This has been rightly described as a war of surprises. The Blitzkrieg tactics employed by the Nazis in the early stages came as a surprise to the Allies. The extent to which the Germans had succeeded in undermining the loyalty of many persons in the countries they invaded was a shock to national self-complacency. "There have been many others. The surprises have not been on one side only. The failure of the aerial attack on Great Britain, the counter-measures which have proved so successful against unlimited U-boat warfare. and the magnificent resistance of the Russians have been three of a number of disagreeable surprises which the Nazis have suffered. The unexpected has occurred not only on the military side, but also on the political. Few could have predicted the internal collapse of France, for example. Military defeat was possible, but the demoralization which permitted the Men of Vichy to assume control was more than the most confident of prophets could have foreseen, Not least among the surprises to an all-too-ill-informed world ha: been the political stability, which the Soviet Union has displayed under the fiercest of trials. The Nazis expected an internal movement ayainst the Moscow government; for years they Had prepared an autonomous Ukrainian party which they believed would rise in their favour, since they had placed every kind of inducement before them. Yet there was no uprising. The Ukrainians have embraced the scorched earth policy—a policy which deprives them of everything which this most destructive fighting had left—with enthusiasm. And it is no reflection upon the magnificence of the Russian resistance and the solidarity displayed by the Russian people to say that they came as a surprise even to those nations which are now most ardently supporting them. blame that this has been the case. "me The Russians themselves are largely to
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