World War II:Part 1

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See also World War II:Part 2 [[sv:Andra v�rldskriget]]

World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a war fought from 1939 to 1945 in Europe and, during much of the 1930s and 1940s, in Asia.

The war in Europe began in earnest on September 1, 1939 with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, and concluded on September 2, 1945, with the official surrender of the last Axis nation, Japan. However, in Asia the war began earlier with Japanese interventions in China, and in Europe, the war ended earlier with the unconditional surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945.

The conflict spilled over into Africa, included a handful of incidents in the Americas, and a series of major naval battles.

It was the largest armed conflict in history, spanning the entire world and involving more countries than any other war, as well as introducing powerful new weapons, culminating in the first use of nuclear weapons. However, despite the name, not all countries of the world were involved; some through neutrality (such as the [[�ire]] - though �ire supplied some important secret information to the Allies; D-Day's date was decided on the basis of incoming Atlantic weather information supplied from Ireland - Sweden, and Switzerland), others through strategic insignificance (Mexico).

The war ravaged civilians more severely than any previous conflict and served as a backdrop for genocidal killings by Nazi Germany as well as several other mass slaughters of civilians which, although not technically genocide, were significant.

These included the massacre of millions of Chinese and Korean nationals by Japan, internal mass killings in the Soviet Union, and the bombing of civilian targets in German and Japanese cities by the Allies. In total, World War II produced about 50 million deaths, more than any other war to date. [1]

For a full list of participant countries, see List of countries involved in World War II.

For a list of casualties, see: List of World War II casualties by country.

Contents 1 The European theater 1.1 Preceding events 1.2 Outbreak of War in Europe 1.3 Scandinavian Campaigns 1.4 War Comes to the West 1.5 Bomber War 1.6 The Balkans 1.7 The Eastern Front 1.8 North Africa 1.9 The Allies' Invasion of Italy 1.9.1 References

The European theater

Preceding events

In Europe, the origins of the war are closely tied to the rise of fascism, especially in Nazi Germany. A discussion of how the Nazis came to power is a requisite in this context.

The origins of the Second World War are generally viewed as being traced back to the First World War (1914-1918). In that war Germany under the ultra-nationalistic Kaiser Wilhelm II along with its allies, had been defeated by a combination of the United Kingdom, United States, France, Russia and others. The war was directly blamed by the victors on the miltant nationalism of the Kaiser's Germany; it was Germany that effectively started the war with an attack on France through Belgium. France, which had suffered a previous defeat at the hands of Prussia (a state that merged one year later with others to form Germany) in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, demanded revenge for its financial devastation during the First World War (and its humiliation in the earlier war) ensured that the various peace treaties, specifically the Treaty of Versailles imposed tough financial reparations and restrictions on Germany.

A new democratic German republic, known as the Weimar Republic, came into being. After some success it was hit by hyperinflation and other serious economic problems. Right wing nationalist elements under a variety of movements, but most notably the Nazi Party of Adolf Hitler, sought to blame Germany's "humiliating" status on the harshness of the post-war settlement, on the weakness of democratic government, and on the Jews, whom it claimed possessed a financial stranglehold on Germany. Hitler was appointed Reichskanzler (Chancellor) on January 30, 1933, by the aged President von Hindenburg. Hitler's government exercised much of its power through the special emergency powers possessed by the President under the constitution. These powers enabled a government with the President's powers to effectively bypass the Reichstag (federal parliament). Under a further disastrous clause in the Weimar constitution when the President died, his office was temporarily assumed by the Chancellor. As a result, when Hindenburg died, the immense powers of the presidency fell into the hands of Adolf Hitler. Through the possession of those powers and an Enabling Act that allowed the nazi government to bypass and ignore the constitution, Hitler ensured his possession of the presidential powers became permanent and so gained dictatorial control over Germany.

For a detailed discussion of this period, refer to the article on Gleichschaltung.

The Italian economy also fell into a deep slump following World War I. Anarchists were endemic, Communist and other Socialist agitators abounded among the trade unions, and many were gravely worried that a Bolshevik-style Communist revolution was imminent.

After a number of liberal governments failed to rein in these threats, Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III invited right-wing politician Benito Mussolini and his Fascist Party to form a government in 1922, following their largely symbolic Marca su Roma (March on Rome). The Fascists maintained an armed paramilitary wing, which they employed to fight Anarchists, Communists, and Socialists.

Within a few years, Mussolini had consolidated dictatorial power, and Italy became a police state. On January 7, 1935, he and French Foreign Minister Pierre Laval signed the Italo-French agreements.

Meanwhile in Germany, once political consolidation (Gleichschaltung) was in place, the Nazis turned their attention to foreign policy with several increasingly daring acts.

On March 16, 1935, the Versailles Treaty was violated as Hitler ordered Germany to re-arm. Germany also reintroduced military conscription (the treaty stated that the German Army should not exceed 100,000 men).

These steps produced nothing more than official protests from Britain and France, for they were more serious about enforcing the economic provisions of the treaty than its military restrictions. Many Brits felt the restrictions placed on Germany in Versailles had been too harsh, and they believed that Hitler's aim was simply to undo the extremes of the treaty, not to go beyond that. Faced with no opposition, Hitler moved troops into the Rhineland on March 7, 1936. Under the Versailles treaty, the Rhineland should have been demilitarized, for France wanted it for a buffer between herself and Germany. But, as before, Hitler's defiance was met with inaction.

The first German conquest was Austria. After Italy had joined the Anti-Comintern Pact, thereby removing the main obstacle of a Anschluss of Austria, Germany announced the annexation on March 12, 1938, making it a German province: "Gau Ostmark."

With Austria secured, Hitler turned his attention to Czechoslovakia. His first order of business was to seize the Sudetenland, a mountainous area in northeast part of the country. With Austria in German hands, the tiny state was nearly surrounded. Following lengthy negotiations, and blatant war threats from Hitler, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain went out of his way with French leaders to appease Hitler, even though the United Kingdom had earlier guaranteed the security of Czechoslovakia. However, the Munich Agreement of September 30, 1938, then allowed German troops to occupy the Sudetenland. Czech representatives were not allowed at the conference; their government strongly opposed giving up the Sudetenland but they were powerless in the face of German military might and British and French unwillingness to support them. A few months after that, in March 1939, the remaining Czech lands passed into German hands as well. March 14 Slovakia declared her independence, recognized by France, Britain and other important powers. The Slovak state tried to avoid nazification, but was finally occupied by Nazi-Germany in September 1944.

Italy, facing opposition to its wars in Abyssinia (Ethiopia) from the League of Nations, forged an alliance with Nazi Germany, which had withdrawn from the League in 1933. In May of 1939, Italy and Germany thus formed the Pact of Steel, which deepened their alliance and established a Rome-Berlin "Axis."

Outbreak of War in Europe

Germany and the Soviet Union, the two most powerful dictatorships in Europe, were sworn enemies, but political realities allowed them to sign a non-aggression pact (Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) including a secret clause partitioning Poland, the Baltic Republics and Finland between the two.

Full-scale war in Europe began on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland, to which both Britain and France had pledged guarantees (see: Polish September Campaign 1939). On September 17, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east. Poland fell quickly, with her last large operational units surrendering October 5. However, Polish troops continued fighting for the Allied until the end of the war.

Despite the quck campaign in the east, along the Franco-German frontier the war settled into a quiet period. This relatively non-confrontational period between the major powers lasted until May 10, 1940, and was known as the Phony War.

Scandinavian Campaigns

Several other countries, however, were drawn into the conflict at this time. By September 28, 1939, the three Baltic Republics felt they had no choice but to permit Soviet bases and troops on their territory.

Finland was invaded by the Soviets on November 30. This began the Winter War. After over three months of hard fighting, and heavy losses, the Soviet Union gave up the attempted invasion. In the Moscow Peace Treaty, March 12, Finland ceded 10% of her territory. The Finns were embittered over having lost more land in the peace than on the battle fields, and over the seemingly little use of the whole world's sympathy.

On April 9 Germany commenced [[Weser�bung]] to seize Denmark and Norway, ostensibly as a defensive maneuver against a planned (and openly discussed) Franco-British occupation of those countries aimed at controling export of Swedish iron ore and the Northern Atlantic. After the failed British campaign in Norway Finland and Sweden were physically cut off from the West. As a consequence, Germany put pressure on neutral Sweden to permit transition of military goods and soldiers on leave. Germany's presense proximate to northernmost Finland, and its Nickel mines, were perceived as an improvement of the strategical situation by the Finns.

War Comes to the West

On March 18, 1940, Hitler and Mussolini had agreed to make the Axis Powers' Pact of Steel an alliance against France and the United Kingdom.

On May 10 the Phony War ended with a sweeping German invasion of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, that bypassed French fortifications along the Maginot Line.

After overrunning these countries Germany turned against France, entering the country through the Ardennes on May 13 - the French had made the fatal mistake of leaving this area almost totally undefended, believing its terrain to be impassible for tanks. Most Allied forces were in Flanders, anticipating a re-run of the World War I Schlieffen Plan, and were cut off from the French heartland. As a result of this, and also the superior German communications, the Battle of France was shorter than virtually all prewar Allied thought could have conceived. It lasted six weeks, after which France surrendered.

In order to further the humiliation of the French people, Hitler arranged for the surrender document to be signed in the same railway coach where the German surrender had been signed in 1918. The fall of France left Britain and its Empire to stand alone. Fortunately for Britain, much of its army escaped capture from the northern French port of Dunkirk. The exploits of the "little ships" at Dunkirk were exploited for propoganda purposes to turn the disasterous defeat into something approaching a victory in the minds of the British people. In total, 330,000 troops were pulled off the beaches, of which 230,000 were British.

The Germans massed their air force in northen France to prepare the way for a possible invasion, codenamed Operation Seel�we. The operations of the Luftwaffe against RAF Fighter Command became know as the Battle of Britain. It is widely held that the invasion could never realistically have been mounted successfully. Even had the Luftwaffe driven the RAF from the skies of southern England, which was the object of the Battle of Britain for the Germans, there would still have been the remains of Fighter Command in the Midlands and northern England, Bomber Command, and Coastal Command, along with the firepower of the Home Fleet for the Germans to contend with. It is likely that had the invasion been attempted that German troops would have been landed and cut off by British sea- and airpower, to be destroyed virtually at leisure. After the failure to destroy Fighter Command, the Luftwaffe switched to bombing major British cities. That bombing campaign is commonly know as the Blitz.

During the Blitz, all of Britain's major industrial cites were heavily bombed. London suffered particularly, being bombed each night for several months. Other targets included Birmingham and Coventry, and strategically important cities, such as the naval base at Plymouth and the port of Kingston upon Hull.

With no land forces in direct conflict in Europe, the war in the air attracted worldwide attention even as sea units fought the Battle of the Atlantic and a number of British commando raids hit targets in occupied Europe. More critical was the war in the air.

Bomber War

Prewar doctrine had held that waves of bombers hitting enemy cities would cause mass panic and the rapid collapse of the enemy. As a result, the Royal Air Force had built up a comparatively large strategic bomber force. By way of contrast, German air force doctrine was almost totally dedicated to supporting the army. Therefore, German bombers were smaller than their British equivalents, and the Germans never developed a four engined heavy bomber equivalent to the Lancaster, B-17 or B-24.

The main concentration of German raids on British cities was from autumn 1940 until spring 1941. After that a large proportion of the strength of the Luftwaffe was diverted to the war against the Soviet Union. German raids continued on a smaller scale for the rest of the war, and later the V-1 cruise missile and V-2 ballistic missile were both used against Britain. However, the balance of bomb tonnage being dropped shifted greatly in favour of the RAF as Bomber Command gained in strength. By 1942, Bomber Command could put 1,000 bombers over one German city. However, it should be noted that this was a special effort using all available aircraft and training units as well. It was 1943 before 1,000 bomber raids became possible without a special effort. From 1942 onwards, the efforts of Bomber Command were supplemented by the Eighth Air Force of the United States Army Air Force. Bomber Command raided by night and the US forces by day. During 1943, a raid on Hamburg produced one of the most devastating fires in history. A firestorm was created in the city, and 40,000 people were killed. Only the raid on Dresden in 1945, the firebombing of Tokyo and the atomic bombs killed more people through a single attack. In addition to the direct damage caused by these attacks, large amounts of resources were diverted to air defense.

The Balkans

On October 28 1940, Italy invaded Greece but was unable to match the German's success in France. Not only did the Italians fail to conquer Greece, but the Greeks successfully counterattacked into Albania. This prompted German intervention, which also involved the invasion of Yugoslavia, where a pro-German coup had been defeated a few days earlier. British forces were dispatched from Egypt to Greece, but were comprehensively beaten. After the mainland was conquered, the Germans invaded Crete. Instead of an amphibious assault as expected, the Germans mounted a large airborne invasion. It suceeded, but the paratroops of the German army were so badly mauled in the process that an airborne operation was never again attempted by Germany during the war.

Once the Balkans was secure, the largest land operation in history was launched, when Germany attacked the Soviet Union.

The Eastern Front

On June 22, 1941, the Germans launched a surprise invasion, code-named Operation Barbarossa, against their erstwhile Soviet allies. The early weeks of the invasion were devastating for the Soviet Army. Enormous numbers of Soviet troops were encircled in pockets and fell into German hands. However, it wasn't only German troops that went into the Soviet Union. Italian, Hungarian and Romanian troops were also involved in the campaign.

Out of all the adversaries of the Allies, the situation of Finland was unique. Finland initially declared neutrality, however with German and Soviet troops on her soil, and well prepared for co-belligerence with Germany when the Soviet Union attacked on June 25. The following conflict from 1941-1944 is referred to as the Continuation War, i.e. the continuation of the Winter War.

Operation Barbarossa suffered from several fundamental flaws. The most serious of these was the logistical situation of the attack. Ultimately it is logistics that determine what a military can do. The sheer vastness of the distances in the Soviet Union meant that the Germans could only advance so far before outrunning their supply chains. By the time the German attack froze to a halt before Moscow on December 5, 1941, it literally could not go any further. There simply were not enough supplies reaching the front to conduct proper defensive operations, let alone a proper offense. The timetable that Barbarossa was planned to assumed that the Soviets would collapse before the Russian winter hit. The failure of that to happen also fatally affected German plans.

During their long retreat, the Soviets employed a scorched earth policy. They burnt crops and destroyed utilities as they withdrew before the Germans. That helped to contribute to the logisical problems that the Germans experienced. The extension of the campaign beyond the length that the Germans expected meant that the German Army suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties in the bitter cold of the Russian winter, and from the counterattacks of Soviet units.

Even with their advance having ground to a halt due to a lack of supplies and the onset of winter, the Germans had conquered a vast amount of territory. Dislodging them cost the Soviet Union dearly and took until late 1944.

Once the Germans had conquered so much of the Soviet Union, one of the great tragedies of the war began, the siege of Leningrad: Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) was reached fairly quickly, from the North by Finnish forces, and from the South by the German Wehrmacht. Finland's C-in-C Mannerheim had halted at the River Svir and refrained from attacking the city.

Hitler had ordered that the city of Leningrad must "vanish from the surface of the earth", with its entire population exterminated. Rather than storming the city, the Wehrmacht was ordered to blockade Leningrad so as to starve the city to death, while attacking it with bombers and artillery. About one million civilians died in the Leningrad siege - 800,000 by starvation. It lasted 900 days, and at its height the only way into the city was across Lake Ladoga, between the German and Finnish lines.

After enduring the winter of 1941/42, the German army prepared for further offensive operations. Instead of trying to reach Moscow, the objective was changed to Stalingrad (now Volgograd) near the Caucasus region of Russia. Stalingrad was captured, however the course of the campaign took a turn for the worse due to disparate objectives, and a lack of focus.

Indecision by Hitler, dissent among the higher ranked German officers, and extended supply lines combined in a prolonged battle in the streets of Stalingrad. In an attempt to capture the city, almost all Germans in the area were funneled into the city leaving only weak Romanian and Hungarian forces on the flanks of the salient. After a Soviet counteroffensive destroyed these forces, the German 6th Army was cut off in the city itself, along with part of the 4th Panzer Army. Starved of food, fuel and ammunition, the pocket was gradually reduced, with the last portion surrendering in early 1943. In a cynical attempt to prevent the surrender, Hitler promoted the commander of 6th Army to Field Marshal, because no German of that rank had ever surrendered. Heavy losses affected both sides in the Battle of Stalingrad, one of the bloodiest battles in history. An estimated 2 million people perished in this battle, including 500,000 civilians.

After Stalingrad, the initiative had passed from the Germans but had not yet been seized by the Soviets. A desparate counterattack in the spring of 1943 by the forces of von Manstein halted the Soviet advance for the moment, and set up the largest tank battle in history, Kursk. Kursk was the last major offensive by the Germany Army on the eastern front. The Soviets had intelligence of what was to come and prepared massive defences in huge depth in the Kursk salient. They stopped the German armoured thrusts after a maximum penetration of 17 miles. After Kursk the Red Army never ceased being on the offensive until Berlin was captured in May 1945.

The Soviets bore the brunt of World War II; the second front in Europe did not begin until D-Day, apart from the invasion of Italy. More Soviet citizens died during World War II than those of all other countries combined. Approximately 27 million Soviets, among them more than 13 million civilians, were killed in the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Civilians were rounded up and burned or shot in many cities conquered by the Nazis. Since the Nazis considered Slavs to be "subhuman", this was ethnically targeted mass murder.

It would be wrong however to say the Soviets fought alone. Supply convoys sailed to Soviet ports at great risk. Allied activities may have tied up only a few divisions in actual fighting, but many more were forced to guard lonely coasts against raids that never came or to man antiaircraft guns throughout Europe. It should also be mentioned that the Soviets took virtually no part in the great naval campaigns of the war, had a very limited effect on the strategic bombing offensive, and contributed very little to the defeat of Japan.

North Africa

The north African campaign began in 1940, when small British forces in Egypt turned back an Italian advance from Libya. This advance was stopped in 1941 when German forces under Erwin Rommel landed in Libya. Thus began a seesaw campaign that culminated in the two Battles of El Alamein. The first battle took place in summer 1942. The Germans had advanced to El Alamein, the last defensible point before Alexandria and the Suez Canal. However, as in the Soviet Union, they had outrun their supplies, and a British defence stopped their thrusts.

The later of the two battles, in the late autumn saw British forces take the offensive. Rommel was pushed back, and this time did not stop falling back until Tunisia.

To complement this victory, on 8 November, 1942, American and British troops landed in Morocco and Algeria in Operation Torch. Vichy French forces put up limited resistance before joining the Alied cause. Ultimately German and Italian forces were caught in the pincers of a twin advance from Algeria and Libya. Advancing from both the east and west, the Allies completely pushed the Germans out of Africa and on May 13, 1943, the remnants of the Axis forces in North Africa surrendered. Not widely known is that the number of prisoners taken in this incident, 250,000 was as many as at Stalingrad.

The Allies' Invasion of Italy

With the North African shore acting as a springboard, an Allied blow into what Churchill referred to as the 'soft underbelly' of Europe was inevitable.

A prelude of this attack was the capture of the offshore island of Sicily on 10 July, 1943. This took the wind out of the bombastic Mussolini. He was deposed on July 25, 1943, by the Fascist Grand Council

He was arrested and placed under house arrest in an isolated mountain resort. His replacement, General Pietro Badoglio, negotiated an armistice with the Allies on September 8, 1943.

The Germans moved quickly into the confused situation, disarmed Italian formations and established strong defensive lines.

Allied troops landed in mainland Italy on September 9, 1943; the American at Salerno, the British at Taranto.

Mussolini was rescued by the Germans and installed as the head of a Nazi puppet state in northern Italy. He continued in this role until he was captured and lynched by mobs on April 28, 1945, as the Allied forces closed in on Milan.

The Germans had built a fortified zone in the mountains called the Gustav line. The Allied forces attacked both sides of the line, attacking Monte Cassino from the south and landing at Anzio in the north.

The Allies finally entered Rome on June 4, 1944, two days before the landings in Normandy. The Germans regrouped at the Gothic Line further north. After a landing in southern France in August to threaten the German flank, British forces started the attack on the line September 10. The offensive by Allied and some Italian forces continued until the Germans surrendered in Italy on April 29, two days after Mussolini's capture.

Continued in World War II:Part 2

References

• Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "World War II" http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II July 26, 2003