PART-1 (BLITZKRIEG)
It is one of the extraordinary events of World War 2
"After the defeat of World War 1, Germany was humiliated with the Treaty of Versailles because they were blamed for the starting of war".Punishment to Germany with lots of sanctions.
Losing territories to the East and the West, In the west, they lost Rhineland so they won’t invade Belgium and France which was kind of a border.
# A new person emerges in power I.e Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party who promoted great Germany again.
# In the course Germany starts the seed of the war by taking over Rhineland with 30000 troops and Austria-Hungary.
# In September 1938 Chamberlin, The prime minister of England goes to sign a pact with Hitler so that Germany does not invade Czechoslovakia. March 1939 Germany invades Czechoslovakia.
# In August 1939 Hitler signed a non-aggression pact with Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union so that the Soviets don’t attack Germany when Germany invades Poland,
Reason was
Germany to not face threats on both fronts, The mistake that they did in World War 1. Russia takes "East Poland" and Germany takes "West Poland".
# On the 3rd of September 1939, Germany invades Poland, and Britain and France declared war on Germany it was the spark of the 2nd World War. BEF(British Expeditionary Force along with the French moved to Belgium for the frontier attack.
# France having a better army than the germans decided to play defensive because they wanted to avoid war and they had prepared huge defensive areas. Being less in number and in resources Hitler wanted a bold plan and a swift blow, so Prussian Aristocrat Erich Manstein devises a plan that is "Blitzkrieg", it's aerial bombing at the first stage, followed by artillery, tank division and at last infantry.
# On 9 April 1940, Germany decides to invade Norway and Denmark as it was the northern flank which was rich in resources like(iron-ore and other natural resources)
# Winston Churchill takes over the prime minister's office of Britain, and Germany invades France through Belgium and Holland. (Plan of the Germans was to take the channel ports and have access to the seas in France to tackle the combined allied force with the battle of Ardennes to encircle the British Expeditionary Force and the French at the coast. Ardennes was a thick forest so the BEF and the French never thought that the germans would be able to guide their tank divisions through the thick forest and that was their biggest mistake.
# Another great tactic in blitzkrieg was the use of steroids for the first time in battle by the soldiers. The drug was "Pervitin" produced by "Temper" which was a Berlin drug company. It was a drug to combat fatigue, it made the soldiers feel superhuman and motivated.
# So the plan of the germans worked and the BEF and the French got encircled around the coast of Dunkirk, now the only way out for the allied force was to cut through the Germans and head back to France or get evacuated through the coastal channel that was "Dunkirk".
# There was a division of the allied forces that fought in the Battle of Calae in which they sacrificed their lives so that 0.3 million soldiers could be rescued through the coast.
# The evacuation of Dunkirk is called the greatest naval evacuation in world history in which 3,40,000 soldiers were evacuated by the British Royal Navy and civilian ships. The airforce of the germans I.e Luftwaffe could not put havoc during the evacuation process because of the bad weather and the spitfires and the hurricanes pilots of the British that tackled the Luftwaffe. For a diving bomber, a moving ship is like a nib of a pencil in the vast ocean.
# Germans move into Paris and take over France without any resistance because the French didn’t want the germans to bomb their precious city which was full of old architectural jewels.
# "Blitzkrieg" was a brilliant success despite a weaker army, and logistics but the germans won it because of a superior mentality.
Part 2 (BATTLE OF BRITAIN)
# 10th July 1940, 60 German bombers attack the channel, Andrew Smitt part of the airforce intelligence team of Germany told "Goring" the "Chief of German Airforce" what he wanted to hear rather than providing real and accurate information. They were failing against the British royal airforce because they had an efficient Air Defence System.
# August 1940, was called the Eagle Day
It was the destruction of British Raf forces, the loss of the Luftwaffe was around 1:2 against the British RAF.
# Dowding System was the name of the Air Defence System developed by the British that could detect aircraft 120 miles away, along with the man observation posts around the coast(They used "pantocat" which was used to measure the distance and height of enemy fighter squadrons).
# Aerial bombing across Berlin and London intensifies.
# But Luftwaffe is defeated against the RAF so Hitler stops the British Invasion campaign.
Part-3 (Pearl Harbour)
Across the pacific to attack a country 10 times richer and more powerful than them.
Why did Japan attack the USA in world war 2?After World War 1, Japan defeated Russia for which they came on the world military stage.
Japan invaded china with the help of Britain.
Japanese citizenship was denied by the west.
Proving against Racial discrimination by the West.
# 1929 depression put shock waves in Japan, as major silk export contributed greatly to Japan's GDP.
# General Hiraki Tojo invades Manchuria for coal and iron because it was a small country with few natural resources.
# US was supporting the UK to sort of hold the war with Germany and send a warning to Japan to stop taking over some defeated lands.
The US sends a naval fleet to "Pearl Harbour" which would be a loaded gun against the Japanese.
# "TOJO, Mussolini and Hitler" joined a pact called the "Axis Powers".
# The US puts sanctions against the Japanese when Japan invaded Vietnam(French-occupied) 80% of Japan's oil came from the USA, so Japan puts its eye on Indonesia which had a lot of oil.
# Admiral Yamamoto was a navy general who was a brilliant commander. He was a gambler who was the mastermind of the pearl harbour attack. They had 6 aircraft carriers which could deck 450 planes to destroy "Pearl Harbour".
# On December 6, 1941, 1 day away from "Pearl Harbour", they are successful at crossing 300 miles from Japan without getting detected.
# Dec 7, 1941, was the attack day, they targeted the airfields first, then went for the battleships. In 2 hours American fleet in pearl harbour was destroyed,2403 Americans were killed because they were submerged.
# The US declares war on Japan and successively Germany declares war on the US.
PART-4 (BATTLE OF MIDWAY)
Admiral Nimitz takes over charge of the Navy.
Colonel Dolittle takes the charge of the bombing of japans capital Tokyo# Because they wanted to give a reply to the pearl harbour attack and for the first time bombers took flight from aircraft carriers. Normally bomber planes are heavy and are not suitable to lift off from aircraft carriers, so the strategy was to remove unwanted materials from the bomber planes, make them suitable to lift off from aircraft carriers and give a strict reply to the Japanese.
# Strategy of the Japanese attack of "Midway" was to take out the complete remaining U.S naval fleet which was "14 Aircraft Carriers" and break the very backbone of the US military strength.
# US intelligence played a trap for the Japanese. The intelligence cracked that the Japanese were planning to take out the Pacific American fleet at Midway. To have confirmation on it, the intelligence team played a bluff saying midway is “low on water” and then they encrypted through phone tapping that the Japanese talked over the phone that “The AF is low on water”, here (AF=Midway).
# On June 4, 1942, the entire Japanese aircraft carrier fleet was destroyed. Yamamoto the general of the Japanese naval fleet suicide due to shame.
PART-5 (SEIGE OF STALINGRAD)
"This operation is also called “Operation Barbarossa”. Communism stood against the ethos of “The Aryan Supremacy”, so Adolf Hitler decided to break the Non-Aggression Pact signed before the Invasion of Poland with Russia. In 1941 Germany invades Russia and the idea was to crush the Red army or the Russian Army".# Germany took many parts of Russia through Blitzkrieg I.e attacking the enemy first through aerial bombing, then through artillery, Tank divisions followed by efficient militia. To feed the German war machine, Germany needed oil and natural resources so they decided to take over the southern part of Russia which was rich in oil fields.
# So while going through the South, Hitler came across a junction named ’Stalingrad’. Hitler decided to take over ‘Stalingrad first for a few important reasons.
Stalingrad holds, Joseph Stalin's name "The Dictator of Russia".
It was a place where Joseph Stalin won the civil war.
It was a strategic point for the supply line due to the river and other factors.
# Stalin declared ‘Stalingrad’ as the ‘Last Land’ standing. Germans bombed Stalingrad fiercely and turned it into a rubble city. Due to this, the tank division was not able to move through the city, so the infantry was the only option to move in. Many of the women squadrons of “The Red Army” or the Russians were snipers and spread all over the city. As the city was in rubble due to aerial bombing it was an advantage for the snipers of both armies. Battle of Stalingrad was a very close quarter battle.
# Germans were able to take 90% of Stalingrad but then the tables turned, The Russian winter came and the germans were not equipped to battle in harsh winter. The tanks were not able to move, it was difficult for the German airforce to provide supplies so they were out of supplies. The temperature in Stalingrad around winter was - 30 degrees centigrade.
# In the winter the Russians played to their geography encircled the germans through tactical strategy and forced them to surrender.3 lakhs Nazis were captured in the encircling.
The encircling by the red army was done at night so that the germans did not receive any rehabilitation or help from reserve forces. The total death toll on both sides was 1.8 million I.e 18 lakh people only in the battle of Stalingrad. The most significant battle of the 2nd World War is lost by the Germans after the loss of "Battle of Britain".
PART-6 (D-DAY INVASION)
# Hitler orders the fortification of the complete Atlantic coast(Atlantic Wall). The greatest issue was getting tank, and armour divisions into the sea.
# Till now the scenario is, The Americans are taking a fight at "Midway" and the Germans faced the loss at the battle of Stalingrad in 1943.
# Strategy was
Take aerial photos of the German fortification around the ‘Atlantic Wall’.
Have different kinds of tanks(Mine removing, bared wiring removal tanks, flame thrower tanks, swimming tanks)
Oil pipeline in the sea to refuel.
Total Asset was
1200 warships,12000 aircraft,4000 landing craft# General Dwight D Eisenhower becomes the supreme commander of the allied invasion at D-Day (army, navy and airforce)
Required conditions were good weather so that the strategy runs efficiently.
The bombing of German supplied routes, radio stations, and oil storage. The objective was to cripple the German's ability to move in between their needs, Reinforcement and Logistics.
In Britain 2 million Allied troops,3000 Tanks, and 12000 Aircraft are primed for the biggest invasion in history.
The Speech given by Eisenhower before the invasion was
"You are about to embark on a great crusade, Towards which we have striven these many months, The eyes of the world are upon you, Your task will not be an easy one".
# The attack was planned on Calle but was shifted to Normandy to trap the Germans.
-The Air-force kept away the German reconnaissance aircraft so as not to allow them to take aerial photographs of the formations on the British coast.
-Sending para-troopers to take on key bridges to slow down reinforcements from the Germans.
Americans landed at the Utah and Omaha beaches securing the ‘Western Front.
British landed at the centre flank.
# At this time, Hitler was on drugs due to multiple losses. On the day of the invasion Hitler was sleeping and Rommel the man put in charge of the fortifications of ‘The Atlantic Wall’ was in Germany attending his wife’s anniversary.
# 1.6 lakhs troops landed on D-Day. After the successful D-Day invasion the foothold or territories on German-occupied France started loosening up.
The advantage of the germans was their panzer and tiger tanks which were equal to 3 American Sherman tanks. On 25 August 1944, Paris is liberated. 0.5 million casualties in Normandy with the allied forces.
PART -7 (BATTLE OF THE BULGE)
# On 16th December 1944, the Germans play an offensive with a barrage of artillery and the SS Panzer division. At this time an assassination attempt took place at “The Wolfs Lair”. The plot name is called “The Stauffenberg Plot” or “Operation Valkyrie”. Adolf Hitler at this time was becoming a maniac, he was taking cocaine, heroin and other drugs to get over his anxiety, stress and lack of ability to take efficient decisions. He was taking decisions which were delusional and impractical or you could say “Pie in the sky fantasy.”
Operation Valkyrie - On July 20, 1944, this event took place.
-The man behind the plot was Staffeberg who belonged to a good aristocratic family.
He believed removing Hitler will be the only way to save Germany.
They planned to kill Hitler, and the blame would go to the inner circle of evil within Hitler's group who were involved in the power struggle, make the arrest and use the reserve army to take over radio stations, and other key places to take over the government. After taking over the German government they would negotiate with the allied forces.
The plan failed because somehow Hitler's life is saved and the coup took on a U-turn.
You will see many streets in Germany named after “Stauffenberg”.
You could also watch a movie on this “Valkyrie” by Tom Cruise.PART-8 (LIBERATION OF BUCHENWALD)
# Buchenwald was a German concentration camp in terrible condition(Gas chambers, humans in skeletal conditions, bodies stinking), were mostly ( Russians, Gypsies, and Jews). This was because the Nazis believed themselves to be of “The Aryan Race”.
Why did Hitler hate the Jews?
# He believed Germany lost World War 1 due to the “Jew-Bolshevik” plot in Russia.
# Jews were the people who acted as a reason for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
# One of their girlfriends of Hitler was a jew who left him and went away.
# He believed Jews were at the topmost position and took away jobs and employment of German people.
# He believed Communism was trash and the Jews supported “Marxism” or “Communism”.
Hitler's propaganda of this hatred against Jews was bought by the germans because more jobs were created due to the removal of Jews from employment and there were many other factors too.# Process of annihilation of the Jews was through concentration camps. The mastermind behind this plan was “Heinrich Himmler”.The Jews were kept in “Ghettos” which were very small, people were packed inside the ghettos without proper ventilation or any factors that will make the place habitable.
"The policies of the “Nuremberg Racial Policy” 1935 were"No marriage between germans and Jews
Jews were not allowed in elections or to keep radios inside the home.
Boycott of Jewish goods.
Dismissal of Jewish from power positions.
Gas chambers were designed to kill 500-700 people in one blow(2.4 million people were killed in gas chambers). You could watch “The Schindlers List” by Steven Spielberg on Netflix.
Part-9 (HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI AND THE END OF WORLD WAR 2)
# After Germany is done invading, the US heads to the final blow to end World War 2 I.e Japan. As the Japanese naval fleet was destroyed, supply lines of oil and natural resources were being cut off by the US. Japan was on the verge of famine because it imported a lot of natural resources to feed its military and the population in general. Japan under this difficult situation and limited supply with its Airforce, Introduced “The Kamikaze Attack” in which they would use the attack fighter planes and act as suicide bombers to take on ships in which the pilot would die doing it.
# In the meanwhile, the US were working on a project named “The Manhattan Project” or the work of “The Atomic Bomb”, The Germans during the World War had already started working on this project in the territories of present-day “Ukraine”. On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered.
# On June 16, 1945, the first atomic bomb is tested. Roosevelt is dead at this point, so the Vice-President of the USA becomes The President I.e Truman. To avoid more deaths on the US side and more economical pressure, President Truman decides to use The Atomic Bomb.
# The First Bomb was “The Little Boy” dropped on Hiroshima on the 6th of August 1945. The consequences were Gamma radiation, 72000 people were killed in an instant blow, people were vaporised instantaneously and the shadow of people who were vaporised was engraved on the concrete of buildings. The 2nd bomb was dropped in “Nagasaki” with a bomb which was more powerful than the Hiroshima bombing called “The Fat Boy” on 9th August 1945.
# Japan surrenders on 2nd September 1945. The Allied forces signed “The Potsdam Declaration”.
The declaration demanded
# Full surrender of the Japanese Military.
# Occupation of Japan by the US for 6 years.The consequences of World War 2 were
50-80 million people died in total.
Human rights, and racial discrimination at the highest level.
Nuremberg Trials in which the connected Nazis were prosecuted and some were released free.
The partition of Germany into West and East Germany, the West going to the USA and the East going to the Soviets, and the centre to the British. You know about the breaking of The Berlin Wall in 1970. Now Germany is a democratic country after the “Disintegration of the Soviet Union” and the fall of “The Berlin Wall”.
2 nations become Superpowers I.e USA and the Soviet Union.
Many British occupied territories like India, Australia, and South Africa became independent and democratic due to the Civil War.
Lessons not learned
Humans will always be fighting with each other.
How smart and intelligent German people can become evil and look down on people.
Still, we see border disputes in the recent “Russia-Ukraine” conflict, the Chinese-Taiwan conflict, and the India-Pakistan conflict.
"History should never be forgotten because forgetting it will lead to the repeat of the same events at a greater amplitude".
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