So what went wrong with creating the world government?
The purple countries; The major Central Powers; German Empire,
Austria-Hungry, and the Ottoman Empire
By 1914, the Western controlling families had world
production under control. They started having Union problem but it was nothing
that they could not handle. They had governments doing whatever they wanted.
These world families did not care about the problems of the common people. But
then someone had to shoot someone.
World war I was
born. The immediate trigger for war was the June 28, 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of
Austria, heir to the
throne of Austria-Hungary, by Yugoslav
nationalist Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo. This set off diplomatic
crisis when
Austria-Hungary delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia and
international alliances formed over the previous decades were invoked. Within
weeks, the major powers were at war and due to these empires having territory
around the planet, the conflict soon spread around the world.
World War I (WWI) was a global war centered in Europe that began on July 28, 1914 and lasted until November 11, 1918. From the time of its occurrence until the approach of World War II in 1939, it was called simply the World War or the Great War, and thereafter the First World War or World War I. More than 9 million combatants were killed: a scale of death impacted by industrial advancements, geographic stalemate and reliance on human wave attacks. It was the fifth-deadliest conflict in world history, paving the way for major political changes, including revolutions in many of the nations involved.
The war drew in all the world's economic great powers, which were assembled in two opposing alliances: the Allies (based on the Triple Entente of the United Kingdom, France and the Russian Empire) and the Central Powers of Germany and Austria-Hungary. Although Italy had also been a member of the Triple Alliance alongside Germany and Austria-Hungary, it did not join the Central Powers, as Austria-Hungary had taken the offensive against the terms of the alliance. These alliances were both reorganized and expanded as more nations entered the war: Italy, Japan and the United States joined the Allies, and the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria the Central Powers. Ultimately, more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history.
On July 28, the Austro-Hungarians fired the first shots in preparation for the invasion of Serbia. As Russia mobilized, Germany invaded neutral Belgium and Luxembourg before moving towards France, leading Britain to declare war on Germany. After the German march on Paris was brought to a halt, what became known as the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, with a trench line that would change little until 1917. Meanwhile, on the Eastern Front, the Russian army was successful against the Austro-Hungarians, but was stopped in its invasion of East Prussia by the Germans. In November 1914, the Ottoman Empire joined the war, opening fronts in the Caucasus, Mesopotamia, and the Sinai. Italy and Bulgaria went to war in 1915 and Romania in 1916.
The war approached a resolution after the Russian Tsar's government collapsed in March 1917 and a subsequent revolution in November brought the Russians to terms with the Central Powers. After a 1918 German offensive along the western front, the Allies drove back the Germans in a series of successful offensives and American forces began entering the trenches. Germany, which had its own trouble with revolutionaries, agreed to an armistice on November 11, 1918, ending the war in victory for the Allies.
By the end of the war, four major imperial powers—the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires—ceased to exist. The successor states of the former two lost territory, while the latter two were dismantled. The map of central Europe was redrawn into smaller states, with the League of Nations formed with the aim of preventing any repetition of such an appalling conflict. This aim failed, with weakened states, renewed European nationalism and the humiliation of Germany contributing to the rise of fascism and the conditions for World War II.
The German
Empire was dissolved in the German Revolution of 1918–1919, and a democratic government, later
known as the Weimar Republic, was created.
The interwar period saw strife between supporters of the new republic and
hardline opponents on both the right and left. Although
Italy as an Entente ally made some territorial gains, Italian nationalists were
angered that the promises made by Britain and France to secure Italian entrance into
the war were not fulfilled with the peace settlement. From 1922 to 1925, the Fascist movement led
by Benito Mussolini seized power in Italy with a nationalist, totalitarian,
and class collaborationist agenda that abolished representative democracy,
repressed socialist, left-wing and liberal forces, and pursued an aggressive
foreign policy aimed at forcefully forging Italy as a world power—a "New Roman
Empire"
The Western ruling families did
not see another war coming. In fact, they started putting in place the
beginning of a world government. It was called the League of Nations. The
League of Nations was an intergovernmental organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference that ended the First World War. It was the first international
organization whose principal mission was to maintain world peace. Its primary
goals, as stated in its Covenant, included
preventing wars through collective
security and disarmament, and settling international disputes through
negotiation and arbitration. Other issues in this and related
treaties included labor conditions, just treatment of native inhabitants, human
and drug trafficking, arms trade, global health, prisoners of war, and
protection of minorities in Europe. At its greatest extent from September 28, 1934
to February 23, 1935, it had 58 members.
In Germany, the
Nazi Party led by Adolf Hitler sought to
establish a Nazi state in Germany.
With the onset of the Great
Depression, domestic
support for the Nazis rose and, in 1933, Hitler was appointed Chancellor of
Germany. In the aftermath of the Reichstag fire, Hitler
created a totalitarian single-party state led by the Nazis.
The Kuomintang (KMT) party in China launched a unification campaign against regional warlords and nominally unified China in
the mid-1920s, but was soon embroiled in a civil war against its
former Chinese communist allies. In 1931, an increasingly militaristic Japanese Empire, which had
long sought influence in China as the first step of what its government saw as
the country's right to rule
Asia, used the Mukden Incident as a pretext
to launch an invasion of Manchuria and establish the puppet state of Manchukuo.
Too weak to
resist Japan, China appealed to the League of
Nations for help.
Japan withdrew from the League of Nations after being condemned for its
incursion into Manchuria. The two nations then fought several battles, in Shanghai, Rehe and Hebei, until the Tanggu Truce was signed in
1933. Thereafter, Chinese volunteer forces continued the resistance to Japanese
aggression in Manchuria, and Chahar and Suiyuan.
Adolf Hitler,
after an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government in 1923,
became the Chancellor of Germany in 1933. He abolished democracy, espousing a radical, racially motivated revision of the world order, and soon
began a massive rearmament campaign. It was at this time that multiple political scientists
began to predict that a second Great War might take place. Meanwhile, France,
to secure its alliance, allowed Italy a free hand in Ethiopia, which Italy
desired as a colonial possession. The situation was aggravated in early 1935
when the Territory of the Saar Basin was legally reunited with Germany and Hitler
repudiated the Treaty of Versailles, accelerated his rearmament program and
introduced conscription.
Hoping to
contain Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy formed the Stresa Front. The Soviet
Union, concerned due to Germany's goals
of capturing vast areas of eastern Europe, wrote a treaty of mutual assistance
with France. Before taking effect though, the Franco-Soviet pact was required
to go through the bureaucracy of the League of Nations, which rendered it
essentially toothless. However, in June 1935, the United Kingdom made an independent naval agreement with Germany, easing prior
restrictions. The United States, concerned with events in Europe and Asia,
passed the Neutrality Act in August 1935. In October, Italy invaded Ethiopia, and
Germany was the only major European nation to support the invasion. Italy
subsequently dropped its objections to Germany's goal of absorbing Austria.
Hitler defied
the Versailles and Locarno treaties by remilitarizing the Rhineland in March 1936. He received little
response from other European powers. When the Spanish Civil
War broke out in
July, Hitler and Mussolini supported the fascist and authoritarian Nationalist
forces in their civil
war against the Soviet-supported the Spanish Republic. Both sides used the conflict to test
new weapons and methods of warfare, with the Nationalists winning the war in
early 1939. In October 1936, Germany and Italy formed the Rome-Berlin
Axis. A month
later, Germany and Japan signed the Anti-Comintern Pact, which Italy would join in the following year. In China,
after the Xi'an Incident the Kuomintang
and communist forces agreed on a ceasefire in order to present a united front to oppose Japan.
World War II
War breaks out in Europe (1939–40)
Common parade of German Wehrmacht and Soviet Red Army on September 23, 1939 in Brest, Eastern Poland at the end of the Invasion of Poland.
In the center is Major General Heinz Guderian and on the
right is Brigadier Semyon
Krivoshein.
On September 17,
1939, after signing a cease-fire with Japan, the Soviets also invaded Poland. The Polish army was defeated and Warsaw surrendered to the Germans on September 27, with
final pockets of resistance surrendering on October 6. Poland's territory was
divided between Germany and the Soviet Union, with Lithuania and Slovakia also receiving small shares. The Poles did not
surrender; they established a Polish Underground State and an underground Home Army, and continued to fight alongside the Allies on all fronts in
Europe and North Africa.
About 100,000
Polish military personnel were evacuated to Romania and the Baltic countries; many of these soldiers later
fought against the Germans in other theatres of the war. Poland's Enigma
codebreakers were also
evacuated to France. During this time, Japan launched its first attack against Changsha, a strategically important Chinese
city, but was repulsed by late September.
On October 6,
Hitler made a public peace overture to Britain and France, but said that the
future of Poland was to be determined exclusively by Germany and the Soviet
Union. Chamberlain rejected this on October 12, saying "Past experience
has shown that no reliance can be placed upon the promises of the present
German Government." After this rejection Hitler ordered an immediate
offensive against France, but his generals persuaded him to wait until May of
next year.
In December
1939 Britain won a naval victory over Germany in the south Atlantic during the Battle of the River Plate.
Following the
invasion of Poland and a German-Soviet
treaty governing Lithuania, the Soviet Union forced the Baltic
countries to allow it to station Soviet troops in their countries under pacts
of "mutual assistance." Finland rejected territorial demands and was invaded by
the Soviet Union in November 1939. The resulting
conflict ended in March
1940 with Finnish concessions. France and the United Kingdom, treating the Soviet
attack on Finland as tantamount to entering the war on the side of the Germans,
responded to the Soviet invasion by supporting the USSR's expulsion from the
League of Nations.
Western Europe (1940–41)
In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect shipments of iron ore from Sweden, which the Allies were attempting to
cut off by
unilaterally mining neutral Norwegian waters. Denmark immediately capitulated, and despite Allied support, Norway was conquered within two months. British
discontent over the Norwegian campaign led to the replacement of the British
Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, with Winston
Churchill on May 10, 1940.
Germany launched an
offensive against France and, for reasons of military strategy, also invaded the
neutral nations of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg on May 10, 1940. That same day Britain invaded Iceland to preempt a possible German invasion of the island. The
Netherlands and Belgium were overrun using blitzkrieg tactics in a few days and weeks,
respectively. The French-fortified Maginot Line and the Allied
forces in Belgium were circumvented by a flanking movement through the thickly
wooded Ardennes region,
mistakenly perceived by French planners as an impenetrable natural barrier
against armored vehicles.
As a result, the bulk of the Allied armies found themselves trapped in an encirclement and were annihilated.
As a result, the bulk of the Allied armies found themselves trapped in an encirclement and were annihilated.
British troops
were forced to evacuate the continent at Dunkirk, abandoning their heavy equipment by early June. On June
10, Italy invaded France, declaring war on both France and
Britain; Paris fell on June 14 and eight days later France surrendered and was soon
divided into German and Italian occupation zones, and an unoccupied rump state under the Vichy Regime, which, though
officially neutral, was generally aligned with Germany. France kept its fleet
but the British feared the Germans would seize it, sank it on July 3.
In June 1940,
the Soviet Union forcibly
annexed Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and then annexed the disputed Romanian region of Bessarabia. Meanwhile, Nazi-Soviet political
rapprochement and economic co-operation gradually stalled, and both states
began preparations for war.
On July 19th Hitler
again publicly offered to end the war, saying he had no desire to destroy the British Empire. Britain
rejected this, with Lord Halifax responding "there was in his speech no
suggestion that peace must be based on justice, no word of recognition that the
other nations of Europe had any right to self‑determination..."
Following this,
Germany began an air superiority campaign over
Britain (the Battle of Britain) to prepare for an invasion. The campaign
failed, and the invasion plans were cancelled by September. Frustrated, and in
part in response to repeated British air raids against Berlin, Germany began a
strategic bombing offensive against British cities known as the Blitz.
However, the
air attacks largely failed to either disrupt the British war effort or convince
them to sue for peace.
Using newly
captured French ports, the German Navy enjoyed success against an over-extended Royal Navy, using U-boats against British shipping in the Atlantic. The British scored a significant victory on May 27,
1941 by sinking the German flagship Bismarck. Perhaps most
importantly, during the Battle of Britain the Royal Air Force had
successfully resisted the Luftwaffe's assault, and the German bombing campaign
largely ended in May 1941.
Throughout this
period, the neutral United States took measures to assist China and the Western
Allies. In November 1939, the American Neutrality Act was amended to allow "cash and carry" purchases by the Allies. In 1940,
following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased. In September, the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases. Still, a
large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military
intervention into the conflict well into 1941.
Although
Roosevelt had promised to keep the United States out of the war, he
nevertheless took concrete steps to prepare for that eventuality. In December
1940 he accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out negotiations as
useless, calling for the US to become an "arsenal for democracy" and
promoted the passage of Lend-Lease aid to support
the British war effort.
In January 1941 secret high level staff talks
with the British began for the purposes of determining how to defeat Germany
should the US enter the war. They decided on a number of offensive policies,
including an air offensive, the "early elimination" of Italy, raids,
support of resistance groups, and the capture of positions to launch an
offensive against Germany.
At the end of
September 1940, the Tripartite Pact united Japan,
Italy and Germany to formalise the Axis Powers. The
Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country, with the exception of the Soviet
Union, not in the war which attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to
war against all three. The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary, Slovakia and Romania joined the Tripartite Pact. Romania
would make a major contribution to the Axis war against the USSR,
partially to recapture territory ceded to the USSR, partially to
pursue its leader Ion Antonescu's desire to
combat communism.
Mediterranean (1940–41)
Italy began
operations in the Mediterranean, initiating a siege of Malta in June, conquering British Somaliland in August, and making an incursion into British-held Egypt in September
1940. In October 1940, Italy invaded
Greece due to
Mussolini's jealousy of Hitler's success but within days was repulsed and
pushed back into Albania, where a stalemate soon occurred. Britain responded to
Greek requests for assistance by sending troops to Crete and providing air
support to Greece. Hitler decided to take action against Greece when the
weather improved to assist the Italians and prevent the British from gaining a
foothold in the Balkans, to strike against the British naval dominance of the
Mediterranean, and to secure his hold on Romanian oil.
In December
1940, British Commonwealth forces began counter-offensives against Italian forces
in Egypt and Italian East Africa. The offensive in North Africa was
highly successful and by early February 1941 Italy had lost control of eastern
Libya and large numbers of Italian troops had been taken prisoner. The Italian Navy also suffered
significant defeats, with the Royal Navy putting three Italian battleships out
of commission by a carrier attack
at Taranto, and
neutralising several more warships at the Battle of Cape
Matapan.
Matapan.
The Germans
soon intervened to assist Italy. Hitler sent German forces to Libya in February, and by the end of March they had launched an offensive which drove back the Commonwealth
forces who had been weakened to support Greece. In under a month, Commonwealth
forces were pushed back into Egypt with the exception of the besieged port
of Tobruk. The
Commonwealth attempted to dislodge Axis forces in May and again in June, but failed on both occasions.
By late March
1941, following Bulgaria's signing of
the Tripartite Pact, the Germans were in position to intervene in Greece. Plans
were changed, however, due to developments in neighbouring Yugoslavia. The Yugoslav government had signed
the Tripartite Pact on March 25,
only to be overthrown two days later by a British-encouraged coup. Hitler viewed the new regime as hostile and immediately
decided to eliminate it. On 6 April Germany simultaneously invaded both Yugoslavia and Greece, making rapid
progress and forcing both nations to surrender within the month. The British
were driven from the Balkans after Germany conquered the
Greek island of Crete by the end of May. Although the Axis victory was swift, bitter partisan
warfare subsequently
broke out against the Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, which continued until the
end of the war.
The Allies did
have some successes during this time. In the Middle East, Commonwealth forces
first quashed a coup
in Iraq which had been
supported by German aircraft from bases within Vichy-controlled Syria, then, with the assistance of the Free French, invaded Syria and Lebanon to prevent further such occurrences.
Axis attack on the USSR (1941)
German infantry
and armored vehicles battle the Soviet defenders on the streets of Kharkiv, October 1941.
With the
situation in Europe and Asia relatively stable, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet
Union made preparations. With the Soviets wary of mounting tensions with
Germany and the Japanese planning to take advantage of the European War by
seizing resource-rich European possessions in Southeast Asia, the two powers
signed the Soviet–Japanese Neutrality Pact in April 1941. By contrast, the
Germans were steadily making preparations for an attack on the Soviet Union,
amassing forces on the Soviet border.
Hitler believed
that Britain's refusal to end the war was based on the hope that the United
States and the Soviet Union would enter the war against Germany sooner or
later. He accordingly decided to try to strengthen Germany's relations with the
Soviets, or failing that, to attack and eliminate them as a factor. In November
1940 negotiations took place to determine if the Soviet Union would
join the Tripartite Pact. The Soviets showed some interest, but asked for
concessions from Finland, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Japan that Germany considered
unacceptable. On 18 December 1940 Hitler issued the directive to prepare for an
invasion of the Soviet Union.
On 22 June
1941, Germany and Romania invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa, with Germany accusing the Soviets of plotting against
them. They were joined shortly by Finland and Hungary after Soviet aircraft
bombed their territory. The primary targets of this surprise offensive were the
Baltic region, Moscow and Ukraine, with the ultimate goal of ending the 1941 campaign near the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line, connecting
the Caspian and White Seas. Hitler's objectives were to eliminate
the Soviet Union as a military power, exterminate Communism, generate Lebensraum ("living
space") by dispossessing
the native population and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed
to defeat Germany's remaining rivals.
Although the Red Army was preparing for strategic counter-offensives before the
war, Barbarossa forced the Soviet supreme command to adopt a strategic
defence. During the
summer, the Axis made significant gains into Soviet territory, inflicting
immense losses in both personnel and materiel. By the middle of August,
however, the German Army High Command decided to suspend the offensive of a considerably depleted Army Group
Centre, and to divert
the 2nd Panzer Group to reinforce troops advancing towards central Ukraine
and Leningrad. The Kiev offensive was overwhelmingly successful, resulting in encirclement and elimination
of four Soviet armies, and made further advance into
Crimea and
industrially developed Eastern Ukraine (the First Battle of Kharkov) possible.
The diversion
of three quarters of the Axis troops and the majority of their air forces from
France and the central Mediterranean to the Eastern Front prompted Britain to reconsider its grand strategy. In July, the UK
and the Soviet Union formed a military alliance against Germany. The British
and Soviets invaded Iran to secure the Persian
Corridor and Iran's oil fields. In August, the United Kingdom and the
United States jointly issued the Atlantic
Charter.
By October,
when Axis operational objectives in Ukraine and the Baltic region were
achieved, with only the sieges of Leningrad and Sevastopol continuing, a major offensive
against Moscow had been renewed. After two months of fierce battles, the German army
almost reached the outer suburbs of Moscow, where the exhausted troops were
forced to suspend their offensive. Large
territorial gains were made by Axis forces, but their campaign had failed to
achieve its main objectives: two key cities remained in Soviet hands, the
Soviet capability to resist was not broken, and the Soviet Union retained a
considerable part of its military potential. The blitzkrieg phase of the war in
Europe had ended.
Animation of
the WWII European Theatre.
War breaks out in the Pacific (1941)
In August of
that year, Chinese communists launched an offensive in Central China; in retaliation, Japan instituted
harsh measures (the Three Alls
Policy) in occupied
areas to reduce human and material resources for the communists. Continued
antipathy between Chinese communist and nationalist forces culminated in armed clashes in January 1941, effectively
ending their co-operation.
German
successes in Europe encouraged Japan to increase pressure on European
governments in south-east Asia. The Dutch government agreed to provide Japan
some oil supplies from the Dutch East
Indies, but
negotiations for additional access to their resources ended in failure in June
1941. In July 1941 Japan occupied southern Indochina, thus threatening British
and Dutch possessions in the Far East. The United States, United Kingdom and
other Western governments reacted to this move with a freeze on Japanese assets
and a total oil embargo.
Since early
1941 the United States and Japan had been engaged in negotiations in an attempt
to improve their strained relations and end the war in China. During these
negotiations Japan advanced a number of proposals which were dismissed by the
Americans as inadequate. At the same time the US, Britain, and the Netherlands
engaged in secret discussions for the joint defense of their territories in the
event of a Japanese attack against any of them. Roosevelt reinforced the
Philippines (an American possession since 1898) and warned Japan that the US
would react to Japanese attacks against any "neighboring countries".
Frustrated at
the lack of progress and feeling the pinch of the American-British-Dutch
sanctions, Japan prepared for war. On 20 November it presented an interim
proposal as its final offer. It called for the end of American aid to China and
the supply of oil and other resources to Japan. In exchange they promised not
to launch any attacks in Southeast Asia and to withdraw their forces from their
threatening positions in southern Indochina. The American counter-proposal of
26 November required that Japan evacuate all of China without conditions and
conclude non-aggression pacts with all Pacific powers. That meant Japan was
essentially forced to choose between abandoning its ambitions in China, or
seizing the natural resources it needed in the Dutch East Indies by force; the
Japanese military did not consider the former an option, and many officers
considered the oil embargo an unspoken declaration of war.
Japan planned
to rapidly seize European colonies in Asia to create a large defensive
perimeter stretching into the Central Pacific; the Japanese would then be free
to exploit the resources of Southeast Asia while exhausting the over-stretched
Allies by fighting a defensive war. To prevent American intervention while
securing the perimeter it was further planned to neutralize the United States Pacific Fleet and the American military presence in
the Philippines from the outset. On 7th of December (8th of December in Asian time zones), 1941, Japan
attacked British and American holdings with near-simultaneous offensives against Southeast Asia and the Central Pacific. These
included an attack on the American fleet at Pearl Harbor, landings in
Thailand and Malaya and the battle of Hong Kong.
The February
1942 Fall of Singapore saw 80,000 Allied soldiers captured and enslaved by the
Japanese.
These attacks
led the United States, Britain, China, Australia and several other
states to formally declare war on Japan, whereas the Soviet Union, being
heavily involved in large-scale hostilities with European Axis countries,
preferred to maintain a neutrality agreement with Japan.
Germany, followed
by the other Axis states, declared war on the United States in solidarity with
Japan, citing as justification the American attacks on German submarines and
merchant ships that had been ordered by Roosevelt.
Axis advance stalls (1942–43)
In January, the
United States, Britain, Soviet Union, China, and 22 smaller or exiled
governments issued the Declaration by United Nations, thereby affirming the Atlantic
Charter, and taking an
obligation not to sign separate peace with the Axis powers.
During 1942
Allied officials debated on the appropriate grand strategy to pursue. All
agreed that defeating Germany was the primary objective. The Americans favored
a straightforward, large-scale attack on Germany through France. The Soviets
were also demanding a second front. The British, on the other hand, argued that
military operations should target peripheral areas in order to throw a
"ring" around Germany which would wear out German strength, lead to
increasing demoralization, and bolster resistance forces. Germany itself would
be subject to a heavy bombing campaign. An offensive against Germany would then
be launched primarily by Allied armor without using large-scale armies.
Eventually, the British persuaded the Americans that a landing in France was
infeasible in 1942 and they should instead focus on driving the Axis out of
North Africa.
At the Casablanca Conference in early 1943 the Allies issued a declaration declaring
that they would not negotiate with their enemies and demanded their
unconditional surrender. The British and Americans agreed to continue to press
the initiative in the Mediterranean by invading Sicily to fully secure the
Mediterranean supply routes. Although the British argued for further operations
in the Balkans to bring Turkey into the war, in May 1943 the Americans
extracted a British commitment to limit Allied operations in the Mediterranean
to an invasion of the Italian mainland and to invade France in 1944.
Pacific (1942–43)
American dive bombers engage the Mikuma at the Battle of Midway, June 1942.
These easy victories over unprepared opponents left Japan overconfident, as well as overextended.
In early May
1942, Japan initiated operations to capture Port
Moresby by amphibious assault and thus sever communications and supply lines between
the United States and Australia. The Allies, however, prevented the invasion by
intercepting and defeating the Japanese naval forces in the Battle of the Coral Sea. Japan's next plan, motivated by the
earlier Doolittle Raid, was to seize Midway Atoll and lure
American carriers into battle to be eliminated; as a diversion, Japan would
also send forces to occupy the Aleutian Islands in Alaska. In early June, Japan put
its operations into action but the Americans, having broken Japanese naval codes in late May, were fully aware of the plans and force
dispositions and used this knowledge to achieve a
decisive victory at Midway over the Imperial Japanese Navy.
With its
capacity for aggressive action greatly diminished as a result of the Midway
battle, Japan chose to focus on a belated attempt to capture Port Moresby by an overland campaign in the Territory of Papua. The Americans planned a counter-attack against Japanese
positions in the southern Solomon Islands, primarily Guadalcanal, as a first
step towards capturing Rabaul, the main
Japanese base in Southeast Asia.
Both plans
started in July, but by mid-September, the Battle for Guadalcanal took priority for the Japanese, and troops in New Guinea
were ordered to withdraw from the Port Moresby area to the northern part
of the island, where they
faced Australian and United States troops in the Battle of Buna-Gona. Guadalcanal soon became a focal point for both sides
with heavy commitments of troops and ships in the battle for Guadalcanal. By
the start of 1943, the Japanese were defeated on the island and withdrew their
troops. In Burma,
Commonwealth forces mounted two operations. The first, an offensive into the Arakan region in late 1942,
went disastrously, forcing a retreat back to India by May 1943. The second was
the insertion of irregular forces behind Japanese front-lines in February which, by the
end of April, had achieved dubious results.
Eastern Front (1942–43)
Despite
considerable losses, in early 1942 European Axis members stopped a major Soviet
offensive in Central and Southern Russia, keeping most territorial gains they
had achieved during the previous year. In May the Axis defeated Soviet
offensives in the Kerch Peninsula and at Kharkiv, and then launched their main summer offensive against
southern Russia in June 1942, to seize the oil fields of the Caucasus and
occupy Kuban steppe, while maintaining positions on the
northern and central areas of the front. The Germans split the Army Group
South into two
groups: Army Group A struck lower Don River while Army Group B struck
south-east to the Caucasus, towards Volga River. The Soviets
decided to make their stand at Stalingrad, which was in the path of the
advancing German armies.
By
mid-November, the Germans had nearly taken Stalingrad in bitter street fighting when the
Soviets began their second winter counter-offensive, starting with an encirclement of
German forces at Stalingrad and an assault on the Rzhev salient
near Moscow, though the
latter failed disastrously. By early February 1943, the German Army had taken
tremendous losses; German troops at Stalingrad had been forced to surrender,
and the front-line had been pushed back beyond its position before the summer
offensive. In mid-February, after the Soviet push had tapered off, the Germans
launched another attack on Kharkiv, creating a salient in their front line around the Russian city of Kursk.
British Crusader tanks moving to forward positions during the North African Campaign.
British Crusader tanks moving to forward positions during the North African Campaign.
Western Europe/Atlantic & Mediterranean (1942–43)
Exploiting
dubious American naval command decisions, the German navy ravaged Allied
shipping off the
American Atlantic coast.
By November
1941, Commonwealth forces had launched a counter-offensive, Operation Crusader, in North Africa, and reclaimed all the gains the
Germans and Italians had made. In North Africa, the Germans launched an
offensive in January, pushing the British back to positions at the Gazala Line by early
February, followed by a temporary lull in combat which Germany used to prepare
for their upcoming offensives.
Concerns the Japanese might use bases in Vichy-held Madagascar caused the British to invade the island in early May 1942. An Axis offensive in Libya forced an Allied retreat deep inside Egypt until Axis forces were stopped at El Alamein. On the Continent, raids of Allied commandos on strategic targets, culminating in the disastrous Dieppe Raid, demonstrated the Western Allies' inability to launch an invasion of continental Europe without much better preparation, equipment, and operational security.
Concerns the Japanese might use bases in Vichy-held Madagascar caused the British to invade the island in early May 1942. An Axis offensive in Libya forced an Allied retreat deep inside Egypt until Axis forces were stopped at El Alamein. On the Continent, raids of Allied commandos on strategic targets, culminating in the disastrous Dieppe Raid, demonstrated the Western Allies' inability to launch an invasion of continental Europe without much better preparation, equipment, and operational security.
In August 1942,
the Allies succeeded in repelling a second attack against El Alamein and, at a high cost, managed to deliver desperately needed supplies to the besieged Malta. A few months
later, the Allies commenced an attack of their own in Egypt, dislodging the Axis forces
and beginning a drive west across Libya. This attack was followed up shortly
after by an Anglo-American
invasion of French North Africa, which resulted in the region joining the Allies. Hitler
responded to the French colony's defection by ordering the occupation of
Vichy France; although
Vichy forces did not resist this violation of the armistice, they managed to scuttle their fleet to prevent its capture by German
forces. The now pincer Axis forces in Africa withdrew into Tunisia, which was conquered by
the Allies in May 1943.
In early 1943
the British and Americans began the "Combined Bomber Offensive", a strategic bombing campaign against Germany. The goals were to disrupt the German
war economy, reduce German morale, and "de-house" the German civilian
population. By the end of the war most German cities would be reduced to rubble
and 7,500,000 Germans made homeless.
Allies gain momentum (1943–44)
Following the
Guadalcanal Campaign, the Allies initiated several operations against Japan in
the Pacific. In May 1943, Allied forces were sent to eliminate Japanese forces from the Aleutians, and soon
after began major operations to isolate Rabaul by capturing surrounding islands, and to breach the Japanese Central Pacific perimeter at the
Gilbert and Marshall Islands. By the end of March 1944, the Allies had completed both
of these objectives, and additionally neutralised the major Japanese base at Truk in the Caroline
Islands. In April, the
Allies then launched an operation to retake Western New Guinea.
In the Soviet
Union, both the Germans and the Soviets spent the spring and early summer of
1943 making preparations for large offensives in Central Russia. On 4 July
1943, Germany attacked Soviet
forces around the Kursk Bulge. Within a week, German forces had exhausted themselves
against the Soviets' deeply echeloned and well-constructed defenses and, for
the first time in the war, Hitler cancelled the operation before it had
achieved tactical or operational success. This decision was partially affected
by the Western Allies' invasion of Sicily launched on July 9 which, combined
with previous Italian failures, resulted in the ousting and arrest of Mussolini
later that month. Also in July 1943 the British firebombed Hamburg killing over 40,000 people.
On July 12, 1943,
the Soviets launched their own counter-offensives, thereby
dispelling any hopes of the German Army for victory or even stalemate in the
east. The Soviet victory at Kursk heralded the downfall of German superiority,
giving the Soviet Union the initiative on the Eastern Front. The Germans
attempted to stabilize their eastern front along the hastily fortified Panther-Wotan line, however, the Soviets broke through it at Smolensk and by the Lower Dnieper Offensives.
On September 3,
1943, the Western Allies invaded the Italian mainland, following an Italian armistice with the Allies. Germany
responded by disarming Italian forces, seizing military control of Italian
areas, and creating a series of defensive lines. German special forces then rescued
Mussolini, who then soon
established a new client state in German occupied Italy named the Italian Social Republic. The Western Allies fought through
several lines until reaching the main German
defensive line in mid-November.
German
operations in the Atlantic also suffered. By May 1943, as
Allied counter-measures became increasingly effective, the resulting sizeable German
submarine losses forced a temporary halt of the German Atlantic naval campaign. In November
1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill met with Chiang Kai-shek in Cairo and then with Joseph Stalin in Tehran. The former
conference determined the post-war return of Japanese territory, while the
latter included agreement that the Western Allies would invade Europe in 1944
and that the Soviet Union would declare war on Japan within three months of Germany's
defeat.
From November
1943, during the seven-week Battle of
Changde, the Chinese
forced Japan to fight a costly war of attrition, while awaiting Allied relief.
In January 1944, the Allies launched a series of attacks in Italy against the line at Monte
Cassino and attempted
to outflank it with landings at
Anzio. By the end of
January, a major Soviet offensive expelled German forces from the Leningrad
region, ending the
longest and most lethal siege in history.
The following Soviet offensive was halted on the pre-war Estonian border by the German Army Group
North aided by Estonians hoping to re-establish national independence. This delay
slowed subsequent Soviet operations in the Baltic Sea region. By
late May 1944, the Soviets had liberated
Crimea, largely
expelled Axis forces from Ukraine, and made incursions into Romania, which were repulsed by the Axis
troops. The Allied offensives in Italy had succeeded and, at the expense of
allowing several German divisions to retreat, on 4 June, Rome was captured.
The Allies
experienced mixed fortunes in mainland Asia. In March 1944, the Japanese
launched the first of two invasions, an operation
against British positions in Assam, India, and soon besieged Commonwealth
positions at Imphal and Kohima. In May 1944,
British forces mounted a counter-offensive that drove Japanese troops back to
Burma, and Chinese forces that had invaded northern Burma in late 1943 besieged
Japanese troops in Myitkyina. The second Japanese
invasion attempted to
destroy China's main fighting forces, secure railways between Japanese-held
territory and capture Allied airfields. By June, the Japanese had conquered the
province of Henan and begun a renewed attack against Changsha in the Hunan province.
Allies close in (1944)
Red Army
personnel and equipment crossing a river, 1944
On June 6, 1944
(known as D-Day), after three
years of Soviet pressure, the Western Allies invaded northern France. After reassigning several Allied divisions from Italy,
they also attacked southern France.
These landings were successful, and led to the defeat of the German Army units in France. Paris was liberated by the local resistance assisted by the Free French Forces on 25 August and the Western Allies continued to push back German forces in Western Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to advance into northern Germany spearheaded by a major airborne operation in the Netherlands ended with a failure. After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, unsuccessfully trying to cross the Rur river in a large offensive. In Italy the Allied advance also slowed down, when they ran into the last major German defensive line.
The Red Ball Express were mostly Black
American Troop delivering supplies to the
front lines.
These landings were successful, and led to the defeat of the German Army units in France. Paris was liberated by the local resistance assisted by the Free French Forces on 25 August and the Western Allies continued to push back German forces in Western Europe during the latter part of the year. An attempt to advance into northern Germany spearheaded by a major airborne operation in the Netherlands ended with a failure. After that, the Western Allies slowly pushed into Germany, unsuccessfully trying to cross the Rur river in a large offensive. In Italy the Allied advance also slowed down, when they ran into the last major German defensive line.
The Red Ball Express were mostly Black
American Troop delivering supplies to the
front lines.
On June 22, the
Soviets launched a strategic offensive in Belarus (known as "Operation Bagration") that resulted in the almost complete destruction
of the German Army Group Centre. Soon after that, another Soviet strategic offensive forced German
troops from Western Ukraine and Eastern Poland. The successful advance of
Soviet troops prompted resistance
forces in Poland to initiate several uprisings, though the largest of these, in Warsaw, as well as a Slovak Uprising in the south, were not assisted by the Soviets and were
put down by German forces. The Red Army's strategic offensive in eastern Romania cut off and
destroyed the considerable German troops there and triggered a successful coup d'état in Romania and in Bulgaria, followed by those countries' shift to the Allied side.
In September
1944, Soviet Red Army troops
advanced into Yugoslavia and forced the rapid withdrawal of the German Army
Groups E and F in Greece, Albania and Yugoslavia to rescue them
from being cut off. By this point, the Communist-led Partisans under Marshal Josip Broz Tito, who had led
an increasingly
successful guerrilla campaign against the occupation since 1941, controlled much of
the territory of Yugoslavia and were engaged in delaying efforts against the
German forces further south. In northern Serbia, the Red Army, with limited support from Bulgarian
forces, assisted the
Partisans in a joint liberation of the capital city of Belgrade on 20 October. A few days later, the
Soviets launched a massive assault against German-occupied Hungary that lasted until the fall of Budapest in February 1945. In contrast with impressive Soviet
victories in the Balkans, the bitter Finnish
resistance to the Soviet offensive in the Karelian
Isthmus denied the
Soviets occupation of Finland and led to the signing of Soviet-Finnish
armistice on relatively
mild conditions, with a subsequent shift to the
Allied side by Finland.
By the start of
July, Commonwealth forces in Southeast Asia had repelled the Japanese sieges in
Assam, pushing the Japanese back to the Chindwin River while the
Chinese captured Myitkyina. In China, the Japanese were having greater
successes, having finally captured Changsha in mid-June and the city of Hengyang by early
August Soon after, they further invaded the province of Guangxi, winning major
engagements against Chinese forces at Guilin and Liuzhou by the end of November and
successfully linking up their forces in China and Indochina by the middle of
December.
In the Pacific,
American forces continued to press back the Japanese perimeter. In mid-June
1944 they began their offensive against the Mariana and Palau islands, and
decisively defeated Japanese forces in the Battle of the Philippine Sea. These defeats led to the resignation
of the Japanese Prime Minister, Hideki Tōjō, and provided
the United States with air bases to launch intensive heavy bomber attacks on
the Japanese home islands. In late October, American forces invaded the
Filipino island of Leyte; soon after, Allied naval forces scored another large
victory during the Battle of Leyte Gulf, one of the largest naval battles in history.
Axis collapse, Allied victory (1944–45)
On 16 December 1944, Germany attempted its last desperate measure for success on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves to launch a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes to attempt to split the Western Allies, encircle large portions of Western Allied troops and capture their primary supply port at Antwerp in order to prompt a political settlement.
General Pattons Black armor division was the first to break the siege of Bastogne in the counter attack against the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge.
Tuskegee Airmen flew P-51 Mustangs
escorting B-17s to and from Germany.
They never lost a bomber to the enemy.
By January, the offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled. In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Soviets and Poles attacked in Poland, pushing from the Vistula to the Oder river in Germany, and overran East Prussia. On the 4th of February, US, British, and Soviet leaders met for the Yalta Conference. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany, and on when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.
On 16 December 1944, Germany attempted its last desperate measure for success on the Western Front by using most of its remaining reserves to launch a massive counter-offensive in the Ardennes to attempt to split the Western Allies, encircle large portions of Western Allied troops and capture their primary supply port at Antwerp in order to prompt a political settlement.
General Pattons Black armor division was the first to break the siege of Bastogne in the counter attack against the Germans in the Battle of the Bulge.
Tuskegee Airmen flew P-51 Mustangs
escorting B-17s to and from Germany.
They never lost a bomber to the enemy.
By January, the offensive had been repulsed with no strategic objectives fulfilled. In Italy, the Western Allies remained stalemated at the German defensive line. In mid-January 1945, the Soviets and Poles attacked in Poland, pushing from the Vistula to the Oder river in Germany, and overran East Prussia. On the 4th of February, US, British, and Soviet leaders met for the Yalta Conference. They agreed on the occupation of post-war Germany, and on when the Soviet Union would join the war against Japan.
In February,
the Soviets invaded Silesia and Pomerania, while Western Allies entered Western Germany and closed to
the Rhine river. By
March, the Western Allies crossed the Rhine north and south of the Ruhr, encircling the
German Army Group B, while the Soviets advanced to Vienna. In early April, the Western Allies
finally pushed forward in Italy and swept across Western Germany,
while Soviet and Polish forces stormed Berlin in late April. The American and Soviet forces linked
up on Elbe river on the 25th of April. On April 30, 1945, the Reichstag was captured, signaling
the military defeat of the Third Reich.
Several changes
in leadership occurred during this period. On April 12th, President Roosevelt
died and was succeeded by Harry Truman. Benito
Mussolini was killed by Italian partisans on April 28th. Two days later, Hitler committed suicide, and was succeeded by Grand Admiral Karl Dönitz.
German forces
surrendered in Italy on April 29th. Total and unconditional surrender was signed on the 7th of May, to be effective by the end of May 8th. German Army Group
Center resisted in Prague until May 11th.
In the Pacific
theatre, American forces accompanied by the forces of the Philippine Commonwealth advanced in the Philippines, clearing Leyte by the end of
April 1945. They landed on Luzon in January
1945 and captured Manila in March following a battle which reduced the city to
ruins. Fighting continued on Luzon, Mindanao and other
islands of the Philippines until the end of the war. In March the Americans firebombed
Tokyo which killed
80,000 people.
In May 1945,
Australian troops landed in Borneo, overrunning the oilfields there.
British, American and Chinese forces defeated the Japanese in northern Burma in
March, and the British pushed on to reach Rangoon by May 3. Chinese forces started to
counterattack in Battle of West Hunan that occurred between April 6 and June 7, 1945. American
forces also moved towards Japan, taking Iwo Jima by March, and Okinawa by the end of
June. American bombers destroyed Japanese cities, and American submarines cut off Japanese imports.
On July 11, the
Allied leaders met in Potsdam, Germany. They confirmed
earlier agreements about Germany, and reiterated the demand for unconditional surrender of
all Japanese forces by Japan, specifically stating that "the alternative
for Japan is prompt and utter destruction". During this conference the United Kingdom held its general election, and Clement Attlee replaced
Churchill as Prime Minister.
As Japan
continued to ignore the Potsdam terms, the United States dropped atomic bombs on the
Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early
August. Between the two bombings, the Soviets, pursuant to the Yalta agreement,
invaded Japanese-held Manchuria, and quickly defeated the Kwantung Army, which was the
largest Japanese fighting force. The Red Army also captured Sakhalin Island and the Kuril Islands. On 15 August
1945 Japan surrendered, with the surrender documents finally signed aboard the deck of the
American battleship USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, ending the war.
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