Military Strategy

We are close to finish this class and I will provide some information about the military strategy on land during world war two. This is mostly for people who might be interested in learning more about this subject but anyone can really pick a few pieces of information to write a short paragraph about military strategy on land. Most of the following come from my library which has hundreds of books about military history and military doctrine as it was taught at that time in military schools and academies. I will present a general overview of military strategy and show how it was developed and applied in practice. I will present the topic in such a way, so that people who are not familiar with military education, can still follow the topic and understand the challenges, dilemmas and solutions applied in the battlefield by military commanders.

Before I analyze the situation in world war two, I have to describe the situation and problems faced by army commanders during world war one. During world war one, commanders found themselves unable to stage successful attacks. The defense seemed to be able to inflict enormous casualties to soldiers trying to attack it. Now traditionally, the defense had an inherent advantage over the offense. Soldiers in defensive positions are placing themselves behind cover and aim towards soldiers who have to approach exposed towards the defensive positions. If all else are equal, the soldiers on defense will win. The problem of course is that although defense has the tactical advantage in the battlefield, it can’t win the war, so strategically

speaking (meaning in broader terms), it does not lead to victory. You can’t win a war by simply staying and waiting for the enemy to attack. At some point you have to attack. But how you are going to do it in the battlefield where defense has an inherent advantage?

The answer is by achieving

numerical superiority

at the point of the attack. If for every soldier in the defense, you are able to send multiple soldiers attacking him, the defense will be overwhelmed at the end and you will break through the enemy’s lines. It is important to understand that the above solution does not require that you need to have a bigger overall army than your opponent in the defense. There were many armies through out history which defeated much larger ones. But still they accomplished this by concentrating superior forces against a small part of enemy’s forces attacking and defeating the enemy at a certain place, while the rest of the forces were simply holding out passively against the rest of the enemy’s forces.

The same answer was tried during world war one, but at that time the defense had an additional advantage which changed dramatically things. That was the mass production of machine guns. These were weapons which fired very rapidly, some about 500 bullets per minute. They were relative light so a single person could carry them, however you had to set them on the ground before starting firing (they were very powerful and you needed to have a stable support), and of course you needed

to have thousands of bullets (which is a LOT of weight), nearby to feed them. Both of these characteristics made them suitable for defense but not so for using them in the offense. As a result, now a single soldier in the defense armed with a machine gun, could have more firepower than dozens of enemy soldiers trying to attack him using conventional rifles.

The army commanders tried to negate this additional advantage of machine guns employed in defensive positions, by using heavy artillery to support the offensive. It was not successful. This artillery was simply very big guns firing a very big “bullet” called shell much farther away than any available machine gun could fire at. This shell had a very high destructive explosive power and it could kill the enemy even if it landed 50 feet away from his combat position. The disadvantage of those guns was that they were quite inaccurate. So in order to ensure the destruction of the enemy, you had to fire many shells towards his position. At the same time you had to stop bombardment when your fellow soldiers in the offense were coming close to enemy positions because the high inaccuracy of the guns put them in danger too, especially since they were marching in the open exposed. So the last 200- 500 yards were carried out by soldiers without artillery support.

The defense was quick to build fortifications dag deep inside the ground to protect machine guns and soldiers from the effects of a bombardment. When the enemy artillery stopped bombarding defensive positions, in order to let enemy infantry approach and attack, the machine guns came out, set up in combat positions and in a few seconds decimated the attacking soldiers. The only way to defeat those

machine weapons was by destroying them when they were inside those

fortifications. This however required a direct hit by heavy guns, a nearby miss was not enough to destroy them. In addition, since these heavy guns were very

inaccurate, in order to ensure direct hits to multiple fortifications protecting machine guns, you had to fire even more high numbers of shells. It was not uncommon in world war one to see artillery bombardment lasting for days before the start of the infantry attack.

However, the above actions gave plenty of warning to the side on the defense. They knew the intentions of the enemy and the place he will try to attack. As a result they had time to transfer more forces to the suspected territory, replace casualties in the front lines and prepare additional defensive lines behind the area which was bombarded. So when the enemy finally started to attack, he simply found himself overpowered by strong forces. He could not establish the much needed numerical superiority discussed earlier and as a result most attacks ended up with heavy casualties without achieving any breakthrough.

The introduction of the tank changed things in favor of the offense. Tanks were simply cars protected by thick armor which could not be penetrated by machinegun bullets. They also carried their own machine gun and sometimes a small gun to fire

while they were attacking. During the first world war they suffered from mechanical problems. It was not uncommon to see all of them immobilized after a few hundred yards of driving, but by the start of world war two they were much more reliable. Now for the first time the attacker had a tool to fight the machineguns in the

defensive positions. The tanks could literally advance towards machineguns without fear , using their armament to destroy them or even crash them under their wheels In this way they were able to support the attacking infantry coming behind . In a way tanks were like a mobile iron shield protecting the more vulnerable soldiers following it.

Both sides in world war two recognized the important role of tanks but they applied a total different ways of using them in their military doctrine which had devastating results in the early years of the war for the western democracies. The allies thought that the tank should be used to support the infantry. Based on this belief they gave to each infantry unit a few tanks to support soldiers in the offensive. You have to understand that tanks as “wonder weapons” of their day were relative few. The bulk of the army was still composed by infantry units using soldiers marching on feet. On the other hand the Germans adopted a totally opposite perspective. They

believed that infantry should support tanks. Instead of having tanks marching at the pace of the infantry soldier, they wanted the soldier to march on wheels to keep the pace with the fast movement of tanks. As a result, instead of spreading their tank inventory through out the numerous infantry units, they concentrating their whole tank force to a few new types of units called “Panzer divisions”. A Panzer division was basically a tank unit which besides a large number of tanks, it included also soldiers moving on trucks or other motor vehicles. These new types of army units were relative few. The bulk of the German army, like every army, was composed mainly by the traditional type of infantry units manned by foot soldiers. However it was these new “Panzer” units which brought decisive victories during the first years of the war.

They were many reasons why they were so effective. First they moved much faster than any other unit. This means that the German leaders had the ability to choose a place to attack and concentrate very fast their stronger Panzer units against it. This helped them accomplish numerical superiority which as we said before it was critical for the success of the attack in the battlefield.

Second, because of the big number of tanks concentrated in few units, and their ability to defeat the enemy machineguns, the Germans did not need to rely much on lengthy artillery (gun) bombardments which alerted the enemy and as we saw gave them the opportunity to react and reinforce the defense in the threatened sector.

Third, although Germans had overall less tanks than French and British, they still had the numerical advantage in the area thy chose to attack because the allies had spread their tanks across the whole front occupied by their armies.

Fourth, the Germans had trained their lower level officers to be energetic and often take action without waiting orders from higher officers. Although the last were more experienced and commanded more troops which gave them the ability to

orchestrate stronger attacks, they were also restricted by their position which was deep back and far from the main battle in order to be relative safe and exploit the communication links of the rear zone to communicate with all the units in the front. This position, far away from the main battle, slowed their actions..

The high rank commanders, needed information to arrive at their headquarters to get the picture of the battlefield (which took time to travel through the whole range of military hierarchy) and then after making the decision they had to send orders back to reach the front units passing in the meantime from the same various intermediate echelons and officers. Each one of those officers had to use the order of the higher unit to develop a more detailed one to send farther down to the next unit up to the point where the soldier in the front would eventually get the order from his immediate supervisor describing in detail the path and individual tactics used to attack the enemy. Of course as I said, all these took a lot of time.

The Germans believed that a fast and somewhat weaker attack today, executed by a lower rank officer was more effective than a stronger attack executed tomorrow using orders and bigger forces from higher command. OF course this demanded superb training of low rank officers and willingness of high rank officers to delegate responsibility and trust their subordinates. In some cases some high rank German officers were even willing to go in the battlefield and risk their life acting as low rank officers, giving orders directly to front line troops in the relative small area of the main attack, and leave the rest of the army at the hand of their aids in the

headquarters of the rear. This type of risky and opportunistic attitude was radical and unheard just a few years ago in all armies of the world including the German one.

All of the above resulted in having the German army command produce and execute orders much faster than the Allies. In a way it was like seeing two sides play chess where for each movement by the Allies the Germans were able to play two . Under those conditions the Germans were able to grab the initiative,

maneuver their units, establish local numerical superiority at selected places of the front, and then attack and defeat allied army units in those places in a very short time before the allied command could react . Then when this local victory created gaps in allied frontlines, the Germans released the “Panzer divisions” which drove fast and deep towards the rear of their enemies. During their movement, they captured enemy high rank officers and their headquarters, so allied units in the

front could not get orders by their superiors. They destroyed communication lines (telephone cables, telegraph, radio stations) in the interior zone which were used to transfer orders and reports creating confusion and paralysis. They destroyed the big guns placed deep inside. Although these guns were very effective when there was time and friendly personnel to guide and correct their fire, bombing an enemy far away who could not answer back , they were very weak in close range fight when the enemy could shoot back. In those ranges the rate of fire of small weapons which is much faster than the rate of fire of big guns, and their higher accuracy was more important.

Panzer units also captured and destroyed supplies like food, ammunition and petrol which was crucial for the front line units to continue their fight and in addition they spread panic. Their presence deep inside friendly territory, shattered morale of soldiers and many thinking that they had been defeated, decided to surrender. So a local victory in the battlefield was exploited to a major victory with broad (strategic) consequences which led whole nations to surrender in a few weeks.

This was the “blitzkrieg” period mentioned in the book. The “ lightning war” in English (not surprising the term blitzkrieg is German), because units were moving and fighting with lightning speed. This military dogma caught allies completely unprepared. It was not that French were inept warriors. They were simply unlucky to get the first taste of modern military doctrine and nobody at that time in the allied camp knew how to fight the modern war. The British were lucky to have a sea and a powerful navy to protect their country from land operations. The soviets were lucky to have a huge country and cold winters to absorb the first blows and impede German movements until they could master on their own the new form of fighting. Both British (who had armies in France and in North Africa fighting Italians) and soviet armies suffered huge casualties and were forced to retreat long distances against relative smaller German forces during the first years of the war..

The Americans had the advantage of watching at first and taking notes about this new type of fighting consulting often with British who suffered huge defeats on land against smaller German forces in both France and North Africa. It was this bitter experience which made English reluctant later to start a second front in France, preferring more limiting attacks against Italy instead.

However, eventually the allies were able to understand the fundamentals and even perfected the new military doctrine. They also had a few people who were from the beginning, even before the war, visionary and understood the proper employment of modern weapons like tanks but they were treated more like radicals (US General Patton was one of them). Eventually though real life experience strengthened their position and allies soon decided to follow their advice and create a fighting doctrine which was similar to the one used by Germans. Patton was maybe the most

speed up his ability to make the proper decisions at the proper place at a faster rate than his enemies and of course he used the US armor divisions which were the US version of “Panzer divisions” to defeat the enemy in the battlefield.

Based on their huge industrial capability the Allies were able to provide many

improvements. First they were able to put more foot soldiers on wheels. The level of mechanization of allied armies during the last stages of the war was very

impressive and much higher than the equivalent of Germans during their best years. In addition they were able to achieve a complete supremacy in the air using better airplanes in large quantities. Airplanes in world war two were able to

influence much more the events on land. They could provide information about the general positions of the enemy, which helped commanders to identify the weakest spots in enemy positions to attack. In addition, technical progress made attacks from air more precise and powerful. In a way the airplane was acting like flying artillery. Airplanes could support advancing units deep inside the enemy territory while the slow and heavy guns of artillery could not do that. Of course airplanes could not bombard constantly the enemy positions since they could stay over the battlefield for a relative short time, plus they were vulnerable to antiaircraft fire, but still their effectiveness in destroying important targets like supply trucks and trains, forced the land units to restrict movement during the daylight when they were vulnerable to air attacks and their short but intense and sudden bombardment in the front lines, scared the enemy and paralyzed him and his guns for a couple of crucial minutes, until the fast moving mechanized attacking units were practically on his position. .

Although Germans used airplanes in a similar way during the first years of the world, it was the allies who employed this weapon most effectively. This

combination of proper army tactics, high allied mechanization and air supremacy which restricted German movement for most of the day, made allies execute movement faster than their enemies. In other words they beat Germans in their own game, the “blitzkrieg”.

Add to all the above the constant bombardment of German factories by long range bombers, the huge casualties German suffered by soviets which forced them to organize new but inexperienced and less trained units to fight towards the end of the world, and the general superiority in numbers of both men and equipment fighting on the side of allies and it is obvious to see that towards the end of the world the allies had bigger armies, better trained, fighting more effectively against a desperate enemy.

I did my best to describe in basic terms one aspect of military strategy. I hope you enjoyed it

Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation

National Recovery Administration

Agricultural Adjustment Administration

Perkins

National Labor Relations Act

Social Security

Works Progress Administration

Lend-Lease

Atlantic Charter

Munich Pact

Midway

War Production Board

Potsdam

Yalta

Tehran

Manhattan Project

Truman Doctrine

Marshall Plan

McCarthyism

HUAC

NATO

Warsaw Pact

NASA

Sputnik

U-2 Incident

Levittown

Bay of Pigs

Cuban Missile Crisis

Brown v. Board of Education

Parks

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Civil Rights Act of 1964

Voting Rights Act of 1965

Great Society

My Lai

Ho Chi Minh Trail

Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

Tet Offensive

Possible essay topics:

1) Great Depression and the New Deal. Include New Deal legislation. Chapter 26.

2) WWII. Discuss the events in Europe and Asia that led to WWII. In addition, discuss Allied

strategies during the war. Chapter 27.

National Recovery Administration

FDR first attempt to achieve economic advance through

planning and cooperation among government, business,

and labor. Business owners wanted to stabilize production

and raise prices on goods, labor leaders wanted to spread

work through maximum horse and minimum wages.

Significance- section 7a of the act mandated protection for

workers establishing maximum hours, minimum wages

and the guarantee of collective bargaining by unions. Since

no company could be forced to join, the firms that did

were able to display a blue eagle on their products

displaying their acceptance of the act. Because 7a was

written by big companies it favored them. The minimum

wages were near starvation level. Companies were able to

by pass the collective bargaining by creating company

unions that did not represent the real needs. The supreme

Court invalidated the NRA on constitutional grounds.

Click to flip

Agricultural Adjustment Administration

created by Congress, this program would allow farmers to sell land that they had to the

government in return for compensation. Not waiting until planting to initiate the

program, Henry Wallace, FDR secretary of agriculture, launched the program early.

Farmers eagerly wanted to get compensation plowed under already planted crops and

killed livestock that they were raising.

Significance- As land was removed from production farm prices were finally raised from

the shocking low numbers that they were at. On the whole, large farmers benefited from

the program. Able to buy the heavy duty machinery, smaller farmers were driven off

their land as the large farmers took them over. Some 3 million farmers left the land and

had to find jobs in the city. While being affective by raising agriculture prices, it was for

human cost.

National Labor Relations Act

Also known as the Wagner Act. Senator Robert Wagner introduced

legislation to outlaw company unions and other unfair labor practices

in order to endure collective bargaining for unions. Unknown FDR

opposed the bill. After receiving support from the board and finally the

president the NLR act passed. It created a board to preside over

labor-management relations

significance- the NLR created a board to preside over

labor-management relations, while also allowing bargaining with federal

support. This new act, allowing unions federal backing, made it so

whenever a majority of workers voted for a union to represent them,

management would be compelled to negotiate with the union on all

matters. With this new government sanction, unions could now recruit

large numbers of unorganized workers. The act led to the

reestablishment of the american labor movement and a permanent

change in labor-management relations

The industrial expansion in the US had many benefits for the war.

Most included the mass assembly lines where time was dramatically

cut to produce equipment for the army. FDR appointed Donald Nelson

to head a War Production Board (WPB). Outmaneuvered the army

and navy dismissed him and directly contacted the large corporations.

Significance- The WPB allowed business to claim depreciation and

thus huge tax credits for new plants and awarded cost plus contracts

for urgently needed goods. Since wartime goods were the urgent,

shortages of materials such as steel, aluminum, copper and rubber cut

off by the Japanese led to a distribution system based on military

needs. Due to the military first, rationing began to take place. To stop

pleasure driving and ware of tires gasoline along with other things

were rationed

Potsdam conference. A meeting of Churchill, Truman, and Stalin to

discuss post war aims in Berlin. Truman and Stalin crashed ideas over

most issues such as reparations, the Polish boarder, and the fate of

Eastern Europe. Reparations seemed to be the most crucial issue. The

compromise was the each side would take reparations primarily from

its own occupation zone.

Significance- with the compromise of reparations, it foreshadowed the

future division of Germany. While appearing to be in harmony,

underneath Potsdam marked the end of the wartime alliance. America

and Russia distrusted each other which began the tactic of espionage.

For the next decade the two countries would fight for control of

postwar Europe and spread of communism

Yalta

The Yalta Conference was a meeting of Roosevelt (US), Churchill

(England), and Stalin (Russia). The conference was meant to discuss

the outcome of the Axis of Power's territories. Stalin having plans for

communist domination for Poland and the Balkans, did agree to FDR's

request for a Declaration of Liberated Europe, which called for free

elections without enforcement or supervision. Stalin also promised to

enter the Pacific ware three months after Germany surrendered. In

return Roosevelt offered concessions in Asia.

Significance- Yalta was a significant victory for the Soviets. One that

reflected Russia's major contribution to a victory in Europe. For FDR

the trip to Yalta took a huge strain on his health. After getting back to

washington his health continued to weaken until he died in Georgie in

April

Social Security

he Townsend movement reminded the americans that the US had

never developed welfare to aid the aged, disabled, and unemployed. A

cabinet committee and the president came up with a legislation that

proposed 3 parts. 1.) provide for old-age pensions financed equally by

a tax on employers and workers, without government contributions.

Also giving states federal matching funds to provide for the without

basic needs elderly. 2.) set up a system of unemployment

compensation on a federal-state basis, with each state setting benefit

levels and administering the program locally. 3.) provided for direct

federal grants to states for welfare payments to the blind,

handicapped, elderly, and dependent children.

Significance- In the early stages of S.S. Not everyone was covered. Due

to the small payments many were skeptical that the program would

actually work. Some of the compensation for the handicapped and

dependent children were outrageously small, small being $5. Despite

the press, FCR wanted american laborers to feel that they earned their

pensions and that they wouldn't be taken away. Whatever the defects

of the legislation were SS stood as a landmark of the New Deal,

creating a system to provide welfare for individuals

Works Progress Administration

money saved for emergency relief. Under Harry Hopkins, the program

put the unemployed on the federal payroll so they can earn enough to

meet their basic needs and help stimulate the economy. Conservatives

complained that the program would make the jobless do no value

tasks. But Hopkins cared about helping those who had been

unemployed for years to find work and gain self-respect by working

again. The WPA also tried to preserve the skills of artists, actors, and

writers. The Federal Theatre Project put on productions and enabled

entertainers to perform before people who had never seen a

production before.

Significance- helped ease the burden for the unemployed, but it the

long run it didn't end the depression. Although his critics cried that

FDR would spend too much, the programs greatest failure was

spending not enough. The wages were still disappointingly low. The

WPA failed to muster the american economy by increasing consumer

purchasing power. The New Deals failure to go beyond mental relief

led to growing frustration and radical alternatives

Lend-Lease

Prime Minister Churchill stated to the US that england was

running low on supplies and money and needed assistance.

FDR asked Congress to approve a new program that would

lend and lease goods and weapons to countries fighting

against aggressors.

Significance- Isolationists said that the program was both

unnecessary and untruthful. However Congress authorized

the president's request to lead, lease and other means to

any country that the President seems vital to the defense of

the US. The $7 billion ended the cash part of the cash and

carry but the carry problem remained. German subs were

sinking British vessels when they tried to carry the goods

over. US ships escorted British ships in the western half of

the ocean, fearful to stir up bad press from the isolationists.

Hitler didn't want to subs to hit american ships and drag

them into the war, but undeclared naval war quickly

Manhattan Project

Although Germany's defeat was a triumph, Japan was still a problem.

With successes in military advances into Japan, it left 3 possible

scenarios to defeat Japan. One, which the military favored, involved a

full scale invasion beginning on the southern most island and moving

up to a climatic battle at Tokyo with casualties expecting to run in the

hundreds of thousands. Second which the diplomats suggested was to

negotiate peace. The third1 being use the manhattan project which was

a secretly funded program to develop an atomic bomb. Following the

recommendation of the committee, headed by secretary of war

Stimson, Roosevelt decided to use the third ultimatum in an effort to

end the war with Japan.

Significance- the effects of dropping the bomb affected not only Japan

but also Russia as well. The first bomb instantly killed more than

60,000 and cut communication. The lasting effects of radiation also

caused more deaths and defects in the future. After seeing the

destruction that the bombs had brought the Japan officially

surrendered. The bombs also changed the view of the Soviet Union.

Some say that the choice to drop the bomb was also to impress the

Soviets. The bomb paved the way to new relations with the soviet

union, including the arms race and Cold War. The need to emerge as

the super power after WWII was fought through technology

President Truman asked Congress for $400 million for military and

economic assistance to Greece and Turkey. After England ran out of

money to support the Greek government against communism, Britain

looked for help from the US. Believing that the Soviets were

responsible for the communist strife the United Stated quickly decided

to act against it. What would be known as the truman doctrine, he

made clear that more was involved than just Turkey and Greece,

alluding to the Soviet Union. After a brief debate the House and

Senate approved the program to support free peoples who are resisting

"attempted subjugation by armed forces or by outside pressure."

significance- The Truman Doctrine marked an informal declaration of

cold war agaisnt the Soviet Union. Truman used Greece as a cover to

directly and openly oppose communism. But when the civial war

ended in Greece the American commitment to end communist

expansion placed the US on a course for crash into the Soviet Union

Marshall Plan

After the end of WWII eastern Europe was left in devastation, in

mental and physical weakness. Despite the $9 billion sent to European

countries they could still not find their feet. With food being scare and

industrial machinery broken, it was hard to start over. Fear spread the

eastern Europe was susceptible to the sanctity of communism. To deal

with this problem American officials, including Secretary of State

Marshall, met to come up with a plan to solve the economic crisis in

Europe. It called for a massive infusion of American capital to finance

the recovery of Europe. In a gamble Marshall invited Russia to the

conference of the nations. Russia declined seeing the plan as a sign of

weakness.

Significance- Congress took cautious steps into making sure that the

proposal was secure. The administration pointed out that the plan

would help the US by stimulating trade with Europe as well as

checking up on the Soviets. But what really set it off was the Czech war

scare. Over the next 4 years the investment paid rich dividends

resulting in the revival of Europe and diminishing the threat of

communist ideals. Europe proved to be a successful trader for farmers,

miners, and manufacturers

NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Was the third. and final phase

of containment. Grown from fears that Russian military aggression

would recall Hitler's tactics, Western Europe wanted assurance the the

US would protect them from attack while they recover Calling for a

broader defense pact from Norway to Italy to join in.. England, France

and other countries signed the treaty in Washington. The first part of

NATO was that any country attacked would be considered an attack

against all. The second was the assurance was the US honor the

agreement. Eisenhower appointed as supreme commander of NATO

authorized American divisions in Europe. IT was believed that the

threat of American troops would extinguish the Soviet Union from

making an attack.

Significance- The departure from the traditional isolationism, since

the last treaty of this multitude was in the 18th century, caused debate

but was accepted in the end

We had eugenics programs, prohibitions against jewish immigration and internment camps. Canada explicitly prohibited the immigration of jews in 1907. Britain prohibited the immigration of jews into the Palestinian Mandate before, during and after WWII. They even fought a secret war against the jews before the founding of Israel.

Irrelevant. Do all these things put British and Canadians on the same moral level with Nazist? Ask any Jew to get the answer.

The worlds first concentration camp was in South Africa where 20000+ Boer women and childred were liquidated in the same conditions found in gulags, kz's or Eisenhower's post WWII 'POW" camps.

OK, if you want to follow this path, stop paint Stalin as a madman. One one hand you point the millions of victimcs because of Stalin policies to signle him out from the rest, on the other side you try to argue that Nazists killing a few millions of Jewish, Polish, Soviets, homosexuals, mentally challenged or Gypsies behaved just like Canadians and British who may caused thousands of casualties in camps of poor sanitation.

Your bias is evident. You believe this genocide occured in a vaccuum, and was not relevant to historical events elsewhere. You are wrong. Hitler prophecied the historical clusterfuck Bolshevism would

become already in 1923 and did something about it. You must deny this evidence out of fear that such would lead to the rehabilitation of Hitler and fascist politics. I am unconcerned by such, my motive in this thread is to point out the hypocrisy in claiming one person's or tribe's socio-biological imperatives are somehow more moral than another's. The western allies sided with a well known genocidal

authoritarian who was both before Hitler even got elected and the motivation to Hitler's rise to power. I am calling into account the western hemisphere's moral failing.

I think your bias is evidence. First I insist that by this time nobody really knew about the genocide and the amount of casualties because of communists. Yes they knew about prosecutions and about gulags and the rest, but this was not different from Holocaust where Allies knew about concentration camps and persecutions against Jewish in Germany. Still nobody could comprehend the amount of destruction and death which was of course a genocide up until they came face to face with the concentration camps when they defeated Germany.

Hitler thought British colonialism to be the crown achievement of the aryan race. He thought France was mongrelized and a spent force. Most of his worst bile was saved for the Bolsheivks in the east and those that agitated for communism in Central and Western Europe. If you are implying that both Britain and France were envious and scared shitless of a unified Germany (1871), you would be correct.

And because Hitler thought agreed that British colonialism was the “crown achievement of the Aryan race”, he tried to do the same. The Slaves and Mongols Soviets under any case would be conquered by the Arian Germans. It did not really matter if Russians were communists at that time. Confrontation took also place just a few years ago when Russians were under the Tsar. Besides it is interesting to see the German behavior in the Soviet territories it “liberated” from communism. The Ukrainians many of whom welcomed Germans as liberators, learned soon about the real agenda of Hitler and Nazism which had nothing to do about humanitarian expeditions against the communist barbarism.

Poland had not been a country for two hundred years before 1919. I can't even recall if Czech ever was. Both of them were carved out of the Prussian frontier the year after WWI. The newly established boundaries completely ignored ethnic realities. Danzig and most of the baltic coast was majority ethnic german, and most of Czech was too. What was done at Versailles had nothing to do with

self-determinism, it was spiteful and deliberately planned. Tell me your feelings about Cyprus and than give me the rationalization hamster on how it's somehow different, because, like, you know...

Polish had not been a country for two hundred years because it was caught in the middle of power struggle of powerful states like Prussia and Russia. Polish were neither Prussians or Russians and they were always seeking self determination. The fact that this happened after wwi, when all surrounding powers were weaken or destroyed, does not give the slightest excuse for Germany to invade it a few years later. Poland shoud have been an independent state much earlier at least if you believe that people have the right of self determination.

Yes ethnic minorities often create tension along the borders of nations but as I said Hitler went beyond incorporating those minorities into his new Empire. He got the whole Czechoslovakia and inspite of what you claim, the majority there were Czechs.