The point is that the historical accounts rendered to justify these celebrations are selective. At best, they are half-truths and, at worst, they are an elaborate exercise in sanitisation and distortion. They are modern instances of the re-writing of history by victors not only to explain, but also to justify, the current reality. We have the duty to say what the celebrants had reasons to omit and to remember what they found convenient to forget.
World War II is properly so called because although it was initiated and conducted essentially by two coalitions of states, called the Allied and Axis Powers, the war was fought in most of the regions of the World, with the resources of the world. The war affected all the people of the world. Moreover, because the chief combatants were colonial and imperialist powers, they brought in their colonial subjects as foot-soldiers and as victims.
Every brilliant, but young, student of world history will tell you that World War II started on September 1, 1939, when Nazi Germany, under Adolf Hitler, invaded Poland. But that is not the case. It is however convenient for the present global dictators " the rulers of America, Britain and France, in particular " to perpetuate this error.
World War II started at least 18 months before the invasion of Poland. In March 1938, Nazi Germany overran and annexed Austria, its southeastern neighbour. Having done this with little protests from America, Britain and France, Adolf Hitler turned his attention to Czechoslovakia in the east. Hitler demanded that a region of Czechoslovakia, which, according to him, held a large population of ethnic Germans, be ceded to Germany. Not only did the then "international community" not do anything about Hitler's threatening demand, it lent its support to the Nazi state. It was a high point in the policy of "appeasement" adopted towards Nazi Germany by the then "international community". Hitler was determined to his advantage to the limit.
In September 1938 representatives of Germany, Britain, France and Italy met in the German city of Munich and signed a treaty known to history as the Munich Pact. The pact essentially provided for the dissolution of the state of Czechoslovakia. Six months later, in March 1939, Nazi Germany acted on this pact, destroyed the state of Czechoslovakia, split the country into bits, annexing some, colonising some, proclaiming some as "independent" states, and donating others to Hungary. Neither Nazi Germany nor its beneficiary Hungary was challenged by the "great powers". However, two of the powers " Britain and France " signed a treaty of mutual assistance with Poland the following month, April 1939, in response to Poland's apprehension over Nazi Germany's pressure on it to cede parts of the territory.
The Polish leaders' rejection of this demand, though patriotic and courageous, was based, in large part, on the hope that the policy of "appeasement" would continue to work, that Germany would not attack Poland, and that if it did, then Britain and France would discharge their obligation to Poland under the treaty of mutual assistance. What a tragic hope " made more tragic by the fact that polish leaders were prevailed upon by the British Government not to order a general mobilisation for national defence in order not to anger the Germans. In other words, Poland was disarmed by its own "allies" before its armed conflict with Germany.
At dawn on Friday, September 1, 1939, Hitler's Germany invaded Poland. A little digression is necessary here. Throughout August 1939, the Soviet Union, equally hated by Nazi Germany and the "international community", tried to do a "balancing act" to buy time to prepare for a conflict which it was sure was inevitable. It tried to enter an alliance with Britain and France. When this did not materialise, a non-aggression pact with Nazi Germany was signed. Hitler employed the pact within days. A liberal historian has described the Polish campaign as "one of the most violent and brutal in history".
It was a horrendous massacre " the type the world had never seen and has never seen. Hitler attacked Poland with a force of more than one million troops organised in 58 army divisions, 14 of them armoured and motorised, and supported by 1,400 fighters. Despite their heroism the resistance of the Polish Armed Forces and partisans collapsed after 27 days. Ten days earlier, on September 17, 1939, the Soviet army had crossed into Poland from the east. On September 28, the day after Warsaw fell, a treaty was signed effecting the partition of Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union, as agreed upon in the pact mentioned above.
Normandy should, no doubt, be celebrated. All I am saying is that there are several other events, episodes, victories, betrayals, acts of heroism and bravery, etc, that should also be celebrated, or remembered. The tragedy narrated above is one of them. Others include the German invasion of the Soviet Union, code-named "Operation Barbarossa" which opened on June 22, 1941; the liberation of the Soviet city of Stalingrad from German occupation in January 1943 (an act of extreme heroism which many historians regard as the turning point in World War II, the beginning of German defeat); the Warsaw Uprising of August 1, 1944 to October 2, 1944 (another an act of extreme heroism by the people of Poland who were, once again, betrayed by their "allies", today's celebrants); the dropping of atomic bombs by America on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945) and Nagasaki (August 9, 1945) when the war had virtually ended in defeat for Germany and Japan and victory for America, Britain, the Soviet Union and China; the surrender of Germany (May 7 and 8, 1945), and that of Japan (September 2, 1945). I shall touch briefly on some of them.
You cannot remember Normandy without remembering the Warsaw Uprising. Here is a liberal historian's account: "On August 1, 1944, the people of Warsaw rose against their Nazi oppressors. With an almost unbelievable courage, the ill-equipped Polish Secret Army held out for 63 days and nights under a relentless barrage from German artillery, planes and tanks". The British and American troops " Poland's "allies" who had landed in Normandy two months earlier did nothing to help.
Once again, the Polish people were crushed. Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union with 3 million troops, about 15,000 tanks and over 2,700 planes. These were organised in 150 divisions, including 19 armoured and 12 motorised divisions. The attack was opened on a front stretching 2000 miles. With this overwhelming force, German advances were rapid and devastating and were halted only when the Germans got to the city of Stalingrad. Soviet forces re-took the city on January 31, 1943.
According to one historian; "The Battle of Stalingrad is regarded as the turning point of World War II. Not only was it the most terrible disaster ever inflicted on a German army in a single operation, the battle for Stalingrad was the high-water mark of the tide of German military conquest, and the beginning of that long series of Allied offensives in Europe that was to culminate in the total defeat of the Axis powers". America and Britain started the offensive to liberate Western Europe only after the tide had turned against Germany in the Soviet Union. Soviet leaders accused their allies " America and Britain " of waiting to see Germany and the Soviet Union mutually exhaust themselves before opening the West European front.
The Soviet army killed 175,000 German troops in the battle for Stalingrad and captured 137,650 others. The remaining German forces, consisting of several army divisions, surrendered. Soviet victories over Germany made the Allied offensive in Western Europe much easier. The celebration of Normandy ought to acknowledge this historical fact.
Midway into the war, the rulers of America gave secret orders for the development of the atomic bomb. Because of the timing of its use " at the very end of the war, when America had won " it would appear that a decision had been taken to employ the bomb in the war whatever happened. The bomb must be tested for future use! On August 6, 1945, the atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Dropped from a B-29 bomber, the bomb had "more power than 20,000 tons of TNT, and more than 2,000 times the power of the largest bomb previously used in warfare". About 60 per cent of the city was destroyed, an area of about 2.5 miles in diameter was completely flattened, and about 130,000 people were killed.
Three days later, on August 9, a similar bomb was dropped on the city of Nagasaki. It caused comparable, though less, damage than the one dropped on Hiroshima. The point is that America dropped atomic bombs on Japan not at the height of the war, but a whole three months after the death of Adolf Hitler, three months after the capture of Berlin. The German capital by the Allied Powers, and three months after the German surrender in World War II.
