Second World War

Second World War Germany made the Second World War: a necessary condition was a nationalist German government ready, even eager, to use force to secure far‐reaching aims. Hitler came to power with the help of German conservatives who combined with the Nazis to resist socialists, in preference to working with socialists to block the Nazis. Until 1939, with British acquiescence, Hitler won success after peaceful success: restoring compulsory military service, creating an air force, remilitarizing the Rhineland, absorbing Austria, annexing the German‐inhabited areas of Czechoslovakia, and then, in March 1939, destroying Czechoslovakia altogether. Hitler's growing support in Germany, as foreign success went with full employment, steadily increased his freedom of action.

In Britain, however, appeasement became unpopular. On 31 March 1939 Neville Chamberlain pledged Britain to defend Poland, and tried, at last, to build a ‘peace front’. But the alliance attempted between Britain, France, and the USSR failed. Stalin thought it safer to make his own bargain with Hitler, took up appeasement, and agreed to help Hitler to destroy Poland. After an attempt to persuade Britain not to interfere, Germany attacked Poland. At dawn on 1 September 1939 began what became the Second World War. On 3 September Britain and France declared war on Germany. As expected, Poland did not last long against German attack and was partitioned with the USSR. Anglo‐French strategy was defensive, waiting to build up their armed strength. In May and June 1940 it went badly wrong. France, defeated by a German attack in May 1940, whose main weight was further south than anticipated, surrendered in June. Italy joined Germany, tempted by the prospect of participation in a prospective peace conference. The victory of the RAF in the Battle of Britain in 1940 blocked invasion, but in 1941 German submarines nearly defeated Britain; British code‐breaking came to the rescue in June.

In 1941 Hitler decided to attack the USSR before the defeat of Britain. His advisers expected success in 1941. It went wrong. Roosevelt, concerned to maintain a world balance of power, gave help to the USSR. Like Churchill he strove to keep the Red Army fighting. The Red Army wore down the German army while the Americans made tanks, aircraft, and ships; hence Hitler's defeat.

In the 20th cent. Japan maintained expanding population by trade, either by co‐operating in the international structures or by forceful seizure of raw materials, especially fuel. The Japanese, with the threat from the USSR met by the Germans, decided to seize essential resources. In December 1941, encouraged by Germany, Japan attacked the US Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor and invaded Malaya, Burma, and the Dutch East Indies. Hitler, conscious that the USA was already an opponent, and still hopeful of victory over the USSR, clarified the conflict by declaring war on the USA.

The British empire and the USA fought a world war. Both gave priority to defeating Hitler. The main effort against Japan came from the USA. The failure of the Chinese to defend territories from which Japan could be attacked reduced the British role in Burma from the expansion of the line of communications to China to the defence of India and the eventual reassertion of British power in Malaya and Singapore.

In Europe the American army hoped to concentrate all Anglo‐American resources in the United Kingdom to invade Europe at the earliest date possible. Churchill and the British thought Germany must first be weakened by campaigns in north Africa and Italy. Thus, British and US ground forces became fully engaged against the German army only after the landings in Normandy in June 1944. By September 1944 the allies had defeated Germany; Anglo‐American forces closed to the Rhine, the Red Army had taken Romania, territorial losses and bombing by overwhelming Anglo‐American attack ended German ability to sustain war for much longer. However, SS coercion and fear of the allies, especially the Soviets, enabled Hitler to delay the end until May 1945.

In the Pacific, Japan, too, continued the war long after defeat brought about by attacks by US submarines on transport ships and US bombing attacks on Japanese industry. Japanese authorities, led by the emperor, accepted defeat only after the use of two atomic bombs, developed in time in the USA.

In 1940 the United Kingdom, inspired by Churchill, continued to fight. The British preferred American domination to Hitler's. In 1945 the USA became, and has remained, the greatest power in the world, and, with the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, perhaps the only superpower.