History books generally denote September 1, 1939 as the start of World War Two but a whole lot happened in the decades before this, resulting in what we think of as WW2. This documentary provides a comprehensive view of the war and the events before the war.
Has Groper issued a statement blaming World War 2 on Harper yet?? I wonder if Waffen S.S. heiress Freeland will be holding a memorial ceremony for her Nazi grandfather?
I wouldn’t be surprised if he apologized to Germany and Japan for Canada’s role in it.
It must bring tears to PM Zoolander’s eyes thinking of the sexist impact of all those young Canadian men on France.
Hitler and Pierre are occupying a ring in hell.
I’ll let you speculate which one.
WW2 was inevitable after the National Socialists and the International Socialists signed the Molotov-Von Ribbentrop Treaty on August 23, 1939. Hitler had the threat of an attack by his arch enemy Josef Stalin removed for several years. They also agreed to split Poland between them, while Soviet Russia swallowed up the Baltic Republics.
About Seventy years later, the Brain Dead and Tone Deaf Obama led US State Department announced it was reneging on the US Defense agreement with Poland and the Czechs to install missile defense facilities in their countries. The date the smartest people in the Obama Administration picked to announce their betrayal of Eastern European Allies was September 17, 2009; exactly 70 years after the Soviet Union invaded Poland, dooming it to defeat by the Nazis and the Soviets.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molotov–Ribbentrop_Pact
Good points but a couple of corrections.
1. Hussein Ogabe al-Chicago wasn’t tone deaf. It was a purposeful decision to humiliate Poland in order to punish her for independent foreign policy and support for white man’s imperialism. Trump is selling Patriots to Poland and tightening military cooperation somewhat (but not enough).
2. In 39 Poland was doomed the moment she refused completely reasonable German demands and instead of military planing, planned on a miracle like in 1920 (which coincidentally was not a miracle but a result of carefully implemented tactics on Polish side and complete idiocy on russian side).
What were the completely reasonable German demands that Poland refused?
1. Danzig/Gdansk transferred to Germany. Danzig was a free city under League of Nations. The mandate for free city was to expire in 1940. The population of Danzig was 90% German. In 1940 the referendum was to be held on the future of Danzig, join Poland or join Germany. The result was a forgone a conclusion.
2. Agreement to an authobahn connecting Germany with Prussia, it would go though Polish territory (see map of Europe in 1939). In exchange Poland was offered a exclusive rail connection between Gdynia (Polish single most important international trade hub/harbour and naval base) with the rest or Poland. The only existing connection run through Gdansk.
3. Withdrawal from the suicide pact aka defense treaty with France and UK and mutual defense treaty with Germany.
I challenge anyone to explain how rejecting those demands was in Polish interest.
Accepting German demands was actually more dangerous to those that did so than refusing would have been. None of the countries that willingly joined the Reich were spared the wrath visited upon Germany.
Poland was invaded by two countries in the same month, a complex enterprise which had to be properly coordinated before the German/USSR non-aggression pact was signed.
Had Poland Joined a mutual defence treaty with Germany, instead of telling them to pound sand, would the Reich have been able to make a non-aggression pact with Stalin – absent the Eastern Poland buffer zone ?
Disagree on several accounts. First of all, accepting German demands was not more dangerous. Not by a long shot. Some numbers to consider, during WWII Poland lost 17% of pre-war population (more than half of them ethnic Poles), for comparison the figure for Soviets was 14% (hugely self-inflicted in multiple ways especially when we’re talking about non-russian casualties), for Germany 9% for Hungary (the highest suffering German ally) 5%. Finland, Romania about 2% each, Bulgaria less than .5%.
Do you know what country in Eastern Europe gained population every year between 39 and 45? Czechoslovakia. Tell me again how suicidal Polish bravery benefited Poland?
As for treatment after the war. Anything could happen, but Poland, a loyal ally from day one, was treated at least as bad if not worse than all the German satellites.
You say that Poland was invaded by two countries in the same month. In all likelihood this could have been avoided had Poland sided with Germany. The war with Soviets sooner or later was inevitable. Since 1920 Soviet leadership was open about denying Poland the right to exist (not that in that respect they were any different from previous tsarist governments but I digress). Any reasonable Polish leader would understand that and would thus do everything in his power to avoid a war on two fronts (coincidently Polish armed forces in 1920 and 30s were optimized for war on the eastern front, so some degree of sanity prevailed even among Sanacja fascists ruling Poland after their Coup d’état).
So the big question: was the war against Germany possible to avoid? In the short run very likely yes. In the long run possibly, but in the long run everything could change.* Hitler adored Pilsudzki. When Pilsudzki died Berlin was officially mourning for a weekend. After 1920 Hitler admired Polish military spirit (idiots hyperventilating now and talking about Polish cavalry charging tanks (which never happened) please feel free to fornicate yourself). During 1930s Polish German relationship was very positive. Scientists visited each other universities, artists travelled to thatres in other nations capital. Both Poland and Germnay hated communism and hated Soviets. Even in 1938 Hitler stated that the two nations he would like to have on the side of Germany were Poland and Yugoslavia. Poland was on Hitler’s good side. Yes really. That is why Polish decision to poke the madman in the eye (although by 1938 none knew how mad he was) was suicidal, absurd and completely bizarre. And he felt betrayed and within the next six years almost one out of every five Poles paid for it with their life. Tell me again how it was worth it? Tell me again how not doing everything to avoid the war with Germany wasn’t the only sane strategy?
*Why I refuse to talk about long run alternatives with any degree of certainty: recall for example that in October 1939 HMS Nelson was torpedoed by a U-boat. Three torpedoes hit her side and all failed to explode. On board was Sir Winton Churchill. Hope this story does not require further explanation. A lot of things could happen in the long run.
Czechoslovakia didn’t willingly join the Reich – it was literally taken over by the presence of alien military forces.
Without the cover of war, the holocaust may have taken a bit longer to bring about in Poland, but it would still have occurred if Poland had become a German protectorate by defence pact.
Poles suffered from living between rival malignant political ideologues/ideologies hell bent on changing the world. Their WW2 casualty figures reflect the disdain both Hitler and Stalin had for the Poles.
Yes Czechoslovakia did not join Germans, she was taken over without a shot and then Slovakia joined Germans. That in no way invalidates my thesis.
Holocaust would have happened in one form or another. Sure, but none could predict the magnitude of atrocity in 1939. What was certain in 1939 was that a war on two fronts would be an unmitigated disaster for Poland.
My point isn’t that Poland had great choices. My point is that Polish leadership have chosen the most disastrous course of action. They should have been doing everything to avoid war against Germany. And if the war progressed largely along the same lines it did, they should stay on the side of Germany until Germany was losing and then switch sides and offer token resistance the same way other German allies did in the end they all ended up with much smaller loses than Poland (same largely goes for their Jews).
And Polish leadership acted the way it did because they were entirely detached from reality (of course when reality hit they jumped into fastest cars they could grab and run for Romania). They amassed best troops at the border, did not even order them to dig in. Instead they were ordered to defeat Germans in the field and then march on Berlin (yes really). Utter complete delusional belief in Polish might born largely out of completely misinterpreting the results of war of 1920.
“They (Poland) should have been doing everything to avoid war against Germany.”
The only possible way that WW2 could have been avoided was through early military reaction to Nazi repudiation of the flawed, but legitimate, Versailles Treaty.
Appeasement (doing everything to avoid war) did nothing but bolster the ability of Germany to wage war.
This is clearly evidenced by the allowed Reich takeover of the Czech armaments industry, which provided them many of their then ‘heavy’ tanks effectively used in the Polish and French campaigns.
The same tank chassis were later modified by the Czechs to produce the Jgdpz 38(t), which was in use right up to the end of hostilities.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxF6penza6w
The only effective/eventual means of destroying the Reich was to stand and fight the war that began when the German army entered the Rhineland in 1936.
The question isn’t what could have been done by others in 1936 but what was the optimal policy for Polish leadership in late 38 early 39.
As for Czech tanks. 38t was not a “heavy” tank but a light tank roughly equivalent to Polish 7TP or russian T-26 and inferior to German Panzer III. And yes, the chassis was used to produce first Marder tank destroyers, Grille SPGs and other vehicles mainly scout and light AA and then got widened and adopted for Hetzer tank destroyers. Both Marder and Hetzer were effectively mobile anti-tank guns not assault guns like Stug III or proper TDs like JPanzer IV. After the war the chassis was later used by Swedes and Swiss for more armoured vehicles. So Czechs built a nice tank, so what?
1. The Second World War did not start in Europe, but in Asia.
2. Both Germany and the USSR attacked Poland. The Anglo-French declared war against one but not the other invader. (Invading Poland was wrong when the Germans did it but not when the Soviets did the same.)
3. England declared war against Finland — a democracy, but not against the USSR — a totalitarian entity.
4. War did not stop with the surrender of Japan. For example, the Pathet Lao was formed one day after the Japanese surrender. Observed President Nixon, “The Third World War (i.e. the Communists’ war for the Third World) began before the Second World War ended.”
5. At Nuremberg only German leaders were tried for war crimes. No Allied leader was put on trial. The Soviets belonged in the dock, not on the bench. (War crimes were wrong when the Axis did it but not when the Allies did it.)
6. Accused Class A war criminal Nobusuke Kishi was elected Prime Minister of Japan. His brother Eisaku Sato was also elected Prime Minister of Japan. His grandson Shinzo Abe is Prime Minister of Japan.
7. Chiang Kai-Shek’s son Chiang Wei-Kuo served as Lieutenant in the Wehrmacht.
You need to review your history. Britain did not declare war on Finland. Britain supplied arms to Finland and Britain and France almost went to war against Russia to support Finland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-British_plans_for_intervention_in_the_Winter_War
“Britain declared war on Finland, Hungary and Romania on 5 December 1941, following the signing of the Tri-partite Pact and Finland’s alliance with Germany.”
Scar – I stand corrected. I was thinking about earlier in the war, and was not aware of the later events.
8. Yasser Arafat’s uncle was the father of Arab nationalism, also a great friend of Himmler and Eichmnan. He helped recruiting Bosnians into SS and opposed trading Jewish children from Balkans for German POWs.
9. Poland was made to declare war on Japan. Japanese laughed, told Poles “we understand Allies made you do it, it is ok, we’re still friends”, Polish spies into Soviet Union kept traveling on diplomatic passports issued by Manchukuo. (a puppet Japanese state) until Soviets invaded Japanese held parts of Asia after German surrender.
10. Between 1939 and 1941, Hitler’s best friends, the Russians invaded six countries including Poland, Romania and Finland.
“2. Both Germany and the USSR attacked Poland. ”
Little known fact: not just Germany and Soviets bus also Slovakia invaded Poland in September 1939.
General George S. Patton said “We defeated the wrong enemy”. Oh, but he was an “anti-semite”.
Patton did not consider Germans the wrong enemy. But he wanted to rearm German POWs and use them against Soviets. Rightly he perceived Soviets to be the long term threat. Historically russians were about as anti semitic as Germans if not more. Pogrom is a russian word btw.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP1AejCL4DA7jYkZAELRhHQ
This is an excellent series about WWII. One episode a week about what happened that week, then special episodes about other aspects of the war. Right now they are covering September 1940.
You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of birth pains.
Wise words considering all the analysis of the whys and wherefores are meaningless. The ways of man incline toward evil for indeed we are a fallen creation.
The only thing that history teaches us, is that no one ever learns from history.
Human nature and history’s lessons dooms us to repeat them until all is revealed.
Leaving aside what happened in Asia, historians usually refer to September 3rd, the date in which UK and France joined the war as a start of WWII. first two days of September was just Poland vs Germany.
The Japs have a modern democracy. They are a first world nation. Nobody really likes them. They don’t have any immigration to speak of. They’ve done well for themselves.
The Germans have a modern democracy. They’re a first world nation. They are better liked than the Japs.
They’ve done well for themselves except for letting in a whole bunch of f**king Moslems. WTF?
But the winners of WWII seem to be fornicating themselves in the backhole by letting neo-Marxism gain a grip. Along with insane immigration and the elites disdain for manufacturing and loathing for resource development the west has lost.
Trump and maybe Boris are stop gaps at best.
That docu is wrong on all counts. Shabby research and false and shallow conclusions
my my my.
all the ‘cross-pollination’ going on during ww ii.
it was NOT all ‘cut and dried’, all ‘black hats vs white hats’:
-according to the World at War BBC series 1975, the highest enlistment in the wermacht outside of germany und austria was . . .
was . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Holland.
also feel free to explain the existence of the following:
-vichy fwance
-american nazi party
-rampant anti-semitism/racism/whateverism in US Army as they wandered over the continent
-is it true when jersey and gurnsey got occupied, the locals raced to nazi headquarters to rat out their joooooish neighbors?
-is it true doing so gave the rat a share of the spoils?