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sungate.co.uk

sungate.co.uk

Ramblings about stuff

3 September 1939

Exactly 67 years ago, World War II began. Although there had already been a fair degree of conflict leading up to this date (both in Europe and the Pacific) it was the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939 that officially got the ball rolling. Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany and thus began the most descructive conflict in human history.

I find the history of World War II fascinating, although I’m not entirely sure why. I’m writing this blog entry in an effort to find out why.

I think my interest falls into two main areas: (1) the strategic approach to conflict, from large scale battles down to smaller-scale fighting. I play chess and have a mind which approaches many problem from a “what’s the best way to solve this?” angle; and (2) the human side, by which I mean “What on earth would it have been like to have lived through or been involved in this war?”

Regarding (1), this is a far more ‘detached from reality’ interest, where the war is reduced to strategies and tactics. Watching a documentary where the narrator presents a map of the battlefield and then explains “$PERSON attacked here, but was quickly driven back” probably actually means “dozens or even hundreds of people were killed here when $PERSON ordered an unsuccessful attack”. I think I like this aspect from an intellectual level, however. Similarly, the success of British codebreakers at Bletchley Park interests me greatly: decoding the enemy’s secret messages.

As far as (2) is concerned, think about this: imagine that everyone of the appropriate age was to be called up to fight. No sitting down in the evening to watch Eastenders, you’re stuck in a ditch somewhere, maybe only a few hundred yards from thousands of enemy soldiers who want to kill you and all your friends. Planes are dropping bombs on you, and back home they’re dropping bombs on your wife and children. You’ve been in that ditch, or others like it, for many months or even years. Many of your friends have been killed or seriously injured: you’ve witnessed much of this first hand. In addition, perhaps you’ve also killed some of the enemy. Although after a while a degree of numbness to the horror of the situation may develop, the inital terrifying fear must be incredible.

As recently as a little over 60 years ago, this was the reality in Britain, much of Europe and many other parts of the world. Many, many populations were subject to enemy occupation. And the scary part about all this is the seemingly innocuous way in which it all started. Hitler was democratically elected in Germany in 1933, for example and he certainly never wanted a war with Britain.

Given how comparitively recent history this actually is, it seems incredibly hard to understand what it was really like.

Every serious historian who studies World War II usually says that such study is necessary “to ensure that a similar tragedy never, ever happens again in the future”. Let’s hope that’s true.

One Response to 3 September 1939

  1. After the first Gulf war, I read with interest how the technology of the Alied forces was used. Reading a description of how the armour on the Alied tanks was far supperior to the T72’s, and how they were able to destroy the T72’s which were dug in, while driving at full speed accros the desert, I was first amazed at how clever this was. Then I realized that there was no mention of the human aspect. For every active T72 that was destroyed, FIVE people were killed. There is nothing clever about that. War is a BAD thing.

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