Joe Giorello - Great Battles for Boys: WWII Europe

Great Battles for Boys

Joe Giorello
with
Sibella Giorello

Dedicated to my sons Daniel and Nico. And every soldier missing in action.

The battle for freedom requires great sacrifices, because freedom isnt free.

As youll see from the battles in this book, sometimes people pay for freedom with their lives.

This book focuses on some of World War IIs most important battles. I hope youll also discover what warriors can teach us about courage and determination, especially when the odds are stacked against us.

Follow the links at the end of each chapter and discover even more good books about World War II, some Internet sites, and movies you can watch with your whole familyalthough you should remember most movies are not the literal truth. After reading this book, youll probably see the difference between fact and fiction.

I enjoy hearing from my readers. If you have questions or want to suggest another battle for a future book, contact me on my website, www.greatbattlesforboys.com, or at the Great Battles page on Facebook at facebook.com/greatbattles. And be sure to check out the other books in the Great Battles for Boys series.

Now lets begin our journey to the battlefields of World War II in Europe.

Joe Giorello

Adolf Hitler, 1937.

Wars and rumors of wars. That phrase dates all the way back to biblical times. Maybe youve heard the phrase yourself. But why has it lasted so long? Because wars dont just fall from the sky. Conflicts erupt from a sequence of events. Long before war begins, people are talking about troubling happeningsrumors of war.

The sequence of events leading up to World War II actually began with World War I. That war was called The Great War, not because it was good, but because so many people lost their lives. The total number of military and civilian casualties was about forty million men, women, and children. More than 300,000 of them were Americans soldiers.

You can read more about that war in Great Battles for Boys: World War I.

What you need to know is that World War I ended in 1918, but many of the problems created by that war didnt get solved. The war had almost wrecked Europe, not just killing tens of millions but destroying whole economies. The countries that won World War Iespecially Francewanted to punish the country that lost the war and created so many of the problemsGermany.

A peace agreement was signed ending World War I. It was called the Treaty of Versailles. France added some harsh rules to it. For instance, the treaty ordered Germany to pay a huge amount of money to the winning countries. Thats not unusual. Winners sometimes demand a losing country pay back the debts created by a wara process called reparations. But Germany was completely broke after World War I. The German people were literally starving and couldnt find jobs.

England and America asked France to lighten up. For one thing, how was Germany going to pay money to other countries when it couldnt take care of itself? England and the United States were also worried that the treatys terms might actually make things worse because the German people would resent the treaty and the winning countries, which could lead to the kind of bitterness that starts wars.

France wouldnt listen.

The Treaty of Versailles was ratified, or made official. Germany was forced to obey all the treatys demands.

Tragically, just as England and America predicted, the situation grew worse. The struggling German people felt even angrier at France and the other countries that won World War I.

As that fury and resentment spread across Germany, one powerful madman arose and used their anger to take charge of the country. This man would change not just Germany but the worldand change it for the worse.

His name was Adolf Hitler.

Massive German crowds gather to cheer Hitler, standing in the window, after being inaugurated as Germanys chancellor on January 30, 1933.

During World War I, Hitler served in the German Army and was awarded several medals for bravery. After the Great War, he rose through the German government, gathering political steam with former soldiers like himself who really hated the Treaty of Versailles. But not everyone liked Hitler. Some German politicians threw him in jail. But while he was in prison, Hitler grew even more popular by writing his autobiography, Mein Kampf (pronounced mine komph), which means my struggle.

In this book, Hitler told the German people they were superior, that they belonged to something called the Aryan race. Hitler said these Aryanspeople with blue eyes, light skin, and blond hairwere greater than any other people on earth. And because they were better, Germany had a historic destiny to rule the world. The problem, Hitler said, was that some other people, especially Jews, were holding Germany back from true greatness. If Germany got rid of all the non-Aryan people, Germany could become powerful again. No more hunger. No more looking for jobs. No more trouble.

Hitlers message filled a lot of German people with hope. They believed his ideas would change their lives for the better.

Children were taught at a young age to worship Hitler. Here, schoolchildren give the Nazi salute, 1934.

When Hitler got out of jail, he was even more popular. He was also learning to speak with passion and persuasion by watching the political speeches of Benito Mussolini, the dictator of Italy. As head of Italys Fascist party, Mussolini drew huge crowds wherever he went. Hitler and Mussolini agreed about many thingssuch as the government should be extremely powerful and rule over peoples lives. Soon these two men formed a political alliance, or partnership.

Meanwhile, Hitler and his party of Nazisor National Socialistswere winning more political offices. Hitler was creating military-type organizations within the government by backing people who agreed with his idea that Germany should rule the world and that the country needed to cleanse itself of all non-Aryan racesespecially Jewish people. Eventually, Hitler won control of the entire German government, giving the Nazis full power over the country.

Hitler continued to give speeches about this new Germany, an empire that would last for a thousand years. He called that empire the Third Reich.

To build that empire, Hitler wanted to take back the land that the Treaty of Versailles forced Germany to give upland given to other countries, such as Poland. And Poland turned out to be one of Hitlers first military targets.

His sneaky attack on that country would kill thousandsand launch what would become World War II.