On May 10th 1940 the German army invades France and Belgium through the heavily wooded Ardennes. A mere five weeks later there are German troops in the city of Paris. This rapid and impressive overthrowing of France gave Hitler and the rest of the German military a sense on invulnerability. This over confidence made Hitler and his officers underestimate the Red Army. This over confidence combined with the fact that the Red Army was humiliated by Finland in the Winter War. This combination gave Hitler the idea that an invasion of Russia would be “Child’s play”.(p. 68) Also, the war was not yet won in the west against England. Hitler, thinking that defeating Russia would be easy, wanted to remove England’s last remaining ally on the continent.