FREE ESSAY ON WORLD WAR II

WORLD WAR II

WORLD WAR II
At the end of World War I the victorious nations formed the League of Nations for the
purpose of airing international disputes, and of mobilizing its members for a collective
effort to keep the peace in the event of aggression by any nation against another or of a
breach of the peace treaties. The United States, imbued with isolationism, did not become
a member. The League failed in its first test. In 1931 the Japanese, using as an excuse
the explosion of a small bomb under a section of track of the South Manchuria Railroad
(over which they had virtual control), initiated military operations designed to conquer
all of Manchuria. After receiving the report of its commission of inquiry, the League
adopted a resolution in 1933 calling on the Japanese to withdraw. Thereupon, Japan
resigned from the League. Meanwhile, Manchuria had been overrun and transformed into a
Japanese puppet state under the name of Manchukuo. Beset by friction and dissension among
its members, the League took no further action. 
In 1933 also, Adolf Hitler came to power as dictator of Germany and began to rearm the
country in contravention of the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles. He denounced the
provisions of that treaty that limited German armament and in 1935 reinstituted
compulsory military service. That year the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini began his
long-contemplated invasion of Ethiopia, which he desired as an economic colony. The
League voted minor sanctions against Italy, but these had slight practical effect.
British and French efforts to effect a compromise settlement failed, and Ethiopia was
completely occupied by the Italians in 1936. 
Alarmed by German rearmament, France sought an alliance with the USSR. Under the pretext
that this endangered Germany, Hitler remilitarised the Rhineland in 1936. It was a
dangerous venture, for Britain and France could have overwhelmed Germany, but, resolved
to keep the peace, they took no action. Emboldened by this success, Hitler intensified
his campaign for Lebensraum (space for living) for the German people. He forcibly annexed
Austria in March 1938, and then, charging abuse of German minorities, threatened
Czechoslovakia. In September, as Hitler increased his demands on the Czechs and war
seemed imminent, the British and French arranged a conference with Hitler and Mussolini.
At the Munich Conference they agreed to German occupation of the Sudetenland, Hitler's
asserted last claim, in the hope of maintaining peace. This hope was short lived, for in
March 1939, Hitler took over the rest of Czechoslovakia and seized the former German port
of Memel from Lithuania. There followed demands on Poland with regard to Danzig (Gdansk)
and the Polish Corridor. The Poles remained adamant, and it became clear to Hitler that
he could attain his objectives only by force. After surprising the world with the
announcement of a nonaggression pact with his sworn foe, the Soviet Union, he sent his
armies across the Polish border on Sept. 1, 1939. Britain and France, pledged to support
Poland in the event of aggression, declared war on Germany two days later. 
As the Germans ravaged Poland, the Russians moved into the eastern part of the country
and began the process that was to lead to the absorption in 1940 of Latvia, Estonia, and
Lithuania. They also made demands on Finland. The recalcitrant Finns were subdued in the
Winter War of 1939-1940, but only after dealing the Russians several humiliating military
reverses. 
Meanwhile, Japan had undertaken military operations for the subjugation of China proper,
and was making preparations for the expansion of its empire into Southeast Asia and the
rich island groups of the Southwest Pacific. Mussolini watched the progress of his fellow
dictator, Hitler, while preparing to join in the war at a propitious moment. 
Military Course of the War 
The bitter struggles and the enormous casualties suffered by Great Britain and France in
World War I had engendered in their military leaders a defensive attitude with a reliance
on such permanent fortifications as the Maginot Line and on blockade as means of subduing
a resurgent Germany. Placing their faith in the impotent League of Nations, both
countries neglected the development of armaments and allowed those they possessed and
their armed forces to deteriorate. The Germans, on the other hand, smarting under their
failure in World War I to capitalize on initial breakthroughs of the Allied lines because
of lack of sustained power, developed fast, hard-hitting tank-airplane forces and the
strategy of the blitzkrieg (lightning war). Since they had been disarmed by the Allies,
they were unencumbered by obsolescent armaments and could equip their forces with the
most modern weapons. As a result, initial German operations met with surprisingly rapid
success. 
In less than a month, Poland had been conquered. There followed an inactive period
(dubbed the Phony War) that lasted until April 1940. Then, despite Allied intervention,
the Germans quickly seized Denmark and Norway. In May the blitzkrieg struck the western
front in all its fury. Within six weeks the British had been driven from the Continent,
and the French had been forced to surrender. The speed of the advance also surprised
Hitler, who was not ready to follow his success with an invasion of the British Isles.
The Luftwaffe, called upon to soften the islands and gain air superiority while
preparations were made for invasion, received a stunning defeat at the hands of the small
but highly competent and brave Royal Air Force. Frustrated in the west, Hitler turned
against the USSR in June 1941. In a series of brilliant military maneuvers in which
several million Russians were captured, he reached the gates of Moscow in December, only
to be stopped by bad weather and Russian reinforcements rushed to defend the city. 
Meanwhile, Mussolini sought to realize his dream of an Italian Mediterranean empire. In
the late summer and fall of 1940 he launched an offensive from Libya against the British
in Egypt and an invasion of Greece from Albania (which he had occupied in 1939). Both
enterprises eventually proved disastrous for the Italians, and German forces were sent to
their rescue. Greece fell to the Germans, but they met stiff British opposition in
Africa. In December 1941, Japan thought the time ripe to extend her empire into a Greater
East Asia Coprosperity Sphere which it did very rapidly against meager opposition. It was
the Japanese plan to fortify this area so strongly as to withstand American
counterattacks and eventually gain a negotiated peace based on the status quo. The
attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines brought the United States into the war and
greatly altered the balance of power in favor of the Allies. 
The year 1942 saw the turn of the tide for the Allies. In June, Japanese naval airpower
was decimated by the United States Navy in the Battle of Midway. Having been repulsed at
Moscow, Hitler turned to the Caucasus, but the Germans were severely defeated and turned
back at Stalingrad (now Volgograd) by the Russians in the closing months of the year. At
the same time the British dealt the Germans and Italians a defeat at El Alamein that sent
them reeling in retreat westward along the African Mediterranean coast. In Tunisia they
encountered newly landed British and American forces and were expelled from Africa in May
1943. 
The Allies now had the initiative and, with the vast production facilities of the United
States in full operation, took the offensive on all fronts. Resistance was bitter, and
progress slow though inexorable. From bases in Africa the Allies invaded and captured
Sicily in July-August 1943. In September, Italy was forced out of the war. British (The
term British, as applied to military forces, includes where appropriate other
Commonwealth forces--Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, South African, and Indian--which
performed outstandingly during the war.), American, and French forces began a methodical
and relentless advance up the Italian Peninsula against the Germans, who had been rushed
in to defend it. After Stalingrad the Russians, in a series of alternating offensives,
gradually forced the Germans back with heavy losses, until by late April 1945 they were
approaching Berlin. 
Following a massive buildup of troops, air and naval power, and equipment in the British
Isles, American, British, and French troops landed on the Normandy coast of France in
June 1944 and pressed the Germans back to the West Wall. There, in December, the Germans
launched a final counterattack, which failed. Aided by troops landed in southern France
from Italy, the Allies forced the Germans back across the Rhine River and deep into
Germany. Assailed on all sides, and their major cities devastated by aerial bombardment,
the Germans surrendered on May 7, 1945. 
Because of a lack of resources, Allied strategy had envisioned the prior defeat of
Germany while remaining on the defensive against the Japanese. Only after victory in
Europe would the full Allied power be applied to Japan. American industrial production
increased so rapidly, however, that limited offensives could be initiated against the
Japanese as early as August 1942. Thereafter, a persistent two-pronged offensive across
the Central Pacific and along the Solomon Islands-New Guinea axis steadily pushed the
Japanese back. By the fall of 1944, American forces were landing in the Philippines, and
they regained the islands the next spring. Then the island of Okinawa, at the threshold
of Japan proper, was captured, and preparations were begun for the invasion of the home
islands. Meanwhile, the Japanese position in Asia progressively deteriorated. By the
summer of 1945, with its navy and air force virtually destroyed, its cities at the mercy
of American aircraft, and cut off from sources of supply of much-needed raw materials,
the Japanese foresaw doom. The dropping of two atomic bombs on Japanese cities and the
Soviet invasion of Manchuria hastened their decision to capitulate, which they did on
August 14.