A HISTORY OF WORLD WAR II
By JOHN L. SPRINGER
lAfiBED in a field gray uniform with the Iron
Cross on his chest, Adolf Hitler, chancellor of
many, mounted the rostrum of .the Reichstag
36 minutes, amid heiling and cheering, he ac
id little Poland of aggression against Germany.
It the same time bomb-laden German warplanes
earned toward Polish cities and massive German
iks stormed over the Polish border.
that way, on September 1. 1939, began World
ir II—the bloodiest, most terrifying war in all
tory. It was a war that before long would sear
e globe. It would kill millions and hopelessly
ipple millions more. It wouljl leave the wreckage
whole nations in its wake, and it would intro
weapons which, if used in future wars, might
til wipe out all civilization.
!ESS tnan 21 years before, the world had just
finished a “war to end war.” Then, in 1918, the
bined weight of Great Britain, France, the
filed States, Italy, Japan and many smaller pow
had crushed the German Kaiser’s armies and
a withered Reich.
low out of the ashes of that defeat a mightier
an force was on the march. The tremendous
that exploded against Poland that Septem
1 '1 was the realization of the dreams of one man, a
mer house painter and carpenter, a corporal who
pt when told of Germany’s surrender in World
it I. and who then built a core of tough-minded
Mies ground a program of national socialism
i world domination for the Fatherland,
file man was Adolf Hitler, organizer of the Na
nai Socialist German Workers’ Party and advo
e of a program which dazzled Germany’s mal
itented millions: Denunciation of the Versailles
My which settled World War I, state work for
• unemployed, nationalization of key industries,
♦secution of the Jews.
lAdolt Hitler marched into the chancellorship of
any on January 30, 1933. That date marked
iany’s first big step toward World War II. He
seen the Japanese invade [Manchuria in 1931.
ping the League of Nations which had been or
Jttt-d after the war to prevent just such aggres
I P He had watched admiringly the rise of Benito
usolmi, a Socialist turned Fascist who snatched
K i.?r in Ilaiy m 1922 and wh-> preached a return
^ in Stones of the Caesars' ancient, militaristic
e Now he had his own great mark to make.
i j tre Suited the Reichstag building in February
ne Nazis blamed their Communist enemies
cxi day Communism was outlawed—and with
gfc„e 01 sPeecH ar>d press and the right to
fee the Jli^er regime.
t v, • Ufnions were banned. Jews were boycotted,
L I' rom public positions, and began moving
concentration camps along with outspoken
1 a;,', ea °‘ other faiths and political opponents.
4 iferp enounced, and withdrew from, the arms
Th, c„ . Geneva and the League of Nations,
f tehee ,J'esident Hindenburg died and Hitler
h,e P°st—not as President, but as “der
* of the German people
ft bT? Nations plebiscite returned the coal
tler rLn, ^ermany in January, 1935. In March
,! suite tso ^ uced compulsory military service—
tdenine th/fi3** uf Versailles—and a year later,
i (sent hie e "rst sh°ch troops of his war machine,
Commnr.ie^'u16?13 marching into the Rhineland.
Khrer. i;nm ^,ad been a special hatred of der
Waich ho 6 °f- bitterest passages in the book
he outlined his program, “Mein Kampf,”
had been devoted to the Bolshevists of Moscow, just
as some of his fondest dreams had been, spent on the
rich grain lands of the Bolshevists’ Ukraine. The
Japanese, with eyes on the undeveloped riches of
Siberia, likewise thought it profitable to feed their
traditional feud with Russia. The two merged their
interests in 1936 in an anti-Comintern pact. Hitler
found it easy to persuade Mussolini—with whom he
was becoming increasingly friendly—to enter the
anti-Russian Axis.
By this time the world was beginning to wonder
where Nazidom was leading. Reports told of brutal
mistreatment of Jews and intellectuals. Professional
men with minds of their own were fleeing from the
country, sometimes a few steps ahead of the dreaded
secret police, the Gestapo. Children were being
taught to goosestep and to “heil Hitter” in a tone
that once had been reserved for God.
But, a rarity in a world struggling with economic
depression, there was no unemployment in Ger
many. Instead there were more and more guns,
tanks, planes—and soldiers—waiting to be used.
Hitler saw a use for them in Austria. His fol
lowers in Vienna had slain the Austrian chancellor
Dollfuss in July, 1934, but were prevented froyn
seizing power by an Italian show of arms at the
Brenner Pass. Now the Nazis were more powerful,
Mussolini could be manipulated, and the democra
cies had shown a willingness to shut their eyes to
any acts remotely resembling war. Italy’s II Duce
had shown how easy aggression was in 1935, when
he sent his troops into Ethiopia with virtual im
punity. Both Germany and Italy had poured rein
forcements to General Francisco Franco’s revolt
against the republican government in Spain. The
Japanese had invaded weak China in 1937 and now
were happily sweeping over the country. The
League of Nations, organized to prevent just such
I
operations, disapproved but did nothing concrete to
halt them. This was clearly a heyday of expansion.
" In March, 1938, to “protect” Germans from the
“Bolshevik terror” that he said had arisen in Aus
tria, Hitler sent his troops racing into Vienna.
But now there were signs that the other powers
were rousing. Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden—a
bitter foe of Hitler and Mussolini — had resigned
from the British cabinet in protest over Prime Min
ister Neville Chamberlain’s treatment of the dicta
tors. America’s President Franklin D. Roosevelt was
on record as urging peace-loving nations to “quar
antine” aggressors. Moscow spoke of collective
security against the Nazi-Fascist combine.
Nevertheless the Axis tried again. Large settle
ments of Germans in the Sudeten area of Czecho
slovakia began to demand autonomy in the Czecho
slovakian government and proportional representa
tion in the civil service and army. The German
press bloomed with stories of “atrocities" and
“chaos" in the neighboring republic.
The British fleet maneuvered in great strength in
the North Sea. France called up reserves. The little
Czech army mobilized.
Then Chamberlain asked for a meeting with Hit
ler to settle the problem peaceably. There was a
series of conferences, ending with one at Munich on
September 29, 1938, attended by Chamberlain, Hit
ler, Premier Edouard Daladier of France and M isso
lini.
The result was termed "appeasement.” Hitler got
the Sudetenland—his “last territorial demand in
Europe.” Chamberlain returned to London guaran
teeing “peace in our time.’ Russia—snubbed at the
conferences—retreated from collective security to a
foreign policy of her own devising
In the spring of 1939 Hitler established a "pro
tectorate’ over Bohemia and Moravia. Hungary an
TABLE OF CONTENTS
POLAND IS BLITZED . 4
THE PHONY WAR. 4
RUSSIA BRANCHES OUT . 4
SCANDINAVIA FEELS THE NAZI BOOT . . 4
THE LOW COUNTRIES GO DOWN. 5
BATTLE OF BELGIUM AND DUNKERQUE . 5
BATTLE OF FRANCE. 5
THE WORLD GETS JITTERY . 5
BATTLE OF BRITAIN . 6
THE BLITZ OF BRITAIN THAT FAILED. 6
THE BALKANS GET IN THE WAR. 6
HITLER FACES EAST . G
THE NAZIS ARE SNOWED UNDER . 7
THE UNITED STATES PREPARES. 7
“REMEMBER PEARL HARBOR” . 7
AMERICA’S FIRST, DARK WEEK. 8
JAPAN SURGES THROUGH THE PACIFIC 8
CORREGIDOR FALLS . 8
AMERICA BATTLES FOR TIME . 8
THE CORAL SEAS AND BEYOND. 8
THE U. S. HOME FRONT TOUGHENS UP . . . 9
HITLER’S U-BOATS STRIKE . 9
RUSSIA’S DESPERATION . 10
BRITAIN’S DESPERATION . 10
AMERICA’S DESPERATION . 10
THE PENDULUM BEGINS TO SWING. 10
THE AXIS STARTS TO RUN. 11
FULL TURNING OF THE TIDE. 11
“UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER" . 11
UP TO THE UNDER-BELLY OF EUROPE ... 14
ITALY DOWN, TWO TO GO. 14
THE REICH TASTES TERROR. 14
MacARTHUR MOVES UP NEW GUINEA 14
BLOOD RUNS AT BETIO, TARAWA. 15
UNDERGROUND AWAITS INVASION . 15
HITLER ADVANCES BACKWARDS . 15
THE NAVY EXPLODES TRUK 16
EISENHOWER WINDS UP FOR INVASION 16
BOMBERS BLAZE THE INVASION PATH 16
IKE SWEATS IT OUT. 17
THE INVASION OF NORMANDY . 17
ENTER THE “MULBERRIES” . 17
NAZIS TRY TIIE ROBOT BOMBS. 17
HITLER GETS BLITZED, BUT LIVES. 17
BATTLE OF FRANCE, II. 18
THE FIGHTING LADY MOVES AHEAD . 18
YANKS MOVE INTO THE MARIANAS. 18
COMEBACK IN BURMA. 18
MacARTHUR FULFILLS HIS PROMISE. 19
THE NAZIS STRIKE BACK . 19
HITLER’S SATELLITES FALL. 19
UP TO THE RHINE . 20
BATAAN IS AVENGED . 20
TO THE SHORES OF IWO JIMA. 20
THE LAST SQUEEZE BEGINS IN EUROPE 20
THE NAZIS’ GERMANY ENDS .< 21
THE BATTLE OF OKINAWA. 21
THE KAMIKAZE REACHES ITS PEAK 21
RUSSIA GETS READY TO HIT JAPAN. ... 22
CHINA COMES BACK 22
PRELUDE TO INVASION OF JAPAN. 22
ULTIMATUM FROM POTSDAM . 22
THE ATOM FALLS . 22
JAPAN GIVES UP. 23
—Copyright, 1945, The Associated Press