Surrounded by the gilded cupids of Berlin's Kroll Opera House, facing the upturned faces of the puppet Reichstag. Reich Marshal Hermann Goring declared with beefy deference: "Führer, speak to us."
The Führer spoke: "Italy, Germany and Japan will henceforth conduct in common and jointly a war which has been imposed on them by the United States of America and England....
"We will always strike first. We will always deal the first blow."
By the time this shrill declaration was made there was no longer reason to doubt that Germany had already dealt the first blow. The weapon had been Japan. The attempt to cut the U.S. life line to the Orient was the opening move of the second phase of World War II, designed to prevent the U.S. from helping its Allies while the Axis disposed of them one by one.
Divide & Conquer. The Axis grand strategy, conceived in Berlin, is, almost certainly, to divide the forces of its foes and then to conquer each sector separately. Allied strength is maintained by sea power, supported by a string of fortresses stretching around the world: Portsmouth, Gibraltar, Alexandria, Singapore, Hawaii, Panama. The reduction of any of these bastions would cut the Allied life line. The reduction of several would be a catastrophe. There were signs this week that the Axis was planning an assault on one or several:
> Japan was already attacking Singapore.
> Spain canceled the sailings of merchantmen for the Americas. Spain's entrance into the war would be the signal for attack on Gibraltar, perhaps on Portugal and the Azores as well.
> Turkey was scared stiff at concentrations of troops in Bulgaria. Turkey issued a declaration of neutrality, but was wavering. The capitulation or conquest of Turkey would be the signal for a flanking attack on Suez, probably an assault on Alexandria from the air.
> But the greatest bastion of all is the fortress of the British Isles, and there were suggestions that even that might be assaulted. In Berlin the Italian and Japanese Ambassadors attended a meeting to discuss "new and important tasks resulting from the common war against the Anglo-Saxon powers." Present to explain those tasks were Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel, Grand Admiral Erich Raeder and Field Marshal Erhard Milch of the Air Force. Last June, when he launched his attack on Russia, Adolf Hitler spoke of "the tying up of such powerful German forces in the east that the radical conclusion of the war in the west...could no longer be vouched for by the German High Command." If Germany can now stabilize the Russian front (see p. 25), that radical conclusion might be attempted.
In extending the war to the U.S. the Axis gambled on a short war. A logical schedule for ending it quickly: 1) divide and conquer the British Empire, while 2) keeping the U.S. on the defensive, and 3) choking off aid to China and Russia; then 4) deal with China and Russia, and finally 5) offer the U.S. the alternative of making peace or fighting alone.