i started reading this mailing list about 6 months ago, and i've finally decided
to pipe up and actually say something! so be nice guys :-)
and i know its a long post, but i just love 20th century history! and if ive
made any blatant mistakes, i'm sorry ... most of this i've written from memory,
and its been about a year since i last tackled a good history book ...
I dont really want to get involved in the whole 'are Americans arrogant'
argument, but i would just like to point out a few facts about 20th century
history that we hollywood influenced westerners often seem to forget (me
included).
(btw, the Australian media / politicians seem to like to claim that Australia
'won' the 1st and 2nd world wars just as much as Americans / Hollywood does!
this year, being Australia's 100th as an independent nation, we've been drenched
with tv shows about the heroic defence of Paris by ANZACS during the German
summer offensive of 1918; and the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea in 1942 etc
etc etc) Not that such efforts weren't heroic / brave / decisive etc, because
they most definately were, but they were all part of a much bigger picture,
which is so easily (and sadly) forgotten ...
The first world war began really as a war between Austria-Hungary and Russia,
basically over who controlled the Balkans. due to the complicated mish mash of
alliances that existed, within a few days, Germany had joined the Austo-H's (not
that germany needed much encouragment - they wanted territory in the East quite
badly), and France activated its alliance with Russia. England declared its
neutrality, unless someone invaded the neutral countries of Holland and Belgium.
The germans wanted to get rid of France, quickly, and concentrate on the real
war (for them) in the east. this meant attacking France via Holland and Belgium,
and sweeping down on Paris. So, that resulted in England joining the French
(quite surprisingly, given the kings of england and germany were cousins (i
think) (ah, the good old days when monarchies actually meant something! :-) ),
and englands historical antipathy towards france. Three years of madnees ensued,
and by 1917, the Germans had basically won the war - the Russians were routed
and suing for peace, and the French and the English armies were sick of being
butchered. In fact, half the french army mutinied in late 1917, and had the
germans realised, they could have possibly been in Paris in a few days (that
would have made for an interesting alternate history!).
The balance of the war finally swung in favor of france etc. because the germans
failed to capitalise on the allied disasters of 1917, and instead waited till
1918 before launching an offensive (probably because of major food / ammunition
shortages during 1917) by which time the british and french were refreshed and
reorganised, the americans had begun to arrive, and some generals had actually
begun to experiment with tactics other than 'lets see what happens when 60,000
soldiers run across a muddy quagmire, straight at 500 machine gun nests!'
even so, the germans still very nearly broke through during the final weeks of
the war, and had it not been for the dire german domestic/social/political
conditions and chronic food, fuel and ammo shortages, they may have done so. The
war probably ended when it did, not because the german army was in military
trouble - they were on the offensive! but because the 'core was rotten' - 4
years of fighting had worn out the population and used up all their fuel
reserves and food rations and caused the collapse of the german manufacturing
industries. Had the US not belatedly become involved, Paris may have been lost
in late 1918, but i think the germans would still have been defeated, simply
because the country was on the verge of self destruction anyway. So if one
really wants to argue about what the US contribution was to WWI, (apart from
causing the British government huge headaches by not becoming involved earlier
:-) ) perhaps the most significant effect was the boost in anglo-french
confidence & they helped save one of the most beautiful cities in the world from
the ravages of modern war, probably saving many civilian lives in the process
(btw, i heard during a recent, excellent BBC TV docu. about wwI (which is where
i learnt most of the above stuff btw (and books by the great UK historians, AJP
Taylor and Eric Hobsbawm) that the first world war was the last _major_ war
where more soldiers died than civilians)
'WW2' seems to be a bit more complicated - mainly because it really was a whole
mess of conflicts that all coalesced into one big fight for control of most of
the world. In Asia, Japanese expansion and nationalism brought it into conflict
with China over control of oil in Manchuria in the 30's - culminating with the
destruction of Nanking in 1937. After (mostly) subduing China, Japans next move
was control of more vital resources (rubber, food, minerals etc) in SE Asia, a
move which upset the european powers (who couldnt really do anything about it)
and the US, greatly in the late 1930's, finally resulting in trade embargo's
etc. This was when japan made its BIG mistake, and decided that to ensure
domination of Asia, they needed to preemptively put the US Pacific fleet out of
action ... which they proceeded (almost) to do on Dec 7, 1941. i vaguely
remember reading a quote by one of Japans 'big men' about the ultimate stupidity
of this (was it Yamamoto?) but cant clearly remember what he said - im sure it
was quoted in 'Tora Tora Tora' though :-) Japan of course, had no hope
whatsoever of winning a war with the US in the Pacific - the vast differences in
size of their respective economies ensured that, and the US's grim determination
(albeit against an equally grimly determined opponent) to defend its patch of
the woods.
another separate war broke out in Europe in 1939, when Germany and Russia
jointly invaded Poland, and England and France finally decided to stop appeasing
Hitler and declared war on Germany. For several months, nothing happened (except
that the RAF tried to crush Hitler with devastating leaflet dropping raids on
Berlin) France very tentatively invaded Germany, and then retreated to the
Maginot (spelling?) Line as soon as shots were fired ... the french at this
stage even refused to mine the Rhine river, for fear of provoking Germany (its
amazing how paralysing the fear of another wwI was for england and france, even
when staring a monster in the face!) Finally the english (mainly W. Churchill's
idea apparently) had a plan - lets invade Norway and Sweden, cut off German
access to Swedish iron, and then, we'll occupy Leningrad to punish the Russians
for attacking a neutral country (ie Finland)! after several months of delays,
the British Expeditionary Force set off for Norway in early April, 1940. by an
_extraordinary_ twist of fate, Hitler had also chosen April 1940 as the time to
occupy Norway, to gain control of those same iron ore mines ... the two sides
met on the night of April 8, in the straights separating Denmark from Norway ...
(i can picture Spike Milligan or Monty Python doing a sketch for that meeting -
"im sorry old chap, we're invading Norway tonight!" "No! it iz ve who vill
invade Norway, Heil Hitler!!" etc etc ...) the BEF hastily retreated,
reorganised itself into a liberating army, landed their forces somewhere north
of Oslo (cant remember where), and began to attack the Germans, before
retreating in early May... Winston Churchill convinced parliament that Neville
Chamberlain was to blame for the whole disaster, and subsequently became
Englands next PM ... nice bit of irony - WC's second biggest wartime blunder
(after Gallipoli in 1915), becomes his path to greatness .... Churchill had many
faults, but he was opportunistic, and decisive - which is exactly what the
allies required at this time. The war in western Europe began in ernest ...
(only to end a few months later with an almost complete german victory - england
being a vital exception.)
the next major war of the period was what the Russians quite rightly call the
Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, undoubtedly the biggest, most catastrophic and
atrocious war in all of history. over 90% of all casualties, and 90% of all
property destroyed of all the wars of the 30's and 40's on any front, military,
and civilian alike, occured in Eastern Europe during those 4 years. its almost a
pointless exercise trying to quantify that kind of misery. Withoubt an ounce of
doubt, Russia absorbed the full brunt of almost the entire German war machine
during those years, and with virtually no assistance from outside (there were
some contributions of supplies from the UK and US during this time, but not of
what they most badly needed - experienced soldiers - these they gained via the
bitterest of means - massive military losses) they held off the germans, turned
the tide of the european theater of 'ww2' at Moscow in Dec 1941 / Jan. 1942,
and Stalingrad in '42/43 and finally crushed the german army at Kursk in late
1943. the scale of the conflict in Europe is unimaginable to me ... Russia
sustained a casualty rate in the defence of their homeland every day for four
years, that were only ever seen once in the west -the D-Day invasion (D-Day
could almost be called a minor skirmish in comparison) - and D-Day is thought of
as being a pretty big, pretty important battle by most of us westerners when we
think about ww2 ...
its a humbling thought ... and an interesting twist of irony i think, that the
country that sacrificed the most to preserve western european democracy, was
probably the Soviet Union ...
i guess the big lesson that one learns when you read about history is that no
nation really seems to have a 'grand plan' or philosophy ... and that any
countries can be guilty of political expediency in the face of tyranny... and
that often (but not always) countries only ever react to tyranny when directly
threatened ... ie the french and english sat and watched while germany began to
carve up eastern europe, but went on to become bastions of resistance against
nazi Germany ... the soviets were guilty of appeasment (heck, they allied with
the germans for a while!), until invaded, but they absorbed the invasion (its
hard to see how they failed to see it coming, but i suppose we can all be blind
in the face of the truth if we try hard enough) and they went on to sacrifice
almost everything (i'd be surprised if there was a single Russian family who
didnt lose close relatives - (even J Stalin lost his (only?) son in the war))
and save europe ... america watched japan tear apart china, and avoided conflict
until attacked, before throwing much of her entire economy into the effort ...
(interesting side note - if Germany didnt declare war on the US (as part of a
then secret Japan-German pact) after Pearl Harbour, would the US have declared
war on Germany anyway, or would the US policy of staying out of Europe
continued?) my guess is that the US would have eventually become involved, but
when i wonder?
ultimately of course, despite some shaky and downright dubious beginnings,
resistance to tyranny in europe and asia was successful, and thats the real
important thing ... and not who was more important at leading that resistance
...
--
Mark Salkeld Molecular Endocrinology Laboratory
Department of Physiology Adelaide University
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