World War II: Book of Lists E-Book

Chris MARTIN

• Herausgeber: The History Press
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Everything you ever wanted to know about the Second World War, from the highest-rated fighter aces to the most inventive escape equipment used to break out of Colditz; from army pay by rank to the largest battleships; from the most stirring speeches to the biggest tactical errors; from the strangest regimental mottoes to the plays most performed by ENSA; and from the dates each country joined the war to the most unlikely spies. All the major events and dates in the war are covered in detail, but equal emphasis is placed on the human experience of combat. Often poignant and always revealing, World War II: the Book of Lists offers a unique insight into the deadliest conflict in human history.

Leseprobe

To my Dad, who knows more about this subject that I ever will.

Contents

Title

Dedication

Introduction

Book of Lists

Copyright

Book of Lists

The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events.

Sir Winston Churchill

The Second World War was the first truly modern conflict – a total war in which few were left untouched. It saw the deaths of between 50 and 70 million people worldwide, and remains the largest and most destructive conflict our planet has ever seen.

Unlike the First World War, which had been largely contained by brutal trench warfare in northern Europe, the Second World War was an intensely mobile affair which was played out over a vast area. From the jungles of Borneo to the icy wastes of the Russian steppes, advances in mechanisation, transport and communications allowed men to fight on land, sea and air, and in all weather conditions. In addition to the movement of military forces, long-range bombing raids and lightning-fast invasions brought death and destruction to peoples’ doorsteps, seeing a blurring of the lines between combatants and civilians that was unprecedented.

To give an idea of the huge scope of the war: in the six years between 1939 and 1945 ninety-two countries would become involved, to some degree or another, in the fighting. While a few of these did manage to remain untouched by the mayhem, many would end up engaging the bulk of their military and industrial might in a concerted effort to destroy their enemies.

This book does not aim to be a comprehensive history of those tumultuous years, instead it gathers together facts, figures, quotations and stories to create a snapshot of the life during the war. Here we have collected a selection of the key military events of those dramatic years, as well as the weapons and vehicles that were used in the field, and stories of exceptional valour among combatants on all sides. There are details of some of the incredible scientific and technological advances involved in the struggle for dominance: from complex code machines and life-saving medical procedures to sophisticated weapons and the dawn of the atomic age. You will also find some of the minutiae from the everyday lives of those involved: what was worn into battle, what was eaten at home and even the entertainment that provided a welcome distraction from the carnage.

Finally, if this book has one purpose, it is to once again draw attention to the debt of gratitude we all owe to the grit, resilience and courage of those who lived and died, both at home and abroad, to make our world a better, more peaceful place.

Squaring Up – The Allies and Axis Forces

The Second World War had two primary opposing forces – the Allies and the Axis:

• The Allies – Led by the ‘Big Three’ superpowers: the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, or the Soviet Union), the United States of America and Great Britain. Those countries which formed Great Britain’s empire entered the war with them as Crown colonies (for example, India), whereas other semi-independent members of the British Commonwealth, known as the Dominions, declared war on Germany separately (for example Australia, Canada and South Africa). The Allies were also aligned with France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece, Norway, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico and China.

• The Axis – Also know as the Axis Alliance, Axis nations or Axis countries, it consisted of Germany, Italy and Japan. The Axis was formed by two key treaties which united their military ambitions: the ‘Pact of Steel’ between Germany and Italy in 1939, and the ‘Tripartite Pact’ between Germany, Italy and Japan in 1940. The Axis was also aligned with Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Finland. During the course of the war the Axis powers created puppet or collaborating states in the countries they invaded (for example Vichy France) who also declared war on the Allies.

Across the course of the war the combatants fought in four major areas:

• A trio of regions in the West loosely grouped as the European Theatre, consisting of the Western Front (which covered Western Europe), the Eastern Front (which covered Eastern Europe and Russia) and the Mediterranean (which included North Africa). The European Theatre was an area of heavy fighting from 1 September 1939 through to 8 May 1945.

• In the East the conflict spread across most of the Pacific. The Pacific Theatre consisted of Asia, Japan and the Pacific islands. This area saw heavy conflict between 1942 and 1945 and spread across most of the Pacific, but excluded some key territories in the area such as Australia and the Dutch East Indies.

Declarations of War

The history books record that the war began with British opposition to the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany. In fact, this was just the touch paper for a global explosion of long-held territorial and ideological conflicts, which then spread uncontrollably across the world. In the ensuing chaos, even those nations who were not disposed to fight were drawn into the mayhem, either by their alliances, the need to defend themselves, or invasion. Here are the declarations by year:

1939

3 September

Great Britain declares war on Germany.

6 September

The Union of South Africa declares war on Germany.

10 September

Canada declares war on Germany.

1940

8 April

Norway declares war on Germany.

10 June

Italy declares war on Great Britain and France.

11 June

France declares war on Italy.

23 November

Belgium declares war on Italy.

1941

6 April

Italy declares war on Yugoslavia.

24 April

Bulgaria declares war on Greece, Hungary and Yugoslavia.

26 June

Finland declares war on the Soviet Union.

27 June

Hungary declares war on the Soviet Union.

7 December

Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Finland, Hungary and Romania.

Canada declares war on Finland, Hungary, Japan and Romania.

Panama declares war on Japan.

8 December

Great Britain declares war on Japan.

The United States declares war on Japan.

Japan declares war on the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the Union of South Africa.

The Union of South Africa declares war on Finland, Hungary, Japan and Romania.

Australia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Nicaragua declare war on Japan.

The Free French National Council declares war on Germany.

Manchukuo declares war on the United States.

9 December

China declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan.

Cuba and Guatemala declare war on Japan.

11 December

The United States declares war on Germany and Italy.

Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Nicaragua declare war on Germany.

Germany and Italy declare war on the United States.

The Netherlands declares war on Italy.

Poland declares war on Japan.

12 December

Romania declares war on the United States.

13 December

Great Britain, New Zealand and the Union of South Africa declare war on Bulgaria.

Honduras declares war on Germany and Italy.

Italy declares war on Cuba and Guatemala.

14 December

Croatia declares war on the United States.

16 December

Czechoslovakia declares war on all countries at war with the United States, Great Britain and the Soviet Union.

17 December

Albania declares war on the United States.

19 December

Nicaragua declares war on Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.

20 December

Belgium declares war on Japan.

24 December

Haiti declares war on Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.

1942

6 January

Australia declares war on Bulgaria.

11 January

Japan declares war on the Netherlands.

25 January

Thailand declares war on the United States and Great Britain.

22 March

Australia declares war on Thailand.

22 May

Mexico declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan.

5 June

The United States declares war on Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania.

22 August

Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy.

14 December

Ethiopia declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan.

1943

17 January

Iraq declares war on Germany, Italy and Japan.

7 April

Bolivia declares war on the Axis powers.

1 August

Burma declares war on Great Britain and the United States.

9 September

Iran declares war on Germany.

13 October

Italy declares war on Germany.

4 December

The Bolivian Cabinet declares war on the Axis powers.

1944

27 January

Liberia declares war on Germany and Japan.

27 March

Argentina declares war on Germany and Japan.

25 August

Romania declares war on Germany.

5 September

The Soviet Union declares war on Bulgaria.

7 September

Hungary declares war on Romania.

Romania declares war on Hungary.

21 September

San Marino declares war on Germany.

1945

20 January

Hungary declares war on Germany.

7 February

Paraguay declares war on Germany and Japan.

23 February

Turkey declares war on Germany and Japan.

24 February

Egypt declares war on Germany and Japan.

26 February

Syria declares war on Germany and Japan.

27 February

Lebanon declares war on Germany and Japan.

1 March

Iran declares war on Japan.

Saudi Arabia declares war on Japan.

3 March

Finland declares war on Germany.

7 March

Romania declares war on Japan.

11 April

Chile declares war on Japan.

6 June

Brazil declares war on Japan.

6 July

Norway announces that it declared war on Japan on 7 December 1941.

14 July

Italy declares war on Japan.

8 August

The Soviet Union declares war on Japan.

9 August

Mongolia declares war on Japan.

Feeding the Forces – Red Cross Food Parcels

By the end of the war, over 20 million food parcels had been sent to British prisoners of war by the Joint War Organisation of the British Red Cross and Order of St John of Jerusalem. The contents of these parcels were carefully chosen to supplement the food and personal supplies available to those incarcerated in prison camps, and were usually sent at the rate of one per man per week. They contained the following items:

• ¼lb packet of tea

• 1 tin of cocoa powder

• 1 bar of milk or plain chocolate

• 1 tinned pudding

• 1 tin of meat roll

• 1 tin of processed cheese

• 1 tin of condensed milk

• 1 tin of dried eggs

• 1 tin of sardines or herrings

• 1 tin of preserves

• 1 tin of margarine

• 1 tin of sugar

• 1 tin of vegetables

• 1 tin of biscuits

• 1 bar of soap

• 1 tin of 50 cigarettes or tobacco (sent separately)

Top Ten Flying Aces – Chocs Away

The ultimate measure of a wartime pilot’s courage and skill was the number of confirmed kills he could claim. The opportunity to engage the enemy, the performance of the aircraft he flew and the quality of his opposition were all contributing factors to his final total. In the age before computer-assisted flying, often it was just down to a pilot’s guts and expertise behind the joystick. Boosted by their massacre of the woefully unprepared and antiquated Soviet Air Force in 1941, it is perhaps not that surprising that Germany leads the pack by some considerable way when we tot up the scores:

Top Ten German Aces

Erich ‘Bubi’ Hartmann, Luftwaffe

352

Gerhard Barkhorn, Luftwaffe

301

Günther Rall, Luftwaffe

275

Otto Kittel, Luftwaffe

267

Walter ‘Nowi’ Nowotny, Luftwaffe

258

Wilhelm Batz, Luftwaffe

237

Erich Rudorffer, Luftwaffe

222

Heinz Bär, Luftwaffe

220

Hermann Graf, Luftwaffe

212

Heinrich Ehrler, Luftwaffe

208

Top Ten Soviet Aces

Ivan Kozhedub, Soviet Air Force

62

Aleksandr Ivanovich Pokryshkin, Soviet Air Force

59

Grigoriy Rechkalov, Soviet Air Force

58

Nikolay Gulayev, Soviet Air Force

57

Kirill Yevstigneyev, Soviet Air Force

53

Dmitriy Glinka, Soviet Air Force

50

Alexandru Şerbănescu, Romanian Air Force

47

Arseniy Vorozheikin, Soviet Air Force

46

Aleksandr Koldunov, Soviet Air Force

46

Nikolay Skomorohov, Soviet Air Force

46

Top Ten RAF Aces

Marmaduke ‘Pat’ Pattle, RAF (South Africa)

51+

James Edgar ‘Johnnie’ Johnson, RAF

38

Brendan Eamon Fergus ‘Paddy’ Finucane, RAF (Ireland)

32

Adolph ‘Sailor’ Malan, RAF (South Africa)

32

George F. Beurling, RAF (Canada)

31

William Vale, RAF

30+ (6 shared)

Robert Roland Stanford Tuck, RAF

29

Bob Braham, RAF

29

‘Ginger’ Lacey, RAF

28

Colin Falkland Gray, RAF (New Zealand)

27.5

Top Ten US Aces

Richard I. Bong, US Army Air Forces

40

Thomas B. McGuire, US Army Air Forces

38

David McCampbell, US Navy

34

Francis ‘Gabby’ Gabreski, US Army Air Forces

28

(+2.5 ground, +6.5 Korea)

Gregory ‘Pappy’ Boyington, US Marine Corps

28

(counting 6 with the AVG)

Robert S. Johnson, US Army Air Forces

27

Charles H. MacDonald, US Army Air Forces

27

George E. Preddy, Jnr, US Army Air Forces

26.83

(+5 ground)

Joseph J. Foss, US Marine Corps

26

John C. Meyer, US Army Air Forces

24

(+13 ground, +2 Korea)

Top Ten Japanese Aces

Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, Imperial Japanese Navy

87

Tetsuzo Iwamoto, Imperial Japanese Navy

80–7

Ryotaro Jobou, Imperial Japanese Army

76

Shoichi Sugita, Imperial Japanese Navy

70

Saburo Sakai, Imperial Japanese Navy

64+

Hiromichi Shinohara, Imperial Japanese Army

58

Takeo Okumura, Imperial Japanese Navy

54

Satoru Anabuki, Imperial Japanese Navy

51

Yasuhiko Kuroe, Imperial Japanese Army

51

Iyozo Hujita, Imperial Japanese Navy

39

Wartime Lingo – Quotations from General George S. Patton

Of all the larger-than-life characters found in the annals of the war, none looms larger than the controversial and outspoken figure of George S. Patton. Forthright in conversation and audacious in battle, Patton was a career soldier who became a legend in his own wartime. Patton’s frank demeanour was combined with pearl-handled pistols, riding breeches and outsized insignia, creating an image that made it clear he intended to lead his troops from the front all the way to Berlin.

As one United Press International (UPI) writer noted at the time: ‘This absolute faith in himself as a strategist and master of daring infected his entire army, men of the second American corps in Africa, and later the third army in France, believed they could not be defeated under his leadership.’ Below are just some of the quotes in which Patton summed up his hard-nosed attitude to warfare:

• ‘No one ever won a war by dying for his country … you win a war by making the other poor son of a bitch die for his.’

• ‘I’d rather have the German army ahead of me than the French army behind me.’

• ‘May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won’t.’

• ‘Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men.’

• ‘The test of success is not what you do when you’re on top. Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.’

• ‘Never in history has the navy landed an army at the planned time and place. But if you land us anywhere within 50 miles of Fedela and within 1 week of D-Day, I’ll go ahead and win.’

• ‘Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it.’

• ‘We can no more understand a Russian than a Chinese or a Japanese, and from what I have seen of them, I have no particular desire to understand them except to ascertain how much lead or iron it takes to kill them.’

• ‘Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way.’

• ‘Compared to war all other forms of human endeavour shrink to insignificance. God help me, I do love it so!’

Fleeing the Storm – Neutral States

Throughout the war, several states remained neutral during the conflict. A neutral power is a sovereign state that declares itself to be neutral towards those other countries in conflict; a move designed to avoid invasion or to conform with a wider policy of neutrality in all diplomatic affairs. The following countries were assigned as neutral from the outbreak of fighting in 1939 and the end of hostilities in 1945:

• Afghanistan

• Estonia

• Latvia

• Lithuania

• North Yemen

• Ireland (Eire)

• Portugal

• Spain

• Sweden

• Switzerland

• Vatican City

In many cases, such a declaration did not mean the country was demilitarised. On the contrary, many of the nations which declared themselves neutral during the war did increase their armed forces in case they were required to defend their borders. A precaution which was amply supported by the German invasions of Belgium, Norway and the Netherlands, all of whom had declared themselves neutral at the start of hostilities.

Actors Who Have Played Winston Churchill

Before he led the country to victory, Winston Churchill had already led an amazing life as an aristocrat, politician, journalist and soldier. The larger than life character of the man and his extraordinary deeds have meant that actors have queued up to play the great man on the big and small screens ever since. Here are just ten of them:

• Peter Sellars

The Man Who Never Was (1956)

• Richard Burton

Winston Church: The Valiant Years (TV, 1961)

• Simon Ward

Young Winston (1971)

• Robert Hardy

Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years (1981)

• Timothy West

Churchill and the Generals (1979)

• Donald Pleasance

Moi, General de Gaulle (1990)

• Bob Hoskins

World War II: When Lions Roared (TV, 1994)

• Albert Finney

The Gathering Storm (TV, 2002)

• Christian Slater

Churchill: The Hollywood Years (2004)

• Brendan Gleeson

Into the Storm (TV, 2009)

Special Units – Merrill’s Marauders

Led by Brigadier General Frank Merrill, Merrill’s Marauders was the unofficial name given the 5307th Composite Unit, a long-range Special Forces unit which fought behind enemy lines in the Burma Campaign. The unit became famous for its deep-penetration missions against the Japanese; always outnumbered by hostile enemy forces and often trekking huge distances through some of the toughest terrain known to man. Here are a few facts about the unit:

• The Marauders were organised as light infantry assault units, with mule transport for their 60mm mortars, bazookas, ammunition, communications gear and supplies.

• Designed to strike behind enemy lines where they were least expected, officers and men were trained to survive in the jungle and received instruction on scouting and patrolling, stream crossings, camouflage and the then innovative technique of supply by air-drop.

• Their training and the mental toughness it instilled paid off when, on 17 May 1944, after a gruelling 65-mile march over the 6,000ft Kumon mountain range fighting meagre rations and disease, approximately 1,300 Marauders successfully attacked an unsuspecting Japanese airfield at the Myitkyina.