize all who seek to trade with the British Isles. During the last fortnight, fourteen neutral ships have been sunk and only one British ship. After all it is we who are his foes, and it is we who have the honor to be his foes.
Such a form of warfare has never been practiced since the effectual suppression of piracy on the high seas. And this is the monstrous power which even the very neutrals who have suffered and are suffering most—this is the power which they are forced to supply with the means of future aggression. This is the power before whom, even while they writhe in anger, they are forced to bow, and whose victory they are compelled to aid, even though, as they well know, that victory would mean their own enslavement.
Why, only yesterday, while the sailors from a British submarine were carrying ashore on stretchers eight emaciated Dutchmen, whom they had rescued from six days' exposure in an open boat, Dutch aviators in Holland, in the name of strict and impartial orthodoxy, were shooting down a British aircraft which had lost its way.
I do not reproach the Dutch, our valiant allies of bygone centuries. My heart goes out to them in their peril and distress, dwelling as they do in the cage with the tiger, but when we are asked to take as a matter of course interpretations of neutrality which give all the advantages to the aggressor and inflict all the disadvantages upon the defenders of freedom, I recall a saying of the late Lord Balfour: "This is a singularly ill-contrived world but not so ill-contrived as that."
But all these outrages upon the sea which are so clearly visible pale before the villainous deeds which were wrought upon the helpless Czechs and Austrians, and they sink almost into insignificance before the hideous agony of Poland. What a frightful fate has overtaken Poland! Here was a community of nearly thirty-five millions of people with all the organization of a modern government, and all the traditions of an ancient State, which, in a few weeks, was dashed out of civilized existence to become an incoherent multitude of tortured and starving men, women and children, ground beneath the heel of two rival forms of withering, blasting killing.
The other day in a well-known British harbor I inspected the crew of a Polish destroyer. I rarely have seen a finer body of men. I was stirred by their discipline and bearing, yet how tragic was their plight! Their ship was afloat, but their country had foundered. But then I looked around upon all the great ships of war which lay at their anchors, and at all the preparations which were being made on every side to carry this war forward at all costs, as long as may be necessary. I comforted myself with the thought that when these Polish sailors have finished their work with the British Navy, we will take particular care that they once more have a home to go to.
I know the fate of Poland stares every one in the face. There are thoughtless, dilettante or purblind worldlings who sometimes ask us: "What is it that Britain and France are fighting for?" To this I make the answer: "If we left off fighting, you would soon find out."
We shall follow this war wherever it leads us, but we have no wish to broaden the area of conflict. At the outbreak, seven months ago, we didn't know that Italy would not be our enemy, we were not sure that Japan would not be our enemy. Many people, on the other hand, had hoped that Russia would re-enter the comity of nations and help to shield the working folk all over the world from Nazi aggression. But none of these things, good or bad, has happened.
We have no quarrel with the Italian or Japanese peoples. We have tried and we shall try our best to live on good terms with them. It is no part of our policy to seek a war with Russia. The Soviet Government, in their onslaught upon the heroic Finns, have exposed to the whole world the ravages which communism makes upon the fiber of any nation which falls a victim to that deadly mental and moral disease. This exposure of the Russian Army and Russian Air Force has astonished the world and has rightly heartened all the States that dwell upon the Russian border.
But there is no need for Russia to be drawn into this struggle, unless upon the promptings of obsolete imperialist ambition she wishes to do so on her own volition and on plans of malice prepense she throws her weight on the side of our enemy. Our affair is not with her. Our affair is with Hitler and the Nazi German power. There is the head and forefront of the offending, and it is there, and there alone, that we seek to strike.
All's quiet upon the Western Front, and today, this Saturday, so far nothing has happened on the sea nor in the air. But, more than a million German soldiers, including all their active divisions and armored divisions, are drawn up ready to attack at a few hours' notice all along the frontiers of Luxembourg, of Belgium and of Holland. At any moment these neutral countries may be subjected to an avalanche of steel and fire, and the decision rests in the hands of a haunted, morbid being, who, to their eternal shame, the German peoples, in their bewilderment, have worshiped as a god.
That is the situation of Europe tonight, and can any one wonder that we are determined to bring such a hideous state of alarm and malice to an end, and to bring it to an end as soon as may be, and to bring it to an end once and for all.
Few there are tonight who, looking back on these last seven months, would doubt that the British and French peoples were right to draw the sword of justice and retribution. Fewer still there are who would wish to sheathe it till its somber, righteous work is done.
Firelock76I suppose Gary Oldman who plays him in "Darkest Hour" said it best. "It was an honor to play Churchill, he's our Lincoln!"
Roosevelt's address to Congress soon after Churchill became Prime Minister.
So FDR could not ship/fly the planes to England or to Canada, even though they were paid for. He could deliver them close to the 49th Parallel and then we have to drag them back using teams of horses as nothing mechanized allowed....OK..fine and dandy, so how did this get enforced on the NYC CASO, and their line into Ottawa, along with Pere Marquette and Wabash operations.
I think the Americans had to very careful or could they ship to Buffalo, Detroit or somewhere else and then we send more horses?
Maybe things fell of a flat car occasionally between Detroit and Buffalo or on the way to Ottawa.
Also I'm sure the Canadian Military has soldiers posted at NYC stations and bridges and the 3 American railroads extensive backshops in St. Thomas.
I believe Great Northern had operations in Manitoba and British Columbia so same kind of thing.
Thinking there is a great story to be told from the time Sept.1939 to mid Dec.1941.
Agent Kid--Thanks for that info....I did not know that, so I was close. Do people in the area know, is there any kind of memorial/reminder?Yes pretty much travelled straight up North from Havre.
Back to the German-Italian-Japanese pact for a second...the exact wording wasn't really all that relevent. The US declaring war on Japan - even though it was in response to a Japanese attack - was in affect an 'attack' on Japan that Germany would be obligated to respond to. If not, Hitler risked losing the confidence of the European countries he was allied with or who had pro-German governments.
Along Churchill Blvd. in Jerusalem is the well-cared-for British Military Cemetary (WWI casualties), the Rikliss Building for Occupational Rehabilitation, Hebrew University Reznick Dormitories, the Mount Scopus Hadassah Hospital, the H. U. Maintenance building and a cafe. Eight local Egged bus lines use the boulevard, and two Arab co-op lines. It is a 20 minute walk from my Yeshiva, a five-minute bus ride when the bus runs (now only six times a day.) Four of the local bus lines connect it with the light rail at three different stations. Of course Churchill is honored and considered a hero.
Miningmanhe'd be willing to fly them up to within a mile or so of the Canadian border and turn a blind eye if Winston were to send over teams of horses ("nothing motorized") to drag them across the frontier
It's a little late, so I will be brief.
A lot of those planes were dragged across the border west of where you came north from Havre, MT on your trip last summer. As you will remember, it would hardly the most difficult thing to do.
I got a kick out of Churchill calling it the "frontier".
Bruce
So shovel the coal, let this rattler roll.
"A Train is a Place Going Somewhere" CP Rail Public Timetable
"O. S. Irricana"
. . . __ . ______
President Kennedy once said that Churchill "...mobilised the English language and sent it into battle!"
Here's Richard Burton doing a reading of Churchill's words, and making a fine job of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYGU03oMkBY
Sends shivers down my spine.
Yes, Winston Spencer Churchill was indeed the Man for the Time. He recognized Adolf Hitler for what he was, and he refused to accede to any of that man's demands. Instead, he steeled the English to resist the invitations and/or demands that the Austrian made.
"Darkest Hour" is on my "must-see" list for 2018, no doubt about it!
For the life of me, I can't imagine just who other than Winston could have led the British people to resist Hitler so effectively during the war. It took a 19th Century Victorian "take no nonsense from foreigners" Englishman to stand up to a 10th Century barbarian. Talk about the man and the hour having met!
I remember seeing the late actor Richard Dawson on a TV talk show around 1971 or so. All the celebritys present were mature men, and the subject of "The War" came up. Dawson himself was too young to serve, in fact he was one of the kids evacuated from London during the Blitz, but he remembered the era perfectly, and even cracked up the guests and the audience with a spot-on imitation of Churchill.
But then he got serious and said, "You know, we joke about Winston now, we even joked about him a bit then, but let me tell you, the British people really need someone like a Churchill to get the best out of them!" I never forgot that.
I suppose Gary Oldman who plays him in "Darkest Hour" said it best. "It was an honor to play Churchill, he's our Lincoln!"
From the newly released movie 'Darkest Hour' this fascinating conversation takes place between Churchill and FDR, (from a review by Mark Steyn.)
Joe Wright's film is very good on the sense of one small island on the periphery of Europe having the noose tightened almost hour by hour. The beleaguered Prime Minister puts in a telephone call to Washington to ask the American president if he might see his way to letting them have the P-40 fighter planes they've already paid for. FDR responds that he "just can't swing it" (a fine bit of period vernacular) but he'd be willing to fly them up to within a mile or so of the Canadian border and turn a blind eye if Winston were to send over teams of horses ("nothing motorized") to drag them across the frontier. As you might expect after that helpful suggestion, the conversation tails off: "Goodnight to you, Winston," says Franklin. "It must be late there..."
"In more ways than you could possibly know."
Also fascinating to note that had Churchill's nemesis Viscount Halifax had become the Prime Minister instead of Sir Winston that border FDR is referring to, the 49th parallel, would have been one that was a neutered Berlin-friendly one.
Stunning
Quite the character that Warburg fellow...reading the bio sent chills.
Luv that cartoon...very surreal, even "avant garde" and well done.
http://spartacus-educational.com/SPYwarburg.htm
Preface of Hell Bent for Election by James P. Warburg (1935)
As we approach the Presidential election of November, 1936, it is well for us to take stock of our present situation and to begin to make up our minds whether we want to continue along our present course—or change it.
Never in the history of our country has it been so necessary for every citizen to exercise intelligently the rights of citizenship.
Our country is faced with a crisis more serious than any mere "depression."
It is faced by a question more basic than unemployment or low prices or heavy debts.
When you and I go to the polls in November, 1936, we shall be voting, not for any one man, not for any one party, not for any one remedy or group of remedies, but for the continuance or discontinuance of the freedom we have enjoyed under what for want of a better name we call the American scheme of life.
I speak as one who had but little sympathy with the Hoover administration; as one who in early 1933 had great hopes of what Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal might bring to our distressed country, and as one who, after devoting no little time and sincere if ineffective effort towards the realization of these hopes, now feels not only disillusioned but convinced that the present administration is doing more harm than good, that Mr. Roosevelt is no more likely to change his basic characteristics than is a leopard to change his spots, and that the sooner we have done with him the better for the country.
I say this reluctantly because, in spite of what I think and shall say in subsequent pages, of Mr. Roosevelt, I have a feeling of affection for him which longs to deny what my reason tells me is undeniable . It is much as if I had a brother who was a locomotive engineer and developed colorblindness. I should continue to love my brother, but I should certainly not feel justified in urging his employers to continue entrusting him with the lives of others.
Why not then keep silent?
Certainly it would be more comfortable to do so. Certainly, for one who has a living to earn in this country, it would be more prudent, since, as I write this, the chances of Mr. Roosevelt's being reelected are certainly no worse than even.
There is only one reason why I am impelled to write: it is the same reason that impels you to try to flag an express train before it reaches a broken culvert. There is only one way to flag the train before it reaches the fatal spot, and that is to arouse the citizens of this country so that they will see the real issues of the coming campaign and to make them assert their will before it is too late. Toward this end I have been writing and speaking more or less continuously since late in 1933. And toward this end I shall continue until the tide is turned, so long as there is free speech in this country.
Until quite recently it was my feeling that the things to fight were wrong ideas and wrong policies rather than the men who originated them or put them into effect. Ideally speaking, I still think this to be true.
But we have got beyond the point of speaking ideally.
We have got beyond the point of separating the President, because he has a lovable personality, from his words and actions.
We have got beyond the point of blaming those who influence the President—be they radical or reactionary; be they in office or unofficial advisers.
In a speech at Butte, Mont., on September 19,1932, Mr. Roosevelt himself said:
"Remember well that attitude and method—the way we do things, not just the way we say things—is nearly always the measure of one's sincerity."
We have come to the point where we must appraise Franklin D. Roosevelt by his own standard, for it is only upon a judgment so arrived at that we can intelligently decide whether to be for him or against him.
I am against him, and the purpose of this book is to tell you why.
There would be no reason to do this were it not for the very definite hope that my feelings may find an echo and my reasoning a response among those who share in the ever growing realization throughout the country that we are on the brink of a momentous decision.
James P. Warburg
August 31, 1935
https://archive.org/stream/unitedstatesinch00warb#page/n5/mode/2up
Remember that into the late thirties or even 1940, the US was selling scrap metal, rubber and oil to Japan, and was actively trading with Germany. We had a lot of trade with Canada, but not as much as today's NAFTA world. I don't think the outbreak of war in Sept 1939 had a huge impact on the US and Canada's rail network.
Where Canadian trains had to cross through the US - like the Canadian National's mainline that runs south of Lake of the Woods through northern Minnesota - I think it would have been more 'business as usual'. The train would be inspected when entering the US, the documents reviewed and stamped, and the train 'sealed' so nothing would be picked up and dropped off. When going back into Canada, the Canadian customs agents would do a similar inspection.
Remindful of the UK propaganda movie "49th parallel" from early 1941. A U-boat develops mechanical trouble in Hudson Bay, and the crew's captain decides they will try to travel all the way south to the neutral USA, rather than surrender. By the end only the captain is left, he sneaks onto a boxcar sent across the Niagara river to the US and when the car is opened on the US side for inspection, he demands asylum - despite being wanted for murder in Canada. The US Customs people feel that they have to allow him in, until someone points out that the German captain isn't on the bill of goods with the car. The US Customs folks 'refuse' the car for improper paperwork, and it goes back across to Canada where the German captain is arrested.
You've got that right. Who knows? There might be a suitcase nuke in one of those N gauge baggage cars.
Until very recently, not sure when, but sometime after 9/11, Americans and Canadians did not require a passport for visits, vacations or buisness or anything else to enter each other's countries. It used to be a pretty simple affair, but no longer, unless you have one of those special passes.
I used to take 2 or 3 N Trak modules across no problem-o but I don't even try these days. One look underneath with all those capacitor discharge's, assorted electronics, batteries and wires everywhere and you got some 'splainin" to do. Terrorists screwed lots of things up.
I'd suspect if there were any serious changes they were probably on the Canadian side, that is checking ID's and passports of anyone coming off the American trains in Canadian stations. You know, looking for guys with German accents? A Canadian historian would know more about that than I would, but it just makes sense in a wartime situation. Unlike the late George Carlin's game of "Find The Spy At The Airport" this would have been deadly serious.
As George said "You KNOW there's a spy at the airport! Your job, FIND HIM!"
Well OK... the implication was no effective long range strategic bomber...nothing that made a difference in the war. The Nazi's could not effectively reach Stalins war machinery when moved to the other side of the Ural's. They lost the air war "Battle of Britain" and then cancelled Sea Lion, the invasion of Britain because of that.
In any case there was no way they were going to be bombing the B&O or the Santa Fe! Saboteurs perhaps, but they were quickly apprehended . Which brings it around to the original thought behind this topic, which was; what different situation did the NYC, Wabash and Pere Marquette operate under in Canada when Canada was in the war and the US was not '39-'41.
MiningmanNo four engined bomber!
What?
Condor. Me264. Ju390. Amerika-Bomber project.
Had Walter Wever not fortuitously died when he did, the situation for long-range high-altitude strategic bombing ... once the British got the Luftwaffe well and truly into the act of using 'strategic bombing' on civilian targets ... might have been very different. If I'm not mistaken, the Germans had an effective system of in-flight refueling of some of the large aircraft before 1944.
I got that from an interview with Saburo Sakai I read years ago. In addition to all the other things it could do Sakai said the best thing about the Zero was it's range. "You have no idea what a relief it is for a fighter pilot not to be constantly worrying about his fuel supply" said Sakai-san.
Very interesting man. He was an enlisted pilot for most of the war, and wasn't commissioned a lieutenant junior grade in the Japanese Navy until the last year of the war. As far as he was concerned the wartime leaders of Japan were idiots. "The officers were celebrating the victory at Pearl Harbor, but not us enlisted guys. We knew we were dead!" It was a severe head wound plus the loss of an eye that got Sakai shipped home, so he was one of the lucky ones who survived. The average Japanese pilot, and the average German or Russian one for that matter, was considered just another combat soldier and flew until he was killed or too badly wounded to go on, or for a VERY lucky few who were sent home as trainers.
Sakai with 63 kills as Japans top surviving ace became an ardent pacifist after the war. He was invited to join the Japanese Self-Defense Air Force when it was established but turned the offer down cold, saying he'd only climb in a fighter cockpit again if "The Soviet slave-masters ever try to invade Japan!"
Well then its a good thing they didn't have the Zero. Never heard that before but can you imagine? It's something that could have happened but so fortunate that it did not. History could turn on a dime.
The Luftwaffe never developed a long-range bomber until it was too late for a variety of reasons, paramount of which was the Luftwaffe's loss of the one general who was agressively promoting strategic bombing in a plane crash. The man's name was Walter Wever, and when he died so the the strategic bombing concept.
The Luftwaffe for all it's might was essentially what we'd call a tactical air force, that means it was geared for local air supremacy and support of advancing ground forces. When they had to go strategic as in the air assaults on Britain they came up short, the Messerschmitt fighters had no long range capabilities and the bombers couldn't carry a load big enough to be truly devastating, and once the fighters had to return home due to lack of range the bombers were torn apart by the Spitfires and Hurricanes.
The Japanese fighter ace Saburo Sakai once said if the Luftwaffe had been flying Zeroes they would have won the Battle of Britain! No range problems with the Zero!
Yes, late with Barbarossa to bail out his buddy Mussolini in Greece, then early and heavy rains that spring further delay, then instead of focusing on defeating Russia he focused on capturing prizes like Kiev, then no winter preparation. The railroad track is different gauge in Russia so the track had to be relaid therefore seriously impeding supply lines and movement of tanks. One thing after another, all poor planning and poor decisions
Declaring war against the US including going up against the Pennsy, the C&O, UP, NYC...you name it, all of which he could not touch. No four engined bomber! Imagine if that four engined jet bomber with stealth ability from Horton was further along combined with a nuclear bomb from Peenemunde. The US had the bomber and the nuke in '45. I think things were closer than we think.. Or know.
Yes, my memory failed me as to when the Germans, Italians, and Japanese decided upon a mutual defense/offense pact.
As to the invasion of Russia, if he had sent his armies in sooner, he might have made more progress-- but he was annoyed by a disturbance in Yugoslavia and decided to take care of that before going against the Bear--and paid the same price that Napoleon Bonaparte paid because he started moving too late.
William L. Shirer had two excellent works: Berlin Diary and The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.
It took three days for Adolf to make up his mind, and going against the best advice he still declared war on the US. Best guess from me and others who've studied the period is he probably thought the US would confine most of it's efforts against Japan and wouldn't bother with him much.
Third big mistake that eventually doomed him. The second? Invading the Soviet Union. The first? Starting a war to begin with.
DeggestyAt some time in the thirties, Japana and Germany agreed that if one declared war on the United States, the other one would also declare war on our country.
If this is the Tripartite Pact, it was September 17, 1940. The potentially relevant section (translated) is
"ARTICLE 3. Japan, Germany, and Italy ... undertake to assist one another with all political, economic and military means if one of the Contracting Powers is attacked by a Power at present not involved in the European War or in the Japanese-Chinese conflict."
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