World War II: We should Never Allow World War II
On September the 1st this year, the world marks the 80th year since the start of the 2nd World War. It is important for the new generation to know the truth about that war if they are to understand the looming threat to world peace.
After six long years (1939 to 1945) of war that claimed the lives of over 60 million people, it was victory over fascism following which a new global political map emerged and social transformation occurred in Africa and Asia, accelerating the process of decolonisation on the two continents.
History books show that this bloodiest and most destructive of the wars humankind has witnessed involved armies from 61 countries with a total population of 1.7 billion people. That means that some 80 per cent of the world’s population (then estimated at 2.1 billion) took to the guns.
The operations of the war engulfed 40 countries, with the number of deaths among civilians by far exceeding that of those killed in active combat.
Historians say that the war took firmer and firmer root right from World War I (1914 to 1918), which did not end with peace but merely with a truce through the Versailles Peace Accord of 1918. Victors Britain and France did not want to part with their acquisitions, while vanquished Germany sought to recover losses.
What occurred after World War I is that the number of dictatorial regimes began to multiply in Europe, igniting the flames of the eruption of a new war. Fascist Italy’s 1935 attack on Ethiopia, the fascist insurrection of General Francisco Franco in 1936 and the ensuing civil war in Spain constituted a prelude to the conflagration of the world war that was to follow.
Another important factor was the emergence of the USSR (now the Russian Federation, which assumed the rights and obligations of the Soviet Union after the political changes of 1991). In the eyes of politicians in the West then, this posed a real danger of the spread of socialist ideas which West European countries would never tolerate.
In Germany, in the wake of economic and political crises after World War I, power passed over to the Nazis - the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or National Socialist Workers Party of Germany - led by Adolf Hitler from 1933.
The Hitler regime was determined to establish its domination of the whole world by whatever means. The Nazis devised and knocked into shape not only a powerful modern army but also a fascist bloc the base of which was formed by Germany, Italy and Japan.
All out to counterbalance this bloc were Great Britain, France and the United States. In all that, at that moment the basic desire by Great Britain and France was to fend off the threat of the German aggression on their countries and, possibly, to direct it to the East.
September 1938 saw Britain, France, fascist Italy and Nazi Germany sign the infamous Munich Agreement, ostensibly to appease Germany. Under the pact; Czechoslovakia was forced to “voluntarily” cede part of its territory to Germany. But a year later, in March 1939, it was wholly occupied and ceased to exist as a state.
This was the beginning of it all, with Poland was next in Hitler’s plans. Protracted attempts by the Soviet Union to persuade Britain and France to conclude an agreement on mutual assistance in the event of an aggression were in vain.
Renowned Scottish historian Niall Campbell Ferguson writes in this regard: “When the Soviets propose a tripartite alliance of Britain, France and Russia in order to protect not only themselves but also their immediate neighbours from German aggression, they were refused...”
Seeing that it had been left alone in respect of the obvious danger of aggression in 1939, the USSR forced to sign a non-aggression pact with Germany. Known as the “Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact”, it had then foreign ministers Vyacheslav Molotov (USSR) and Joachim von Ribbentrop (Germany) as signatories.
Those now trying to “rewrite” history and claiming that it was this pact that pushed Hitler into war “forget” about the 1938 Munich Agreement In fact, it is this latter treaty that enabled the Soviet Union to hold back Hitler’s attack for almost two years.
So, 80 years ago yesterday, writing of the first stage of World War II began. Germany attacked Poland, and the capture of Poland turned into a war of global proportions - a world war.
Denmark fell in the path оf the German army in April 1940, with Norway following suit soon after. Germany then attacked France through The Netherlands, Be1gium and Luxembourg.
The Germans reached the English Channel on May 20, 1940, and the armies of Holland and Belgium capitulated. Meanwhile, Germany had seized Bulgaria by April 1, 1940 - and Greece and Yugoslavia a short five days later. With that, the whole of Western and Central Europe had literally fallen under Hitler’s rule.
From Europe, the war spread to other parts of the world. Italian and German troops launched an offensive in North Africa, the autumn 1941 plan being to begin the conquest of the Middle East and India.
The German attack on the Soviet Union began on June 22, 1941, upon which the second phase of the war began. To ensure the conquest of the Soviet Union, Germany and its allies deployed an invasion army of unprecedented magnitude.
However, the war against the Soviet Union did not go as Hitler and his generals had wished. The plan of a “lightning” capture of Moscow and Leningrad failed.
Come December 1941, the military situation in the Pacific deteriorated even further. Japan attacked the American naval base of Pearl Harbour - and the Americans shot back by declaring war against Italy, Japan and Germany.
Japan then seized part of China, French Indochina, Malaya, Burma, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Hong Kong. Great Britain, Holland and the United States all suffered great losses in the Java operations.
The battles that began in 1940 in North Africa saw the Anglo-American troops rout the Germans and Italians from Egypt, Ethiopia and the Maghreb in May 1943. Some 1.4 million African soldiers were recruited from colonies and protectorates to fight in the “alien” war in North Africa and Southeast Asia. Among them were about 100,000 from the then Tanganyika.
In fact, the fate of the whole world war was decided in the battle for Stalingrad on the Russian river Volga from July 1942 to February 1943 and in the grand tank battle in the fields near Kursk in the heart of Russia.
In the Battle of Stalingrad both sides deployed a total of more than 2.1 million soldiers, tens of thousands of guns and thousands of tanks and aircraft.
The Kursk tank battle of between July and August 1943 involved about 2 million people, 6,000 tanks and 4,000 aircraft, and it paved the way for the 1944-1945 great Red Army offensive.
On July 25, 1943 Italy pulled out of the war and the Italian fascist government was liquidated. The new government then declared war against Hitler, heralding the beginning of the crumbling of the fascist union.
In June 1944, the Red Army began operations meant to liberate Eastern European states. It became clear to everyone, and in particular to the German generals, that Germany had lost the war.
On June 6, 1944 the Second Front was opened - at last. A total of 156,000 soldiers from the US, Britain and Canada landed in Normandy on the west coast of France. It was one of the most active actions by the Western allies.
At the end of April 1945 the Red Army entered Berlin, the so-called den of the Nazi beast, and hoisted the Red Banner over the Reichstag (Germany’s Parliament Building). Joint action by countries constituting the anti-Hitler coalition had led to the defeat of the German troops and Germany’s final surrender.
The war in the Far East and in territories of Southeast Asia ended months later - on September 2, 1945, with the US having deployed nuclear weapons against Japan.
According to authoritative data, 26 million people were killed and 25 million were rendered homeless in the Soviet Union alone. The number of deaths elsewhere: Poland - over 6 million; Germany - 5.5 million; the British Empire - 4.19 million; the French Empire - 2.685 million; Japan - 2.5 million; and the US - over 1.4 million. Many other millions of people are said to have died in China, Indonesia and Indochina.
The world is today witnessing consistent efforts towards what is called “revision” of what occurred during World War II. It is done through newspaper articles, books, movies and radio and TV programmes.
It is clear that the primary intention is to belittle the political and moral authority of the countries that suffered the heaviest losses in the war. But ruins courtesy of the bombardments in Hitler-era Germany by the American military in the allied western forces well after Hitler had already succumbed are there for everybody to see and judge.
From the results and effects of World War II, humankind ought to have learned numerous lessons, one being that a Third World War should not be allowed, as there will surely be no winners.
Among the other lessons: totalitarian regimes with imperial ambitions should not find legroom, there should be collective global security because no country can guarantee its own security at the expense of other countries, and the deepening of mistrust between and among states should not be tolerated.
By Saidi Nguba
The Guardian
Tuesday, 3 September, 2019
