Keith D. Dickson - World War II For Dummies

World War II For Dummies

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Copyright 2020 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

Published simultaneously in Canada

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2019920278

ISBN 978-1-119-67553-2 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-119-67558-7 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-119-67557-0 (ebk)

1. Chapter 2
2. Chapter 3
3. Chapter 4
4. Chapter 5
5. Chapter 6
6. Chapter 7
7. Chapter 8
8. Chapter 13
9. Chapter 14
10. Chapter 15
11. Chapter 17
12. Chapter 18
13. Chapter 19
14. Chapter 20
15. Chapter 21
16. Chapter 22

The Second World War (19391945) was the most destructive event in history. It was total war covering the entire globe, and the nations that fought it employed every available resource, harnessing both technology and people to one purpose. The farmer and factory worker became just as important to the war effort as the soldier in the field. Aerial attack allowed cities and civilians to become legitimate targets of war. Because of its destructiveness and global scale, the human and material costs of the war were almost immeasurable. The war ended with the development of two new technologies that heavily influenced the course of the postwar world: atomic power and the ballistic missile.

Mass murder of noncombatants and prisoners of war occurred tens of thousands of defenseless Russians, Poles, and Chinese died at the hands of their enemies. A state-run genocide killed 12 million people, including 6 million Jews. The war also cost millions of lives, resulting from battle as well as non-battle deaths. The Soviet Union lost 28 million people; Germany, nearly 5 million people. Japan lost about 5 million people; China, about 10 million. Great Britain and the Commonwealth lost nearly a half million people. France and Italy both lost over 400,000 combat deaths. The United States, Czechoslovakia, and Yugoslavia each suffered 290,000 combat deaths. Poland, Hungary, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Philippines suffered significant military and civilian losses as well. The physical destruction of most of the continent of Europe and several Asian nations left an indelible mark.

Undoubtedly, the war has cast a long shadow over recent history. The way that nations form strategy, wage war, make peace, and negotiate treaties is still shaped by the memories and lessons of the Second World War. For better or worse, a new world emerged from the ashes of the old, and we live in the shadow of this most terrible and destructive war. The world has been sensitized to the dangers of ethnic hatred and its accompanying acts of organized killing. The ever changing nature of United StatesChinese relations has its roots in the conditions in China after the war. The creation of Israel by the world community was a direct result of the Jewish Holocaust. The need for collective defense in the form of alliances like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) became the primary guarantor of peace in Europe. The United Nations was created to correct the failure of the League of Nations to oversee international norms of behavior. Traditional enemies became partners against a greater threat, and the role of government expanded to meet the burden of greater defense requirements. Nations were willing to take action to guarantee their interests to prevent another catastrophe like World War II.

But the memories of World War II are rapidly fading. Those who lived during this momentous period in twentieth century history will no longer be among us to provide witness to the past. The national World War II monument and local memorials, along with such films as Saving Private Ryan, will preserve some understanding of the virtue and sacrifice of the soldiers and civilians who ensured the survival of freedom in the world. The preservation of freedom in World War II became the ultimate weapon in the victory over tyranny in the Cold War. The end of the Cold War itself may be considered the final act in the drama initiated in the Second World War. The people of the Allied nations, through great sacrifice, guaranteed that freedom would be preserved in the face of forces that threatened the existence of civilization. This protection is undoubtedly their greatest bequest to the modern world.