France – Great History

The Construction of the Berlin Wall

After the end of World War 2, the 4 major powers that defeated the Nazis, the Americans, French, British and Soviets gathered together to discuss the matter of Germany. The powers feared that if Germany were to be reunited, at least immediately, the ideas of Nazism and Fascism could make a rise once more. An idea was proposed, that Germany be divided into West and East as a temporary measure, the West being occupied by the USA, UK and France and the East being controlled by the USSR.

However, soon the question of Berlin came up. Being around 200 miles into East Germany, logic dictated that Berlin fell into the hands of the Soviets. However, whoever controlled the capital practically controlled the country so a subdivision was set up, wherein France, Britain and America made the Western side of Berlin a part of West Germany, whilst the Eastern half was controlled by East Germany.

Soon, this temporary measure became somewhat permanent. The city of Berlin soon became divided into East Berliners and West Berliners. The West promoted the values of the countries occupying such as democracy and liberal market economies whilst the East promoted communism, not just in East Germany but other countries surrounding themselves. Trade from West to East was banned and a practically impenetrable border was made across East Germany and Czechoslovakia.

From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia, all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and, in many cases, increasing measure of control from Moscow. Athens alone — Greece with its immortal glories — is free to decide its future at an election under British, American and French observation.
Winston Churchill speaking at a Midwestern College, 1946

Whilst East Germans weren’t strictly allowed to leave East Germany to West Germany, the East Berliners, could simply walk across the road to West Berlin and were allowed to move from there. By 1961, 3.5 million people had followed this practice. This open border posed a problem to the Soviets. The Soviets had been portraying the West as a continuation of Nazism and their citizens were soon finding that wasn’t the case.

Whilst the Western Allies were promoting the reconstruction of Germany after the war, Soviets were extracting resources as war reparations, making the economic situation dire. Many East Berliners sought jobs in the West due to the more stable currency, whilst West Berliners bought products for cheaper prices in the East. Whilst education and healthcare were free in the East, consumer goods, salaries and general freedoms were better in the West, in no small part to the Eastern Secret police, called the Stasi, who would report on and arrest anyone accused of Anti-Soviet behaviour. Eventually, the General Secretary of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev had enough of the emigration.

On August 13th, 1961, Berliners woke up to a large fence surrounding West Berlin. With 43km (27 miles) across Berlin and a further 112km (69.5 miles) in East Germany, Berlin was permanently divided. Before further construction could continue, some chose to leap over the barbed wire into the West but, before long, the Berlin Wall was fully constructed.

By 1975, large concrete barricades, rising to 3.6m (11ft) in height replaced the fences, with a smooth pipe to prevent climbing on the West Side. 302 watchtowers were set up in a new area called the Death Strip, a 100m (328ft) wide area in between the main wall and a less developed wall on the Eastern side. This area was littered with landmines, guard dogs and spike traps. Families were divided, friends separated and the ultimate symbol of the Eastern Bloc had been built, an authoritarian impassible wall that represented everything the West believed about Communism.

Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was “civis Romanus sum.” Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is “Ich bin ein Berliner.”

[…]

There are many people in the world who really don’t understand, or say they don’t, what is the great issue between the free world and the Communist world. Let them come to Berlin. There are some who say that communism is the wave of the future. Let them come to Berlin. And there are some who say in Europe and elsewhere we can work with the Communists. Let them come to Berlin. And there are even a few who say that it is true that communism is an evil system, but it permits us to make economic progress. Lass’ sie nach Berlin kommen. Let them come to Berlin.

Freedom has many difficulties and democracy is not perfect, but we have never had to put a wall up to keep our people in, to prevent them from leaving us. […] While the wall is the most obvious and vivid demonstration of the failures of the Communist system, for all the world to see, we take no satisfaction in it, for it is, as your Mayor has said, an offense not only against history but an offense against humanity, separating families, dividing husbands and wives and brothers and sisters, and dividing a people who wish to be joined together.

What is true of this city is true of Germany–real, lasting peace in Europe can never be assured as long as one German out of four is denied the elementary right of free men, and that is to make a free choice. [This] generation of Germans has earned the right to be free, including the right to unite their families and their nation in lasting peace, with good will to all people.

[…]

Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. When all are free, then we can look forward to that day when this city will be joined as one and this country and this great Continent of Europe in a peaceful and hopeful globe. When that day finally comes, as it will, the people of West Berlin can take sober satisfaction in the fact that they were in the front lines for almost two decades.

All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and, therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words “Ich bin ein Berliner.”
John F. Kennedy speaking at the Rudolph Wilde Platz in Berlin, 1963

JFK making his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, 1963

Liberation of the Concentration Camps

When we went to Nohra, […] we took a day trip into Buchenwald. […]It was just unbelievable to see. You couldn’t—there was so much of it, you couldn’t grasp at all. We just see these people standing, you see the bodies. You see the ashes. You see the ditches. It’s just—I can’t really describe it to tell you, you know, how horrendous it was to see these people treated like animals. You might see even worse than that.
Andrew Kiniry, 45th Evacuation Hospital, describing when the 3rd Army liberated Buchenwald

As the allies advanced from the West and the Soviets from the east, many expected to see the remnants of training camps or POW camps. What they found was beyond their wildest nightmares.

What they found were thousands upon thousands of men, women and children, all on the brink of starving to death, who had been left abandoned in fences like cattle. Not only were these people but specific groups of people. Some were disabled, some were gay, some were slavs. But the most notable among these groups of people were the Jews. The soldiers thought they had seen the worst of it but they were very wrong.

They found large gas chambers, in which the prisoners would be put inside, under the pretence of having a shower to cleanse themselves. Then, Zyklon B, a pesticide, would be poured in through the showers. Deaths could take anywhere between 3 minutes to 30. The bodies were then dragged out and burnt in ovens nearby. The specific targeting of Jews was called Germany’s “Final Solution”, which involved the eradication of the Jewish population from Europe. This was known as the Holocaust, but many Jews today prefer to call it the Shoah.

Over 5.7 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. Others killed included 2-3million Soviet POWs, 1.9 million Poles, 1.5 million Romani, 250,000 disabled people, 170,000 Freemasons, 25,000 Slovenes, 15,000 homosexuals, 5,000 Jehovahs witnesses, 7,000 Spanish Republicans as well as countless others. Around half of the Jewish deaths were attributed to the gas chambers, whilst the rest were due to forced labour in the camps, starvation in the camps and ghettos as well as mass shootings, most notably by the Einsatzgruppen, a death squad that tailed the Wehrmacht in their march east.

Upon discovery of the concentration camps, Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, told his men to film the horrors they encountered. The film reels were then compiled into a 1 hour long documentary, shown as evidence at the Nuremberg Trials and the Trial of Adolf Eichmann, an architect of the Holocaust, after his capture in 1961

Get it all on record now – get the films – get the witnesses – because somewhere down the track of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened
Dwight D. Eisenhower speaking to his men about the Concentration Camps

Eisenhower, Omar Bradley, George Patton and American forces at Ohrdruf concentration camp, a part of the Buchenwald network

The survivors were liberated, many only to find that their homes had been repossessed. Many Jews sought shelter in Palestine whilst others stayed in Europe, where persecution still occurs to this day. To this day, people still deny these events happened, either that the statistics are overestimates or that such things never occurred and is simply a victim complex made by Jews, despite the countless amount of evidence recorded not just by the Allies and Soviets but by the Germans themselves. Many cite the Holocaust as the greatest humanitarian tragedy in history.

The Battle of the Bulge

By Februrary, 1943, the Wehrmacht had just suffered a great loss at the Battle of Stalingrad, in which German forces had just suffered 800,000 casualties and the hands of the Red Army. With German Morale low, Dr Joseph Goebbels, Reichminister of Propaganda and Public Enlightenment, took to the stage of the Berlin Sportpalast to deliver a speech that would change the German attitude to the war.

A photo of the rally on February 18th, the banner reading “Totaler Krieg – Kürzester Krieg” or “Total War – Shortest War” in English.

The German nation is fighting for everything it has. We know that the German people are defending their holiest possessions: their families, women and children, the beautiful and untouched countryside, their cities and villages, their two thousand year old culture, everything indeed that makes life worth living. […] Total war is the demand of the hour. […] The danger facing us is enormous. The efforts we take to meet it must be just as enormous. […] I ask you: Do you want total war? […] I ask you: Is your confidence in the Führer greater, more faithful and more unshakable than ever before? Are you absolutely and completely ready to follow him wherever he goes and do all that is necessary to bring the war to a victorious end? […] Now, people rise up and let the storm break loose!

The applause that ruptured from the hall after this was enormous, with chorus’ of Sieg Heil and chants of “Führer command, we follow!” Nazi banners are raised high. Little do they know, the German people just signed their own death sentence.

As winter set in on the Western Front, the war was not looking great for Germany. With almost all of France liberated, the Italians firmly losing and the Soviets at the gates of Warsaw, Hitler needed a miracle in order to win the war. His miracle would come in the same plan he conducted four years prior.

The largely undefended and heavily wooded Ardennes region of Belgium and France began to look promising for Hitler once again. Having initially invading France in 1940 using the same area as a breakthrough point, Hitler planned to push a surprise attack through the area, cutting off most of the Commonwealth forces in the Netherlands, forcing them into another Dunkirk style evacuation. Many questioned the validity of the plan. Whilst Wilhelm Keitel, Chief of the Wehrmacht High Command, was in fully support of the plan, many others, such as Field Marshals Gerd von Rundstedt and Walter Model as well as General Siegfried Westphal, were much more hesitant, fearing that the attack might not even reach the Meuse River. Despite their concerns, they kept silent for fear of being accused of defeatism, which, by this point, had become a crime in Nazi Germany.

Nicknamed Operation Wacht Am Rhine, after a famous Prussian patriotic anthem, every member of high command involved in the offensive was sworn to secrecy at the threat of death, with regimental commanders only being told a day before the attack. In order to not alert American Forces, soldiers used the cover of night in order to advance from town to town, covering up their vehicles when daybreak came. Complete radio silence was enforced during the whole operation. This secrecy had clearly worked, as the Allies were not expecting an attack in any capacity, with Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery of the 21st Army Group confident that the Germans would not counter attack. Whilst the Germans were vastly disadvantaged, in terms of manpower and resources, they weren’t exactly fighting the cream of America’s crop. The defence force in the Ardennes was only seven divisions, most of whom were either new to combat or had been redeployed as an in-work vacation.

American Troops on deployment in the Ardennes

Despite the lack of fuel that was desperately needed in an operation through the terrain of the Ardennes, the 6th Panzer Army, commanded by Waffen-SS General Sepp Dietrich, the 5th Panzer Army, lead by General Hasso von Manteuffel, and Erich Brandenberger’s 7th Army, began the assault on December 16th, attacking the North, Centre and South respectively, with the Panzer forces set to capture Antwerp and the 7th protecting the flank from American General George S. Patton’s 3rd Army. Dietrich’s main objective was to capture the key bridges over the Meuse within the first 24 hours of the assault, before an advance onto Antwerp, whilst Manteuffel was to capture Brussels. Before these objectives could be reached, however, St. Vint and Bastogne had to be secured first, as it was crucial for maintaining supplies.

The 1st SS Panzer Division of the 6th Panzer Army was given special care by Hitler, as it contained the most elite troops of the Waffen-SS, including the Peiper Unit, consisting of nearly 5,000 Waffen-SS troops with 800 of their vehicles commanded by SS Obersturmbannführer (Lieutenant-Colonel) Joachim Peiper. The full assault was preceded by Operation Grief, in which a brigade commanded by SS Standartenführer (Colonel) Otto Skorzeny adopted American customs, dressed in American uniforms and infiltrated American territory in order to capture bridges, by tampering with road signs, cutting telephone wires and minor acts of sabotage. American forces became so paranoid of encountering one of Skorzeny’s men that they distrusted everyone in an American Uniform, even holding General Omar Bradley, commander of Twelfth Army Group, captive for a short period.

Whilst Dietrich’s Army began with an artillery barrage of American positions, Manteuffel’s fighting force did not go in guns blazing, instead opting for the element of surprise. Despite this disobeying Hitler’s orders of the artillery barrage, the tactic worked well across the board, with many American forces retreating out of fear, with one officer recounting his men wetting themselves and vomiting. The heavy snow also meant that the Allies could not use their superior air power on the battlefield.

A German machine gunner in the Ardennes, December 1944

Despite the vast and quick progress, this was not consistent across the whole German front. Lieutenant Lyle Bouck of the American 99th Division, for instance, valiantly fended off German forces for the whole day with only 18 men, killing or wounding 400 Germans whilst losing only one man. This vexed Peiper so much that he ordered his unit to advance hard on the enemy position, including into a minefield, losing 5 tanks in the process. Meanwhile, the 326th Volks Grenadier Division advanced north, attempting to cut off American reinforcements but were sabotaged by their own artificial moonlight made out of bouncing spotlights off clouds, which silhouetted them in the horizon, where they were picked off like sitting ducks. In addition, the weather also meant decreased visibility and movement ofr their vehicles, slowing the advance significantly.

Despite these setbacks, German High command was satisfied with initial progress on the first day. However, due to the slower advance, Eisenhower was given ample time to move reinforcements to the front, including the famous 101st Airborne Division, to defend the town of Bastogne and block the German Advance. Meanwhile, Peiper’s unit ignored the orders of Hitler due to muddy paths, instead capturing different towns, where they would massacre POWs and civilians during the Maldemy Massacre, wherein 84 civilians and POWS were executed.

A photo of dead US Soldiers in the aftermath of Maldemy

As casualties mounted on the front, especially in the besieged town of Bastogne, an emergency meeting was called between Patton, Bradley and Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force, who ordered that the 7th Army cover for Patton’s position in the south, whilst his 3rd Army moved north to relieve the 101st Airborne and the 28th Infantry Divisions. Even with continuous artillery fire that prevented the Germans from capturing the city, they managed to encircle the 101st and 28th. The Germans were incredibly confident with a potential victory at Bastogne. Despite not having the strength to destroy the defenders of Bastogne, General Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz of the XLVII Panzer Corps sent a demand for surrender to General Anthony McAuliffe, commander of the Bastogne Garrison and Artillery Commander of the 101st, simply responded with the following.

To the German Commander.

NUTS!

The American Commander.
McAuliffe’s response to Lüttwitz’s demand for surrender

Eventually, the snow began to ease up, allowing for Allied air superiority to make a comeback, conducting a massive supply drop onto the besieged troops at Bastogne, whilst fighter bombers proved extremely effective at breaking up German attacks. Despite this, Patton strill struggled to breach the German encirclement, repeatedly vexed by blown bridges, activities done by American engineers in order to slow the Germans earlier in the battle.

German Chief of the General Staff, Heinz Guderian, urged Hitler to withdraw forces from the Ardennes, citing it as a massive failure and to put more supplies into the East. However, German forces had just captured Celles, the furthest west of the advance, which buoyed Hitler’s spirits, and so the struggle went on.

Despite this achievement, supplies were running low, to the point where not even a full withdrawal was feasible. When American forces recaptured Celles, they found starved and exhausted Panzer troops greeting them. Runstedt now had to inform Hitler that the plan was a mass failure, to which Hitler, in a fit of rage, dismissed him. Eventually, Patton relieved Bastogne in the most Patton way possible, via a reckless charge from the north, accompanied by storms of napalm.

In a moment of delirium, Hitler commanded that no effort be spared in crushing Bastogne, having forgotten the objective of Antwerp entirely. In attack after attack, more and more lives were lost to Allied Air Superiority and artillery fire, with the Germans eventually giving up and retreating by January 11th of 1945. The Battle of the Bulge, which it was later dubbed, served as the last major offensive operation by the Third Reich, which only delayed the inevitable and now it was a desperate retreat back to Berlin.

American forces marching with an M1 Sherman in the Battle of the Bulge

Casualties

United States – 81,000
The Greater German Reich – 63,000-100,000+
United Kingdom – 1,408

The Battle of France

By May 1940, Germany controlled most of the European Continent. With Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark and Norway being under Nazi control, Britain and France now stood alone as the last enemies of Germany, for the time being. One key problem in Germany’s path was the Maginot Line

A photo of a fortification on the Maginot Line

Between the late 1920s to mid 1930s, the French had built a large line of forts across their border with Germany. These forts were nigh impenetrable, so Hitler needed to think of a new strategy. He had two options. To breach south through Switzerland or to go North through the Low Countries of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Hitler chose the latter.

However, there was much bickering in army high command about how to attack. Whilst most advocated for a mere replica of the Schlieffen Plan in World War 1, Hitler and Erich von Manstein, Chief of Staff for Army Group A, requested a battle plan be made through the Ardennes, a dense forest region in Belgium and Luxembourg. Eventually, a compromise is reached, wherein Army Group B would attack from the Dutch border, whilst Army Group A would swoop in through the Ardennes.

Meanwhile, the British and French were prepping for a hypothetical counter attack. Whilst the Belgians and Dutch refused to allow French and British troops to immediately enter territory, for fear of provoking the Germans, they came up with a plan to hold the line and hopefully counter attack. However, the plan left little in the means of defence in the Ardennes, which British and French high command believed is impassible for armoured units, despite intelligence that sugggested the German’s plans to do just that.

On May 10th, 1940, Germany began to invade the Low Countries. They began with the pretence of just attacking the Netherlands, forcing Allied forces to organise up there. However, they were delayed in their response by mass numbers of refugees fleeing the opposite direction. Meanwhile, German forces began pushing through the Ardennes in mass numbers, forcing traffic jams 250km back from the front. All too late, the Allies realised their response in the Ardennes had been far too weak. The Blitzkrieg tactic worked once more in the Lowlands, with Stuka dive bombers, Messerschmidt fighters and Panzer divisions all working together in order to hit fast and hard.

The tension in France was felt on the home front too. With much of the British Public and government believing that Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement policies in the lead up to the war, with Czechoslovakia, has done nothing but think Hitler he can do what he wanted, Chamberlain resigned and was replaced by First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill.

By May 24th, Allied forces had been forced into a pocket in Belgium and Northern France. In a fighting retreat, Allied forces moved to Dunkirk, planning to evacuate forces there. Many French commanders viewed this as an abandonment and betrayal. Fearing a Southern counter attack, Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt requested a cease of a direct assault on Dunkirk, to which Hitler agreed. Many say that if the Nazi forces had advanced on Dunkirk, Britain would’ve been more likely to surrender. Hitler defended this decision later, saying he did not want to humiliate the British, in hopes of initiating peace talks. Runstedt later claimed that it was not his order but Hitler’s. Regardless, nearly 340,000 troops were evacuated from Dunkirk in a spectacular feat in co-operation with land, air and sea, both civilian and military.

After the troops were evacuated and Belgium surrendered, without the consultation of the British and French, Germany launched an all out assault on the south. Only 10 days after the last troops left Dunkirk, German forces entered Paris on June 14th, 1940. On the 16th of June, the French Prime Minister, Paul Reynaud, resigned, and was immediately replaced by Phillipe Petan, who immediately began peace talks with Germany.

Many protested to this, including Charles de Gaulle, who broadcasted a radio message from Britain, urging his fellow country men to fight. Whilst Lord Halifax, the British Foreign Secretary, was calling for peace talks through neutral Italy, Mussolini began forcing troops through the Alps on June 21st. The armistice eventually took effect on June 25th, 1940. The puppet of Vichy France was established whilst some overseas colonies remained under Allied French Control. However, Britain and the Commonwealth, with the assistance of a fractionalised France, now stood alone against the might of the German Army.

A photo of Hitler in front of the Eiffel Tower

Even though large tracts of Europe and many old and famous States have fallen or may fall into the grip of the Gestapo and all the odious apparatus of Nazi rule, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. And even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and the liberation of the Old.
Churchill’s famous speech to Parliament before Dunkirk

Hitler’s Pre-War Expansions

By 1938, Adolf Hitler had turned his attention toward Central Europe. His policy of uniting ethnic Germans within a “Greater Germany” had already been proclaimed for years, and Austria was a central target of this ambition.

Austrian Nationalist Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg had attempted to preserve Austrian independence while easing tensions with Germany. When the two met in February 1938, Hitler made clear that Austria’s sovereignty was no longer acceptable.

What is all this nonsense about your independence? Whether Austria is independent or not is not the question. There’s only one thing to discuss. Do you want the Anschluss brought about with bloodshed or without?
Hitler speaking with Schuschnigg

Schuschnigg announced a referendum on independence for 13 March, believing that a majority of Austrians would reject union with Germany. In response, Hitler ordered military preparations and demanded Schuschnigg’s resignation. Under threat of invasion and without support from Britain or France, Schuschnigg stepped down, and German troops entered Austria unopposed.

A photo of German soldiers driving through the Austrian streets

Although the annexation was achieved through intimidation and political coercion, it was not imposed on an entirely unwilling population. Austrian Nazis had been active for years, and many Austrians welcomed German forces with public celebrations. Another referendum held in April 1938 reported that 99.7 percent of voters approved of union with Germany, but the vote was conducted under conditions of propaganda, intimidation, and the exclusion of Jewish voters and political opponents. While many Austrians opposed annexation, a significant proportion supported it, particularly among German nationalists and Nazi sympathisers.

The consequences were immediate. Austrian Jews and political opponents were subjected to public humiliation, violence, and dispossession, often carried out by Austrian civilians as well as German authorities. In the weeks following the annexation, hundreds of Austrian Jews committed suicide, fearing worse under Nazi rule. Austria’s independence was destroyed, and its population was absorbed into the structures of the Nazi state.

Czechoslovakia was a democratic state with a modern army and extensive border fortifications, particularly in the Sudetenland, a mountainous region inhabited largely by ethnic Germans and held much of Czechoslovkia’s industry. With Austria annexed, Germany now surrounded the state of Czechoslovakia on three sides, who had open intentions about wanting to take Czechoslovakian territory. It was allied to France and had an agreement with the Soviet Union, but geographic and political realities weakened these arrangements. Soviet assistance would have required passage through Poland or Romania, both hostile to communism, and France showed little willingness to fight without British support.

Hitler claimed that ethnic Germans in the Sudetenland were oppressed and demanded that the territory be transferred to Germany. While minority grievances existed, the demand went far beyond cultural rights and threatened Czechoslovakia’s territorial integrity and security. Czechoslovakia appealed to Britain and France for support. Instead, both powers sought to avoid war by encouraging territorial concessions.

However much we may sympathise with a small nation confronted by a big and powerful neighbour, we cannot, in all circumstances, undertake to involve the whole British Empire in war simply on her account. If we have to fight, it must be on larger issues than that. I am myself a man of peace to the depths of my soul. Armed conflict between nations is a nightmare to me. But if I were convinced that any nation had made up its mind to dominate the world by fear of its force, I should feel that it should be resisted. And that such a domination like the people who believe in liberty, would not be worth living. But war is a fearful thing, and we must be very clear before we embark on it, that it is really the great issues that are at stake, and that a call to risk everything in their defense, when all the consequences are weighed, is irresistible.
Chamberlain’s statement on Czechoslovakia

In September 1938, Britain and France convened a conference with Germany and Italy to resolve the crisis. Czechoslovak representatives were not invited to attend. At the conference, Germany was granted the Sudetenland in return for Hitler’s promise that he would make no further territorial claims in Europe. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned home declaring that the agreement had secured “peace in our time.” The settlement dismantled Czechoslovakia’s defences and transferred major industrial resources to Germany.

Neville Chamberlain waving the agreement

The loss of the Sudetenland left Czechoslovakia strategically and politically crippled. Hungary seized southern Slovak territories soon afterward, while Germany supported a separatist movement in Slovakia that resulted in the creation of a dependent Slovak state under German influence. In March 1939, German forces occupied the remaining Czech lands and transformed them into the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia. This action demonstrated that Hitler’s promises at Munich had been tactical rather than sincere, and that his objectives extended beyond the unification of German-speaking populations.

At the same time, Germany exerted pressure on Lithuania over the Memel region, a small territory with a German-speaking population that had been detached from Germany after the First World War. In March 1939, Germany issued an ultimatum demanding its return. Lithuania, diplomatically isolated and facing overwhelming military superiority, ceded the territory without resistance.

The German Armistice

By November 1918, German morale was at an all time low. Despite Russia backing out of the war, they were now losing on the Western Front. The Kaiser had abdicated and had moved to the Netherlands, with a new democratic German government taking his place. Erich Ludendorff had resigned and was replaced by Wilhelm Groener. All of Germany’s allies had all either suffered defeat or surrendered. Everyone wanted the war to end but Germany wanted it more than anyone else.

The German government eventually requested that the allies meet to discuss the armistice. They met in Ferdinand Foch’s train carriage, located in the forest of Compiègne. Foch was French General and would be one of the main representatives of the allies.

A carriage of the same design on display in a museum. The original carriage was destroyed by the SS in 1940

They handed the Germans the terms of unconditional surrender without negotiation. They commanded that the German army leave the territories that they had occupied, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Alsace-Lorraine. They also requested a demilitarisation of the Rhineland, an area of Germany that bordered France. They also had to surrender much of their munitions and other army supplies. The Germans had no choice to agree to these harsh terms and the Armistice was signed at around 5am local time on November 11th, 1918, with the Armistice not taking effect until 11am.

During those 6 hours, another 3,000 men died for nothing. The last soldier of the war to die was German, who died not long after the Armistice took affect.

The Gallipoli Campaign

As the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, the war against Russia in the Caucuses had reached a stalemate. One thing Russia desperately needed was supplies. First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, believed that they needed to secure the land around the Dardanelles Strait, which would then lead into the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea beyond, allowing a secure supply line to Russia. It could also possibly help the Western Front, by opening up a new front to divert the German forces onto 3 fronts.

The first attempt at securing the strait was on March 18th, 1915 via a naval attack through the straight in an attempt to take out the Ottoman artillery guns. However, Ottoman sea mines had been placed in the strait and that, combined with the Ottoman gun fire, sank 3 battleships and the ships eventually had to retreat. On the 25th of April, 75,000 troops, comprising of French, British, Australian and Kiwi troops, commanded by General Ian Hamilton landed on the beaches of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Despite not having proper landing craft, instead having to row over, a decent beach head was formed.

The Anzac forces had landed North of their intended target and were now inside a cove. Due to their valiant efforts, the cove was named Anzac Cove.

British Officers in a trench at Gallipoli

However, once the beach head was formed, trench warfare soon began to set in. What made the trench warfare here worse was the glaring sun and the dysentery epidemic. Hamilton ordered another 60,000 men to attack Suvla Bay from the water. However, due to hesitation from Allied high command, the Ottoman’s had managed to dig defences and the bay was eventually recaptured by Mustafa Kemal Pasha on August 10th. The attempt to break the stalemate was a disastrous failure.

As allied and Ottoman casualties began to increase, the stalemate was no closer to breaking. Eventually, on December 7th, an evacuation was ordered, with the last troops leaving Gallipoli on January 6th of the next year.

Despite its significance in Australian, Kiwi and Turkish history, the Gallipoli campaign is still considered to be one of the greatest catastrophe for the allies during the war. One of the main problems with the campaign was that, despite the Allied advantage, no orders were issued and due to the lack of coordination the allies could not advance. They were instead ordered to dig in, which was considered to be highly counterproductive. The campaign ultimately failed to take the pressure off Russia, which many attribute as the reason of the Russian Revolutions of February and October of 1917.

Casualties

Allies – 220,000
Ottoman – 250,000

The Christmas Truce

Well, I thought the same as everybody else. Everybody said ‘It’ll be over by Christmas and you’ve got to get out soon, otherwise you won’t see anything’. But I don’t know if it was my opinion, or if everybody was saying it. One certainly changed one’s mind when we found how well-organised Jerry was compared with us for instance.
Bill Haine, a British Soldier in WW1

Despite what many claimed at home, the war was not over by Christmas. Winter was setting in and the fighting had slowed even more than before. Whilst the Christmas Truce of 1914 is seen as a unique one, ceasefires had been occurring all over the Western Front. A “turn a blind eye” attitude was becoming common place, despite orders from command. The harsh winter was also getting to the soldiers. The feeling of the first Christmas away from home was beginning to set in so gifts were sent. Kaiser Wilhelm sent cigars for the officers and pipes for the ranks while Princess Mary of Harewood sent out cigarettes, sweets and cards.

On Christmas Eve, the rain that had been flooding trenches for weeks had finally stopped, and the ice froze the floor of the trenches over, reducing the risk of trench foot significantly. Soon, snow fell upon No Mans Land and the gun fire slowly but surely dwindled into silence. Filled with merriment and joy, the German’s began to sing Silent Night in their trenches. The British officers, hearing this, believed it to be a challenge and began singing their own carols back at the Germans. However, what began as a competition eventually turned into a harmonisation of English and German voices. Many officers met by the wire, agreeing not to exchange gunfire the next day. However, such friendliness was not shared with the French or Belgian troops, as they were under occupation by the Germans at the time. However, they did agree to stop shooting in order to bury their dead.

Christmas Day came. Many British soldiers looked over the parapet to see German Soldiers standing upright in No Mans Land. The two sides got out and buried their dead. The two sides found they shared a communal experience, of having had their friends die and being sick of the war. Extra gifts given to them by their wives and families were exchanged. One notable exchange was between Captain Edward Hulse of the Scots Guard and Lieutenant Thomas of the 15th Westphalians. Thomas gave Hulse a Victoria Cross and a series of letters belonging to an officer who had been killed in a German trench in a previous attack, hoping to have them returned to his family. Touched by his empathy, Hulse gave Thomas his scarf he had received the night prior. Not having anything to give back, Thomas ordered a German troop to find the gloves given to him by his family in order to give them to Hulse. Unfortunately, Hulse ended up being killed in action the following April at the Battle of Neuve-Chappelle while trying to help his commanding officer. Thomas’ fate remains unknown

German and British troops playing football together on the battlefield

The most famous part of this truce were the football matches played between the two sides. Both sides brought out their own footballs, playing kick-about between the two trenches. However, not all was done with best intentions. This time of peace was used to repair dugouts and spy on the enemy. Some were cautious, with incidents of people spotting daggers being drawn and British soldiers not wanting to smoke German cigarettes for fear of poisoning.

Eventually, high command stepped in, fearing that the war would not go on if their troops knew their enemy as people. For some, the armistice was swift and done with by Boxing Day. Others carried on, pushing until New Years Eve. German command dispatched snipers whilst the French ordered artillery barrages. For high command, they believed the war machine had to go on and all human connection must be stamped out. There was never another ceasefire like this, not just in this war but any war since then.

The Basics of Trench Warfare

Initially, many trenches of World War 1 were glorified foxholes. But once the war began to set in, these trenches became more complex and became a vast system behind the front lines, including reserve trenches, dugouts and medical areas behind the trenches.

Trench warfare would tend to be very repetitive in nature. A battle would start with a large artillery bombardment from one side against the other. Many of these artillery barrages would cause Shell Shock or, as modern physcologists have called it, PTSD.

A British soldier suffering from Shell Shock

Then waves of troops would come over through an area called No Mans Land, the term for the empty land between the two trenches, which was often ravished by craters, barbed wire and dead trees. The guns from the defending side would open fire, usually massacring the wave. They offending side would then usually send wave after wave until they either gave up or captured the trench. Tens of thousands of lives would be lost, only to gain a few metres of land.

The trenches were often very crudely designed, as many suspected the war would not be long. Many had open mud on the floor, which would mean diseases such as trench foot would be spread. Rats were common place as well. However, the German trenches were considered to be more sturdy, being deeper and wider than the Allied trenches, allowing for better movement and cover. German trenches averaged around 12 feet in depth, whilst British ones averaged around 6 or 7 feet deep.

A drawing of a German Trench from a book

For when artillery fire came, bunkers were dug in, with the German ones being characterised as a lot more homely and comfortable.

By 1915, the true nature of the war began to set in and the trench fixtures became a lot more permanent. Machine gun turrets were set up and, eventually, the German’s began using the new weapon, chlorine gas. Poison gas was a key element of the war, despite it being illegal. Both sides would use this weapon on each other. Many died due to gas attacks and those who survived suffered later in life.

German Soldiers releasing some mustard gas

The Schlieffen Plan

Tsar Nicholas ordered the mobilisation of troops on July 29th and Kaiser Wilhelm mobilised theirs on the 30th. Because Russia had such a large army to mobilise on such a large border, Germany believed they had to take out France first. Luckily, they had planned for this.

In 1906, Alfred Von Schliefen had devised a plan in case they needed to invade France. He proposed a plan of going through the Lowlands, of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, before attacking France from it’s northern border, encircling Paris, assuring a swift victory. The front could then be moved to Russia and their large army to focus on that front.

The invasion of Belgium began. Having reassured it’s safety, Britain joins the war against Germany, sending troops down to France. However, the advance slows at the heavily fortified city of Liege. Once the city was captured, the German’s committed brutal war crimes against the civilian population. The Triple Alliance spread propaganda, denouncing the German’s actions in the Belgian cities, making many neutral countries opinions of Germany turn sour.

France began to make a push into the German territory but were pushed back at a heavy cost in the Battle of the Frontiers

Belgian soldiers marching during the battle

The British troops eventually make an advance and fight with German troops at Mons. However, they were vastly outnumbered and had to retreat to the French frontline at the Marne River. It seemed as though the Schlieffen Plan would be a swift success.

However, the German’s needed to secure a naval port. The Allied Armies and the Germans quickly ran to the coast trying to flank one another, forming a full frontline, colliding at the First Battle of Ypres. However, due to some light tinkering from Helmuth von Moltke, the German line was under supplied so could not advance past this point for the meantime. The two lines began to dig in, building a network of trenches across the frontline.

Many believed that the plan itself was flawed and was destined to never work. Others claim that due to Moltke’s meddling, the plan failed. But no matter what you think was the cause for the Schlieffen Plan’s failure, the era of Trench Warfare had begun.