Hilt

In 1945 the leader of Nazi Germany took his own life in an underground bunker surrounded by the smoldering remains of his capital city. What if Hitler had made asimple strategy change in 1941? Could the war have ended with the Axis powers ruling most of the world and America cowering on the other side of the globe?Adolf Hitler needed oil. By 1941 the German war machine - tanks, planes and trucks - would soon grind to a stop without petroleum. Hitler and his allies controlledmost of the continent of Europe along with parts of northern Africa, but no area within the influence of the Axis powers, contained enough resources of oil tomeet his needs. This was a problem that Hitler needed to solve and solve soon.

In 1939 the Germans had signed the German-Soviet Non-aggression Pact with theSoviet Union. This document secretly divided most of eastern Europe between the two powers. For Hitler it removed the worry of having to fight a war on his easternfront while also waging war against England and France in the west. For the Soviet leader Stalin, it meant that he could turn all his attention to a possible attackon his easstern flank by Japan.

By 1941, however, Hitler had most of western Europe under his control. Though Hitler had access to oil in Romania and the pactwith the Soviet's included a clause in which they agreed to sell him oil, Hilter knew these supplies would be insufficent to meet the German war machine's growinghunger. What Hitler wanted was the Soviet Union's extensive oil fields in the Caucaus and in June he repudiated the pack and launched an attack upon the Russians.