Grandpa Dan Goes to War

When I was a child, I used to sit at the table with my grandfather as he told me stories about the war. He was the son of a Jewish family that fled Poland. He the British army when the war started, wanting to hit back against the Germans who drove his family out of their home. What I remember most about Grandpa Dan, aside from his medals and memorabilia, was his account of the Battle of Monte Cassino. He was an officer leading Polish troops in British uniform and fought alongside an army of Indian, New Zealand, French-speaking African, and American soldiers against Germans on top of a mountain in Italy. A world war indeed.

For Grandpa Dan and his family, and many other Europeans, the Second World War began in September 1939, when Germany invaded Poland. Britain and France, Poland’s allies, declared war on Germany in response. For others, the war began earlier. The Second World War started because three major expansionist “Axis” powers—Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, and Imperial Japan—wanted to conquer other countries and build empires. In that sense, one could date the war in Asia back to 1931. That is when Japan invaded China. Or in Africa, it could be dated to 1935, when Italy invaded Ethiopia. For Ethiopian partisans, the war started four years before Germany invaded Poland. In Europe, Italy conquered Albania earlier in 1939. Germany, too, had annexed Austria and parts of Czechoslovakia before it invaded Poland.

But in general, we date the beginning of the Second World War to Germany’s September 1939 invasion of Poland. That attack provoked Britain and France. They had armies that could actually confront the Axis Powers. Britain and France had been reluctant to confront these expansionist states. But Poland had alliances with France, and more recently with Britain. So when Germany invaded Poland, the British had to react. So, by late 1939, Britain and France (and their colonies) were at war with Germany.

A terrible year, 1939–1940

Following the declaration of war in Europe, two almost-separate wars ran in parallel for two years. In Asia, Japan continued to make war on China, pushing into the interior. Chinese generals responded with counter-attacks. However, their troops were poorly armed and not very unified. Still, various Chinese forces, including communist insurgents, managed to slow the Japanese.

In Europe, meanwhile, Germany and Italy set about annexing smaller states. In May 1940, German forces swept into France through neutral Belgium. German tanks and airplanes overwhelmed French and British forces. The Germans drove the French and British to the coast. Only a nearly-miraculous naval operation managed to save much of the British army at Dunkirk. Meanwhile, France was forced to surrender on June 25.

Once it became clear that Germany was winning, Italian leader Benito Mussolini and his Fascist government formally declared war on Britain and France. After France fell, he turned eastward and south. In October, Italy declared war on Greece, which became Britain’s first new ally. Deeply outgunned, Greek fighters nevertheless managed to repel the Italians. Britain sent what aid they could to the Greeks, but it wasn’t enough. With help from German forces, the Italians finally managed to conquer Greece.

Italy opened another front in North Africa. There, its colonial forces in Libya prepared to attack British forces in Egypt. But the British moved first. They conquered much of Libya before German and Italian reinforcements pushed them back.

The war spreads, 1941

With its allies mostly conquered and France occupied, Britain now stood almost alone against the triumphant forces of Germany and Italy. They hoped for help from the United States. However, the Americans were only willing to lend some resources. Much of their attention was on Japan. Japanese expansion in the Pacific worried the United States enough that they put an embargo on selling oil to Japan.

Fortunately, Britain was a vast empire and the country was surrounded by the ocean. The British Royal Air Force also managed to stop a German mass bombing campaign. But things looked quite dark throughout 1940 and in the early months of 1941. Then, suddenly, on 22 June, 1941, Nazi Germany leader Adolf Hitler chose to invade the Soviet Union. It was a big mistake. Hitler hoped it would be a quick conquest of the Soviet Union using masses of tanks and planes, similar to Germany’s invasion of France. But the Soviet Union was larger and more populous than France. German troops got bogged down in the defenses around Moscow. As winter came, unprepared German soldiers began to freeze.

Capitalist Britain and the communist Soviet Union were ideological opposites. But when it came to Nazis they found common ground and created an alliance. Soon, Britain got another great ally. On December 7, 1941, Japanese forces attacked the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. This was a response to the U.S. oil embargo but also part of Japan’s plan to invade Southeast Asia. Soon after, Germany declared war on the United States.

The hinge of fate, 1942

The United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union formed a powerful alliance. But the Axis war machine continued to advance. German forces pushed into the Soviet Union. Italy and Germany were poised to drive the British from North Africa. Japanese forces occupied the Philippines and New Guinea.

Then, in the second half of 1942, the tide shifted. This was partly a result of the massive industrial power of the three allies. The U.S., Soviet, and British forces and their allies were rapidly equipped with huge amounts of new weapons. Another reason was Allied intelligence gathering. Allied intelligence broke both the Japanese and German codes. Code- breaking informed the United States that Japan was going to invade Midway Island in June. American naval forces managed to arrive in time to sink numerous Japanese aircraft carriers.

Midway was only the first in a series of victories for the Allies that turned the tide of war. In October and November of 1942, a British-led army—including my Grandpa Dan—drove German and Italian forces from the North African town of El Alamein. The Germans and Italians fled back into Libya. But probably the most important victory was the Battle of Stalingrad. In February 1943, the Soviets encircled a German army and began the long push back towards Germany.

Driving to victory, 1943-1945

Of course, the Axis powers were not yet defeated. For the next two-and-a-half years the Allies would have to grind out a victory against tenacious opposition. Soviet forces fought a massive, deadly, see-saw war against German troops across Eastern Europe. In Asia, Chinese forces coordinated with the British in Burma. Americans, Australians, and their allies recaptured island after island from Japan, often with huge losses of life.

Grandpa Dan, meanwhile, was involved in driving German and Italian forces out of North Africa. This was a campaign aided by British and American troops under General Dwight D. Eisenhower. They landed along the western ports of the North African coast. From there, the combined forces invaded Italy, landing on the mainland in September 1943. Mussolini’s government soon fell, and many Italians joined the Allied side. But German forces held on, forcing that massive battle at Monte Cassino.

In June 1944, British, U.S., and allied forces landed in Normandy, in northern France, and began to push towards Germany. The forces in Italy continued to push north, towards Germany. But these efforts were all smaller, in the number of troops, than the Soviet push into Germany from the East. The forces all met in Germany and finally, in April 1945, the Soviets captured Berlin—and Germany surrendered.

The task that remained? Defeat Japan. Having lost their empire, with almost no navy or air force left and their biggest army stranded in China, Japan was in no condition to fight. But they refused to surrender, and so an invasion of the Japanese Isles had to be planned. But then, the President of the United States decided to use new technology—the nuclear bomb. The United States dropped two nuclear bombs on Japanese cities—Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later. The devastation caused by these bombs forced Japan to surrender.

The Second World War was over, but it left a long legacy. That legacy is global in scale, as you will see over the rest of the course. But it is also very personal. Grampa Dan’s memories of the war stuck with him—even haunted him—and he always wanted to share them with those who would listen. I remember asking once if he had killed anyone during the war. I remember that he paused before he answered that question, telling me that he had shot several soldiers (he did not call them “enemies”). His response made me think about the human tragedy of the war. But I was also drawn in by these stories, and all these years later, it is this kind of human dimension that keeps me interested in history.