THE CLARITY OF HINDSIGHT
World War Two Seen From the Distance of a Half Century
The Words and Deeds of the Era
by
CAP PARLIER
[Note: Bold lines are actual documents or words (actually essential excerpts for longer documents). Indented lines are key events that define the context.]
It is much easier to judge events with the clarity of the successor's hindsight. While this chronicle endeavors to do just that, a profound and expansive recognition and gratitude must go to those diplomats, leaders, heads of state, generals and admirals who gave their utmost effort for the cause of peace and freedom in the turbulence of general warfare. If there is one sliver of wisdom that might be the hallmark of what we learned, it must be the immortal words.
"In war, resolution;
in defeat, defiance;
in victory, magnanimity;
in peace, good-will."
Sir Winston L. S. Churchill, KG, MP
12.December.1905
I. Fuel for the Bonfire. [1918-1936]
The fighting stopped at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 1918. Guns truly went silent at 11:00; the last artillery shell was fired at 10:59:38 with a calculated time of flight of 22 seconds, so that it landed precisely at 11:00, then nothing. Some people might say the Second World War began when the First World War ended. The fuel that would become the roaring bonfire of the mid-century was accumulated in the repressive treaties design to punish, humiliate and hobble Germany. While World War One [a.k.a. the Great War, or the War to End All Wars] became a clarion call for pacifists and isolationists as well as the general public revulsion over the carnage of the battlefield, World War Two defined the most horrific, repugnant and vile brutality among human beings on a truly global scale in all of history. We can only hope and pray that we can look back a hundred years from now and say, World War Two was the worst war in the human chronology; and, there is no other.
The Versailles Treaty [one of five treaties ending WW1]
Washington Naval Arms Treaty
Munich Rebellion
US Congress rejects the Versailles Treaty & League of Nations
Mein Kampf
Josef Stalin becomes undisputed leader of the USSR
Invasion of Manchuria
Japanese delegation of League of Nations walks out.
Adolf Hitler becomes Chancellor of Germany
Fire at Reichstag
Night of the Long Knives
Nürnberg Laws
German national rearmament
II. The Road to War. [1936-1939]
Spanish Civil War
Germans march into the Rhineland
Berlin-Rome Axis treaty signed
war between China & Japan began
The Neutrality Act of 1937 [one of three]
Sinking of USS Panay
Rape of Nanking
Stalin's purges of the military
Germans enter Austria Hitler announces Anschluss
Münich Accord
Occupation of Sudetenland
Kristallnacht
Occupation of Czechoslovakia
Germany-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact.
III. The Phony War [1939-1940]
Italians landed in Albania
Germans invade Poland Soviets join in carving up Poland
Britain & France declare war on Germany
WSC returns to government as First Lord of Admiralty
Oslo Report
The Neutrality Act of 1939
bomb explodes in pub in Munich just after Hitler departed
Soviets invade Finland
Treaty of Moscow
IV. Britain Stands Alone. [1940-1941]
Germans invade Denmark & Norway
WSC becomes prime minister
Germans invade France
Operation Dynamo = rescue of BEF from Dunkerque
WSC 'blood, toil, tears and sweat' speech
UK/France Union Declaration
France capitulates
Operation Sealion
The Battle of Britain
WSC 'to so few' speech
FDR Hemispheric Defense speech
Germans begin bombing London
WSC 'Every Man to His Post'
The Blitz
Coventry raid and the conflict of ULTRA/Enigma
FDR '...the great arsenal of democracy..." speech
Lend-Lease Act
V. The Reluctant Partner [1941]
FDR signed a secret order forming the American Volunteer Group
Operation Barbarossa
Einsatzgruppen terror in Eastern Europe
Atlantic Charter issued after FDR & WSC met in Newfoundland
FDR orders to 'shoot on sight' any German raider 'rattlesnakes of the Atlantic'
Babi Yar
Hideki Tojo, becomes premier of Japan
Day of Infamy and effect of MAGIC/Purple
VI. The Allies Giveway [1942-1943]
Allies lose Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya, Philippines, Burma
Wannsee Conference = der Endlösung von die Judenfrage
FDR ordered MacArthur to leave the Philippines
Doolittle Raid
Battle of the Coral Sea
Reinhard Heydrich assassinated by Czech SOE agents
Battle of Midway
Tobruk
Battle of Stalingrad
FDR statement of North African Policy given by LtGen Eisenhower
VII. Turning to the Offensive [1943-1944]
Battle of Guadalcanal
Dieppe Raid
first mtg of Manhattan Project scientists in Chicago
El Alamein
Operation Torch = invasion of North Africa
Casablanca Conference
Interception of Admiral Yamamoto
Battle of the Atlantic; called Black May by the Germans
Operation Husky = invasion of Sicily
Mussolini deposed & arrested; Italy joins the Allies
Moscow Conference
VIII. Le Commencement de la Fin [1944-1945]
Tehran Conference
Operation Overlord
Breakout at St. Lo
Hitler assassination attempt nearly successful
encirclement of Falaise pocket
Paris Liberated
Operation Market Garden = the raid on Arnheim = the bridge too far.
Battle of Leyte Gulf
Battle of the Bulge
IX. Victory [1945]
Yalta Conference
Dresden raid
Battle of Iwo Jima
Crossing the Rhine at Remagen
Battle of Okinawa
FDR dies.
Overtures by the desperate
Hitler commits suicide
Germany surrenders
Manhattan Project Trinity event
WSC resignation; Conservatives defeated, Churchill no longer Prime Minister
Potsdam Agreement
Decision to use the atomic weapons
Hiroshima & Nagasaki
Japan Surrenders
X. The Aftermath [1945-1948]
War crimes trials of Germans & Japanese
joint declaration The Control of Atomic Energy
Truman Doctrine
Marshal Plan
National Security Act of 1947
Truman's Civil Right declaration
Berlin Airlift
McCarthy hearings
Korean conflict, Vietnam, Berlin wall, and other regional wars
XI. Observations & Conclusions
Hitler's fatal strategic blunders: 1.) failure to subdue Britain, 2.) invasion of USSR, and 3.) declaration of war on USA [he hoped & expected Japan to declare war on USSR to relieve pressure on German forces].
Japan's fatal strategic blunders: 1.) invasion of Indochina, 2.) failure to get the carriers and follow through on the attack at Pearl Harbor, and 3.) failure to use submarines for offensive interdiction.
This page was last modified:
18.March.2001
