Hitler’s Reaction to Pearl Harbor

When news of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor reached Hitler’s headquarters on the evening of December 7, 1941, he reportedly reacted with enthusiasm instead of worrying that the United States was entering the war. “We cannot lose the war at all anymore. We now have an ally who has not been defeated for 3,000 years,” he reportedly said.

The news came at a very difficult time for Germany. Its offensive against the Soviet Union had stalled near Moscow, and the Red Army had begun a major counteroffensive the day before.

Hitler believed Japan would tie up a huge part of American forces in the Pacific and limit U.S. support for Great Britain and the Soviet Union. Four days after Pearl Harbor, on December 11, Germany declared war on the United States, even though its alliance obligations to Japan did not require this after Japan’s attack on the U.S. In practice, Hitler’s optimism was a disastrous strategic mistake: Germany was formally at war with a country with enormous industrial and military power.