The Battle for Britain

Hitler had presumed that Britain would surrender at the same time as France but when it became clear the British under Prime Minister Churchill were prepared to fight to the death, he drafted a plan to invade Britain, called operation sealion but he soon realized that this would not be possible while Britain controlled the air and the sea. Thus the Germans began the battle of Britain where their air force engaged in combat against the British planes to try to weaken them enough so they couldn't intervene in an invasion, but the British air force had the upper hand in these engagements due to their invention radar and their planes were suited to dogfights, they inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans while suffering light ones themselves. Hitler decided that an invasion of Britain wouldn't be possible so German airplanes began bombing major British cities at night (to avoid British airplanes) in the hope that the British people would lose moral and sign a peace. This became known as the Blitz and went on from October 1940 to May 1941. The British built many bomb shelters and organized air patrols at night time which although had a hard time locating German bombers at first became more effective as the war went on. 

German Planes

The War in the Medirerranean

When Italy joined the war in 1940 they launched massive attacks into Egypt and British Somali land to try to win the war in Africa as quickly as possible. They also began sieging the British island base at Malta. Mussolini jealous of Hitler’s success decided to attack Greece. Although the Italians made good progress at first the British also wanted to win the war quickly in Africa too, began fighting back. Somali land was reconquered by the British and they pushed into Ethiopia where the Italian armies surrendered quickly due to their low morale and out dated equipment. They also reversed the Italian gains in Egypt and soon started pushing into Libya.

Meanwhile in Greece the Italian armies were suffering numerous humiliating defeats against a foe they outnumbered and had superior equipment to. The British won several naval battles in the Mediterranean although none of them were big enough to give the British complete control of the sea. The island of Malta also held against Italian attacks.

In late March 1942 Yugoslavia joined the Axis but the regime was overthrown by a pro British one so Hitler invaded with the help of the Italy, Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary all of whom were members of the Axis by this stage. Then Germany sent troops to help the Italians defeat the Greeks. Crete almost held out with the assistance of the British but it fell to the Axis in May. These battles may have been won easily by the Axis, but Yugoslavia and Greece fought guerrilla wars against their occupiers for the rest of the war tying down many troops.

After that Germany sent a force to Libya led by Rommel. The Axis made rapid gains pushing deep into Egypt but the British buckled down and it became clear the war in Africa wouldn't be a quick success for either side.

British Tanks in North Africa

Germany Overruns the West

On the 10th of May 1940 Germany launched a invasion of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands in order to bypass the Maginot line fortifications the French had built along the French-German border. Although the allies outnumbered the Germans they were slow to take advantage of their air superiority and were taken by surprise when the Germans moved tanks through a forested area of Belgium which they had taught was impassible. Soon Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg were defeated and the French were being forced further back towards Paris. 

On the 23rd of May Britain decided that France was doomed and retreated to Dunkirk where they built a defensive line when the Germans halted their attack for a day due to uncertainty of the number and the strength of the remaining allied forces. The battle at Dunkirk was one of the most viscous battles of the war. The Germans knew that if they defeated the allied force they would destroy the British army and the British were desperately trying to save as many men as they could. The two sides fought many air battles as well. German aircraft losses during the battle of France were higher than those suffered during the battle of Britain. The British navy managed to evacuate the majority of their forces and some French troops with the help of private boats but the loss in prestige and equipment was horrific. 

Despite French attempts to hold the Germans up at the Somme and Aisne River they were defeated and Paris fell on the 14th of June. The French government fled to Tours and then Bordeaux. On the 10th of June Italy joined the war thinking that France was defeated and Britain would soon follow and eager to benefit from the peace deal however the French forces along the border managed to hold them off despite being outnumbered substained significantly less casualties. The newly appointed French premier Marshal Philippe Pétain surrendered on the 17th of June with fighting ending on the 24th. Pétain set up his new government at Vichy in southern France which he retained control over along with the French colonies while the Germans took the north to launch operations against Britain. The under secretary of war Charles de Gaulle fled to Britain where he appealed to Free France to keep fighting against the Germans. Pétain declared Charles an outlaw. 

The Early War

Germany was easily able to overrun the Polish. This gave them a chance to test their Blitzkrieg tactic where they would bomb an area then send in their tanks the Panzers to punch through any defenses and then send in their infantry to defeat any remaining resistance. France and Britain weren’t ready for a war so they were powerless to help. No proper military action took place for the rest of 1939 and the beginning of 1940 except a few naval battles between the British and Germans. Both sides began to look at the possibility of invading Scandinavia. Britain and France wanted to cut off the Germans from much need ore shipment from Sweden while Germany wanted to defend these shipments and to use Norway as a base for submarine attacks. The Germans struck first on the 2nd of April when they invaded Denmark and Norway. They easily over ran Denmark but the British sent an expeditionary force to Norway. The British and German naval forces clashed and although Germany was able to land the troops needed to defeat the Norwegians and British their fleet suffered such significant loses they couldn't launch another large naval operation for the rest of the war. 

In the east Stalin had launched his own war in an effort to take over Finland. The winter war was fought through the winter of 1939 and saw the Soviet forces humiliated by an enemy they drastically outnumbered. Lots of people across Europe volunteered to join the Finish army. Although they eventually were in a position to demand some territory they were lost so many men in doing so and their army’s reputation sank even further.

Norwegian Volunteer's in the Finish army.

Road to War

After World War I America followed a policy of isolation, this left France and Britain to be the peace keepers. At the start they got on well with Italy and jointly opposed Hitler's attempts to unite Germany and Austria into the one state. However Italy's plans of expansion contrasted with their ideas of keeping the status quo and Britain and France openly denounced after Italy's invasion of Abyssinia causing Italy to align themselves with Germany. This was the start and with the support of Italy, Germany was able to achieve its goal of Anschluss with Austria. Hitler next began asking for the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia. Although Britain and France tried to stop him at first the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain followed a policy of appeasement towards Hitler, France was to afraid to fight Germany on their own so they agreed that Hitler could have the Sudetenland if he promised not to take any more land. Hitler quickly broke this agreement and in March 1939 he invaded the rest of Czechoslovakia creating a puppet government in Slovakia and encouraging the Polish and Hungarians to take the land which they had historic ties to. Czechoslovakia quickly fell as all of their defenses had been in the Sudetland which they had been forced to give to Germany.

It became clear to Britain and France that Germany would keep trying to take more land so they began rearming. The USSR who had also tried to save Czechoslovakia was disgusted by Britain's and France's policy of appeasement. They became afraid that Britain and France would sell them out in the same way so they started pursuing better relations with Germany. Hitler agreed to the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact with them, which was a non aggression pact they secretly divided eastern Europe between them, on the 23rd of August 1939. In April 1939 Italy invaded the kingdom of Albania eager to gain a foothold in the Balkans. The Germans and Italians signed the pact of steel on the 22nd of May 1939 firmly entrenching their cooperation.

After the allies failed to act when Germany invaded Czechoslovakia, Hitler became convinced that they were to cowardly to fight a war so when he invaded Poland on the 1st of September 1939 he was surprised that France and Britain honored their guarantee. Italy choose not to join the war as they were not ready even though the Pact of Steel stated they were supposed to help Germany in times of war. The USSR invaded eastern Poland claiming they were protecting it from Germany. The 2nd World War had begun.

The Rise of Imperial Japan

 Since Japan had become an imperial power in the nineteenth century beginning their conquest of mainland Asia in 1910 when they invaded Korea off the Chinese in the First Sino-Japanese war. This defeat led to the collapse of the Qing dynasty in China and soon China became engulfed in civil war as war lords competed for power and different ideologies fought for control. Japan began taking more land from the various war lords in the north creating the Manchuria puppet state. On the 7th of July 1937 Japan launched a full scale invasion of China after a small incident at the Marco Polo Bridge quickly escalated. Japan was able to take the major cities and the war soon descended into a guerilla war. Mao Zedong led a force of Communist guerillas against the Japanese but they found it difficult to cooperate with the Nationalist Chinese.

The rest of the world was disgusted by the idea of Japanese expansion. America embargoed them depriving the Japanese army of much needed oil supplies. It became clear to the Japanese that they would have to expand in order to survive. After the USSR beat them in two short wars in 1938 and 1939 over some border disputes, Japan looked south to the resource rich British and Dutch colonies in the area. They also signed a non aggression pact with the USSR who were afraid of a German attack. Japan aspired to own all of Asia and completely expel all European influence.

The Reasons for the War

The Second World War broke out due to various issues. The first and foremost of these was the treaty of Versailles. The treaty was described by many as way to harsh, one French general commented that it wasn't a peace treaty but a twenty year armistice. Germany was made give up land to Denmark, Poland and France. They also had their army limited in size, were made accept that they had caused the war and were made pay 132 billion marks (the equivalent of £284 in today’s money). The other members of the Central powers received even worse peace deals. The Ottomans and Austro-Hungarian empires fell apart as a result of the war. However the Entente powers also weren't satisfied with the treaty. The USA wanted all countries to receive independence, Italy wanted to build their own empire in the Balkans and stormed out of the peace negotiations when it became apparent they weren't going to get the land they were promised, France wanted to cripple Germany so bad that they wouldn't be able to threaten France again while Britain wanted to keep the balance of power and were in favor of being lenient. 

The second major cause was political ideologies. In Russia Communism had taken hold and many people in other countries were intrigued by the idles and sought to bring the revolution to their lands. The upper class and the clergy were scared of Communism as it would strip them of their wealth. This led to the rise of Fascism which soon took hold in one shade or another in the Balkans, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany. Fascism and in particular German Fascism were very anti Communist. Hitler’s and his government thought communism was the source of all evil and sought to eradicate it from the earth.

Imperialism was the third major cause. Italy sought to build an empire like their ancestors the Romans had. Japan thought it was their right to conquer all of Asia. While Hitler thought that the German race was superior to others and that he should invade the USSR to give the German people the lebensraum they required. Germany also sought to require all the territory they had lost in the first war.