The Second World War fascinates me. It must have it's origin in a previous life. As a child I wondered, why the Germans never did win. Later on you realize, that the Nazis could have won. During the war certain things happened, which I don't understand from a strategic point of view. For instance “Duinkerken”. The English Army was in retreat, but actually had no way to go. Though small in numbers, it was the battle hardened core of the English Army. Instead of surrounding them and taken them prisoner, the superior Nazi-forces halted and gave the British a chance to escape. Thousands of small ships evacuated most of the troops. They were hardly disturbed, not by guns, submarines or aircraft. In this way Churchill had a basis to build on and prepare for a future invasion. I don't understand, why the Germans invaded Russia, without a similar action by the Japanese. (after Pearl Harbor the Nazis declared war on the United States, with disastrous consequences). Stalin would have to fight on two fronts. Without Japanese action the Soviet dictator could move troops to the Western front. These “Siberian legions” proved decisive at Moscow and the battle of Kursk. This was the turning point of the Eastern Campaign. From that moment on, the Nazis were on the retreat. The decision, made by Hitler personally, to defend Stalingrad, proved disastrous. In the end “Feldmarschall (on the last moment promoted) von Paulus had to surrender and hundreds of thousands of well-trained and highly motivated soldiers and officers went into captivity. Never to return to the “Heimat”. This loss could not be compensated and the Germans knew that. Ernst Udet, decorated flying-ace, killed himself in novemer 1941. Based on the figures and the losses of the Luftwaffe he concluded, that the war could not be won. Germany was not capable of replacing equipment and trained personell.I don't understand, why the Nazis did not use the anti-Soviet sentiments in the Ukraine f.i. Instead of recruiting them, they terrorized them into resistance. Even so, many anti-communists joined the German Army and SS-divisions. After the collapse of the "Reich", surviving volunteers were repatriated to the USSR. Never to be heard from again.