Transcript The last great war

The last
great war
“Let us therefore brace ourselves to our
duties and so bear ourselves that, if the
British empire and the commonwealth last
for a thousand years, men will still say,
‘this was their finest hour’”
- Sir Winston Churchill
By Christopher LaMack
Red army propaganda
“when jewish blood flows from our
knives, then all will be well”
- line from the hos vessel lied
In order to support his Deuschen
Reich, Adolph Hitler believed
he would require a pure Aryan
population. Added to this
feeling is the fact that he
held Jews personally
responsible for the loss of the
First World War, and Germany’s
economic distress. Using these
as a pretence, Hitler sold
Germany into his shocking
“Final Solution”, which called
for the systematic execution of
minority groups, such as Jews,
Serbs, homosexuals, cripples,
the mentally disabled, and
others.
Around 14,000,000 people were
murdered.
The rising sun goes to
war
In 1937, the Japanese Empire launched a full- scale
invasion of China.
Since 1910, with the conquest of Korea, Japan has
proven that she is the dominant power in East
Asia. The combative armies of the Emperor have far
and away shown themselves to be sharp and capable.
But with European and U.S. Forces and interests in
the area, Japan is now pitted against the
mightiest empire in the world: the British Empire.
With English interest on Europe, Japan did
incredibly well in China. This is where the fate
of the world is sealed into war.
Japanese forces invade
Manchuria, paving the road to
China
The Blitzkrieg
Hitler and his staff, already in control of
Austria, the Rhineland, and the Sudetenland,
and after demands for the Polish Corridor are
not met, decided on a tactic which they would
pursue in the coming fight. The mechanical
advantages of the Wermacht allowed for a
Blitzkrieg, or lightning war, in which
Germany would mobilize faster than the
Western Allies could react.
This is the Blitzkrieg, courtesy of
WWII in HD.
September 1, 1939
Poland invaded
April 9, 1940
norway and denmark
invaded
May 10, 1940
Holland, France, and
Belgium invaded
May 15, 1940
holland surrenders
May 28, 1940
Belgium surrenders
June 10, 1940
norway surrenders
June 22, 1940
France surrenders
Hitler and staff in Paris
Farthest extent of German
domination in Europe, 1942
July, 1940
battle of Britain
begins
Aftermath of a luftwaffe
bombing in london
“bombsen!”
“Bombsen!”
“Bombsen Uber engeland!”
- bomben auf engeland, German march
By June of 1940, Britain was
the last world power
fighting Hitler. Plans for
her invasion were scheduled
for 1941; first, the
Luftwaffe had to soften
English resistance. They
bombed major English
cities, and as an added
measure dusted off a
practice from WWI: the use
of Untersee Boats to
torpedo supply lines to the
isles.
The Germans never succeeded
in occupying England.
Barbarossa
In June of 1941, Adolph Hitler broke his pact of
nonaggression with Josef Stalin by invading the
Soviet Union. However obvious the movement was
(Hitler despised communism), Stalin had refused to
see it coming. Codenamed “Operation Barbarossa”,
the assault began in the summertime, with the
understanding that it would be complete by the
harsh Russian winter. However, the fight on the
Eastern Front lasted throughout the year, for
almost three years.
Using encirclement tactics, the three German forces
easily pushed far into the nation, but fall rains
and stiffening resistance slowed them to a halt.
The north African
campaign
The attentions of both Germany and Italy were on North
Africa early in the war, largely due to the rich oil
supply in that region, which could fuel the Axis’ war
machine. Also, control of the Suez canal meant the
quick movement, or lack thereof, of supplies and
soldiers. One of the first targets of the Allies,
which after December 7, 1941, included the United
States, was, quite obviously, North Africa.
After early Italian defeats by the Greeks and Brits,
the Germans decided to take matters into their own
hands. Led by Reichsmarshal Erwin Rommel, the “desert
fox”, the German Afrika Korps was “a daring and
skillful opponent”, in the words of Sir Churchill.
However, at El Alamein, the German force was
skillfully bested by British General Bernard
Montgomery. Within Months, the Allies had invaded
Sicily, and had a foothold in Europe.
“We can wreck Berlin from end to end if the
USAAF will come in on it. It will cost us
between 400 and 500 aircraft. It will cost
Germany the war.”
- Sir Arthur Harris
The bombing of Germany was
treated as an offensive of
it’s own. It was a massive
campaign, unequalled in
destruction and not matched
until the Vietnam War. In
the Western Allies version
of the Blitzkrieg, the Army
Air Corps bombed by day,
and the RAF by night, to
amount to an unrelenting
assault of death from
above, from the British
Dambusters in ‘43 to
Dresden in ‘45.
D- day
For the entirety of the German occupation of France, the
Allies constantly devised plans for the invasion of Europe.
They figured that, whatever the assault, it would be costly.
Finally, the Western Allies decided on Operation Overlord. Led
by Supreme Commander Dwight Eisenhower, the attack would be
along Hitler’s Atlantic Wall, at Normandy.
It would consist of a clever deception for the Germans, then
the surprise landing of British, U.S., and Canadian troops
on designated shores. The defenders, mostly inexperienced
Germans with incomplete defences, were taken unawares. In
order to land the troops, the Allies needed a massive amount
of landing craft, and a means by which to get supplies from
the ships to the shore. They answered the latter problem
with “Mullberry Harbours.” Named for a British Soldier who
proposed the idea, the harbours were built quickly and
easily deployed.
After the Allies had a foothold in western Europe, they
proceeded to liberate France and begin their push to Berlin.
The landing