World War II

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World War II was a global conflict fought between the Allied powers including the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France, Australia, Canada and many other nations and the Axis powers (mainly Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan). The war is usually considered to have started on September 1, 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany. During the war, eight major world powers fought, along with several lesser states joining with one side or the other. On the side which lost were the Axis Powers Germany, Japan, and Italy. Against them were the Allied Powers United States, Great Britain and the Commonwealth, the Soviet Union, France, and China (which was friendly to the West at the time, see Second Sino-Japanese War). Russia was drawn into the war after Germany launched an attack codenamed Barbarossa, and soon had the support of the Allies. Britain declared war in reaction to Germany's aggression against Poland, along with most of the Commonwealth nations.

Causes

The causes of World War II are complicated. The immediate causes of World War II are generally held to be the Japanese attacks on China, the United States, the British and Dutch colonies; and the German invasion of Poland on the 1st September 1939. Following the two day deadline for the withdrawal of German forces, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand declared war on Germany, followed quickly by France, South Africa, Canada and Nepal.

One major cause of German aggression may be the fervent Nationalism that became the norm in Germany post-World War I. Germans were eager to reaffirm their position as a major player on the world stage.[Citation Needed]

The state of Germany in the aftermath of World War I is also considered to be a contributing factor. The Weimar Republic that was founded at the end of WW I, was struggling from the beginning. One reason were the harsh terms of Versailles treaty, although these terms were never fully enforced, they psychological damage was immense, since they were perceived as a grave injustice. The republic was also struggling with the rejection by monarchist, who were still occupying important position in the state. Then the social democratic leaders, who founded the republic to thwart a communist revolution, were accused of surrendering to the allies for political gains, while the German forces in WW I were believed to be victorious. Although the Weimar Republic enjoyed a time of economic resurgence after the early years of hyper-inflation it failed to gain deep public support. The Weimar Republic was famously called a democracy without democrats.

In the early 1930 Germany was in a permanent political and constitutional crisis, caused by rising unemployment during the great depression. Germany was hit harder than most other countries. The National Socialists, known as Hitler movement, promised to restore national pride and statue, by disbanding the Versailles treaty, and reverting the injustices imposed onto Germany by its international enemies. It was common to blame the "international Jewdom", or to point to an international communist Jewish conspiracy against Germany. Part of this ideology was that Germany deserved to be larger, and that in order to survive, it would have to conquer the East.

In the immediate run up to WWII, there were frequent reports of trespassing Polish troops. On August 31, 1939 German covert operatives staged a fake attack by Polish troops on a German radio station. WW II started on September 1, 1939. Hitler justified this as an defensive act, pointing to the frequent border incidents, and said famously that from this moment on Germany would strike back.

German Tactics

The major tactical innovation of the war was the use of combined arms warfare, typified by the German doctrine of blitzkrieg. In this style of warfare armor, infantry, artillery and air power (see Luftwaffe) all coordinate to achieve overwhelming superiority at point on the enemy lines. Armor and fast-moving infantry units then exploit the gap and penetrate deep behind enemy lines. The objective is to cause a widespread collapse of the enemy's ability to fight. It was particularly effective during the early stages of the war, before the Allies developed effective countermeasures.

War in Europe 1939-1941

The French and British were initially reluctant to honor promises to the Polish government, avoiding serious consideration of an invasion of Germany. The British failed to send land forces in time to support the Poles (see Western betrayal). The French mobilized slowly and then launched a token offensive in the Saar. The Meanwhile, on September 8, the Germans reached Warsaw, having slashed through the Polish defenses.

Following the completion of the invasion of Poland, German forces regrouped and Allied forces remained defensive, leading US commentators to dub it the Phoney War. This perception was not shared in Finland, which fought a Soviet invasion started on November 30 1939. Despite the overwhelming numbers of the Red Army, the Finnish resistance was strong and the battle was hard fought before the Soviet army took control.

May 10 1940 marked the end of any accusation of a phony war, with the invasion of France by Germany, via The Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium. Resistance by the British armies and French armies proved weak and the occupation of France began. British troops were able to evacuate mainland Europe at Dunkirk. France was divided into the northern Occupied France and the collaborationist Vichy regime in the south of France, including Corsica.

The collapse and occupation of France, together with Germany's non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union[1], their alliances with fascist Italy, and a expansionist Japan, benevolent neutrality of fascist Spain, with little of Europe outside of Axis hands led many to assume that the United Kingdom had been defeated. Indeed it would appear that the, seemingly foolish, decision of the relatively weak United Kingdom to continue the war took the Axis powers off guard. This decision ensured the remaining British Empire was still involved in the war, with Japan threatening many British possessions in Asia.

In 1940 Denmark and Norway were invaded by German forces, to preempt a British occupation of Norway. Norway also contained a source of Heavy water, possibly crucial in the construction of an atomic weapon. This was soon followed by the British invasion of neutral Iceland (the invasion of Denmark by German forces marks the start of an independent Iceland).

With Britain the sole opposing European nation, the Battle of Britain commenced. The Luftwaffe attempted to achieve aerial dominance over the south of Britain, in order to allow a sea based invasion of Britain to proceed. For many months the Royal Air Force and Luftwaffe fought for dominance, with the resilience of the RAF, with British, Canadian and Polish pilots forced a rethink of German tactics. The period that followed is known as the Blitz, where the RAF and Luftwaffe attempted to undermine the infrastructure of the opposing country. This was a period of great economic devastation, which took both countries a considerable period to recover from. More seriously it led to huge numbers of civilian deaths.

1941 marked the major turning point in the war in Europe, when the Germans put aside plans for an invasion of Britain and undertook Operation Barbarossa - the invasion of the Soviet Union. In a war of major turning points, this was the most significant in Europe. This miscalculation diminished the German army's capacity. The war against the Soviet Union (known as the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union) demanded a huge dedication of resources and later in the war permitted an invasion of mainland Europe by Allied Forces on D-Day.

United States Enters the War

The attack on Pearl Harbor officially brought the United States into World War Two. Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto of the Japanese Imperial Navy was against engaging with the United States, due to fear of "waking a sleeping giant". The United States recovered from the shell shock of the initial attack and plunged into the war with the slogan "Remember Pearl Harbor!".

United States War in the Pacific

At first the United States was on the defensive, losing the Phillipines, and other countries under U.S. military protection. The battle of the Coral Sea was the first major engagement with the Japanese that resulted in a draw and set the stage for the battle of Midway a month later. That one battle changed the direction of the war forever, crushing Japanese offensive sea power in one strike. After that, the Japanese were forced to be on the defensive for the rest of the war and never seriously threatened the American military again. In order to shorten the war, the U.S. military chose to adopt a policy of Island Hopping that including bypassing most of the extensive Japanese holdings to instead focus on a relatively straight path leading right to Japan.

The End of World War II in Asia

On August 6, 1945, a B-29 Superfortress, the Enola Gay, dropped a nuclear bomb on Hiroshima. Then, on August 9, a B-29 dropped the second atomic bomb. On August 20 the Japanese government told the United States they were ready to accept the terms which the Allies proposed. The next day, the Allies replied, saying the authority of the emperor would be "subject to the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers." On August 14 the Japanese government agreed to this.

Then, September 2, 1945, the Japanese government, along with all its military forces, formally surrendered to the United States. This happened in a ceremony aboard a United States battleship, the Missouri, on Tokyo Bay, where the Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed. This was the ending of World War II, after six years almost to the day.

Fallout From World War II

  • British Empire

The war effectively bankrupted Britain, which started the process of dismantling its empire. It was not until 2007 Britain finished paying off the loans to the USA which it had taken to fight Nazi Germany.

  • the Netherlands and Indonesia

After the defeat of the Japanese empire, their army retired from the Dutch East Indies and was return back to the Dutch. Quickly after Thad the people came in revolt agents the government in 17 August 1945 and declared theme self independence. The Dutch did not allow that and sent its “new” army to the colonies. Dutch scored a lot of victories but after the political pressure from the USA and Australia the Dutch acknowledged in 27 December 1949 the sovereignty of Indonesia

  • Supremacy of the USA in the Western World

Whilst most countries had seen their economies demolished by the war, the USA had industrialized heavily and made financial gains from sales of arms to other Allied countries.

  • Supremacy of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe.
  • Vietnam War

During the war the French lost their colony of Vietnam to the Japanese. At the end of the war they decided to reassert their colonial mastery, but the Vietnamese now had other ideas. The battle with the French would eventually lead into the Vietnam war after the French defeat and American intervention ensued to prevent the spread of Communism.

References

  1. ↑ Celebrations Marking 60 Years Since the End of World War II, Pavel Vitek, Russkii vopros - Studies, No. 1 2005. Translation from Russian.

External Links

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