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World War II a Brief Synopsis By Nathan Engquist World War II is often recognized as beginning officially in September 1939 when Germany advanced 1.25 million troops into Poland. However, Germany, in addition to the Japanese invasions into Manchuria and Southeast Asia, and the Italian advances into both Albania and Ethiopia, were all making advances into other countries during the middle and late 1930’s. The response to the aggressive Facists in Europe finally happened when the British and the French declared war on Germany in September of 1939, after they had allowed Germany to remilitarize the Rhineland, and to annex Austria and the Sudetenland (a region of Czechoslovakia). During Germany’s increasing militarism and violations of the Treaty of Versailles, Britain’s Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, proclaimed that he had ushered in “peace in our time” by allowing concessions to Hitler to avoid war in a policy known as appeasement. Even Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Germany during 1939, with the hopes of simply maintaining peace at all costs. The United States remained strictly isolationist in its foreign policy largely against the will of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. The Germans crushed Poland in literally two weeks and the Russians came into Eastern Poland to ensure the oil resources they wanted. Meanwhile, the French waited on the Maginot Lines built across eastern France in the 20’s and 30’s. Stalin attacked Finland, and annexed some Baltic states. In the West through 39 and 40 the war was primarily naval with unrelenting merchant ship war waged by the German U-boats. In April of 40’, the Germans took out Denmark and proceeded to Norway with their lightning war tactics. With the support of their quick fighters and powerful bombers, combined with their Panzer tanks, the Germans could mobilize and move quickly on the offensive. In May of 1940, the Germans invaded the low countries by flanking the Maginot lines and coming in through the north at the same time. The Germans used new tactics in unrestricted warfare. They would bomb civilians and military alike, showing little or no discrimination in their targets. The Dutch, losing 25 percent of their forces in five days, had to surrender, and after only a week, Belgium found itself forced to surrender as well. To make matters worse for the allies, the British force of 340,000 that was there was forced to evacuate back across the channel, and for some reason, Hitler decided to halt the Panzer assault on them, so they were able to escape. Germany, took French fast, and halfway through their invasion, Mussolini invaded France from the south and declared war on Britain and France as well. A resistance in the northern half of France would begin and grow in strength, led across the channel by Charles De Gaulle. In September of 1940, Germany began to Blitz London in the battle of Britain. The Battle of Britain was considered a victory for the British because they were successful in driving the axis back for the most part and in asserting their ability to hold their own in the skies. After this the United States was more inclined to help and revised its “Cash and Carry” policy of arms sales to Europeans to a “lend-lease” policy. During 1941-42, the Axis powers took much of the Balkans, Yugoslavia, and invaded Egypt and North Africa. In June of 41’ Hitler made the grave mistake of invading Russia, where the Germans would suffer 75 to 90 percent of their losses during the war. On December 7th of 1941, the Japanese in response to the U.S. oil embargo and warnings against Japanese aggression made by Roosevelt, attacked the Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor. The U.S. responded by declaring war on Japan and immediately this was followed by the declaration of war on the United States by Germany and Italy. Britain was also brought into the war against the Japanese in the same month. The Japanese continued victories taking a large portion of Southeast Asia and causing General MacArthur to retreat from the Philippines and taking a large army captive at the peninsula called Bataan. The battle of Coral Sea and Midway were Naval ally victories that aided in eventual victory in the island hopping campaign. Meanwhile, the allies under Field Marshal Montgomery and Eisenhower, achieved victory in North Africa in 43, and the allies then planned to begin an Italian campaign. The Italian campaign was largely eased by Mussolini being deposed as dictator. Yet the Nazis were quite present and held out on the battles up the Italian peninsula from 43-45. On the Eastern front, the Germans couldn’t break the sheer insanity and tenacity of the Russians who would rather starve and burn their own things than give them to the Germans. The Germans (and especially the Russians) suffered heavy losses in the assaults trying to take Leningrad and Stalingrad on the Volga River, and then followed by the largest tank battle in history at Kursk. The RAF began bombing campaigns on Berlin and in the Rhineland in March 43. On June 6th 1944, the allies began the invasion at Normandy in Northern France. After the allies regained Paris by August of 44, they continued onward to Berlin with the Russians beating them there in early 45’ and the other allies arriving a couple of months later. Meanwhile in Asia, preparing for an invasion of Japan, which some military experts estimate would have cost one million U.S. deaths, instead had a breakthrough in nuclear physics. The U.S. ended WWII by bombing the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and 9th 1945, causing the unconditional surrender of Japan and ending World War II. |