Global War

A Month-by-Month History of World War II

Adrian Van Sinderen

• Verlag: Eumenes Publishing
• Jahr: 2019
• ISBN:
  9781839741401
• Thema: History
• Thema: Military & Maritime History

Global War, first published in 1946 and updated in 2014, is an eminently readable, month-by-month account of the major political and military events of the six years of the Second World War (1939-1945). Included are synopses of the battles on land, sea, and air (from all theaters of the War), and excerpts from important speeches by world leaders such as Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, and the Emperor of Japan. A convenient month-by month format places each item in a chronological sequence so readers will better understand the unfolding and course of this global conflict, and from the perspective of each combatant, whether Allied, Axis, or neutral.

THE FIRST YEAR — 1 September 1939—31 August 1940

The First Month, September 1939

• ENGLAND STANDS IN THE BREACH / • GERMANY AND RUSSIA CONQUER POLAND / • THE FRENCH ENTER GERMANY / • ROOSEVELT URGES NEUTRALITY

WORLD WAR II opened at five o’clock on the morning of September 1 as Nazi bombers attacked Warsaw and Hitler’s Navy blockaded the port of Danzig. The Führer attempted to defend his action in a proclamation in which he claimed that Germany had been attacked by Poland. He also made public the order of succession in Germany as being first, himself; second, Goering; third, Hess.

Great Britain immediately ordered the complete organization of all branches of her services to full strength and evacuated 3,000,000 children from her cities. On September 2 Great Britain and France sent an ultimatum warning Germany to cease war activities. France mobilized 8,000,000 men while from London Prime Minister Chamberlain forwarded a message to Chancellor Hitler:

I am to inform your Excellency that unless the German Government withdraw their forces from Poland His Majesty’s Government will fulfill their obligation to Poland.

All communications between Berlin, London, Paris and Warsaw were cut as Europe stood again on the brink of war. Prime Minister Chamberlain spoke in the House of Commons:

The time has come when action rather than speech is required. No man could say that the Government could have done more to keep open the way for an honorable settlement of the dispute between Germany and Poland. Nor have we neglected to make it crystal clear to the German Government that if they insist on using force we will oppose them with force. The Polish Government undertook to give a formal guarantee that in the event of negotiations taking place Polish troops will not violate the frontier of the German Reich provided that a corresponding guarantee is given by the Germans. The German Government made no reply to our appeal for a peaceful settlement. The Reich claims to have made a 16-point proposal to Poland but those proposals have never been communicated by Germany to Poland at all. Only last night the Polish Ambassador saw the German Foreign Secretary Von Ribbentrop and expressed to him again that Poland is willing to negotiate with Germany about their disputes. What was the reply of the German Government?

The reply was that German troops crossed the Polish frontier this morning. In these circumstances there is only one course open to us.

Under-equipped and over-matched by her opponent, and with full realization of the danger, England undertook to stand in the breach in defense of liberty. On the morning of September 3 Great Britain and France officially entered the war; Prime Minister Chamberlain made the great announcement over the radio:

I am speaking to you from the Cabinet Room at 10 Downing Street. This morning the British Ambassador in Berlin handed the German Government the final note stating that unless we heard from them by 11 a.m. they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland a state of war would exist between us. I have to tell you now that no such undertaking has been received and consequently this country is at war with Germany.

One immediate result of this declaration was the blockade of Germany by the British Navy whose vessels closed the entrance to the Baltic Sea and also the entrances to the Mediterranean at Gibraltar and Suez. On September 4 the S.S. Athenia which had set sail from Liverpool reported that she had been torpedoed 200 miles off the Hebrides. The ship sank with 1,400 aboard. The British Navy sustained a telling loss in the destruction by a German submarine of the 22,000ton aircraft carrier Courageous.

The rapidity of the German advance into Poland so alarmed Russia that Soviet troops also entered Poland at eleven o’clock on the night of September 17. Immediately the Nazis demanded Warsaw and threatened to annihilate the city. Within 24 hours the Russians had extended their drive into Poland by 40 miles and although Warsaw continued to hold out the Polish President crossed into Romania. By the 19th the German and Russian forces had met and their respective governments were planning to partition Poland. Eventually 75,000 square miles of East Poland, on a line running from the Prussian border to Kilno, south to the Vistula and through to the Carpathian Mountains, was allocated to Russia. Esthonia, Latvia and Lithuania also ceded bases to Russia.

While Great Britain and France belittled the Nazi-Soviet pact the Russian people expressed fear that they were being dragged into an unwelcome war and the Italians likewise displayed a growing anxiety at the course of events. Premier Mussolini announced that he was striving to secure a Peace Conference and stated that Italy would follow a policy of neutrality.

Warsaw published tales of German frightfulness and of the slaughter of civilians as Nazi bombers set the capital in flames; finally on the 27th the city, a mere shambles, surrendered to Hitler, but the valiant Poles never signed an armistice with their conquerors. Their armed resistance gave Britain precious time in which further to mobilize her resources.

The Nazi aim in Poland was not only military conquest, but complete destruction of all native culture (see December 1940). All schools and universities were destroyed, libraries burned and radios taken over. All scientists and scholars were killed or interned and all art, drama and music suppressed. The mass executions and the undreamed-of cruelties inflicted on the population made the Nazi invasion the most shameful story in all history. But the attempt to wipe out or desecrate a nation was met by superb heroism. Poland will rise again above the brutality which she has endured—above cruelty such as the world has never before seen. Hitler searched all Poland for a Laval or a Quisling. He never found one. The soul of Poland still lives.

Chancellor Hitler notified the Allies that it was “his peace” or a fight to the finish, and Great Britain and France retaliated by stating that it was war until Hitlerism was ended. Chancellor Hitler visited Danzig and told the city that it was now German forever.

While the leaders in Great Britain and France consulted as to their course a furious battle developed between German and French troops on the western front. The British Government pledged a fight to the finish and hurriedly dispatched troops to the continent but saw no benefit to Poland in also taking on Russia as a military foe. The French Army penetrated Germany’s western frontier, advancing into the Saar Basin, while French aircraft raided a Zeppelin factory and shelled German forts on the Rhine.

In Romania the pro-Nazi Iron Guards assassinated Premier Calinescu.

President Roosevelt promised publicly that he would keep the United States out of war and asked United States citizens to observe strict neutrality. He stated that the American continents constituted neutral ground, meanwhile urging the belligerents to spare civilian populations. Congressional leaders urged the President not to drop the Neutrality Act but Mr. Roosevelt asked for the repeal of the Arms Embargo. The Senate of the United States inaugurated the Cash-Carry Plan which eventually developed into Lend-Lease.

The delegates to the Inter-American Conference at Panama proposed that a 300-mile-wide “area of defense” be created around the Western Hemisphere, from which combatant ships should be excluded.

The Japanese took advantage of the war in Europe to hurl 1,000,000 troops into Hunan Province in the effort to conclude their 26-months-old fight to conquer China.

The 2nd Month, October 1939

• ROYAL OAK SUNK / • POLITICAL MOVES / • THE TURKISH PACT / • THE IROQUOIS / • THE CITY OF FLINT / • JAPAN BELLIGERENT

LONDON rejoiced at the announcement that the British Navy had sunk three German submarines but unfortunately the next day a U-boat destroyed the British battleship Royal Oak at Scapa Flow, the great British naval base in the Orkney Islands, with a loss of 396 out of a crew of 1,200. More sinkings by German submarines followed and survivors, as they came ashore on stretchers and afoot, reported in each instance that their ship had been attacked without warning. On October 17 Nazi bombers raided a British naval base in Scotland, hitting a cruiser and on the 18th 100,000 German troops made a frontal attack on the French lines.

Following Prime Minister Chamberlain’s rejection of Hitler’s peace proposals and his statement that the obstacle to peace was the present German Government, the Germans stated that war would come in earnest unless the United States were to act. Chancellor Hitler stated that he counted on Italian and Russian assistance and that he saw the Allies annihilated. He announced Germany’s readiness to take part in a conference which should guarantee a peaceful Europe but meanwhile he ordered 51 Nazi divisions, numbering 1,400,000 men, to take positions along the French, Dutch and Belgian borders. The President of the United States was sounded out as a possible mediator in the war but Mr. Roosevelt authorized a statement that he had nothing to say and ordered all United States mobile combat troops to army maneuvers. It was believed that Chancellor Hitler’s effort to establish a peace offensive had miscarried.

Moscow emphasized a demand that Finland participate in a conference with the Soviet Union by assembling Soviet forces of 700,000 near the boundary; Finland replied by calling more men to the colors. Sweden too showed concern and announced that 100,000 men were under arms. The United States joined other powers in a plea to Soviet Russia not to press extreme demands against Finland.

Despite the Soviet-German pact, Great Britain offered to give Russia rubber and tin in exchange for lumber in a commercial deal aimed at Germany.

The Polish President resigned and although Paderewski was suggested as his successor the office finally went to Wladyslaw Raczkiewicz, former President of the Polish Senate.

Pope Pius issued an encyclical condemning dictators and treaty violators and urging the restoration of Poland.

The Kings of the three Scandinavian countries met in Stockholm to consider negotiations with Soviet Russia.

Turkey signed an important fifteen-year covenant with the Allies which provided no present help to them but granted them assistance in the event of hostilities in the Mediterranean. Should Great Britain guarantee Greece or Romania, Turkey was to be similarly guaranteed; in no event was Turkey to be required to fight Russia. Russia and Italy seemed especially fearful of the Turkish pact; Chancellor Hitler announced in anger that war was on to the finish and that the Turks might expect to share the fate of Poland (see December 1939).

In Washington the Administration chiefs endeavored to speed up the repeal of the Arms Embargo. President Roosevelt himself took a firm stand by barring foreign submarines from the use of the United States ports or American waters, although he made no mention of the 300-mile limit which had been voted at Panama. Secretary Wallace told a press conference in San Francisco that “the war situation obviously makes it clear that the President’s talents and training are necessary to steer the country domestically and, in its foreign relations, to a safe harbor.” President Roosevelt branded as “fake” the talk of the United States entering the war and stated that American boys would not go abroad. The United States Senate, by a vote of 63 to SO and the House, 243 to 181, repealed the Arms Embargo, the action arousing much anger in Berlin where the eventual entry of the United States into the war was prophesied.

Germany proclaimed that she would destroy British ships on sight and prophesied that the S.S. Iroquois, then on its way to the United States with a passenger list mostly American, would be sunk as she neared this coast; the White House immediately announced that protecting vessels had been dispatched to accompany the inbound liner and on October 12 amidst scenes of great rejoicing the Iroquois arrived safely in New York Harbor.

The Nazis seized the United States ship City of Flint and took her into the port of Murmansk, where the Russians interned the German prize crew. The capture of the vessel led to the belief that two German raiders, possibly pocket-size battleships, were at large, and the Deutschland cruising on the high seas was credited with the victory. The next day the Russians freed both the American and the German crews, but held the vessel until October 27, when the ship was also freed and sailed with the German crew in command and the Americans as prisoners. On learning that the S.S. City of Flint had been turned over to the Nazis the United States issued an indignant protest to the S...

Inhaltsverzeichnis

• Title page
• TABLE OF CONTENTS
• Acknowledgments
• INTRODUCTION
• PROLOGUE - AUGUST 1939
• THE FIRST YEAR - 1 September 1939-31 August 1940
• THE SECOND YEAR - 1 September 1940-31 August 1941
• THE THIRD YEAR - 1 September 1941-31 August 1942
• THE FOURTH YEAR - 1 September 1942-31 August 1943
• THE FIFTH YEAR - 1 September 1943-31 August 1944
• THE SIXTH YEAR - 1 September 1944-2 September 1945
• Partial List of Source Books