Stalin, however, observed the situation with an open mind. His primary concern was security of his frontier and he was prepared to make a pact with the highest bidder – whoever it was! The Allies clearly had an opportunity here to bring in the support of Stalin and stop Hitler in his tracks. Chamberlain, however, had a strong distaste for communism and the Soviet Union, and his approach proved somewhat half-hearted. Rather than flying in a high-powered negotiating team to meet Stalin, he instead sent a low-level delegation by slow steamship to Leningrad. The Anglo-French team eventually arrived by train in Moscow in mid-August. The British side was led by Admiral Sir Reginald Aylmer Ranfurly Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, whose main claim to fame was a handbook on solar heating. The Allied delegation had little to offer the Soviets, however, and Stalin was singularly unimpressed by their inability to negotiate any point without referring back to London and Paris. ‘Enough of these games!’ exclaimed the Soviet leader.
Germany, on the other hand, offered Stalin everything he wanted. Hitler despatched his Foreign Minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop, to Moscow and there he rapidly agreed the infamous Nazi-Soviet Pact. A vertical line was drawn on the map of Eastern Europe, which delineated the zones of control. Stalin would be allowed to take control of everything east of the line, which included the Baltic States. Poland would be partitioned between the two countries. The Soviet dictator was delighted. He had got the security he wanted as Sovietised Poland would act as a handy buffer zone between himself and Nazi Germany. In addition, he could now sit back and enjoy the spectre of the capitalist powers of Germany, Britain and France battling it out among themselves in a long, mutually destructive conflict.
The Allies were dumbstruck by the deal. They had been outmanoeuvred and could only watch in horror as the two ugly sisters set about the dismemberment of Poland.
5. BRITAIN AND FRANCE ENTER THE PHONEY WAR … AND AWAIT EVENTS
You may think that the Allies had a chance now to make an early assault on Germany’s western frontier while the majority of Hitler’s forces were in the east overrunning Poland. But not a bit of it. Instead the Allies did little and sat back. This became known as the Phoney War.
There were reasons for this. France, which had a huge army at its disposal, was locked into a defensive mode. As mentioned before, France hoped to avoid the suffering it had experienced in the First World War of 1914–18. It preferred to hunker down in the Maginot Line and await events. Britain, not unnaturally, followed France’s lead on military policy. Cynics might also point out that the laid-back approach was because both prime ministers, Neville Chamberlain for Britain and Edouard Daladier for France, had been the architects of appeasement. They were unlikely to be militarily proactive.
There was also a still lingering hope that Hitler could be persuaded to come to his senses and full-scale war could be avoided. In October and November Hitler even offered peace terms, but nothing came of them. The Allied leaders thought that perhaps economic blockade would lead Hitler to negotiate, but the months passed without result.
If the Allies weren’t prepared to launch a direct overland offensive then aerial attack was surely an alternative. However, there was a fear that if the bombers were unleashed complete and utter destruction of Europe’s cities would result in massive loss of life. To avoid this perceived horror Britain instead decided to drop 2 million propaganda leaflets over German cities … with little effect.
The problem with sitting back and waiting on events is that you tend to allow your enemy the initiative. Furthermore, the Maginot Line, alas, had one major problem: it was not complete. The final section along the border with Belgium had never been built and it was obvious to all that a German attack would pass this way. When this event occurred the Allied plan was to advance their armies into Belgium and dig in. However, when exactly the attack would come and where was unclear.
Nevertheless, the Allies were soon given an inkling of Hitler’s plans. One foggy morning in January 1940 a small German aircraft was forced to land in Michelen-sur-Meuse in Belgium. The plane contained a German staff officer who was carrying the complete plans for Operation Yellow – Hitler’s plan of attack in the West. The officer desperately tried to destroy them but was too late. The Allied commanders, though, thought the documents were a deception and didn’t alter their own plans. The Germans did, however, and delayed their offensive.
On 4 April 1940, as German forces massed for Hitler’s offensive in the West, Chamberlain made a speech in Central Hall, Westminster. He made a comment that he was soon to regret and would rank alongside his ‘Peace in Our Time’ statement. With reference to Hitler he said, ‘One thing is certain – he has certainly missed the bus.’
6. CAPTAIN HANS LANGSDORFF SCUTTLES HIS SHIP
If during the early stages of the war in Western Europe there was little happening on land, there was certainly some action at sea. By the end of 1939 Britain had already lost 422,000 tons of shipping, mostly due to mines and U-boat activity. In addition, Hitler had sent out his pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee to go commerce raiding in the Atlantic and Indian oceans.
The Graf Spee was commanded by Captain Hans Langsdorff. His successful spree of merchant ship sinkings was naturally attracting the attention of the British Royal Navy, who were intent on tracking him down. However, the German battleship was not to be trifled with. It had six fearsome 11-inch guns, which outclassed many of the ships in the Allied fleets. Eventually, three cruisers under the command of Commodore Harewood bravely confronted Langsdorff off the Uruguayan coast in what became known as the Battle of the River Plate.
On paper the British cruisers were hardly a match for the Graf Spee. The largest British cruiser in the squadron, HMS Exeter, only possessed 8-inch guns and the other two light cruisers, HMS Ajax and HMS Achilles, were even less well equipped. With its radar-assisted guns the German ship soon scored several punishing hits on the Exeter and Ajax. Although severely damaged with several members of their crews killed, both ships managed to continue in the fight. More importantly, the German ship was running short of ammunition and enough damage had been inflicted to force her to retreat into Montevideo for important repairs.
After having released his British prisoners and burying his dead Langsdorff had to decide what to do next. It would be some time before he could set sail again and he gleaned from BBC news reports that the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal and the battle cruiser HMS Renown were fast approaching. Little did he realise that this was a British exercise in disinformation and that these British ships were in fact nearly 3,000 miles away. However, rather than risk the lives of his crew by trying to break through the blockade and escape to Argentina, the captain decided there was only one thing to do in this situation and that was to scuttle his ship.
On 17 December 1939, just before dusk, Langsdorff sailed the Graf Spee out to the entrance of Montevideo harbour. Twenty-thousand spectators lined the shore and watched the spectacular explosions. Millions around the world also listened to them on the radio. It was a humiliation deeply felt by Langsdorff, who committed suicide three days later.
It marked the first important victory for the British at sea and had been achieved through a simple bluff. The British had, however, been amazed by the accuracy of the German ship’s guns and two years later managed to salvage the Graf Spee’s radar range finder, which was used for further research. Part of the Graf Spee can still be seen from Montevideo harbour to this day.
7. THE NORWEGIAN CAMPAIGN IS NOT SO GLORIOUS
As soon as war broke out in September 1939 Winston Churchill was appointed First Lord of the Admiralty. His fertile mind came up with a proposal that would further tighten the blockade the Allies were trying to impose on Germany. The idea was to land forces in Norway, which would then attack neutral Sweden and thereby cut off Germany’s vital iron ore supplies. By a quirk of fate, the Germans had also realised the strategic importance of Scandinavia and enemy forces arrived in Norway the day before the British ones!
The Royal
Navy was too late to stop the embarkation of numerous well-equipped German troops on 9 April, but was able to strike a surprise blow against the German fleet trapped in Narvik harbour in the north. As many as ten German destroyers, various merchant ships and a U-boat found their way to the bottom of the sea. Hitler would later come to rue these losses when contemplating the invasion of England.
The Allies now changed their plan and decided to support Norwegian resistance by landing their own forces in Trondheim and Narvik. Once ashore, however, Allied troops proved inadequate to the task. In general, they were poorly trained and unprepared for the mountainous and snowy conditions. The highly motivated and very well-prepared German forces pushed the Allied forces back. By 9 June the last Allied troops had been forced to re-embark and leave Norwegian shores. Such evacuations were soon to become an all too familiar sight. It was a humiliating departure.
Unfortunately, worse was to follow. The British aircraft carrier HMS Glorious had just been involved in successfully extricating British planes from Norway and was confidently sailing for home. Alas, the captain of the ship had failed to send out spotter planes and was unaware of the approach of the huge twin German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. The British ship was no match for these maritime heavyweights and within a short space of time the Glorious, together with her escort ships Acasta and Ardent, were sunk without trace. The story goes that the gallant captain of the Glorious stood on the deck as she went down, lit a cigarette, waved and bid the survivors ‘Goodbye and good luck!’
It could be said that the Norwegian campaign had turned into something of a fiasco. From the beginning it had been dogged by bad luck and thereafter it been accompanied by incompetence and poor planning. Worse still the Allied troops had been completely outclassed. The one glimmer of light had been the British naval success at the outset.
In retrospect, you may think that Churchill – who after all had cooked up the plan – would have been held directly responsible and compelled to leave office. However, instead Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was seen by many in the country as being directly responsible for Britain’s general lacklustre performance. Events had moved fast. Already on 10 May, under pressure from Parliament, Chamberlain had resigned and had been succeeded by Winston Churchill.
8. CHURCHILL WAS AN ECCENTRIC MAVERICK WHO MADE IT
Although Winston Churchill had a long and illustrious career, it was by no means inevitable that he would become prime minister. Born into an aristocratic family, he did start life with some advantages. He was highly ambitious and served in the army in India and Sudan but made his name in the Boer War where he was captured for a short while before making a daring escape. Off the back of this he entered politics as a Tory MP in 1900, but by 1905 he had switched horses and joined a radical reforming Liberal government where he rather surprisingly helped kick-start the welfare state.
The First World War was a time of mixed fortunes for Churchill. When war broke out in 1914 he held the position of First Lord of the Admiralty. However, his plan to knock Turkey out of the war finished in the Gallipoli debacle of 1915 and he was forced to resign. This left a cloud over him, which lingered in people’s memories.
By 1922 the Liberal Party was divided and in decline, and Churchill decided to once again change horses and return to the Tory fold. No other politician in history has changed parties twice and this led to charges that he lacked principle. Amazingly, he was almost immediately given the exalted position of Chancellor of the Exchequer in the next Conservative government (1924–29) but thereafter found himself excluded from office. The 1930s then turned into the ‘wilderness years’ for Churchill when he seemed out of tune with the times. However, his strident opposition to the policy of appeasement with Hitler meant that in 1939 he was once again in government as First Lord of the Admiralty.
In 1940 many Conservatives opposed his appointment as Prime Minister, but in the end he was the only man for the job. Those doubters would have had their worries confirmed if they had known about his eccentric lifestyle.
Churchill certainly enjoyed strong beverages during the day and especially with meals. He was also what one might describe as a night owl, preferring to work and socialise late into the night. In the mornings he often opted to stay in bed and work. Any visitors, including government ministers, would be expected to conduct important government business there. In later years his visitors would not have been alone in the room as Churchill had his special companions. These were Toby, the budgerigar, and his cat. The cat would often be found at the end of the bed or nestled beside him. Toby also had the run of the room, which was not so amusing. It is recorded that one morning the Chancellor of the Exchequer called in at Chequers to go over some budget papers. At the end of the meeting it was noted by Churchill’s private secretary that he had fourteen budgie droppings on his bald pate.
But for the outbreak of war in 1939 Churchill would have remained almost a footnote in history. Life is full of surprises!
9. BRITISH MILITARY WRITER INVENTS THE BLITZKRIEG FOR THE GERMANS
During the 1920s and 1930s various military theorists in Britain looked at why the First World War had been so costly in lives and how war in the future would be different. One writer by the name of Captain B. H. Liddell Hart became particularly influential, not just in Britain but also, more importantly, in Germany. Ironically, these ideas formed the basis of the German military theory of Blitzkrieg, which was to be used against Britain’s own forces in France and North Africa.
Liddell Hart’s thesis was that frontal attacks by infantry on enemy entrenched positions always resulted in heavy losses and was to be avoided at all costs. The next war should avoid this through the use of the tank, which could be employed to break through or get behind enemy positions. It would be a war of mobility where infantry and artillery would also be mechanized and be used in close support of the tanks. Warfare tactics could be flexible and it would be a war of quick manoeuvres designed to keep the enemy off balance.
Many top German generals who took part in the Second World War were inspired by Liddell Hart’s book The British Way in Warfare, which was translated and read avidly. The German general staff used his ideas to develop their own theory of warfare. Blitzkrieg involved the use of tanks, infantry, artillery and dive bombers against one focal point in the enemy line. Once a breakthrough had been achieved, the attacking forces could fan out and the enemy position would eventually collapse. It was a devastating new tactic that was soon to take Europe by storm.
Unfortunately, the British and French military leaders of the 1930s failed to adopt Liddell Hart’s central ideas. France’s generals were consumed with the idea of a defensive war and didn’t fully realise how effectively the tank could be deployed and how it could change the nature of modern warfare. Indeed, in France in 1940 both Allied armies tended to use tanks in penny packets unsupported by other units. Their impact was thus limited as they soon became isolated in enemy territory.
German commanders, however, soon became masters of the art. The war in Poland in 1939 gave them the opportunity to refine their tactics. In France, after the breakthrough at Sedan, General Erwin Rommel shocked the Allies with the speed of his advance to the coast. Later on, as the Desert Fox, Rommel confounded the British again with his skilful use of tank formations. In 1941–42 generals Heinz Guderian and Erich von Manstein showed their prowess with the technique by ensnaring huge Soviet armies in the vast expanses of Russia and the Ukraine. After 1943, though, the Germans were hoisted with their own petard as Russian commanders learned the trick and started to roll back the Nazi invader.
Ultimately, all the Allied countries, Britain, France and the Soviet Union, had been too slow to understand the changing nature of warfare. They paid a heavy price.
10. THE MAGINOT LINE DIDN’T DEFEND FRANCE
France had suffered horribly in the First World War. Around 1 ½ million Frenchmen had given their lives to defend France. In addition, France had been devastated economically
with around 7 million acres of land left ruined due to the trench war fought on its soil. The French authorities decided that rather than suffer a repeat performance, it would build a massive, heavily fortified structure along the border with Germany. It may not keep the Germans out for ever but it did give time for reinforcements to be called up.
The Maginot Line was named after Andre Maginot, the French Minister of War from 1928–32 and was mostly completed by 1939. In actual fact the line ran from Luxembourg all the way down along the Swiss border. At the time it was considered a state-of-the-art construction and designed to be impervious to attack. Interestingly, its name suggests a rather thin linear construction, but was in fact 12 to 16 miles in depth. It was composed of machine-gun outposts, blockhouses and bunkers as well as tank obstacles. It also had air conditioning and an underground railway line ran along its length. It was a monument to French military thinking at the time, which was one of static defence. It is difficult to imagine that France, having built the line, would now engage in any offensive action against Germany.
Despite the massive cost involved in building the line, its main purpose, however, was as a deterrent. The line did not go all the way up to the English Channel but in fact stopped at the Belgian frontier. The reason for this was that at the time of construction the Belgians had been an ally of France and so it would have been counter-productive to have built the line up to the coast. Despite the Belgians declaring neutrality in 1936, it was still obvious to all that any future attack from Germany could only come through Belgium. Any direct assault on the Maginot would only result in grievous losses for the attacker. In anticipation of any German offensive French military planners intended placing a large number of their forces along the Franco-Belgian frontier.
The Second World War in 100 Facts Page 2
