Hitler Gets Another Hunch

This is pretty much out there, but I'm curious for feedback.

Hitler was notorious for his hunches; the allies caving in at Munich over Czechloslovokia, the quick overthrow of France and the allies being unprepared for the Ardennes Offensive among others. But it failed him over Poland, he was positive that England and France wouldn't declare war. But they did.

Suppose he gets a hunch the allies aren't bluffing. But the deal with Stalin is already in place. So Hitler gets a totally Machiiavellian idea...

September 1st, 1939: Soviet forces invade eastern Poland. But on the western front German forces on the border do nothing. Stalin's agents report a lot of radio traffic between the allies and Germany.

Suddenly an announcement is made. Hitler is furious over the unprovoked invasion and offers German support. The troops on the border pour into Poland to meet the Soviets. Meanwhile the Luftwaffe flies sortie after sortie over Poland in support of the outnumbered Poles.

It's a brilliant move. Hitler gets his war against Russia and also buys some credability with the west.

The Winter War hasn't happened but Stalin has been threatening Finland so they might throw in with Germany. And Hitler will make this a crusade.

The biggest stumbling block is that the German Army of 1939 is nowhere nearly as well-equipped or well-trained as the Army of 1941. Without a _lot_ of support Germany will get bogged down just as they did in 1941.

Any thoughts?
 
Hint: soviet troops entered Poland in 17th of september. So without actual german invasion RKKA never going anywere.

Second hint: in september Soviet Union had 62 combat-ready divisions. Total. Twenty of them in Far East.
 
As Cruel dwraf said the Soviets invaded on the 17th and wouldn't have if the Germans hadn;t invaded first.
 
As has been pointed out, the Soviets weren't so foolish as to trust Hitler and didn't invade until the 17th, which was actually a hastening of the original plans.

The Finns are also not stupid. They were always unsure about working with germany, to their credit, and refused to cross the 1939 border on the isthmus even once the bridges were burned and the war had begun. They would certainly not launch an unprovoked attack on the Soviet Union.

Now, if we assume Hitler did somehow try and cast the Russians as sole agressor, he'd have to explain his rabidly agressive conduct towards Poland in the preceding weeks. Britain and France weren't buying it. They had lost any faith in him after he broke Munich.

And we weren't so stupid as to think letting Hitler make a succesful "crusade" against Russia was a good idea, either. If the Soviets did come to blows with Hitler at this point somehow, we might well sign guarantee Turkey, Romania, and Finland and then bomb Baku and nip at both dictatorships while they fought one-another.
 
Top