United Kingdom – Great History

The Iraq War

The millennium dawned and, that November, a new President was to be elected. Bill Clinton served his two terms as allowed in the 22nd Amendment the Democrats needed a new candidate to lead them this election. The obvious choice fell to Clinton’s VP, Al Gore, who had Joe Lieberman, a Senator and former Attorney General from Connecticut, as his running mate. Whilst the Republican Primaries were a lot more competitive, George Bush, son of George H. W. Bush and Governor of Texas, came out on top, choosing Dick Cheney from Wyoming, the Secretary of Defence for his father and a former House Minority Whip, as his pick for VP. A lot of both the campaigns focused on domestic policy as, at the time, the United States was not involved in a single conflict.

I don’t think our troops ought to be used for what’s called nation-building. I think our troops ought to be used to fight and win war.
George Bush, Second Presidential Debate, 2000

A photo of a debate between Gore (left) and Bush (right)

Election day came and no-one won. The states were relatively evenly divided, with Gore having 266 Electoral Votes and Bush having 246, out of the 270 needed to win. However, the problem was Florida. Their problem was that the ballots were designed to cater to old people, a large part of Florida’s population and especially in the county of Palm Beach, wherein a hole would be punched in the ballot as many could not hold a pen properly. Which seems reasonable enough until you see how the ballot was formatted.

A photo of the Florida Ballot for Palm Beach

Some punched two holes in a ballot, some punched a hole that wasn’t even in one of the designated holes and some suspected that many Gore supporters were attempting to vote for him but voted for Pat Buchanan of the Reform Party by mistake, as Buchanan occupied the second hole whilst Gore occupied the third which doesn’t quite make sense as Gore was the candidate for the second largest party in the country. In the end, the whole thing was a disaster. At one point it seemed like Gore had the lead, which would mean he would win. At others, it seemed as though Bush had the lead, meaning he would win.

Eventually the results came through and Bush won. However, the margin was so narrow that a recount was demanded. Once the recount came through, Bush still won but the margin was even smaller than before, with now only a 300 vote difference. Eventually, Gore ended up going to the Supreme Court to demand another recount. After 5 weeks of proceedings, Gore eventually conceded the election, with the official count standing at 570 votes in favour of Bush in Florida, meaning he won the election and became the 43rd President of the United States, with only 271 Electoral Votes. Gore still won the popular vote on a national scale by a 0.52% margin. This election was one of if not the closest in history. And it was an election that would change the world.

For the first few months of George Bush’s Presidency, he was considered relatively fine. He didn’t do much to change any of what had come before and mostly stuck to his campaign promises. However, all that changed one fateful day.

A photo of Flight 175 hitting the Second Tower of the WTC

In a response to 9/11, Congress, through the Authorisation for Use of Military Force, gave Bush the right to go to war against terrorism anywhere in the world, effectively declaring a War on Terror. With the Taliban removed from power and al-Qaeda weakened but not destroyed, senior officials increasingly turned toward a second objective. Much of the foreign policy of the Bush administration in the 2000s was centred around neo-Conservatism, the belief that the United States not only has the capacity but the duty to shape geopolitics. Under Ronald Reagan, it largely targeted communist militias. However, under Bush it morphed into a different force.

Following 9/11, Congress passed the Authorisation for Use of Military Force, granting the President broad powers to wage what became known as the “War on Terror.” Although the initial campaign focused on al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan, attention within the Bush administration soon shifted toward Iraq. Senior officials, including Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, and Deputy to Rumsfeld Paul Wolfowitz, argued that Hussein represented a continuing threat to international security. This view was shaped partly by Iraq’s previous use of chemical weapons against Iran and its own population, its obstruction of United Nations weapons inspectors in the 1990s, and its defiance of earlier UN Security Council resolutions. Although no operational link was ever found between Hussein’s regime and al-Qaeda or any other terror group, members of the administration increasingly framed Iraq as part of the wider terrorist threat. Officials warned that Iraq could be supplying WMDs to extremist groups, a claim that did not rely on actual confirmed evidence in any capacity. Cheney asserted there was “no doubt” that Iraq possessed such weapons, while Rumsfeld suggested that Iraq’s failure to account fully for past programmes implied the existence of hidden stockpiles. In his 2002 State of the Union Address, Bush declared Iraq part of an “axis of evil” between itself, Iran and North Korea, accusing Hussein of creating nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

A photo of Cheney (left) and George W. Bush

Britain played a central role in reinforcing this narrative. Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair strongly supported the American position and committed Britain to a close alliance with Washington. His director of communications, Alastair Campbell, was instrumental in shaping the public presentation of intelligence. In September 2002, the British government published a dossier claiming that Iraq possessed WMDs that could be deployed within 45 minutes. This document was later criticised for overstating the certainty of its conclusions and for using unverified intelligence reports. A second dossier, released in early 2003, drew heavily on plagiarised academic material and outdated sources, earning it the nickname the “dodgy dossier” in the British press. Some of the claims published in the dossier were suggested to have been sourced from popular action films according to a public inquiry into Iraq. The inquiries also found that political pressure had encouraged intelligence to be presented with greater confidence than the underlying evidence justified.

It was pointed out that glass containers were not typically used in chemical munitions; and that a popular movie [The Rock] has inaccurately depicted nerve agents being carried in glass beads or spheres. […] The questions about the use of glass containers for chemical agents and the similarity of the description to those portrayed in The Rock had been recognised by [MI6]. There were some precedents for the use of glass containers but the points would be pursued when further material became available.
A transcript from the Chilcot Inquiry into the Iraq War

A photo of Tony Blair (right) and Downing Street Director of Communications, Alastair Campbell

By early 2003, more than 700 inspections by the UN had failed to uncover any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Hans Blix, head of the UN Inspection Commission, stated that, while Iraq had previously possessed such arms, there was no conclusive evidence that they still existed. Nevertheless, the United States and Britain argued that Iraq’s incomplete cooperation and past concealment justified military action.

In February 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell addressed the UN Security Council, presenting satellite photographs, intercepted communications, and testimony from defectors as proof of hidden weapons facilities. One of his most memorable demonstrations involved holding up a small vial to illustrate the lethal potential of anthrax. He said that the small vial contained one teaspoon of a substance and claimed the same amount of anthrax shut down the US government. This conclusion was based on the Anthrax Attacks that took place throughout the autumn of 2001, including one letter sent to Senator Tom Daschle’s office on Capitol Hill. When it was discovered that over a hundred people had inhaled a lethal dose of anthrax, due to spores that had reached the air vents, the Capitol building, the seat of the US Government, was shut down and Congress was temporarily adjourned, at the height of debate regarding the controversial Patriot Act. In all, 5 people were killed and 17 were injured across Washington DC, Florida, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut due to letters sent containing anthrax. Whilst it was later revealed that the culprit was a domestic threat, according to the FBI’s report on the case, the killer used fake jihadist messaging, allowing the Bush administration to claim it was a biological islamic terror attack. He then claimed that Hussein had “enough to fill tens of thousands of teaspoons,” and that Hussein had supplied jihadists with the anthrax used in the attacks.

When it became clear that the Security Council would not authorise force, Washington and Westminster chose to proceed without UN approval. On March 19th 2003, coalition forces led by the United States and Britain launched Operation Iraqi Freedom. The invasion was publicly justified as a necessary act of pre-emption to prevent Iraq from deploying or transferring weapons of mass destruction, and later as part of a strategy to reshape the Middle East in the name of security and democracy. Hussein was eventually captured in late 2003 and executed. On May 1st, 2003, Bush declared “Mission Accomplished” aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln in a now infamous speech declaring that the invasion was a success and that Iraq would never be a problem again.

The collapse of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003 did not bring stability to Iraq. Instead, it created a political and security vacuum. The rapid dissolution of the Iraqi army and the Baʿath Party left hundreds of thousands of armed men unemployed and excluded from the new political order. Many former soldiers and officials joined local resistance groups, motivated by nationalism, fear of marginalisation, or hostility toward foreign occupation. At the same time, weak border controls allowed foreign Islamist fighters to enter Iraq, transforming what began as a largely nationalist insurgency into a hybrid conflict involving sectarian militias and transnational jihadist organisations.

One of the most significant developments was the emergence of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) under the leadership of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The Sunni jihadist organisation sought to provoke civil war by deliberately targeting Shiite civilians and religious sites, hoping to destabilise Iraq and undermine the US-backed government. Sectarian violence escalated sharply after the bombing of the al-Askari Mosque in 2006, triggering widespread killings between Sunni and Shiite militias. Improvised explosive devices (IEDs), suicide bombings, and ambushes became defining features of the conflict, causing heavy casualties among coalition forces and Iraqi civilians alike. What had initially been presented as a swift regime change evolved into a prolonged and chaotic asymmetric counter-insurgency war.

Although Zarqawi was killed in a US airstrike in 2006, his organisation survived and adapted. During the late 2000s it split from the main al-Qaeda command and rebranded itself as the Islamic State of Iraq, attempting to present itself not merely as a terrorist organisation but as a state claiming territorial authority. The withdrawal of most US forces in 2011, combined with continued political exclusion of Iraq’s Sunni population by the Shiite-led government, allowed the group to build its strength. The outbreak of civil war in neighbouring Syria after 2011 further accelerated this process, providing new territory, recruits, and resources. By 2014, the organisation had expanded across borders and declared itself the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, more commonly and infamously known as ISIS. During its time in power, ISIS became one of the most brutal terror organisations and became a symbol abroad for the evils of fundamentalist Islam.

A photo of Brussels Airport in the aftermath of a bombing by ISIS in 2015

The insurgency had major political consequences at home. In the United States, rising troop deaths and the failure to locate any WMDs steadily eroded public support for the war. Revelations of prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib prison further damaged the credibility of the intervention, reinforcing the perception that the occupation was poorly planned and morally compromised. Although George W. Bush won re-election in 2004, the worsening situation in Iraq contributed to growing distrust with the Republican Party and fuelled large scale anti-war protests across the country. By the 2006 midterm Congressional elections, public frustration over Iraq helped deliver control of Congress to the Democrats and later the White House by 2009. In the United Kingdom, the insurgency undermined confidence in the war and in the government that had supported it. British forces were heavily involved in southern Iraq, particularly around Basra, where they faced sustained and brutal resistance from Shiite militias. As casualties mounted and instability persisted, criticism of Blair intensified. The exposure of flaws in the government’s intelligence claims led to public inquiries and long-term damage to trust in official statements about national security. The war became deeply unpopular, contributing to declining support for Blair’s New Labour and reinforcing scepticism about future British military interventions alongside the United States.

“[The Iraq War] divided parliament and set the government of the day against a majority of the British people as well as against the weight of global opinion. […] It was an act of military aggression launched on a false pretext as the inquiry accepts and has long been regarded as illegal by the overwhelming weight of international legal opinion. It led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq and the displacement of millions of refugees. It devastated Iraq’s infrastructure and society. […] By any measure, the invasion and occupation of Iraq was a catastrophe. The decision to invade in 2003 on the basis of what the Chilcot report calls “flawed intelligence” about weapons of mass destruction has had a far-reaching impact on us all. It also led to a fundamental breakdown in trust in politics and our institutions of government.”
Jeremy Corbyn, Labour Party Leader at a speech in Westminster in 2016

When Barack Obama entered office in 2009, he inherited two active wars and a populace whose opinion on foreign intervention was deeply skeptical at best and downright opposed at worst. His campaign had criticised the invasion of Iraq as a strategic error and promised a shift away from large scale occupations toward diplomacy and limited military engagement. In practice, however, Obama pursued a mixed approach of reducing America’s physical footprint in the Middle East while expanding indirect forms of warfare. In Iraq, Obama oversaw the withdrawal of most US combat troops by 2011, fulfilling a key campaign pledge. However, the fragile political settlement left behind proved unstable. The Shiite government marginalised Sunni communities, and unresolved sectarian tensions created space for militant groups to reemerge. These conditions enabled the rapid rise of ISIS, which captured large parts of Iraq and Syria by 2014. The United States was drawn back into the conflict through airstrikes and support for local forces. Whilst nowhere near the levels of troops sent in 2003, it was still perceived as too much by the public.

Overall, the Iraqi insurgency transformed the meaning of the war. What had begun as an invasion justified by weapons inspections and regime change became a prolonged struggle against decentralised militant groups, and ultimately gave rise to a new extremist movement in the form of ISIS. At home, it reshaped political debate in both Britain and America, weakening confidence in political leaders, deepening public distrust of intelligence based justifications for war, and leaving caution toward foreign intervention that would influence policy for years to come.

The Falklands War

In 1494, a line was drawn on a map by the Pope. This line dictated what would rightfully be owned by Spain or Portugal. On the Spain side of the line, there was a small cluster of islands, which would later go on to be named the Falkland Islands

In 1765, Anthony Cary, Viscount of Falkland, tasked a mariner by the name of John Strong to look for the wreck of a Spanish ship off the coast of Chile. On his way down, he discovered the islands and claimed them in the name of Britain. However, one year earlier, the French had found the Eastern most island. France, finding out about the British setting up a colony on the western island, called upon Spain to assist. Spain informed France about the line on the map, and, as they were allies, France peacefully handed over their colony to Spain. They warned the Spanish about the British on the Western Island. Once Spain had gone over there, the British claimed that the island was theirs as they were Protestants who did not care for the opinions of the Catholic Pope, but were threatened into leaving the island. Fearing a war with the British over this island, Spain attempted to call upon France, who could not join as they were not ready for war. That meant Spain had to give the colony back to the British. Eventually, British soldiers had to leave the region in order to deal with the American Revolution but left a plaque claiming their territory.

Once Napoleon had gotten into power, he invaded Spain, capturing King Ferdinand. This instability within Spain led to many South American Spanish colonies wanting independence, meaning that Spain had to leave the islands to deal with the crisis. The islands were left practically uninhabited for many years, except for penguins, fishers and gauchos, essentially Spanish cowboys.

Luis Vernet, a Merchant from Hamburg had recently moved to the United Provinces of the Rio de la Plata, modern day Argentina. He heard about the cows on the islands and had wanted to make some money through cattle farming. He got permission from both Rio de la Plata and the British government to set up a port on the Eastern Island. Eventually, some American ships came down and began whaling in the region, which angered Vernet. Vernet requested assistance from Rio de Plata, who gave him some weapons and appointed him governor of the islands. He seized the ships and arrested the crew. The US, learning of this, came down and bombarded the harbour.

Britain, finding out that Vernet had been appointed governor of the islands, pointed to the plaque claiming that the island was theirs. Britain came down with weapons, kicking them off the island. The island became a crowned colony in 1840, sheep were imported in 1851, two world wars came and went and the now Argentina was still claiming that they should own the islands.

It’s now 1982, and Leopoldo Galtieri was the ruler of Argentina under a right wing dictatorship. The economy was on the ropes and decided to recolonise the Falklands to distract the Argentinians from their economic crisis.

He decided that then was the time was to do it, as Britain was planning on cutting their military spending and the HMS Endurance had been withdrawn from the region. The Argentinians captured South Georgia Island before 600 troops were sent to the Falklands. The British Garrison at Port Louis put up resistance but were ultimately crushed by the much larger Argentine force. They assumed the British would do nothing about the invasion. They were incredibly wrong about this. Enter Margaret Thatcher.

Thatcher was a love her or hate her Prime Minister, with rarely a person having a middling opinion on her. But she was very well known for being tough, creating her nickname “The Iron Lady”

Thatcher declared an exclusion zone around the island, sending down a task force to deal with the islands. The UN weren’t happy with Argentina’s invasion, but every Latin American country other than Chile supported Argentina and the US had toppled the communists in 1976, which led to the dictatorship being established that Galtieri ruled over. Reagan requested that Thatcher not attack the Falklands, who obviously denied such a request. Reagan instead armed thatcher with some American guns.

Having travelled 8000 miles, the Argentinian troops had time to entrench themselves, setting up defences and mines. The Royal Navy made easy work of obtaining Naval superiority. The British sank and Argentine Cruise ship outside the exclusion zone. After the sinking, the Argentinian navy withdrew. Due to their Air Bases on the Island, the Argentinians managed to maintain air superiority, sinking the HMS Sheffield on May 4th. The Argentinian air force would carry out raids on the Navy, whilst naval Harriers attempted to take down the Argentine Planes. As the aerial battles raged on, San Carlos was declared as the best landing spot. An SAS raid was carried out on Pebble Island whilst ships engaged on skirmishes, taking out the Argentine Naval Presence.

The landings began on May 21st. Argentinian aircraft would fly over the ships, damaging a few and sinking others. The Fleet Air Arm and the Anti-Air guns made quick work of the Argentine Air Force, allowing a beach head to form. Forces began pushing East and South, towards Port Stanley and Goose Green respectively. Despite having a smaller army deployed in the area, the British would usually win battles, with the larger Argentinian Forces surrendering. After 14 hours of battling, Goose Green was captured by the British, taking 900 Argentinian POWs. The British began preparing for battle at Port Stanley, eventually taking control of the hilly and mountainous areas around the Capital. The Argentinians retreated into the town, where they were bombarded by the Royal Navy. Surrounded, the Argentinians surrendered on June 14th, ending the war.

Around 200 British lives were lost, with around 600 on the Argentinian side. The Islands were firmly British. In 2013, a referendum was held, wherein there was a 99.8% support for British Ownership. Only 3 people voted in favour of Argentina.

The Assassination of Lord Mountbatten

Lord Louis Mountbatten was a Statesman, Naval Officer and the 1st Earl of Burma. He was the uncle of Prince Phillip of Greece and Denmark. Louis was a great influence on the young Phillip so he ended up taking Mountbatten’s surname. When Phillip married the then Princess Elizabeth in 1947, Louis ended up becoming an honorary member of the royal family.

Meanwhile, a group of radical Irish Republican Catholics began believing that Ireland was meant to be united as one, instead of split between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. This group would call themselves the IRA or the (Provisional) Irish Republican Army

One of their members was Thomas McMahon. Not much is known about McMahon, other than he was one of the most skilled bomb makers in the IRA.

On the night of August 26th, 1979 in Mullaghmore Harbour in the Republic of Ireland, McMahon is reported to have slipped onto a boat, the Shadow V, and left undetected.

The next morning, Mountbatten went out fishing on the Shadow V with his grandsons, Nicholas and Timothy Knatchbull, his daughter and son-in-law, Patricia and John Knatchbull, his mother-in-law, Doreen Knatchbull, and a crew boy named Paul Maxwell. A few hours after they set sail, they were off shore, when all of a sudden…

A large explosion erupted from the boat. The explosion was allegedly so powerful that Mountbatten’s legs were nearly torn clean off. He was found in the water alive and pulled to shore, but succumbed to his injuries before he reached the shoreline. Paul and Nicholas were also killed in the explosion. All other occupants of the boat were seriously injured, with Doreen dying in hospital from her wounds soon afterwards.

The IRA claimed responsibility for the attack. McMahon had gone onto the boat to plant a bomb made of gelignite. He was arrested for suspicion of driving a stolen vehicle. Traces of the paint from Shadow V and nitroglycerine were found on his clothes, connecting him to the attacks, so he was sentenced to life in prison. The IRA claimed that the attack was “a discriminate act to bring to the attention of the English people the continuing occupation of our country”. This day was the deadliest attack in IRA history, as that same day a British Military convoy was attacked by the IRA in a guerilla ambush, killing 18 men. Margaret Thatcher, the British Prime Minister at the time, ramped up SAS involvement in the Troubles, ordering them to kill any known IRA volunteers. She was also the victim of a bombing at a hotel she was staying at in Brighton, but was left only lightly injured. McMahon was eventually paroled in 1998, in accordance with the Good Friday Agreement

In the aftermath of the bombing, many head of states, including Jimmy Carter, US President, and Pope John Paul II sent their condolences to the royal family, the US State Department saying that “Americans will especially recall his great contribution to our common cause in World War II as well as his many services to this country and to the world since then.” Many others regard Mountbatten as a war hero for his service in World War 2, defending against the axis powers. A 3 day period of mourning was observed in Burma. His state funeral was held on September 5th, 1979

The Rhodesian Bush War

In the late 19th century, resource rich territories in Northern and Western territories in what is now Zimbabwe caught the eye of Cecil Rhodes, a British Mining Magnate. Using his royally chartered company, the British South Africa Company (BSAC), he was able to force his way into the area, despite resistance from native tribes. Eventually, British settlers began coming en-masse to find work and land. BSAC was henceforth given full control of the region which would later become known as Rhodesia, named in honour of BSAC’s founder.

A cartoon comparing Cecil Rhodes to the Ancient Wonder of the World ‘The Colossus of Rhodes’

However, land disputes between the British settlers and the indigenous population soured racial tensions between the two groups. Much of Rhodesia’s domestic policy relied on a segregationist system, similar to the Jim Crow South, that favoured the white minority population. Despite only making up 5% of the Rhodesian population, they controlled all aspects of government, with only 15 seats of the 65 seats in the Rhodesian Parliament being allocated to black politicians in the 1962 election by Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith. Whilst the black population were given the right to vote, the registration process required a higher education, something that was systematically made much more accessible to the white population than the black population.

As anti-monarchist and anti-colonial sentiment in British life began to make waves, the decolonisation efforts of Harold Wilson’s Labour Government began to be enforced. Their policy was simple. “No independence before majority rule.” The white ruling class of Rhodesia began to panic, fearing a similar fate to the mass upheaval that befell the Congo upon its independence from Belgium. In this panic, the government unilaterally declared independence from Britain in 1965. Smith stated that:

Rhodesia did not want to seize independence from Britain. It was forced upon us.
Rhodesian Prime Minister, Ian Smith

Ian Smith signing the declaration of independence

This was condemned at large by the international community but Rhodesians saw this as an act of survival. From this date forth, they were privately funded by South Africa and Portuguese Mozambique. However, many Rhodesian Black Nationalists, wanting a majority rule, saw this as an opportunity. The black majority population of Rhodesia saw the Rhodesian declaration of independence as a move in order for the white majority government to secure more power for themselves and undermine the black population and their rights even more than they had before.

The two notable factions of the black nationalists were the Zimbabwean Africa People’s Union (ZAPU) and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), both of whom adhered to communism. Whilst ZAPU adhered to Marxist-Leninist doctrine and preferred traditional open warfare, ZANU, a splinter group of ZAPU, adhered to Maoism and received backing from China, whilst practicing guerilla fighting. However, both these groups had been banned following the 1964 killing of Andrew Oberholzer by ZANU insurgents. Largely condemned as a political crime against an innocent foreman, key figures from both groups, such as Joshua Nkomo, head and co-founder of ZAPU, Ndabaningi Sithole, co-founder of ZANU, and Robert Mugabe, head of ZANU, were sentenced to ten years in prison, whilst their paramilitary branches went into exile. Eventually, insurgent operations conducted from exile eventually devolved into an asymmetric bush war.

A photo of Muagbe (left) and Nkomo (right)

When the declaration of independence escalated conflict between black nationalist cells and the Rhodesian government, Rhodesia was not fully alone in the conflict. Despite a UN embargo, the secret pipelines through South Africa and Portuguese Mozambique kept them supplied. Despite their vast advantage over the enemy, with the highly trained SAS and air superiority, many of the ZANU and ZAPU forces had taken extensive training in Cuba, the USSR and North Korea. In addition, the Rhodesians could not secure their borders from the guerillas, who were being actively assisted by insurgents from Mozambique. Most of the fighting took place trying to secure the North eastern border. However, the insurgents were becoming much more resilient to Rhodesia’s efforts. Much of this led to both sides committing great atrocities. The black nationalists abducted children into their cause to fight and conducted raids on white farms whilst the Rhodesian army often tortured and executed insurgents extrajudicially.

When Portugal’s African colonies claimed their independence, the Rhodesians began working with South Africa for a ceasefire, unintentionally allowing the resistance to regroup. However, by 1975, ZANU and ZAPU had resorted to infighting, including the assassination of leaders and targeting each other as much as they did with the Rhodesian army. ZANU was eventually forced into retreating to a headquarters in Mozambique before resuming the fighting by early 1976, much more brutally than before. In response, the Rhodesians began conducting operations outside of Rhodesia’s borders in order to crush external militia help. Most notably, a group of Rhodesian soldiers disguised as Fromila (Mozambique black nationalist) soldiers entered Nyadzona in Mozambique, and began opening fire on a camp just outside the city. This drew mass controversy as the camp did not just consist of insurgents but also refugees, including the elderly, women and children. The raid killed over 1000 people, according to Amnesty International. Due to this, South Africa withdrew its support. Rhodesia was now completely isolated.

Rhodesia soldiers donning Fromila uniform and blackface in order to infiltrate Mozambique

Eventually, peace talks between the black nationalists and Smith’s administration began. Bishop Abel Muzorewa, leader of the United African National Council, began talks with Smith, establishing Zimbabwe-Rhodesia as a transitional government to stable majority rule, whilst still allowing white representation. This angered many guerilla forces, seen as appeasing the white minority rule. The fighting escalated, leading to more atrocities committed by the Black Nationalists, such as the infamous Elim Mission Massacre, where ZANU forces killed 12 Christian missionaries, including a child in its pyjamas, and raped 4 of the 5 women at the mission. As ZANU marched west and ZAPU marched east, their fighting often focused more on each other than Rhodesian security forces, desperate to stop the skirmishes turning into all out civil war.

Eventually, the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979 eventually marked a shift towards peace. Under temporary British rule, Rhodesia collapsed and Zimbabwe took its place. In the subsequent 1980 elections, allegations of voter intimidation and a potential military coup were rife. As a result, Robert Mugabe rose to become Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and later President, positions that he would control for almost 40 years. Whilst his administration expanded healthcare and education opportunities, it was also mired by mass political suppression and the violent seizure of land from white farmers, which led to decreased food production and a famine. The former guerilla fighters became a private militia for Mugabe by 2000, who killed more than 100 people in violent election campaigns. Mass hyperinflation was a large problem under Mugabe’s regime, leading to the introduction of a Z$100 trillion note, that only made the economy worse. Currently, £1 in the UK (worth about $1.34 USD) is worth over Z$87,100. He was eventually ousted in a coup in 2017 and replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa, a regime change that has merely led to even more political suppression. Mugabe passed away in 2019. As of 2025, Zimbabwe is still not a member of the Commonwealth, despite its efforts to be readmitted.

A photo of Mugabe at the United Nations General Assembly

The reputation and legacy of both Rhodesia and the black nationalists are controversial. Whilst Rhodesia’s economy prospered greatly despite the international sanctions, its foundational systematic racist segregation policies has led to the flag being embraced as a symbol by modern white supremacist movements. Many perceive the black nationalists as liberators from colonial rule, whilst some focus on their brutality during the war and the political suppression, corruption and dire economy once in power to condemn them. The Rhodesian Bush War has been described by many as Africa’s equivalent to the Vietnam War.

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 Hunt for the Bismarck

By 1941, Paris had fallen to the Nazis. The next big target on Hitler’s wish list was the United Kingdom. In one ear he had Karl Doenitz, head of the Kreigsmarine and U-Boat effort said that Hitler needed to expand U-Boat operations in the Atlantic Ocean, in order to cut off Britain’s supplies and force them into surrender through starvation. In his other ear, he had Erich Raeder, the Chief of the German Navy High Command, who said that if Hitler built some very large battleships, he could destroy Britain’s mighty Royal Navy. Soon, Hitler’s mind was made up.

Admiral John Tovey, Commander in Chief of the Home Fleet was stationed at Scapa Flow, a large ocean stretch in the North of Scotland. His mission was to patrol the vast expanse of Greenland and Nazi occupied Norway. At his base, he had been receiving regular intel about this ship. A ship so large that it is the third largest battleship in human history and the largest ever used by a European country. That ship was the Bismarck.

Towering over its opponents at almost 30 ft tall, this eight 15-inch gun battleship was the might of the German Navy. Weighing in at around 40,000 tons and being equipped with the top grade armour, it was a flagrant violation of Post WW1 treaties, that limited the size of German ships.

However, while the Royal Navy was mighty once, it had somewhat lost its touch since WW1. Due to naval treaties, battleships could not be produced in the interwar period, so many ships had to be converted to match and, in some cases, not very well. Ships that were produced because of the war were produced very hastily and thus not equipped very well, and hardly had any time to test to see if they functioned.

Whilst it was operating in the Baltics at the time, a real fear of the British Naval command was the Bismarck making a break through the North Sea and escaping into the Atlantic, a guaranteed disaster for the British. And it was possible this fear was becoming a reality, as Tovey was informed that the Bismarck had left a Polish port 3 days earlier, whilst a group of German boats had been spotted passing in between Denmark and Norway. Tovey ordered his men to refuel and stand by.

A photo of the *Bismarck* moored in the fjord

An RAF scouting plane spotted a large boat, shadowed by a small cruiser, in a Norwegian Fjord. The plane sent photos back to base, where analysts confirm it’s the Bismarck, accompanied by the Prinz Eugen. A foul fog soon set in, and Vice Admiral Lancelot Holland is ordered to guard the oceans surrounding the possible path of the Bismarck from a naval base in Iceland, with Tovey believing it’ll take this opportunity to slip out into the Atlantic. A reconnaissance plane flies to the Bismarck‘s last known position below the clouds. It’s gone. Tovey ordered his fleet, who have been stationed at Scapa Flow, to sail for Iceland, filling up the gaps across Holland’s line. Tovey then radioed Holland, ordering him to maintain radio silence.

In the Denmark Strait, two cruisers were patrolling the water. One young crew man spots the Bismarck and the Prinz Eugen. Knowing that they could not take on the 15-inch guns and that they could not pierce the armour, the cruisers took a sharp turn into the fog. Notifying the other cruiser, the radar was activated, a true technical marvel at the time. However, the second cruiser had a very close call with the Bismarck, only being 6 miles out. Shots rang out from the Bismarck as the cruiser made its getaway. Soon, HMS Prince of Wales, commanded by Captain John Leach and HMS Hood, commanded by Captain Ralph Kerr with Holland aboard, set sail to confront the Bismarck.

Hood, was one of the warships that had been built in 1918 and revamped for WW2 but was still largely considered to be the pride of the Royal Navy, whilst Prince of Wales was a new one, fresh out of the factory only 2 months prior. Prince of Wales was still having mechanical problems, with civilian engineers still fixing hydraulics issues by the time they encountered the German ships. At 6AM on the 24th of May, 1941, Holland ordered his men to fire at the leading ship. However, Hitler had, unconventionally, placed the cruiser first. The Bismarck was the second ship. Realising the error, Leach opened fire on the Bismarck all their shots missed. They had lost the element of surprise and were now sitting ducks.

Whilst a few shots were hit against the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, the British ships were no match for the German 15-inch guns, which laid waste to them. Unfortunately, Hood was struck hard. Leach watched in horror as a large fire erupted from the centre of the Hood, before it exploded, splitting in half and sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Both Holland and Kerr were lost in the destruction.

The Prince of Wales manages to put itself in the exact same position that the Hood was in just moments earlier. After getting a lucky hit off on the Bismarck, a shell crashed through the bridge, killing all but 4. Leach was luckily one of those 4. He managed to order a retreat, dispensing a smoke screen to cover his get away. Out of the crew of 1,318 men, only 3 were rescued from the Hood. The Battle of the Denmark Strait was a disaster for the British and the Bismarck now had a clear path to the Atlantic but, thankfully, the fight was not over yet.

Reconnaissance planes saw oil slicks in the area, trailing away. It appeared as though Bismarck had been damaged in the battle. This should be a relief but Tovey began to worry. A while back, some of what was Holland’s Icelandic guard had lost the Bismarck on their radars. They had no idea where the beast was. Depending on how bad the damage was, there could be a mid ocean refuelling if the damage wasn’t that bad. If it was bad, it would most likely return to base, at either France or Norway. Analysts believed that it would stop at France, due to the signals being sent to the Bismarck had changed source from Berlin to Paris. Tovey’s map, due to a mathematical error, indicated that the Bismarck was travelling North to Norway. Tovey charged his fleet north, to where he believed the Bismarck might be.

Back on the home front, in Bletchley Park, mathematicians and codebreakers were scrambling to find any clues on the Bismarck’s whereabouts, before one German speaking codebreaker noticed something. A letter from a concerned father to German Naval Command, asking whether his son, who was serving on the Bismarck, was safe after the battle. The Navy confirmed that everyone was fine and that they were headed to Brest for refuelling. This message was quickly conveyed to Tovey aboard the King George V.

A photo of Bletchley Park during the war

Meanwhile, American lent scout planes were surveying the area, and spotted a large battleship leaking oil which opens fire with the anti-aircraft guns. They’ve found the Bismarck. As the planes climbed, they relayed this to the Admiralty. The HMS Ark Royal, an aircraft carrier, headed straight to the location. The had to catch her now, before she got in the range of the Luftwaffe airbases in France, where she would be unstoppable. 15 Swordfish torpedo bombers took off from the aircraft carrier. With intel claiming that it’s the only ship in the area, the Swordfish got into attack formation upon seeing a ship. The HMS Sheffield, however, realises that the Swordfish were targeting them instead. As four of the Swordfish pulled out, having realised their error, 11 released the new magnetic torpedoes. 6, thankfully, detonate on contact with the water and Sheffield managed to weave through the other 5.

The Swordfish returned to the carrier before heading out one last time. This is their final chance to sink the Behemoth. In their attack run, two torpedoes strike the Bismarck, one in its side and one in its stern. They saw the Bismarck sail on. Having prepped to report a mission failure, the jubilant crew of the aircraft carrier reported that the Bismarck was acting erratically, indicating that the torpedo run had damaged its steering.

Over next few hours, destroyers, under Tovey’s orders, have been firing upon the ship, making sure it’s occupied and cannot return to base. However, they still kept their distance till morning when Tovey spotted the Bismarck at around 9 in the morning on the 27th of May, 3 days after the sinking of the Hood. Tovey’s plan involved approaching the Bismarck from all sides, in order to disperse the gunfire across 4 directions. But first, an advance from the West must occur. One of the ships, the old, slow HMS Rodney, managed to take out the main fire control director with its massive 16-inch guns. With the Bismarck falling silent for a moment, the barrage began. The assault was from multiple sides, with even the Norfolk and Dorsetshire‘s 8-inch guns making decent work of the upper deck. An ammunition locker exploded, taking the secondary fire control director with it. The Bismarck’s crew were now firing whenever and wherever they wanted. Once the main guns fell silent permanently and the bridge down, Tovey began slamming broadsides into the Bismarck. Shockingly, it did not go under, even after 50 minutes of fire. Tovey ordered the Dorsetshire to finish the Bismarck while the other ships returned to base, which fires to torpedoes into the hull. The pride of Hitler’s fleet is finally sunk.

As they’re pulling German men out of the water, the crew of the Dorsetshire noticed a periscope peering over the water line. The Captain ordered the Dorsetshire to move, less it be sunk, abandoning hundreds of men in the water. Out of the 2,200 men on the Bismarck, only 114 were pulled from the water.

In Parliament the next day, Churchill sat down just before he was handed a note. He stood and proclaimed:

I have received news that the Bismarck is sunk.
Churchill speaking to the House of Commons

A photo of Churchill in the House of Commons

Bletchley Park erupted into cheers and applause. The sinking of the Bismarck was a naval victory that Britain desperately needed. It showed the competence of Bletchley Park and that they were highly important to the war effort. It distracted the press from the naval losses in the Mediterranean. And, most importantly, it showed the US Congress, who were hesitant about the war, that the Royal Navy could defend American Convoys. Despite Goebbels portraying the Bismarck as a noble last stand Hitler, from then on, would only use capital ships in defence of Germany, listening to Doenitz and expanding U-Boat operations in the Atlantic. Only 3 weeks later, Hitler would attack the Soviet Union, the beginning of the end for the Third Reich. The hunt for the Bismarck showed that even in the face of the might of Germany that Britain would never give up and never surrender.

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.