veral weeks France was occupied and the British had been driven off the continent. By July 1940, Germany dominated nearly all of continental Europe, as Italy was an ally and Russia was neutral. Germany saw Britain as its last remaining enemy and so prepared for an invasion. In order to do so Hitler recognized that air supremacy would be necessary for any successful invasion to take place. The German air force, the Luftwaffe, was met with great resistance, and by late 1940 Hitler gave up hope of an immediate invasion of Britain. At this point, the best strategy for Germany would have been to attack North Africa and the Middle East, as this would give Germany the Suez Canal and therefore would cut off Britain's supply of oil. Instead, Hitler's obsession with a vast Eastern European empire had already determined that his next course of action would be to invade the Soviet Union. With Western Europe secure, for the time being, Hitler decided to embark on a massive campaign through the Soviet Union. This was known as Operation Barbarossa. It would eventually be the greatest land battle in history, with over 25 million casualties from its beginning in June 1941 to its end in July 1943-when the Soviets began a counter offensive that would eventually lead to Germany's defeat in 1945. Operation Barbarossa was flawed from the start. First, it didn't start until the summer of 1941 as Hitler had been occupied in the Balkans during the spring. Hitler did not think much of the lateness of the beginning of his invasion because he anticipated a quick victory before the Russian winter, which had stopped Napoleon, set in. Hitler also greatly underestimated the power of the Red Army. In the beginning, both sides had over 3 million men each. However, while the Germans had only 3300 tanks, the Soviets had 20,000, which gave them a distinct advantage even though many of their tanks were obsolete. Another problem for Germany was Hitler's lack o...
