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Operation Pike was the code-name for a strategic bombing plan, overseen by Air Commodore John Slessor, against the Soviet Union by the Anglo-French alliance. British military planning against the Soviet Union occurred during the first two years of the Second World War, when despite Soviet neutrality, the British and French came to the conclusion that the Nazi-Soviet pact made Moscow the ally of Hitler.〔Keith Neilson, ''Stalin's Moustache: The Soviet Union and the coming of war '', Diplomacy & Statecraft, Volume 12, Issue 2, June 2001, pp. 197–208〕 The plan was designed to destroy the Soviet oil industry, to cause the collapse of the Soviet economy and deprive Nazi Germany of Soviet resources. ==Planning== After the conclusion of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Britain and France became deeply concerned that Stalin kept supplying more oil to Hitler's Germany. Planning began shortly after the Soviet invasion of Poland in September 1939 and gained momentum after Joseph Stalin launched the Winter War against Finland in November 1939. The plan included the seizure of northern Norway and Sweden and an advance into Finland, to confront Soviet troops and naval forces in the Baltic Sea. The plan was seen as costly and ineffective in dealing with the German threat and were thus scaled back to the seizure of Norway and the Swedish iron ore mines. British and French politicians were for the continuation of the conflict between Finland and the Soviet Union, to legitimize their attack on the Soviet soil. Planners identified the dependence by Nazi Germany on oil imports from the Soviet Union as a vulnerability that could be exploited. Despite initial opposition by some politicians, the French Government ordered General Maurice Gamelin to commence a ''"plan of possible intervention with the view of destroying Russian oil exploitation"'', while U.S. Ambassador Bullit informed U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt that the French considered that air attacks by the French Air Forces in Syria against Baku would be "the most efficient way to weaken the Soviet Union."〔 According to the report by General Gamelin submitted to the French Prime Minister on 22 February 1940, an oil shortage would cripple the Red Army and Soviet Air Force, as well as Soviet collective farm machinery, causing possible widespread famine and even the collapse of the Soviet Union, an important source of raw materials would also be denied to Nazi Germany with the destruction of the oil fields. Serious preparation by the British began after the end of the Winter War with Finland in March 1940. By April, plans to attack oil production centres in the Caucasian towns of Baku, Batum and Grozny were complete. Bombers were to be flown from bases in Iran, Turkey and Syria in "Western Air Plan 106", code named "Operation Pike".〔Osborn, (p148 )〕 The French side proposed accelerating the planning, whereas the British side was more cautious, fearing a possible German-Soviet alliance, should the allies attack the USSR.〔М.И Мельтюхов (Упущенный шанс Сталина ). Советский Союз и борьба за Европу: 1939–1941 (Документы, факты, суждения). – М.: Вече, 2000 С. 262–263〕 The Soviet leadership anticipated Allied aggression and from 25–29 March, the leading staff of the Transcaucasian Military District conducted the following map exercise. According to scenario, the “black” forces, continuing their actions against the “brown” forces at the Western front, attacked in cooperation with “blue” and “green” forces; they were repelled by the “reds” in Caucasus, who then started a counter-offensive towards Erzurum and Tebriz.〔Упущенный шанс Сталина С. 264〕 Some scholars do not take the British plans of attack seriously and regard them as mere contingency plans.〔Osborn, p.x〕 On the other hand, the Soviet-Russian historian Vilnis Sipols notes that the British and French military staff had developed strategic plans of assaulting the Soviet Union from the South but the two governments lacked a political decision to invade.〔В.Я. Сиполс. Тайны дипломатические. М.,1997. С.210.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Operation Pike」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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