75 Years Ago – A Day to Reckon That Changed the Course of Modern History

75 Years Ago – A Day to Reckon That Changed the Course of Modern History

 

Exactly 75 years ago to this day Hitler’s successor Karl Donitz unconditionally surrendered Germany to the Allied Forces ending World War II in Europe (The war continued in Asia in Japan which ended on 8 th August 1945 when USA dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan).

This is a long mail but World War II lasted for 6 years from 1939-1945 that killed nearly 50 million people globally nearly 40% of them civilians. It was one of the greatest and strategically fought war, the effects of which are still reverberating in the world today. The story cannot be told even in 5 volumes of 1,000 pages each but I have tried my best to condense to a story that is good to read and discuss with your children when at home instead of watching meaningless serials and cartoons in TV.

Historically Germany surrendered to the Allied led by the US Commander D. Eisenhower on 7th May 1945. However, Stalin of Russia objected to that citing reasons that the surrender was signed by Chief of Armed Forces rather than Hitler’s successor and secondly the surrender should have occurred in Russia’s presence. So a second surrender in Berlin occurred on 8th May 1945.

The Word War II fought between 1939 and 1945 was a disastrous event that devasted the whole world by unimaginable carnage and destruction. Nearly 50 million people were killed in that war. Beyond that human’s extreme hatred for fellow human beings was exhibited by the merciless and cold blooded mass killing of nearly 6 million Jews in gas chambers (called Holocaust) ordered by Adolf Hitler due his anti-Semitism against Jews and America’s action to drop two atomic bombs in Japan totally discarding innocents, civilians, women and children that reverberated for nearly 15 years post the bombing for Japan to slowly and painfully crawl back to life.

The war saw few formidable personalities of this world – Hitler the military genius of Germany who orchestrated the entire war, Churchill the formidable opponent to Hitler who was instrumental to stop Hitler conquering Europe by steadfast and determined strategies, Eisenhower the Allied Commander from the US and Stalin the Dictator of Russia along with Mussolini of Italy. The world may not see such formidable leaders again.

The World War II destroyed the economy and livelihood of millions of people across the world and the resulting suffering and agony was beyond comprehension and imagination of later generations. It was a war that would be best if forgotten from a historical perspective but from a future perspective that war must teach something to all – another world war in 21stcentury will be much more brutal and destructive to unimaginable proportions.

The whole of World War II is best described probably as a continuation of World War I as the conditions and agreements that ended the war were not considered as legitimate. Adolf Hitler rose to power leading the Nazi party to become the Chancellor of Germany in 1933.

Considered as one of the top military genius of any time, Hitler started planting his desire and greed to take the control of entire Europe and annihilate Jews due to his hardened anti-Semitism and his belief that Germans were of a superior race than anyone else.

The story of WWII is World War II is one of the greatest and strategically fought war, the effects of which are still reverberating in the world today.

Hitler, who orchestrated the Nazi Germany campaign and the nationalism movement of Germany through his powerful propaganda strategies, went ahead with unification of all German speaking people. He annexed Austria in 1938. Immediately after, he demanded the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia. To avoid his threat of occupation of Czechoslovakia otherwise, Britain, France and Italy met him at Munich and signed a Peace Treaty to hand over Sudetenland to Germany and with that there would be no more aggression. (without the presence of Czechoslovakia). Chamberlain, the Prime Minister of Great Britain returned with that paper proclaiming peace for future. Chamberlain failed to understand the true ambitions of Hitler despite warnings by Winston Churchill and went with the notion of peace.

Hitler invaded Poland on 31st August 1939. Thus the World War II started.

Hitler, within one year of the treaty, invaded Poland in 1939. Although, Poland had military defense alliances with Britain and France if it was attacked by Germany, Hitler was worried more about Russia as Poland was its neighbour. He signed a secret non-aggression pact with Russia that allowed both the countries to divide and share Poland once captured.

Although Britain and France declared war on Germany to honour the alliance agreement with Poland, Germany, using the lessons learned in the World War I, had a superior fighting force in both land and air and brilliant military tactics, then the other countries in Europe at that time.

Within 5 weeks of the invasion, Poland was defeated by Germany and Russia. Hitler continued his aggressiveness, invaded and occupied both Norway and Denmark to safeguard the supply routes of Swedish ore and to establish a Norwegian base to avoid British Naval blockade against Germany. By May 1940, Hitler launched a lightening war, captured and occupied Holland and Belgium.

At this time, due to mounting pressure, Chamberlain had to resign. Winston Churchill became the Prime Minister of Britain. Thus started the war between two greatest figures of twentieth century on war – Churchill and Hitler.

Mussolini, the dictator of Italy, entered the war in June 1940 joining the side of Germany.

France, devastated by the war, accepted defeat and signed an armistice with Germany in June 1940.

After signing a mutual alliance treat with Italy and Japan in September 1940, Hitler takes the war to North Africa extending his ambitions beyond Europe probably because USA still was standing neutral.

Hitler, changed his tactics and suddenly attacked Russia in June 1941 despite the treaty. Russia immediately signed a mutual assistance treaty with Britain and fought back. Nearly 20 million people got killed in this war of destruction.

Until this time, USA had stayed neutral but it changed when Japan which was fighting China in the Far East, attacked Pearl Harbour of the USA in December 1941. This incident turned the war from a European conflict in to a full pledged world war.

The war was ravaging the world from two fronts – Germany in Europe and North Africa and Japan in the Far East.

Britain and USA declared war on Japan in December 1941.

Things started to change for Germany and Hitler in 1943. His unstoppable march had started to turn.

In November 1942, Russia won its first victory against Germany in Stalingrad and in May 1943, Germany and Italy surrendered to Allies led by Americans in North Africa.

Mussolini was thrown out in Italy in September 1943. While the new government surrendered to the Allies., Germany made Mussolini a puppet head for Northern Italy.

In January 1944, Russia removed the siege of Leningrad and by June 1944, Allies freed Rome which was still under Germany.

The history was written on the D-Day when Allies launched a fierce attack on German forces in Western France at a place called Normandy (watch the first 20 min of the excellent movie Saving Peter Ryan which depicted wonderfully the horrible Normandy landing of the Allies and how human beings could kill each other mercilessly).

By July 1944, British forces evicted Japan from Burma.

A great moment in the Europe history occurred in August 1944 when France was liberated from Germans.

In April 1945, Mussolini was captured by Italian partisans and was executed.

On 30th April 1945, the German leader Adolf Hitler committed suicide in his bunker along with his mistress Eva Braun.

On 7th -8 th May 1945, Hitler’s successor offered an unconditional surrender to the Allied forces.

In July 1945, Winston Churchill, the formidable leader of Britain who stood against Hitler even under heavily challenging and distressing situations and one of the leading commander who brought victory for Allies, was defeated in the general election against Atlee.

The war although ended in Europe continued in Asia as Japan was still fighting the Allies in many Asian countries. However, the war came to an abrupt end when one of the world’s most frightening incident occurred in August 1945. This incident proved beyond doubt the extent to which a human could go to destroy an enemy without any conscience for civilians, innocents, women and children, despite possessing every trait of reasoning and compassion.

America dropped atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki of Japan on 6th and 9th August 1945 creating massive destruction of unimaginable proportions.

On 14th August 1945, Japan surrendered which ended the World War II.

All the carnage, ravage and destruction were because of a single man’s ambition, hatred of Jews and the belief that Germans are of superior race than anyone else, Adolf Hitler. The entire world paid a huge price for that.

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