18. WORLD WAR TWO

A SECOND WORLD WAR ERUPTS

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THE BATTLE OF THE ATLANTIC: 1939-1940

On the high seas the Battle of the Atlantic actually got underway almost immediately.  The Germans wasted no time in attacking the British with a submarine assault on the British naval harbor at Scapa Flow.  And Churchill, now head of the British navy as its First Lord of the Admiralty, struck back in sending ships to attack the German battleship Graf Spee even in the neutral port of Montevideo, Uruguay.

Scuttled German  battleship Admiral Graf Spee - December 13, 1939

America stays out of the action And despite Roosevelt's cautious efforts to get America to wake up to the dangers that events in Europe posed even to America on the opposite side of the Atlantic, Congress's response was to reconfirm its Neutrality Act, making it very clear to everyone at home and abroad that America had no intentions whatsoever of getting involved in another European feud.  Any such American involvement was depicted as some kind of conspiracy of evil industrial capitalism once again seeking to gain huge financial profits in sending young American soldiers to die in Europe. That simply was not going to happen.

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HITLER INVADES WESTERN EUROPE

The war in the European West finally gets underway (April 1940) Again without warning, in early April of the next year, Hitler struck northward, completely overwhelming Denmark in a single day's action and attacking coastal Norway at the same time.  There in Norway the action ground down as the Norwegians fought back fiercely (Hitler would never gain complete mastery over Norway), Hitler's objective being to gain control over Norwegian access to the Swedish iron ore that was needed so badly by the German war machine.1 Then in May, Hitler struck west from Germany, attacking both Belgium and the Netherlands (the Netherlands had remained neutral in the First World War), giving the German war machine opportunity to swing around the well-defended French Maginot Line facing Germany along the Rhine River.  The French were not prepared for Blitzkrieg, believing that they had time (as in the First World War) to assemble French forces (again, assisted by British forces sent to France) along a broad front running along France’s northern border.  But Hitler’s mobile army quickly got itself through the dense Ardennes Forest in Belgium and smashed through the center of the French line, dividing it and trapping one half of the French army behind the Maginot line.  By mid-May German forces were already at the Marne River (the point of furthest German advance in World War One) and Paris was in no position to defend itself.  But then Hitler instead turned his troops west to chase down the other half of the French and British armies – who however were able in late May to make their escape to Britain by way of a massive evacuation at Dunkirk. In mid-June a new French government was formed under the leadership of World War One French hero, Marshall Philippe Pétain.  But at this point it was clear that all was lost for the French.  Sadly, Pétain found himself forced to sign a humiliating armistice.  Under the terms of the armistice, Hitler did allow the French to continue to self-govern from the town of Vichy – but only the southern half of the country. The northern half (Paris, plus France’s industrial lands) would come under direct German rule.  But at least the war was over – for the French anyway 1Much to the distress of the Norwegians, fellow Scandinavian Sweden itself remained "neutral" during the course of the war. A squad of Danish troops on the morning of the German invasion, 9 April 1940, photographed near Brevedad in Southern Jutland. Two of these men were killed later that day Deutsches Bundesarchiv German infantry attacking through a burning Norwegian village. Thousands of British and French troops seeking to avoid total destruction by Hitler's army awaiting evacuation from Dunkirk to England Some of the 200,000 British and 140,000 French and Belgian soldiers during a 10-day evacuation from the beach at Dunkirk, Belgium – late May/early June 1940 French fleeing south to escape the German offensive – 1940 German horsemen parading triumphantly past the Arc de Triomphe in Paris – June 1940 "A Frenchman weeps as German soldiers march into the French capital, Paris, on June 14, 1940, after the Allied armies had been driven back across France." Hitler strolls through the Paris his troops have conquered for him – July 1940 Pétain, Head of the Vichy Government, shaking hands with Hitler – October 24, 1940 Deutsches Bundesarchiv THE "BATTLE OF BRITAIN" BEGINS By this time Britain had finally come fully under the tough leadership of Churchill, who on June 4th (after having ordered the rescue of the troops at Dunkirk and Cherbourg) reported to Parliament and the British nation itself that Britain, would fight on – no matter what the situation, in France, on the seas, on the beaches, in its fields or in its streets.  Churchill was letting Hitler know that Britain would never quit. And again on the 18th of June he dug even deeper – reminding the British that they had an even larger responsibility facing them than mere national self-defense. They not only had an Empire plus their allies in Europe to defend but literally Christian civilization itself.  Failure in this duty was unthinkable because it would bring on the world (the United States included) a very evil Dark Age.  Therefore Britain would not fail in its duty but would take up the challenge in such a way that even a thousand years into the future the world would still remember that this was Britain’s "finest hour." With this, Hitler realized that his hope of gaining an understanding (basically capitulation) from Britain was not going to happen.  And thus he ordered his Luftwaffe to begin attacking British military installations in preparation for an invasion of England.  But the British Royal Air Force (RAF) fought back – and then had the audacity to fly bombers all the way to Germany to do some bombing of their own.  This so infuriated Hitler that he switched his bombing from military sites to civilian cities – actually a waste of military power.  The RAF did not break, and in September, after a huge Luftwaffe attack ended in failure, Hitler had to call off his plans (Operation Sea Lion) to invade England.  German bombings of England would continue, but at a reduced rate that actually had no result except to further steel the will of the British people. A Heinkel He 111 over the East End of London during the Battle of Britain, 7 September 1940. Battle of Britain:  a fiery London wall collapsing A result of German bombardment of London during the "Battle of Britain" – summer of 1940 The London Underground as an air raid shelter – summer 1940 Residents of Plymouth, England, reading the casualty lists "Standing up gloriously out of the flames and smoke of surrounding buildings, St. Paul's Cathedral is pictured during the great fire raid of Sunday December 29th." 1940. Winston Churchill whose mere presence among the people encouraged them to hang on against Germany Churchill surveys the damage done to British Parliament by German bombers – May 1941 The Tripartite or "Axis" Pact (September 1940) When Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Treaty in 1939 this seemed to overturn the provisions of Germany's earlier Anti-Comintern (anti-Communist or actually anti-Soviet) Pact2 with Italy.  Hitler resolved this issue with a new Tripartite Pact signed in Berlin on September 27, 1940, by Germany, Italy and Japan.  This not only gave considerable encouragement to Japan's imperial ambitions in Asia (at the expense of the English, French and Dutch and to the great irritation of America), it put Germany on record as willing to come to war as a Japanese ally if war should occur between Japan and America.  With the signing of the Tripartite Pact, the Rome-Berlin "Axis" of power now officially included also Tokyo – and the world now acknowledged those belonging to this military alliance as the "Axis Powers." 2The Comintern was simply an abbreviated name for the Communist International, basically an alliance of the various Communist Parties found throughout the European nations – all more or less under the direction of Stalin.  The goal of the Comintern was supposedly the overthrow of capitalism and the establishment of a single working-class society.  But mostly the Comintern served Soviet Russian goals – as Stalin personally selected those goals. Axis Powers signing with Saburo Kurusu (Japan's Ambassador to Germany), Galeazzo Ciano (Italy's Foreign Minister) and Fuhrer Adolf Hitler – September 27, 1940 in Berlin, Germany. The term "Axis Powers" formally took the name after the Tripartite Treaty was signed by Germany, Italy and Japan. Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany toasting the Axis Pact in Tokyo, Japan.  Here officials of both powers are present, including Prime Minister Hideki Tojo and Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka. AMERICAN NEUTRALITY  After France's surrender in June of 1940 Americans finally began to take events developing in Europe much more seriously, and finally began to gear up for the possibility of war.  The defense budget jumped from $2 billion to $10 billion in that year, and America's first peacetime draft was instituted.  But still, America remained officially neutral. Britain meanwhile was struggling to keep vital supply lines open from overseas. But by early 1940 German U-boats were taking a huge toll on Atlantic shipping, sinking ships faster than Britain could replace them.  Step by step America began to increase its sales to Britain of vitally needed supplies – including in June millions of rounds of "surplus" ammunition sold to Britain, and in September including 50 mothballed destroyers given to Britain in exchange for land on which to build American air bases within the British Empire.  By December of 1940, with Roosevelt’s announcement that America was to become the "Arsenal for Democracy," those supplies being sold to Britain openly included all varieties of war materials. However, there was still a strong spirit of isolationism in sections of America society, although in general the American population was beginning to swing to the idea that it was the country's responsibility to help Britain save Christian civilization from the Nazi scourge.  The idea of Lend-Lease was put before Congress, and hotly debated.  A majority of Democrats favored the idea of helping Britain in any way possible, and a majority of Republicans were opposed.  Finally by March of 1941 the bill authorizing Lend-Lease was approved by both Houses of Congress thanks to the Democrat vote.  The new law permitted the president to sell, transfer title, exchange, lend, or lease anything to any government whose defense the president deemed vital to the defense of the United States.  Such partner governments included immediately Britain, but soon also China and then that autumn Russia as well. With the sinking of an American destroyer by a German submarine at the end of October (1941), the last of the Neutrality Acts passed and reconfirmed nearly every year in the second half of the 1930s were finally repealed and American merchant ships were allowed to be armed – and permitted to transport war material (to Britain).  At this point America’s claim to be neutral in the war was clearly a fiction, a fiction which Hitler chose (mostly) still to observe. FDR discusses with the press the situation in Europe – 1939 Lord Halifax, Roosevelt’s personal foreign policy advisor Sumner Welles, Neville Chamberlain and US Ambassador Joseph Kennedy – London, 1940 Columbia Broadcasting reporter in London, Edward R. Murrow, who kept Americans abreast of the stiff resistance of the British to the German attacks during the "Battle of Britain" – as America officially stayed neutral ROOSEVELT IS ELECTED TO HIS THIRD TERM AS U.S. PRESIDENT Issues deciding the election are national rather than international – the Depression being the biggest matter of interest to Americans He is returned to office with a very large showing of national support Franklin D. and Eleanor Roosevelt on his way to his 3rd inauguration in January of 1941 Roosevelt's "Brain Trust" as America faces the possibility of war Roosevelt's personal advisor Harry L. Hopkins as he leaves for England – January 1941 Cordell Hull – Secretary of State (1933-1944) Henry L. Stimson, Secretary of War (1940-1945; but also 1911-1913)  and Secretary of State (1929-1933) "OPERATION BARBAROSSA":  HITLER'S SURPRISE ASSAULT ON STALIN'S RUSSIA – JUNE 1941 Then again without warning (although Churchill had tried to warn a disbelieving Stalin), Hitler launched Blitzkrieg against his former ally, Soviet Russia.  Hitler’s Empire needed Lebensraum: the huge wheat-fields of Ukraine and Southern Russia to feed his people and the oil fields of Azerbaijan along the Caspian Sea to feed his war machine.  And though he needed also to crush the Russian heart at Moscow, his focus was primarily on these southern objectives. But he had delayed the start of Barbarossa because of the need he personally felt to punish an irritating Serbian society.  And this delay meant that he fell well short of this goal of seizing Stalingrad, sited at a key crossing of the Volga River (the last truly defensive position available to the Russians) before a typically horrible Russian winter set in.  This failure shut down the possibility of any further progress until the following spring. In the meantime, Stalin, in seeing how desperate the situation was for his country, was wise enough to drop talk about saving the "Socialist homeland" … and instead changed dramatically the language by which he called on the people for the country’s defense.  It was now "Mother Russia" that they needed to defend.  And this was something that the people well understood and were ready to serve in its defense sacrificially – in fact very sacrificially. Joseph Goebbels announces Germany's invasion of Russia – June 22, 1941 Operation Barbarossa: the German invasion of the Soviet Union (by way of Russian-occupied Poland) 21 June 1941 to 5 December 1941 "Operation Barbarossa" – the German surprise invasion of Russia’s Polish holdings: June 22, 1941 German troops attacking the Russians – 1941 At first, many Ukrainians – having suffered so much at the hands of Stalin - viewed the Germans as liberators.  But Hitler ordered his troops to cease their fraternizing with the locals.  The mood soon turned sour. Polish Jews are also rounded up by the Germans ... to be marched off to concentration camps ... or just simply executed on the spot  Jewish men arrested (prior to execution) in Czestochowa German soldiers executing Jewish "undesirables" A Lithuanian convict released by the Germans beating Jews to death with a lead pipe A Jewish rape victim in the city of Lvov – one of 1000 Jews rounded up and turned over to the Germans by local (Polish "Christian") citizens A Polish Jew about to be executed by an SS officerand dumped into a pit with other dead Jews A German police officer shoots Jewish women still alive after a mass execution of Jews from the Mizocz ghetto, Poland, October 14, 1942 The Russians too will be treated with total contempt .. and unbelievable cruelty Russian POWs on the way to German prison camps. Some 2.8 million Soviet prisoners died of exposure, hunger, disease, or brutality in just eight months of 1941–1942 The search for dead relatives outside of Kerch, on the Crimean peninsula (Ukraine) – February 1942 But the Russians demonstrate an equally unbelievable determination to hold off the Germans at all costs Russian civilians digging anti-tank ditches outside Moscow Soviet troops at the Battle of Moscow – December 1941 Go on to the next section:  America Enters the War   Miles H. Hodges