THE LONG ROAD TO N3 VICTORY

A HISTORICAL NARRATIVE AND A CHRONOLOGICAL REGISTER OF THE EVENTS OF THE WAR IN EUROPE AND AFRICA 1939-1945 WITH A LEADING ARTICLE

REPRINTED FROM

THE i c TIMES MAY 8, 1945

LONDON : PRINTING HOUSE SQUARE 1945

Price Two Pence

RISE AND FALL OF THE THIRD REICH

,THE LONG ROAD TO VICTORY N September 1, 1939, German menacing future ; and America talked of armour crossed the Polish a " phoney " war. The weakest point in frontier and German aero- the German front was the long line of sea communications with Narvik and the planes attacked Warsaw. Ten North Swedish iron fields. It was secured days earlier the signature of a Russo- against British sea power by the German German non-aggression pact had pro- use of sheltered Norwegian waters. In claimed the imminence of war and the February the British, impatient of this Germans0had now completed their pre- abuse of Norwegian neutrality, broke in parations for its outbreak. They had per- to rescue British prisoners from a German fected a new method of warfare, later to ship. On April 9 Germany decided that be known as Blitzkrieg, by a develop- neutrality had served its purpose and in- ment of the tactics which had finally over- vaded Denmark and Norway. The Danes come the static defence systems of the last yielded ; the Norwegians fought on and war. They now put into execution their an Anglo-French Army went to their plan for overrunning Poland in a mechan- aid. Imperfectly trained, inadequately ized offensive of hitherto unknown mobi- munitioned, and lacking air cover, it was lity. The air arm led the way, attacking forced to retire on its bases, from which the enemy's centres of communication, it was later withdrawn. During this brief scattering his columns on their way to their campaign the Germans revealed two more concentration points and blinding him by of their secret weapons, the one military, rendering his airfields unserviceable . the other political. The almost simul- Tanks formed the spearhead of the ground taneous seizure of all the key points in attack. They were followed by convoys southern and western Norway was made of motor transport conveying infantry and possible by the employment of parachute guns. Thrusting into Poland from north, troops, and the formation of the country's west, and south, these forces converged puppet government after its conquest was on Warsaw before the Polish High Com- entrusted to a Norwegian traitor, one mand could establish control over the Quisling, who " by merit raised to that troops dispersed along the country's bad eminence," was to give his name to frontiers. the whole contemptible breed of which he The campaign developed at a pace was the first notorious example. which amazed the world. Within a The unhappy issue of the Norwegian fortnight all western Poland was lost campaign had immediate and decisive political repercussions in Britain. At the and the Polish army, so far as it close of a debate in the House of Com- was still in being, had withdrawn mons a division was challenged. The strong behind Warsaw, already closely invested. opposition On September 17 the implicafiions of the vote decided Mr. Chamberlain Russo-German pact began to be revealed. to resign. After consulting the Oppo- Russian sition leaders the retiring Prune Minister troops entered Poland from the advisedthe King to send for Mr. Churchill. east and a few days later the stricken Labour, which had hitherto held aloof country suffered its fourth partition. By from office, entered the new Government the middle of Ocfober organized resist- representative of all parties in the State. ance in Poland had been crushed. There- Its core was a small war Cabinet with Mr. after, for more than 18 months, the war Churchill as Prime Minister and Minister in the east was to be conducted mainly of Defence. Mr. Churchill took office on under diplomatic forms. May 10, a day of momentous events in Europe. Happily for Britain the hour FALL OF FRANCE had produced the man. In the opening days of the war a British Expeditionary Force which eventually THE MIRACLE OF DUNKIRK amounted to 10 divisions crossed the On the same day the Germans opened Channel. Lord Gort was in command. the campaign intended, according to The Armies took up their positions on Hitler, to settle the course of history for their prepared lines. The world waited. 1,000 years. Holland and Belgium were Nothing happened. Both sides armed, invaded simultaneously on what appeared the Germans more rapidly because their to be an expanded version of the old war industries were in full operation. Schlieffen plan. The allies hastened to Germany matured her plans ; Britain and the support of Germany's victims-the France faced an unreal present and a British to fill the gap between the Belgians 2

and the French, the French to act as the It remained for Petain to complete the link between the Belgians and the Dutch. destruction of the Third Republic. Presi- did not interfere with these dent Lebrun transferred his constitutional The Germans powers to Petain, who at once proclaimed movements. Their main blow was to be lumself Chief of the French State. As such struck elsewhere. Realizing that motor- he formed a Government in winch his evil ized forces need not be held up by diffi- genius, Pierre Laval, was given the key post of cult country, they traversed the Ardennes, Foreign Minister and thus placed in charge of crossed the Meuse between Sedan and future negotiations with the Germans. Namur, and sent armoured divisions, with But though France had fallen, there were their race to the still Frenchmen. Before the armistice was effective air support, on signed General de Gaulle had issued his first Channel ports. In the closing days of call for continued resistance . When all seemed May the Germans secured both Boulogne lost he crossed to London, where on June 28 and Calais, and split the allied forces in the British Government recognized him as two. The position of the British in the Leader of the Free French. Before August north was now critical. Holland had was out most of French Equatorial Africa had rallied to his standard, the Cross of Lorraine, capitulated on May 15, and Belgium on but late in September his movement received a May 28. The seaway to England was check through his failure to gain Dakar. accessible only through Dunkirk. Through Nearly five years were to elapse before the this narrow gap there were safely evacu- patriot and soldier who had organized new ated in less than a week some 330,000 men, French forces in England and in the French nearly two-thirds them British. But colonies and had fostered the resistance move- of ment in Metropolitan France was to re-enter all their equipment was lost. Paris as the living symbol of his country's While these events were moving towards resurgence. their climax the French Prime Minister, M. Reynaud, sought to remedy an almost desperate RUSSIAN WAR situation by making two appointments, of PRELUDE TO which one proved futile and the other After the conquest of Poland the aim of disastrous . Dismissing General Gamelin, he Russian policy, with a view of German inten- entrusted the French command to General tions that events were to confirm in full, Weygand, who had been Foch's Chief of Staff was to control the buffer zone lying between and was regarded as the heir to his tradition. the new German lines and Russian territory To strengthen his Cabinet he recalled Marshal proper. Her first step was the absorption Petain from his Madrid Embassy and gave of the three Baltic States under the form him the post of Vice-Premier. of mutual assistance pacts-Estonia before Latvia and Lithuania Unable to stem the German rush to the September was out, coast, Weygand reformed his armies behind early in October. Only Finland proved and a small British recalcitrant and resisted by force the Russian the Somme and the Aisne claim to control both the land and the sea Expeditionary Force was landed in their sup- approaches to Leningrad. At first the Finnish port. It was too late, and on June 14 the successful. Gradu- Germans entered Paris, which had been resistance was brilliantly declared an open city. From Bordeaux, ally, however, the main Finnish position, the Cabinet so-called Mannerheim line guarding south- whither it had withdrawn, the French eastern Finland, was broken up by Russian requested the British Government to release 1940, was it from its obligation not to make a separate artillery, and by mid March, there peace. To thus the British Government-the again an apparent peace in eastern Europe. Coalition Ministry which Mr. Churchill had It lasted until the following October, when formed a month before-was prepared to con- Italian troops invaded Greece and soon showed sent if the French fleet first sailed to safety themselves increasingly unable to make head- in British ports. But the British proposal went way against their plucky and determined farther. It offered the union of the two States enemy. For the moment, the Germans were in a common citizenship if France would fight content to watch events in eastern Europe, on. The French Cabinet rejected this proposal, but in the spring of 1941 they developed M. Reynaud, who had favoured it, resigned, elaborate plans, political and military, which and the octogenarian Petain took his place to included aid to their embarrassed ally. Bulgaria become the central figure in the most and Rumania passed voluntarily into the humiliating episode in French history. German orbit-the latter after the loss of Petain's first act was to ask the Germans Bessarabia and the Bukovina to Russia-and for terms, and on June 22 an armistice was Yugoslavia would have followed their example signed at ComphBgne. It divided France into had her people not revolted against their two zones, the one occupied, the other unoccu- Government . After a few tense days the pied, which were roughly equal in area but Germans struck on April 6. Sweeping aside were so designed as to give the Germansevery the main Yugoslav forces, they penetrated the military and economic advantage. The Ger- Monastir gap, occupied Salonika, turned upon mans occupied the whole of northern France the Greek army which was driving the Italians down to the Loire valley as well as the entire out of Albania, and on April 27 announced, Atlantic coast to the Spanish frontier. The in words which symbolized the condition of facilities for submarine warfare thus provided Europe, that the swastika was floating over were promptly strengthened by the occupation the Acropolis. of the Channel Islands. Two days later the armistice with Italy-Mussolini had found it IN THE AIR opportune to declare war when the Germans WAR forced the Somme barrier-drew France's The R.A.F. at once took the offensive with teeth in the Mediterranean by binding her to raids on the German naval bases and at the demilitarize Toulon, her African ports, and a end of September the first serious air fight considerable stretch of her African territory. took place over I-Ieligoland. But the clash of 3

arms in the air developed slowly, and for some its way to Narvik in two brilliant engagements. months the R.A.F.'s main contacts with the Later it covered the evacuation of the allied enemy arose out of Coastal Command's troops from Namsos and Narvik at the cost of cooperation with the Navy in keeping the seas the loss of the aircraft-carrier Glorious, and clear. During this period, however, the leaflet took its great and gallant share in the war on Gerrpany was goring R.A.F. bombers operations off Dunkirk. In the outer oceans invaluable experience in night flying. Not till three British cruisers sought and found the May, 1940, did German bombs dropped in German battleship Admiral Graf Spee and Kent and on Middlesbrough give hints of with magnificent audacity forced her into the what was to befall. The Battle of Britain River Plate. When she came out she scuttled opened on August 8. It lasted for a month herself by Hitler's order. This was in Decem- and was then gradually merged in the Battle ber, 1939, and not till ear=y in 1941 were of London, familiarly known as the Blitz. German surface ships again active. The The original aim of the Luftwaffe was to pre- Schamhorst and the Gneisenau broke out in pare the way for the invading German armies February and were eventually driven to shelter by depriving the R.A.F. of the airfields in in Brest, where they became targets for the south-eastern England from which its fighters R.A.F., and on the night of May 21 the could take off. This battle reached its height Bismarck sailed out of Bergen . Three days on August 15, when 182 German aircraft were later, when brought to action between Iceland destroyed in an attack on Croydon aerodrome. and Greenland, she sank the Hood and Damage was done to other fields and some damaged the Prince of Wales, but while were temporarily put out of service in attacks making for a French Atlantic port she which reached their second climax on Septem- was attacked by aircraft of the Fleet Air Arm. ber 15 with 185 German aircraft destroyed, but Her rudder and propellers were damaged by the soil of England was kept inviolate by a au- attack, and next day, May 27, the Navy few hundred young men flying machines closed its net on her and sent her to the inferior to the enemy's in numbers but superior bottom. in design. It was to these days that Mr. Meanwhile Italy's entry into the war in Churchill referred in his famous phrase June, 1940, had transformed the naval situa- "Never in the field of human conflict was so tion in the Mediterranean. It was essential much owed by so many to so few." that the powerful French fleet should not fall into enemy hands. The French vessels at Defeated in its cooperation with the military, Alexandria were successfully neutralized, but the Luftwafe fell back on its second function the admiral commanding the powerful -that of terrorizing civilians. The first day- squadron at Mers el Kebir rejected the pro- light attack on central London took place on posals made to him and on July 3 the British August 24, the first all-night attack two nights reluctantly opened fire. A French battleship later. Early in September the Blitz began. ashore, nearly 60 was blown up, two more were driven At its height it was maintained for a fourth with some destroyers escaped to consecutive nights. Buckingham Palace was Toulon. Four months later, on November 11, damaged on September 11, and on the same the comunand of the Eastern Mediterranean night an unexploded bomb, happily removed was secured when the Fleet Air Arm crippled in time, threatened St. Paul's . The great in- the Italian fleet as it lay at anchor in Taranto cendiary attack on the City took place on the harbour. Not till the end of the following night of December 29, 1940, and the Blitz is March did the Italian fleet again put to sea. considered to have ended with the attack of Ordered by the Germans to break British com- May 10, 1941, which destroyed the House of munications with Crete and Greece, it was Commons and damaged the Abbey. Before brought to action off Cape Matapan and this date the Luftwaffe had again changed its driven back to its home ports after serious tactics. In its attempt to hamper British war losses. But the Germans had now taken over production it had launched its attacks on the Mediterranean war, and before launching Coventry, Birmingham, and Liverpool, and in their attack on Russia they safeguarded their the hope of neutralizing the British command southern flank by using air power against sea of the sea it lead bombed Plymouth, South- power. In the summer of 1941 British naval ampton, and Portsmouth. Meanwhile the strength in the Eastern Mediterranean was R.A.F., still gathering its strength, had begun weakening and Maltese heroism was already the daylight sweeps over France and the night enduring the grim ordeal of an air siege. attacks on German cities which were later to exercise so profoundan influence on the course MEDITERRANEAN . IN TIIB of the war The last six months of 1940 were full of WAR AT SEA peril to Britain's position as an imperial Power. On the first night of the war a German sub- Italian armies in Africa threatened Egypt, the marine sank the Athenia and opened what Suez Canal, the Red Sea, and, with the Italian became the Battle of the Atlantic . The conflict Navy still in being, British supplies and rein- was intense and prolonged, but the Atlantic forcements had to be sent round the Cape. life-line was maintained . Though still neutral Actually the Italians achieved nothing beyond the United States showed its concern to main- the occupation of British Somaliland . Early tain it. In September, 1940, the transfer of in December, three months after Marshal 50 American destroyers to the British flag in Graziani had begun his lumbering advance connexion with the lease of bases in the across the Egyptian desert, Sir Archibald Atlantic and the Caribbean eased the strain Wavell struck back with the imperial forces an escort vessels, and in the following spring under his command. The Italian Army broke the American Lease-Lend Act-first fruits of and surrendered, and the offensive, whose President Roosevelt's re-election to a third original objective was Tobruk, swept on until term of office~nsured the flow of goods. In on February 6, 1941, Australian troops entered home waters large defensive minefields were Benghazi. laid and the new German device of the In mid-January British, Dominion, Indian, magnetic mine countered by " degaussing " and East and West African forces advanced apparatus. There was little surface fighting. from the Sudan and Kenya into Eritrea, After the invasion of Norway the Navy forced Abyssinia, and Somaliland and in four months 4

destroyed Italy's East African Empire. Keren, infantry, though often outflanked and overrun the Eritrean mountain fortress, fell on March by German tanks, displayed the utmost deter- 27. Thereafter events moved swiftly. On mination, frequently breaking out of the rings May 5, five years after Mussolini had pro- of armour and mechanized infantry which the claimed his Empire in the Piazza Venezia, Haile enemy had thrown around them. Above all Selassie re-entered his capital, and a fortnight they had no reluctance to strip their own later the Italian Viceroy, the Duke of Aosta, countryside rather than allow its livestock and was a prisoner in British hands. The last transport and its stores of grain to fall into remnants of Italy's Ethiopian empire vanished the invaders' hands ; they had the great with the surrenderof Gondar on November 27, advantage of possessing ample space in which 1941 . to manoeuvre in retreat, and their commanders . with few exceptions, made all possible use of Even before General Wavell launched his these assets. attack, British aid had been sent to Greece. In the spring of 1941 the German menace to In the north Leeb's forces overran the Baltic the Balkans compelled further diversions of States, reaching the neighbourhood of Lenin- strength . A few days before the German on- grad in September, while the Finns threatened slaught on Yugoslavia the German Africa it from the north. Blockaded, except during Corps under Rommel showed its strength in the winter, when supplies reached it over frozen Africa and compelled the evacuation of Ben- Lake Ladoga, Leningrad bore famine, bom- ghazi. A series of rearguard actions followed bardment, and cold unflinchingly. In the centre as General Wavell retreated, leaving a strong Bock reached Smolensk on July 16 and held garrison in Tobruk to withstand a historic Russian counter-attacks during a 10 weeks' siege. The full scope of the German plan of halt. Rundstedt's armies, after several victories, campaign was now revealed . It proposed to occupied Kiev (September 19), Odessa (Octo- combine the German forces in Libya and ber 16), and Kharkov (October 24), and broke Greece as elements in a common offensive to into the Crimea (October 29) to beleaguer secure command of the Eastern Mediterranean Sevastopol . The fall of Rostov (November 22) and safeguard the southern flank of the armies marked the eastward limit of this advance. A soon to be launched against Russia. Accord- week later a Russian counter-stroke regained ingly on May 20 strong German airborne the city. Meanwhile the march on Moscow forces were dropped in Crete. The attacks of had begun on October 5. At first Bock's armies German bombers had compelled withdrawal of advanced rapidly. By November 1 they had the British fighters and the garrison had to taken Rzhev, Vyasma, Kaluga, and Orel, and fight without cover. The Navy, though sus- at one point they were but 60 miles from their taining heavy losses, prevented an invasion by goal. Although government departments, sea but more troops were dropped from the air foreign missions, and many non-combatants and after 11 days' heavy fighting all Crete had been evacuated to Kuibyshev from the passed into German hands. capital and the situation was described as " grave," Stalin stayed. The Red Army fought The stage was now set for the attack on tenaciously ; the impetus of the attack waned. Russia. A few uneasy weeks slipped by during which German and Russian forces On November 16 Bock renewed the attack gathered all along the line from the Baltic to with 51 divisions, attempting to combine the Black Sea. It may well be that the resistance encirclement from north and south with a in Greece and Yugoslavia imposed a fatal central thrust from Mozhaisk. After three delay upon the German concentration. Not weeks' furious fighting the Russians held their till June 22 did Hitler, satisfied that he could ground ; and on December 7 the German High better Napoleon's example, give the order to Command announced that all operations, march on Moscow. " being impeded by intanse cold," must be limited to securing safe winter quarters and suitable positions for a spring offensive. Aided TIDE'S SLOW TURN by an exceptionally bitter winter which inflicted The German armies concentrated on the heavy losses on the invaders the Russians Russian front from the Baltic to Bessarabia, pressed them back from 25 to 60 miles on the where Rumanian forces were in line with them, whole central front. On December 19 Hitler numbered over 160 divisions, about 20 of announced that he had taken the place of which were armoured. They were divided into Field-Marshal von Brauchitsch as Commander- three Army Groups, the northern under Field- in-Chief of the Army, that he would " follow Marshal von Leeb, the central under Field- his intuitions," and reserve to himself all Marshal von Bock, both north of the Pripet essential decisions in the military sphere. The marshes, and the southern under Field- allies had every cause to approve the change . Marshal von Rundstedt. An army of five divi- During the rest of the winter the Germans sions cooperated with the Finns. Five air stood on the defensive in fortified " hedge- fleets, each comprising from 800 to 1,200 hogs," the most important of which repelled aircraft, cooperated with the armies. This Russian attacks. They suffered greatly from great host numbered some 5,000,000 men, the attacks of well-organized Russian partisans highly trained, fanatically confident, and admir- infuriated by their cruelties. But they yielded ably equipped for all eventualities-except the no essential ground ; they had been reinforced Russian winter. The Russians, though pro- by Hungarian and Italian contingents and bably stronger numerically, had not completed from their own reserves, and awaited the their concentration when attacked . They met drying of the ground for their offensive. In the onset with a defence in depth which, though May they expelled the Russians from the it did not defeat the attack, checked its Kerch Peninsula, but while they were thus momentum and prevented any repetition of the engaged Marshal Timoshenko opened an German successes in Poland and France . offensive which nearly retook Kharkov (May They were far better found, especially in air- 14-17), but was halted by Pock's counter- craft and tanks, than the Poles had been, and offensive across the Donetz (May 19-26) . The the Finnish campaign had taught them valuable Germans then turned on Sevastopol, which fell lessons. It must be added that they fought after a desperate defence (July 1). On June 26 much better than the French had done. Their they opened dangerous, but eventually

disastrous, offensives against Stalingrad and which ceased on August 28 . The Shah did the Caucasian oilfields. not abide by his undertakings and was deposed. Persia became an ally and opened STALINGRAD AND AFTER a new line of communications with Russia At first the offensives prospered. The by road and rail. Nevertheless the fact that Germans forced the Donetz and the Don lines, the enemy now held both the Mediterranean and reached Stalingrad, on the Volga, and " narrows " between Sicily and Malta and Mozdok, in the northern Caucasus . But they between Crete and Cyrenaica under threat of were not strong enough for final victory on air attack cramped our Mediterranean opera- both fronts. In Stalingrad they encountered tions. Rommel, the German commander in an epic resistance (September 5-November 18), Libya, received reinforcements and supplies and on November 19 began the Russians' relief from Italy and Greece . Our reinforcements offensive which cut the besieging army's and supplies reached Egypt round the Cape of Good Hope, and were exposed to U-boat communications and besieged it in turn. The attack far longer than Axis transports cross- German Caucasus army, weakened by the ing the Sicilian Channel. So when we detachment o£ a force to relieve their Stalin- advanced into Libya in November we found grad forces, was driven back. The relieving the German armour and equipment superior force was defeated at Kotelnikovo (Decem- to ours, and though we relieved Tobruk and ber 29). On January 31, 1943, 46,000 men, all drove the enemy from Benghazi he regained it that battle, hunger, and cold had left of over in January, 1942. Even when the United 200,000 encircled soldiers, surrendered, with States was brought into the struggle by the their commander, Field-Marshal von Paulus, Japanese attack of December 7, 1941, and the outside Stalingrad . The whole southern front many gave way. The Germans had employed large German and Italian declarations of war, numbers of Hungarian and Italian troops on months passed before it entered the Medi supposedly quiet sectors on the flank of the terranean war in strength . Meanwhile, on great two-pronged salient which they had driven May 26 Rommel opened a new offensive, which to the Volga and along the northern flank of after alternations of fortune took Tobruk the Caucasus. Lacking training and enthusiasm, (June 21) and thrust our Eighth Army back to these satellite forces were rapidly overpowered ; El Alamein, 80 miles west of Alexandria . Here and their defeat involved that of their German General Auchinleck repulsed Rommel's attack masters, who were now tardily discovering that in July. In October his successor, General the Russians, who, according to their Fiihrer, Alexander, having been reinforced by British had been beaten beyond hope of recovery, infantry and American Sherman tanks possessed almost inexhaustible reserves of men ordered General Montgomery, the Commander and an inexhaustible spirit. These defeats com- of the Eighth Army, to attack, and after a pelled the Germans to spend themselves in a fortnight's battle the counter-stroke drove the vast series of rearguard actions fought always enemy headlong from Egypt with the loss of in bitter cold, often in snowstorms, against an two-thirds of his army. enemy whose endurance of cold and hardship The church bells ringing to celebrate the far exceeded their own. The " hedgehogs " victory carried a message of deliverance. For began to succumb to well-planned Russian over a year our naval position in the Mediterra- attacks. By mid-March the Russians were nean had been precarious . At one period we approaching the Dnieper, and, though the had but three cruisers available there, and every Germans temporarily regained Kharkov, the battleship had been lost or damaged. Con- balance of the winter campaign was heavily tinuously bombed Malta was also threatened against them. They suffered further losses on with famine . Admiral Vian's remarkable the central front, and on January 18 Leningrad battle against an immensely stronger Italian was relieved. Yet they still planned another fleet (March 22, 1942) in defence of the Malta offensive, though their last year in Russia had convoy gave the heroic garrison and popula- cost them and their satellites over 2,000,000 tion of the island relief at a most anxious dead and prisoners. On July 6 they attacked moment. between Orel and Bielgorod, only to be fought to a standstill, with immense losses of men BRITAIN AND THE LIFE-LINE and armour. By July 12 the Russians opened The situation in the Atlantic remained a general counter-offensive regaining Orel, serious. The entry of the United States into Kharkov, and Taganrog, with many other the war was followed by an intensified U-boat towns, by September 2. campaign, which extended to the West Indies, and inflicted great losses on allied shipping . FROM MALTA TO PERSIA Brazil joined the allies in August, 1942. With the loss of Crete, our situation in the The Germans carried combined operations Mediterranean had worsened, in spite of by strong groups of submarines-the " wolf- Middle Eastern successes. In Iraq, where the pack system "-to a high degree of efficiency. ex-Premier Rashid Ali and pro-Axis officers German aircraft ranged far into the Atlantic ; had seized power in April, 1941, had opposed E-boats harassed vessels in the narrow seas. our right of military passage guaranteed The journeys to Murmansk of the Arctic us by treaty, and attacked our aerodrome convoys carrying the arms and supplies which at Habbaniya, an expeditionary force had did much to support Russian resistance, restored order and the lawful Government by notably during the period of the removal of June 1. The Vichy French authorities in Syria industrial machinery fromwestern Russia to the had allowed Germans flying to Iraq to use Urals, involved terrible hardships and heavy Syrian airfields. Imperial, Dominion, and losses. On February 12 the Scharnhorst, Free French troops entered Syria on June 8 Gneisenau, and Prinz Eugen slipped out of and compelled the surrender of the garrison Brest and, detected only near the Straits of on July 14. In Persia German agents were Dover and covered by swarms of land-based active and increased in numbers after Hitler's aircraft escaped to German waters. The attack on Russia. The Shah neglected allied struggle against the U-boats continued warnings until on August 25 Imperial troops throughout the year. Early in 1943 invaded southern, and Soviet forces northern the Germans were still believed to be Persia, meeting only a token resistance, producing U-boats at a rate much exceed- 6 ing their losses. Hitler's appointment late in lent French troops, closed with General von January of Admiral Donitz, a convinced Arnim's army, captured Tunis and Bizerta, and adherent of unlimited submarine warfare, to on May 13 took the surrender of the famous be Commander-in-Chief of the German Navy Afrika Korps. Nearly 250,000 prisoners, three- gave evidence of the intention to increase the fifths of them Germans, fell into their hands. scale of these attacks. But three months later The allies now prepared to invade Italy, the number of monthly sinkings claimed by the which was suffering grievously from their naval enemy had fallen markedly, and in May it was and aerial attacks and had been defeated clear that the campaign against these pests of morally since El Alamein. On July 10 strong the seas was taking a favourable turn. By raid- allied forces landed on the Sicilian coast August, 1943, more U-boats were being sunk and made good their footing. Italian than merchant ships. New methods of attack, resistance was weak, and although the increased provision of escort craft, escort German troops fought stoutly they had carriers, and long-range aeroplanes, and the all evacuated Sicily by August 17. This immense output of shipping in the United disaster overthrew Mussolini, who was aban- this relief . doned by most of his party and was im- States brought prisoned but was afterwards rescued by the Germans. His successor, Marshal Badoglio, BREACHING THE DAMS while assuring them that he would continue In the air British attacks on Germany grew the war, entered into secret negotiations with more formidable monthly. Stages in its the allied High Command. After various development during 1942 were marked by the difficulties an Italian envoy signed the armistice daylight attack on Augsburg in April, the first terms at Syracuse on September 3 on con- raid of over 1,000 bombers on Germany on dition that they should not be published until the night of May 30, and the participation in the night of September 8-9 when the allies the attack of the enterprising American air were about to land near Naples . forces which were soon to equal and later surpass the R.A.F. in numbers. August 17 LIBERATION saw the first all-American bombing raid from January 27, 1943, the In accordance with the armistice terms the this country . On Italian fleet, still a substantial force of five Americans opened the series of large-scale day- battleships and seven cruisers with attendant light attacks with the heaviest bombers that for contributed so greatly to the decline of German destroyers, put to sea and shaped course war production . " Round-the-clock " bomb- Malta. It was attacked by German aircraft ing by the R.A.F. began in the exceptionally and the battleship Roma was sunk by a fine February of 1943. The breaching of direct bomb. The other ships reached Valletta the Mohne and Eder dams on May 16 was a on September 11. The command of the sea masterpiece of brave and accurate bombing. had now passed to the allies and Sardinia To these attacks, in which new tactical methods and Corsica were recovered by October 1, and more destructive bombs were being em- but land operations proved more hazardous. ployed, the Germans, their Luftwafe mostly The day after the armistice was announced committed to the Russian war or shoring up allied troops landed in Salerno Bay. The Italian resistance, found no adequate reply. Germans, whom Italy's collapse had not taken " Hit-and-run " dashes at English coast towns by surprise, seized control, and concentrating and the " Baedeker raids " on historical monu- rapidly almost drove the invaders into the ments in the spring of 1942 were poor reprisals sea. Supported, however, by fire from war- for the wrecked factories of the Ruhr. During ships the allies held on until, after a critical this phase land operations in western Europe week, the advance of the Eighth Army from were confined to raids on the French and the south relieved the pressure . Naples was Norwegian coasts-the most important and occupied on October 1 and the enemy fell costly of which was the mainly Canadian back to the line of the Volturno, where, over reconnaissance raid on Dieppe (August 19, 80 years earlier, Garibaldi had been checked 1942). Throughout it powerful forces were in his victorious advance. During a severe being built up in Great Britain for foreign winter the river was crossed, but allied pro- service, while the Home Guard relieved the gress was held up before Cassino and a suc- Regular Army of much of its burden of cessful landing at Anzio early in 1944 only defence. The American troops who landed created a second deadlock. It was broken in Northern Ireland in January, 1942, were on May 11 when the allies opened an attack forerunners of a great army. which carried them through the Liri valley. It was in Africa, however, that the United A junction with the Anzio troops followed States struck its first heavy blow against the and on June 4 Rome was freed. Axis. Our attack at El Alamein had been The Germans rallied their unbroken forces planned in conjunction with a great Anglo- near Lake Trasimene, and, though the American descent on French North Africa, advance continued, its speed was reduced. from which we could strike at what Mr. Siena and Leghorn were liberated in July, Churchill called " the underbelly " of the Nazi Florence in August, and early in September monster. On November 8 the allied expedi- the allies forced the so-called Gothic line in tion landed . After a brief resistance the French the Northern Apennines. But Bologna was troops in Morocco and Algeria surrendered to still covered. All through the winter the allies the allied Commander, General Eisenhower, pushed gradually forward, Ravenna falling in and the capitulation was signed by, Admiral December, but it was not until April 10 that Darlan, whose subsequent assassination termi- the final blow was struck . The Eighth Army nated the controversies aroused by the allied on the Adriatic front opened the attack, the acceptance of his useful change of front. The Fifth Army made its thrust a few days later, enemy promptly landed troops in Tunisia and and on April 21 the allies entered Bologna. sent reinforcements to Rommel's retreating The defence now collapsed. The Germans army. The Eighth Army reached Tripoli surrendered in tens of thousands, while par- (January 23) after a memorable pursuit of tisan bands, their action coordinated by 1,350 miles. By then heavy and indecisive General Cadorna, seized the industrial cities fighting had begun in Tunisia. It lasted until of the north. Two days after the fall of May 7, when the allied armies, including excel- Bologna the victorious allies had reached tha 7

Po. No serious opposition was offered at its General Montgomery's plan, drawn up long crossings, and through the closing days of April before the landing, was to keep the enemy's the advance swept on. Genoa, Turin, Milan, greatest strength fighting hard in the Caen area Brescia, Verona, already freed by the partisans, while the Americans broke through in the were entered, and Mussolini's life ended with Cotentin peninsular and wheeled right round the final overthrow of his rdgime . Partisans to the Seine. For a full month after shot him on April 28, the day before two Cherbourg was taken the British and the Cana- German officers signed the allies' terms o£ un- dians battered at the hinge while the Americans conditional surrender. On May 2, in accord- prepared for their decisive stroke . Late in July ance with their provisions, nearly 1,000,000 they broke through the German lines into men, including Fascist Republicans, laid down Brittany, and, leaving the German garrisons their arms. in the Atlantic ports to be dealt with later, swung round inland behind the enemy. The FRANCE AND BELGIUM Germans tetaliated by a strong westward thrust British and American forces led by General to cut the American armies in two . It failed, Montgomery landed on June 6, 1944, in the and the Normandy pocket began to form. On Seine Bay-a region which had known many August 8, anniversary of a black day for the landings from England in earlier centuries. The German Army, the British and Canadians operation, postponed for 24 hours, took place smashed the hinge and drove towards Falaise, during a short break in the weather of what the Americans moving up north to join them. turned out to be the stormiest June on record. By August 12 such ofthe German Army as had Happily some such contingency had been escaped the trap was hurrying towards the foreseen . All the world knew that large and Seine, but the Americans reached it first and splendidly equipped forces were gathering m crossed it above and below Paris. The city, England, but the great secret had- been well where the French maquis had risen in revolt, kept. British engineers had designed and pro- was entered on July 25, while the Germans, duced an artificial harbour, capable of thanks to a stand at Elboeuf, were moving transport across the Channel there to provide, their disorganized forces across the lower within a breakwater formed by caissons and Seine. Meanwhile great events were taking sunken ships, an area of calm water contain- shape in southern France . On August 15 allied ing all facilities for landing men, guns, and troops landed near Cannes. Toulon and stores. The enterprise was known as Marseilles quickly fell, and the liberators, pre- " Mulberry " ; it bore fruit in due course. ceded and supported everywhere by the men For weeks past persistent air attacks had of the maquds, pushed up to Rhine valley been made " on military objectives in Northern and drove the Germans towards and through France " with the object of breaking down all the Belfort gap. By the end of August most the bridges across the Seine and the Loire and of France was free, save the Biscayan ports of creating a vast box in which the German and Alsace-Lorraine. forces, their communications cut, could be But the end was not yet. At the beginning brought to action and destroyed. This object of September the British crossed first the Seine was largely attained, but the vague official and then the Somme, liberated Brussels on formula also contained its secret. The September 3, and on the following day entered Germans had produced a jet-propelled, un- Antwerp, whose great harbour, thanks to the piloted aeroplane carrying about a ton of Belgian resistance movement, was secured explosives to be launched against southern intact, though as yet inaccessible from the sea. England in general and London in particular During from concrete platforms in northern France . these same days of expanding victory Before D Day over 100 of these platforms had the Americans, under Generals Hodges and been discovered and destroyed, not without Patton, crossed the Marne and raced for the loss . Then the Germans produced a pre- Meuse and the Moselle. But supplies could no fabricated ramp which could be assembled longer keep up with the tanks, and the Germans quickly and camouflaged thoroughly . A week had begun to rally. One final effort was made after D Day the first flying-bomb, promptly to break through into northern Germany. On nick-named " doodle-bug," fell on British soil. September 17 large allied airborne forces were For 80 summer days and nights before the dropped in northern Holland to seize the cross- victory in Normandy enabled the bombing sites ings of the Maas and the lower Rhine. Arnhem to be cleared Londoners were familiar with was the key point, and for an anxious week the the roar of the approaching bomb, the sudden struggle raged about its bridge. It could not silence and the crash on impact . In all 2,300 be 'held, and on the night of September 25 bombs out of 8,000 launched eluded pursuit such elements of the British airborne division machines, A.A. guns, and barrage balloons as were still on the river's northern bank were and reached the London area. The cost brought across it to safety. After suffering to both life and property was high. Some 1,000,000 casualties the Germans had at length 5,500 men, women, and children were stabilized their line. killed and over 16,000 seriously injured-the great majority in the London area. On the RUSSIAN TRIUMPHS material side, both churches and hospitals During the winter of 1943-44 the Russians suffered heavily, but the worst damage was to made steady progress on every sector of their hundreds of thousands of small houses. front. Before November was over they had liberated Kiev and many other cities, and had BATTERING TIIE HINGE crossed the Dnieper on a wide front. They The plan of invasion gave the British Caen continued to gain ground in the Ukraine and and the Americans Cherbourg as the first main elsewhere after the New Year, and the Germans objectives . Moving rapidly across the neck on several occasions incurred disastrous losses of the Cotentin peninsula the Americans by failing to retreat in time ; indeed, their entered Cherbourg -on the 20th day after their whole conduct of operations on this front landing. Caen proved a harder nut to crack. suggests that their intuitive Fiihrer had vetoed It was not taken until July 9, and even then any rational scheme for a general shortening the Germans maintained themselves on the of a fine which they had not enough troops farther side of the river on which it lies. to hold. By March 31 the Russians had 8 isolated the Crimea and entered Rumania. In Channel during the period of invasion met April they invaded the Crimea, capturing with scanty success. But in December, Sevastopol on May 9. The summer saw fresh 1944, new types appeared fitted with Soviet successes, a victory over the Finns in devices enabling them to remain submerged June, successful thrusts into Poland and the for long periods, and thenceforward their Baltic Republics, and advances to the activity was more marked, though it was largely Carpathian foothills. A gallant rising in counter-balanced by the loss of bases, such as Warsaw by the Polish " Home Army " m ex- Danzig, and the bombing of shipyards. Inter- pectation of a Russian advance failed when ference by German surface slops with our the Russians received a check and the Arctic convoys was discouraged by the destruc- insurgents surrendered (October 1). The tion of the Scharnhorst by Admiral Fraser's Russians were also held in East Prussia, but squadron off the North Cape on December 25, they had cleared the Germans from all but a 1943. The Tirpitz, also stationed in Norway, coastal strip in the Baltikum by November . was disabled for long periods by British The satellites made haste to change sides, midget submarines and naval aircraft, and was Rumania late in August, Bulgaria, after an finally sunk by R.A.F. in November . Of the absurd three days during which she was at few German warships that remained sea- war with Germans and Russians, in September. worthy most were sunk by air attack during Their armies were placed at the Russians' the final offensive. disposition, and were employed against the In the air allied strategic bombing reached enemy in Hungary and Yugoslavia . The Finns an intensity in 1944 which told heavily on made peace in September, and when the German arms production and gradually Germans refused to evacuate their territory destroyed the enemy's synthetic oil factories helped the Russians to expel them. Russian on which he was entirely dependent after and Norwegian troops entered Arctic Norway . losing the Rumanian and Polish oilfields. The The end of the year saw a lull on the Baltic- use of 10-ton bombs by the R.A.F. in March, Polish front while the Russians prepared for when the United States 8th Air Force alone the invasion of Germany. But in the Danube dropped 65,000 tons of bombs on the Reich ; basin the Russians and their allies, after the non-stop " bombing by day and night liberating Belgrade and all Transylvama, of certain targets, the swarms of aircraft fought their way up the Danube, secured the operating literally in thousands from bases support of a large section of Hungarians, and extending from Great Britain to Italy made captured Budapest on February 13 . British the last months of the war memorable. Jet forces, cooperating with Marshal Tito's Yugo- aeroplanes brought into use by the enemy in slav patriots, harassed the Germans retreating the previous autumn were too few and came along the Adriatic coast. British troops landed too late to affect the issue for all their speed. in Greece in October. The future of the His V 2 rockets killed and injured more than Greek monarchy and the disposal of political 9,000 people in southern England, mostly in power proved decisive issues. Party jealousies London, from September 8 to the fall of the and deep-rooted suspicions and the hysteria lest on March 27, but did virtually no military caused by famine and oppression exploded in damage. a brief, ferocious civil war, in which our troops were unhappily involved. TIC' FINAL ASSAULT In mid-January the Russians surged forward WEST OF THE RHINE in Poland. By mid-March they had surrounded In the west the allies, faced by German Breslau, broken into Brandenburg, and isolated troops of high quality, still holding most of a great part of the enemy's eastern armies in the Siegfried zone and ably led, made slower pockets with the Baltic at their backs. On progress, often through floods and mud. The March 23 allied forces under Field-Marshal laborious clearing of the Scheldt approaches Montgomery began to cross the Rhine between was completed in mid-November, and Antwerp Rees and Wesel on a 30-mile front, while was soon opened to traffic. Further south 40,000 airborne troops landed in the enemy's their capture of Aachen and their liberation of rear. Four days later the allies were crossing Metz and Strasbourg marked further stages on the Rhine at nearly 20 points and their their way to the Rhine. In mid-December, armoured vanguards were thrusting deep into however, a heavy German offensive in the the Reich. The fall of Vienna, of Bratislava, Ardennes region checked their advance Breslau, Konigsberg, Danzig, and Stettin to towards Cologne, and threatened to disrupt the Russians, their junctions with the Americans their front by a 40-mile penetration. on the Elbe, the tale of how, breaching every Field-Marshal Montgomery's skilful disposi- defence, they closed in furious house-to-house tions and General Patton's counter-stroke from battles with the defenders of Berlin are fresh the south defeated the attack, and in February in all memories . So, on the west, are the British began the penultimate allied offensive in the capture of Bremen, Hamburg, and Lubeck, the west. It was entirely successful . Trier, sweep of American armies through central Ger- Krefeld, Cologne, and Coblenz were in many to the Elbe, the surrenders in the Ruhr American hands by March 17, and the un- pocket, General Patton's swift capture of expected seizure of Remagen bridge gave the Nuremberg and Munich, the Nazi holy cities, American Ninth Army a solid foothold across the fall of Ulm to the French, and the the Rhine. American march on Prague . Himmler's offer to make peace with the BY SEA AND AIR western allies and not with Russia-which was Before chronicling the last stage of the war promptly rejected-the death of Hitler, the fall by land its final developments by sea and air of Berlin, and D6nitz's futile attempt to resist must be recorded. Few blockade-runners in the east while surrendering in the west reached German-occupied ports with rubber foreshadowed the end. On May 5 the German and strategic minerals from Japan. The U- forces in Holland, Denmark, and north-west boats suffered heavily during the winter of and southern Germany surrendered The final 1943-44 ; during several months the number general surrender came yesterday. So perished sunk exceeded that of their victims, and the monstrous regime of the Third Reich under their attacks on allied shipping in the the accumulated hatred provoked by its crimes.

TIE WAR EUR E AND AFRICA

' A REGISTER ®F EVENTS, 1939-1945 1939 May, 1940 September 12. R.A.F. bombed Maastricht bridges. 14. Rotterdam heavily bombed by Germans. 1. Germany invaded Poland. Formation of Home Guard (" Local 3. Great Britain and France declared . war on Germany. German fleet off Defence Volunteers ") announced Wilhelmshaven photographed from 15. Dutch capitulation signed at 11 a.m. R.A.F. bomber. French front penetrated. 4. Small advanced parties of B.E.F. 16. General Giraud captured by Germans. arrived in France . German fleet 23. Boulogne evacuated by British. attacked by R.A.F. 24. First British industrial town attacked 9. Battle for Warsaw began. by German Air Force (Middles- 10. Main force of B.E.F. began to arrive brough). at Cherbourg. 24-27. British brigade held Calais against 13. Vistula crossed by Germans at Annopol. two German divisions. 14. Germans entered Gdynia. 28. Belgian army capitulated at 4 a.m. 15. Przemysl captured by Germans. Narvik captured by Germans. 17. Russian troops entered Poland. Air- June craft carrier Courageous sunk. 3. Dunkirk evacuation completed ; 211,532 24. All-day air raid on Warsaw . fit men, 13,053 casualties, and 112,546 27. Warsaw surrendered. allied troops embarked at Dunkirk 28. Poland partitioned by Russia and and the beaches. First bombs on Germany. Paris. October 5. Germans launched new offensive on the Somme and the Aisne. 10. Empire air-training scheme announced. 8. Aircraft carrier Glorious sunk. 14. Royal Oak sunk by U-boat in Scapa 9. Norwegians ordered to cease hostilities. Flow. 10. Italy declared war on Great Britain and 16. First German air raid on British Isles France as from 11th. Evacuation (Firth of Forth) ; Naval casualties. of Norway announced. November 11. French forces retired across Marne. 4. United States Neutrality Act passed. 14. Germans entered Paris. Canadian 13. First bombs on British soil (Shetlands) ; Infantry brigade landed at Brest. no damage. 16. Germans pierced Magmot Line. British 18. German magnetic mines sown from air. offer of Anglo-French union rejected. 28. Russia denounced non-aggression pact 17. Marshal P6tain formed Government, with Finland. and announced that France had asked 30. Finland invaded. for terms. Evacuation of B.E.F. from France completed. December 22. France signed armistice with Germany ; 13. Battle of River Plate ; Admiral Graf with Italy on 24th. Spee scuttled on 17th. 27. Germans reached Spanish frontier. '_8. General de Gaulle :recognized by 194® British Government as leader of all February Free Frenchmen. 16. Altmark prisoners released by Cossack 30. Channel- Islands occupied by German in Norwegian waters. troops. March July 12. Finland signed Peace with Russia. 3. British attacked French capital ships at 16. First British civilian killed by German Oran and Mers-el-Kebir. bomb (Orkney). 4. Italians crossed Sudan border. 5. Vichy Government broke off relations April with Great Britain. 9. Denmark and Norway invaded by 8. British attacked Richelieu at Dakar. Germany. 10. Battle of Narvik ; first V.C. award of August war. 11. British troops landed in Norway . 4. Italians invaded British Somaliland. 13. Second battle of Narvik. 8. " Battle of Britain " began. 15. Croydon aerodrome bombed . 182 May aeroplanes brought down over Britain. 9. First bombs on British mainland (near 17. British forces evacuated Somaliland. Canterbury). 24. First air raid on Central London. 10. Holland, Belgium, and Luxembourg 25. First R.A.F. raid on Berlin. invaded by Germany ; first use of 26. First all-night raid on London. glider-borne troops (by Germans) ; British forces entered Belgium. Mr. September Chamberlain resigned ; Mr. Winston 7. Three months' air attack on London Churchill became Prime Minister . began. British troops landed in Iceland. 11 . Air raid on London ; Buckingham 11 . Germans crossed Albert Canal by Palace damaged, unexploded bomb undestroyed bridge. First British near St. Paul's. bombs on German mainland. 13. Italian invasion of Egypt began. 10

September, 1940 May, 1941 15. 185 aeroplanes shot down over Great 15 . Sollum recaptured by British. Britain. 19. Duke of Aosta's forces surrendered at 23 . George Cross and Medal instituted. Amba Alagi. General de Gaulle and British war- 19-31. Battle for Crete. ships arrived at Dakar ; attempt to 24. H.M.S. Hood sunk by Bismarck . land abandoned on 25th. 27. Bismarck sunk. 27. Axis pact (Germany, Italy. Japan). October June 28. Greece invaded by Italy. 1 . Evacuation of British and Greek forces 29. British troops landed on Greek terri- from Crete completed. tory. 8. Syria entered by British and French forces. November 22. Russia attacked by Germany. 11 . First large Italian air raid on Great Britain. Fleet Air Arm attacked July Italian warships at Taranto. 12. Anglo-Russian mutual assistance treaty 14. Heavy air-raid on Coventry. This was signed. the first mass raid on a British 14. Allied forces occupied Syria. provincial town. 21. First German air-raid on Moscow. December 9. British opened offensive in Western August Desert ; Sidi Barram captured on 7. First Russian air-raid on Berlin. 11th, Sollum and Fort Capuzzo on 11. Mr. Churchill and President Roosevelt, 17th. meeting on board U.S.S. Augusta, 29. Heavy incendiary raid on City of agreed on Atlantic Charter. London. Guildhall and eight Wren 25. British and Russian forces entered churches destroyed. Persia . Raid on Spitsbergen by British, Canadian and Norwegian 1941 forces. January September 5. Bardia captured by Imperial Forces. 17. R.A.F. wing in Russia in action . 10. Russo-German pact renewed. 19. Kiev occupied by Germans. 18. Dive-bombing attacks on Malta began. 25. Germans attacked Crimea. French 19. Kassala (Sudan) re-occupied. by British. National Committee formed. 22. Tobruk entered by Australians. 26-27. Eighth Army formed . 30. Derna captured by Imperial Forces. February October 1. Agordat captured by British. 5. Battle for Moscow (lasted until Decem- 3. Cyrene occupied by British. ber 6). 6. Benghazi occupied by Australians. 12. Briansk evacuated by Russians. 15. Kismayu occupied by African troops. 16. Odessa evacuated by Russians. 26. Mogadishu (Italian Somaliland) occu- 19. State of siege proclaimed in Moscow. pied by African troops. 24. Kharkov captured by Germans. March 29. Germans began to cross Perikop Isthmus 4. British raid on Lofoten Islands. into Crimea. 9. Italian offensive in Albania. November 11. Lend-Lease Bill signed by President 1. Simferopol captured by Germans. Roosevelt. . H.M.S 16. Berbera re-occupied by British. 14. U.S. Neutrality Act amended 21. Jarabub captured by British. Ark Royal, torpedoed by U-boat, Somaliland regained . foundered while in tow. 24. British 16. Colonel Keyes led raid on Rommel's 27. Revolt m Yugoslavia . Keren captured . by British and Indian forces. H.Q. at Beda Littorra 28. Battle of Cape Matapan began. 18. British offensive in Libya began. 21. Big tank battle S. of Sidi Rezegh (lasted April until December 6). 3. Benghazi evacuated by British. Pro- 22. Rostov occupied by Germans. Axis coup d'etat m Iraq. 23. Bardia occupied by New Zealand forces. 5. Addis Ababa occupied by Imperial 25. New attack on Moscow. H.M.S. Forces. Barham sunk off Sollum. 6. Greece and Yugoslavia invaded by 26. Russian advance of 70 miles in Ukraine Germans. announced. 8. Massawa occupied by British forces. 27. Italians at Gondar surrendered. 9. Salonika occupied by Germans. 28. Russians re-occupied Rostov. 10. British forces in action in Greece. 12. First extensive daylight raids by R.A.F. December 13. Belgrade occupied by Germans. 7. Great Britain declared war on Finland, 26. Egyptian frontier, at Sollum, crossed by Hungary and Rumania. Axis forces. 8. Great Britain and United States of 27. Germans entered Athens. America declared war on Japan after May attack on British and United States 1. Evacuation of Imperial Forces from bases in Pacific. 9. Siege of Tobruk raised. Greece completed. declared war on 10. Rudolf Hess landed in Scotland by 11. Germany and Italy parachute after flight from Germany. United States of America. Heavy air attack on London ; House 16. Germans in retreat on Eastern Front. of Commons destroyed. 17. German retreat from Gazala . it

December, 1941 September, 1942 24. Benghazi recaptured by British. 5. Germans entered streets of Stalingrad . 26. Second British raid on Lofoten Islands. 23. Russians launched counter-offensive 27. British raid on Vaagso and Maaloy, off north-west of Stalingrad. Norway . October 29. Russians `re-occupied Kerch and Feodosia. 4. Small British raid on Sark. 8. British prisoners taken at Dieppe put to chains ; British retaliate as from 10th ; 1942 Germans unshackled on December 12. January 23. Battle of El Alamein began. First full- scale employment of British para- 1 . 26 Nations' pact signed to Washington. troops. 2. Bardia recaptured by British. 12. Sollum recaptured by British. November 17. Halfaya recaptured by British. 3. Axis forces retreat westwards in Egypt. 19. Mozhaisk recaptured by Russians. 8. United States and British Forces landed 21 . Second German counter-offensive in in French North Africa. N. Africa began. 11 . French forces in Algeria and Morocco 26. American troops landed in Northern capitulated. Axis forces entered Vichy Ireland. France, and, from Sicily and Sardinia, 29. Benghazi captured by Axis forces. began to arrive in Tunisia. 12. Axis forces driven out ofEgypt. German February attacks renewed at Stalingrad . 13. Tobruk and Gazala captured by Eighth 4. Derna evacuated by British. Army. 11-12. Scharnhorst, Gneisenau, and Prinz 17. Derna and Makili occupied by Eighth Eugen escaped from Brest and sailed Army. up Channel. 19. Russian offensive in Stalingrad area. 27. Raid on French coast at Bruneval. 20. Benghazi occupied by British. 27. Germans entered Toulon ; French fleet March scuttled. 1 . Russians launched offensive in Kerch Pensinsula. December 28. St. Nazaire raid. 13. Agheila evacuated by Axis forces. 29. Kotelnikovo captured by Russians. April 16. George Cross awarded to Malta. 17. Augsburg raided by R.A.F. in daylight . 1943 21 . General Giraud escaped from Germany. January 24. First of series of " reprisal " raids on 1. Velikiye Luki captured liy Russians. historical monuments (Exeter). 3. Mozdok and Malgovek captured by Russians. May 4. Nalchik captured by Russians. 16. Kerch captured by Germans. 11. Kutelnikovo captured by Russians. 26. Twenty-year Anglo-Soviet Treaty signed 13. General Leclerc's Chad force occupied in London. Axis offensive opened in Murzuk and Sebha (Fezzan) . Libya. 14. President Roosevelt and Mr. Churchill June met at Casablanca ; " unconditional 6-8. Heavy German attack on Free French surrender " of Axis Powers demanded. at Bir Hakeim. 15. Eighth Army attacked at Buerat. 13. " Knightsbridge " evacuated by Guards 18. Siege of Leningrad raised . Brigade after heavy tank battles. 20 . Proletarskaya captured by Russians. 21. Tobruk captured by Germans. 21. Voroshilovsk captured by Russians. 24. Germans advanced 50 miles across Horns and Tarhuna captured by Egyptian frontier. Eighth Army. 29. Mersa Matruh captured by Germans. 22. Salsk captured by Russians. 23. Tripoli entered by Eighth Army. July 25. Voronezh captured by Russians. 27. United States heavy bombers made first 1 . Germans reached El Alamein. Germans raid on Germany (Wilhelmshaven). captured Sevastopol. 29. Tunisian border crossed by Eighth 4. U.S.A.A.F. took part in their first air Army. offensive against Germans. 30. First daylight raids on Berlin by R.A.F. 27. Rostov evacuated by Russians. Field-Marshal Paulus and 16 generals captured at Stalingrad . August 31 . Zuara captured by Eighth Army. 1. Gen. Montgomery took over command of Eighth Army. February 5. Voroshilovsk captured by Germans. 2. Remaining German forces at Stalin- 9. Krasnodar and Maikop captured by gradrad capitulated. Germans. 6. GeneralG hoer a com- 11. Aircraft-carrier H.M.S. Eagle sunk in mand North Africantheatre f opera- Mediterranean. tions. 17. First all-American bombing raid on 8. Kursk captured by Russians. European front. 12. Krasnodar captured by Russians. 19. Nine-hour raid on Dieppe. 14. Rostov and Voroshilovgrad captured by 24. Germans crossed Don in force at Russians. Kletskaya. 16. Kharkov captured by Russians. 28. Russians opened offensive in Leningrad 25. R.A.F. began " round-the-clock " area. bombing. 12

March, 1943 October, 1943 1 . First of saturation raids on Berlin. 14. Italy accepted as co-belligerent in war 3. Rzhev occupied by Russians. against Germany. 12. Vyasma captured by Russians. 23. Melitopol captured by Russians. 15. Kharkov evacuated by Russians. 25. Capture of Dnepropetrovsk and 21. Eighth Army attacked Mareth Line. Dneprozerzhinsk by Russians Byelgorod captured by Russians. announced. 30. Gabes occupied by Eighth Army. November April 1. Germans' land retreat from Crimea cut 7. Offensive opened by First Army in off. Northern Tunisia. 4. Eighth Army captured Iserma and linked 10. Sfax occupied by Eighth Army. up with Fifth Army at Castelpetroso. 12. Sousse occupied by Eighth Army. 5. Vatican bombed. 26. Longstop Hill captured by First Army. 6. Kiev captured by Russians. 18. R.A.F. Bomber Command began May " Battle of Berlin," which continued 3. Mateur captured by U.S. forces. until March 24, 1944. 6. Massicault captured by First Army. 23. 8th Army crossed R. Sangro in strength . 7. Tunis and Bizerta captured by Allied 28. Teheran Conference (Marshal Stalin, forces. President Roosevelt, Mr. Churchill) . 13. Axis forces in Tunisia surrendered. 16. MShne and Eder dams breached by December R.A.F. 4-6. Cairo Conference (President Roose- June velt, Mr. Churchill, President of Turkey). 11. Pantellaria surrendered. 10. Capture of Znamenka by Russians 12. Lampedusa surrendered. announced. 14. Capture of Cherkosy by Russians July announced. 6. Germans launched offensive in Russia. 19. Four war criminals hanged at Kharkov. 10. Sicily invaded by Allied forces. 24. Appointment of Allied invasion chiefs 12. Russian counter-attack launched. announced. Russians opened major 19. First allied raid on Rome. offensive W. of Kiev. 25. Mussolini resigned and arrested. Later 26. Scharnhorst sunk off North Cape. he was rescued by German parachute 28. Ortona captured by Eighth Army. troops. 31. Zhitomir recaptured by Russians. 26. Fascist Party dissolved. August 1944 2. Hamburg, as a result of systematic January bombing by R.A.F., which began on July 24, had suffered the most serious 4. Battle for Cassino began. damage of any industrial city of the 8. Kirovograd captured by Russians. world, at a cost of 87 British aircraft. i5. Gen. Eisenhower assumed duties as 4. Orel captured by Russians. C.-in-C. Allied Expeditionary Force. 5. Bielgorod captured by Russians. 20. Capture of Novogorod by Russians 15. Taormina captured by Eighth Army. announced. 17. Resistance in Sicily ended. Minturno captured by Fifth Army. 23. Kharkov captured by Russians. 22. Amphibious landings by Allies S. of 26. French Committee of National Libera- Rome. Nettuno and Anzio occupied tion recognized by Allies. on 24th. 30. Capture of Taganrog by Russians 27. Complete lifting of Leningrad blockade announced. announced. September February 3. Italian armistice signed. British and 1 . Kingisepp (Leningrad front) captured Canadian troops landed in Italy. by Russians. 8. Italy surrendered to Allies. 3. Germans opened offensive against Anzio 9. Allied forces landed at Salerno. beach-head. 10. Italian fleet reached Malta. Rome 8. Nikopol captured by Russians. occupied by German troops. Salerno occupied by Fifth Army. 15. Cassino Abbey bombarded by Allies. 16. Novorossisk captured by Russians. 18. Staraya Russa captured by Russians. 17. Capture of Briansk by Russians 22. Krivoi Rog captured by Russians. announced. First coordinated air attack on Ger- 19. Evacuation of Sardinia by Germans many from bases in U.K. and Italy. announced. 25: Capture of Smolensk by Russians March announced. 4. Russians opened offensive on 1st 29. Full armistice terms signed by. Italy. Ukrainian front. 6. Russians opened offensive on rd October Ukrainian front. 1. Naples occupied by Fifth Army. First heavy attack by U.S. bombers 4. Corsica liberated. on Berlin . 7. Dnieper crossed by Russians. 10. Russians opened offensive on 2nd 12. Agreement with Portugal for use of Ukrainian front. Azores announced. 13. Kherson captured by Russians. 12-13. Attack on Volturno River opened. 15. Heavy air and artillery bombardment 13. Italy declared war on Germany. of Cassmo by Allies. 13

Marcb, 1944 August, 1944 24. By this date Bomber Command, R.A.F., 1 . Warsaw rising by Polish Home Army had dropped 44,845 tons on Berlin . began (ended October 2). American 28. Nikolaiev captured by Russians. troops entered Brittany. 30. Cernauti captured by Russians. 3. Rennes occupied by U.S. forces. 31 . Russians entered Rumania. 4. Purge of German army announced. 7. R.A.F. attacked German line south of April Caen prior to full-scale offensive by 10. Odessa captured by Russians. Canadian forces . 13. Simferopol (capital of Crimea) captured 9. St. Malo and Le Mans captured by by Russians. U.S. forces . 15. Tarnopol captured by Russians. 11 . Florence evacuated by Germans. 18. Balaklava captured by Russians. 12. Germans began retreat from Normandy. 14. Canadians opened major attack on May approaches to Falaise. 9. Sevastopol captured by Russians. 15. Allied troops landed in France from 11 . Fifth and Eighth Armies opened Mediterranean. offensive, crossing Rapido and Garig- 17. Falaise captured by Canadian Forces. liano rivers. 20. Gen. Montgomery issued last orders as 15. French troops cut Gustav line in Italy. Commander of Allied land forces . 18. Cassino captured by British forces, Toulon entered by French troops. Monastery Hill by Polish troops. Toulouse captured by F.F.I. 22. British and American forces opened 21 . U.S. forces crossed Seine in force . offensive from Anzio. Hitler line 25. Pans liberated. Rumania declared war cut by Canadians. on Germany. 25. Patrols of Fifth Army linked up with 29. Constanza captured by Russians. Anzio beach-head forces, after 30. Ploesti captured by Russians. Rouen advance of 60 miles. captured by Canadian forces . 31 . Bucharest entered by Russians. June 4. Rome occupied by Allied troops. 5-6. Allied air-borne troops made landing September behind German line in Normandy. 6. D DAY.-Allied troops landed in 1 . Gen. Eisenhower assumed direct control France between base of Cherbourg of all Allied Armies m France. Peninsula and Caen. Dieppe captured by Canadian forces. 8. Bayeux liberated. 2. German Gothic line in Italy broken by 10. Russians opened offensive on Karelian Eighth Army. front. 3. Brussels liberated by British. Lyons 12. Mr. Churchill visited the beach-head liberated. Pesaro captured by Polish in Normandy. forces. 13. Flying bomb attacks on Britain began. 4. Cease fire in Finland following pre- 19. Elba captured by French forces. Perugia liminary armistice with Russia. captured by Eighth Army. Antwerp captured by British. 20. Viipuri captured by Russians. 5. Russia declared war on Bulgaria . 23. Russian offensive opened on central 8. Bulgaria declared war on Germany. front. Russians crossed Rumanian-Bulgarian 26. Vitebsk captured by Russians. frontier. Li¬ge captured by U.S. 27. Cherbourg liberated by U.S. forces. forces ; Ostend by Canadians. 28. Mogilev captured by Russians. Castag- German rocket attacks on England neto captured by Fifth Army, Monti- began, the first falling at Chiswick . ciano by U.S. forces. 9. Hostilities between Russia and Bulgaria ceased. July 11. German frontier crossed by U.S. troops 3. Siena captured by French forces . north of Trier. Minsk captured by Russians. 12. Le Havre captured by British. 9. Caen captured by British and Canadian 13. Armistice signed between Russia, Great forces. Britain and the United States and 12. Russians advanced 21 miles on Baltic Rumania. front. 15. Siegfried line breached by U.S. forces. 13. Vilna captured by Russians. 17. British 1st Airborne Division landed in 14. Pinsk and Volkovysk captured by Holland ; withdrawn from Arnhem Russians. on September 25-26. 16. Arezzo occupied by Eighth Army 19. Brest captured by U.S. forces. troops. Grodno captured by 20. British forces reached the Rhine (River Russians. Waal) at Nijmegen. 18. British and Canadian troops attacked 22. Boulogne surrendered to Canadian and broke through area east of the forces. Tallinn (capital of Estonia) Orne and south-east of Caen. Ancona captured by Russians. Capture of captured by Polish forces. Rimini by Eighth Army announced. 19. Leghorn captured by U.S. forces. 30. Calais surrendered to Canadian forces. 20. Attempted assassination of Hitler and staff by German officers . 23. Pskov captured by Russians. October 24. Lublin captured by Russians. 26. Lvov and Dvinsk captured by Russians. 3. Dyke at West Kapelle on island of 27. U.S. forces W. of St. Lo broke through Walcheren breached by R.A.F. Truce German lines. at Dunkirk to allow civilians to 28. Przemysl, Yaroslav, and Brest Litovsk leave town. captured by Russians. 4. Allied forces landed on Greek mainland 31 . Avranches occupied by U.S. forces. entered Patras. 14 October, 1944 January, 1945 9. Canadian and British forces landed to 16. British forces launched attack from rear of Germans south of the mouth Sittard, in Holland, against German of Scheldt. Russian forces reached salient E of the Maas. Baltic coast near Libau. 17. Warsaw enteredby Russians. 9-19. Mr. Churchill (with Mr. Eden) visited 18. Lodz and Cracow captured by Russians. Moscow for talks with Marshal Stalin. 19. Tilsit captured by Russians. 11 . Club (capital of Transylvania) captured 20. Armistice with Hungary signed m by Russians. Moscow. Tannenberg captured by 13. Riga (capital of Latvia) captured by Russians. French forces opened Russians. attack in Vosges. 14. Athens entered by British. 21. Allenstein and Insterburg captured by 15. Death of Field-Marshal Rommel Russians. announced. Petsamo captured by 23. Bromberg captured by Russians. Russians. Hungarian request for 24. Gleiwitz (Silesia) captured by Russians. Russians. 26. By this date German forces in Ardennes 18. Russians crossed East Prussian border had been forced back to German and occupied Eydtkuhnen. frontier. 20. Belgrade occupied by Russians. 27. Memel captured by Russians, liberating 21. German Commander of Aachen signed Lithuania. unconditional surrender. 28. German Pomerania invaded. 22. Russians to Finland reached Norwegian 31. Russians broke into province of Bran- frontier. denburg. 23. Recognition by Allies of General de Gaulle's administration as Provisional February Government announced. 1 . Russians 50 miles from centre of Berlin. 26. British forces crossed Scheldt and landed Thom captured by Russians. on Beveland peninsula. 2. Colmar captured by French forces. 28. Arnustice signed between Bulgaria and 4. Belgium liberated. the Allies. 4-11. Crimea Conference (Mr. Churchill, 31. British forces reached the Maas. President Roosevelt, Marshal Stalin). 6. Russians forced the Oder S.E. of Breslau. November 8. British and Canadian forces opened 1 . British landed on Walcheren Island . offensive S.E. of Nijmegen ; Cleve 2. Belgium cleared of Germans ; they re- and Gennep captured on 12th. entered on December 16. Belgium 11 . Russians forced the Oder N.W. of finally liberated February 4, 1945. Breslau. 3. Flushing captured by British. 12. Priim captured by U.S. forces. 6. Liberation of Monastir by Yugoslav 13. Budapest completely occupied by forces announced. Russians. Reichswald forest cleared 12. Tirpitz sunk in Troms6 fjord by R.A.F. by Canadian forces. 20. Belfort captured by French. 15. Breslau surrounded by Russian forces. 22. Mulhouse captured by French. Metz 16. Rohrbach captured by U.S. forces. captured by U.S. forces. 19. Goch captured by Scottish and Canadian 24. Strasbourg captured by Allies. forces. 28. Antwerp port re-opened to traffic. 23. U.S. forces opened attack from direction of Aachen towards Rhine at Diissel- dorf. Poznan captured by Russians. December 25. Ddren and Julich captured by U.S. 4. Enemy bridgehead west of the Maas forces. eliminated by British forces. 28. Neu Stettin captured by Russian forces. 5. Arnhem-Nijmegen sector flooded by March Germans. 9. Russian forces reached Danube N. of 1. Miinchen-Gladbach captured by U.S. Budapest . forces. 16. Germans opened counter-offensive in 2. Trier and Krefeld captured by U.S. the Ardennes . forces. 17. Field-Marshal Montgomery appointed 6. Cologne captured by U.S. forces . to command American 1st and 9th 7. Rhine crossed at Remagen by U.S. Armies in addition to British 2nd and forces. Canadian 1st Armies. 8. British and Canadian forces launched 22. Deepest penetration of German counter- attack on German bridgehead at offensive-Laroche (40 miles). Xanten. 26. U.S. airborne troops in Bastogne 9. Stolp (on Danzig-Stettin coast road) relieved. captured by Russians. Xanten 27. Germans driven out of Celles and Ciney. captured by British forces. 30. Hungary declared war on Germany. 11. German bridgehead at Wesel elimi- 31 . Rochefort recaptured by Allies. New nated. offensive opened by U.S. forces 12. American forces launched new attack between Bastogne and St. Hubert. from Remagen bridgehead . Kiistrin (on E. bank of Oder opposite Berlin) captured by Russian forces. 14. First use of 10-ton bombs by R.A.F. 17. Coblen z captured by U.S. forces. 1945 Brandenburg (E. Prussia) captured January by Russians. 11. Laroche re-captured by British and U.S. 18. Biggest daylight air attack on Berlin. forces. 19. Worms and Saarbriicken captured by 14. Radom (Central Poland) captured by U.S. forces. Russians. 21 . Ludwigshaven entered by U.S. forces. 15

March, 1945 April, 1945 23. Allied forces under Field-Marshal 26. Russian and American forces linked up Montgomery began Rhine crossings on the Elbe near Torgau. Verona between Rees and Wesel ; 40,000 air- captured by Fifth Army. Bremen borne droops landed m two hours. surrendered to British. Milan liberated 24. Darmstadt captured by U.S. forces . by Italian partisans. Marshal Petam arrested at frontier. 27. Last rocket fell at Orpington. In all Total civilian casualties in London 1,050 reached England. region by enemy attacks 80,307. 28. Gdynia captured by Russians. Last air- 27. Genoa captured by American forces . raid warning sounded in London . 28. Mussolini executed by Italian partisans 29. Mannheim captured by U.S. forces. m Milan. 30. Danzig and Kiistnn captured by 29. Unconditional surrender of German Russians. Dutch frontier crossed by armies in Italy signed at Caserta. Canadian First Army Hostilities ceased 12 noon (G.M.T.), May 2. April Munich entered by U.S. forces. 1. Germans in Ruhr area trapped ; by the Venice entered by British. British 19th twenty-one divisions destroyed. forces crossed Elbe S.E. of Hamburg. 3. Hamm and Cassel captured by U.S. R.A.F. bombers dropped their first forces. load of food in German-occupied 4. Bratislava (capital of Slovakia) captured Holland. by Russians. French forces entered 30. Turin entered by U.S. forces . Fire Karlsruhe. Guard orders cancelled. 5. Minden reached by British forces. May 9. K6nigsberg (capital of E. Prussia) cap- 1. Death of Hitler in Berlin announced tured by Russians. Allied offensive by Germans. Grand Admiral D6nitz opened in Italy. Pocket battleship appointed himself as successor. Admiral Scheer sunk by R.A.F. New Zealand troops of Eighth Army 10. Hanover captured by U.S. forces. entered Monfalcone and linked up with Marshal Tito's forces. 11. Essen captured by U.S. forces. 2. Berlin surrendered to Russians at 3 p.m. 12. President Roosevelt died. British and Russian forces linked up 13. Vienna liberated by Russians. m Wismar area on the Baltic. Trieste 14. Canadian forces in Holland reached captured by New Zealand troops. North Sea and captured Leeuwarden. 3. Hamburg captured by British. French forces began land and sea 4. German First and Nineteenth Armies attack on Germans in Bordeaux area surrendered to American forces . U American Fifth Army crossed after .S. air attack . Brenner Pass and linked up with 16. Nuremberg entered by U.S. forces ; Seventh Army. organized resistance ended on 20th. 5. All German forces in Holland, N.W. Lutzow, last German battleship, sunk Germany, and Denmark, including by R.A.F. Heligoland and Frisian Islands sur- 20. Civilian casualties in the U.K. due to rendered as from 8 a.m. (B.D.S.T.). enemy action from outbreak of war, 7. Act of unconditional surrender of 146,760. German armed forces signed at 21. Bologna Rheims at 2.41 a.m., and ratified in captured by Allies. Dessau Berlin on May 9. entered by U.S. forces . Berlin suburbs S. VE Day in British Isles. Oslo liberated. reached by Russians. 9. Channel Islands liberated. Victory Day 22. Stuttgart captured by French forces. celebrated in Moscow. 23. River Po reached by Allies. Black-out 12. Unconditional surrender of Germans restrictions removed in Great Britain. in Crete. 24. Himmler offered to surrender German June Reich to Governments of Great 5. German surrender entered into force at Britain and United States. 16.40 hours.

Leading Article from TBE TIMES

The war with Germany is ended. To-day design for the subjugation of a continent, -` VE Day"-victory will be formally so is the apocalyptic completeness of the proclaimed. The task to which Great overthrow. Never in the history of war Britain and France set their hands nearly has the entire, fighting strength of a great six years ago, in furtherance of which military State been more decisively ground nearly all the peace-loving nations of the into fragments and overwhelmed in the world have successively enrolled them- uttermost catastrophe of defeat. Of the selves, has been faithfully accomplished. hosts that once seemed innumerable and The official announcement will be made at invincible, millions have left their bones 3 o'clock by the PRIM MumsTER and the on the lost fields from Stalingrad to Caen ; KING will broadcast to his peoples at 9. millions more have been herded into cap- Yesterday COUNTSCHWERIN VON KRGSIGK, tivity ; and the survivors, cut off and sur- speaking with the scarcelymorethantitular rounded in pockets of hopeless resistance, dignity of German Foreign Minister, but as helpless in their own country as in the as the best mouthpiece still remaining to lands they have invaded, have been the fallen Government, acknowledged to saved from destruction only by sur- the world the unconditional surrender of render. In a score of the great cities of his country. This was the climax to the Germany scarcely a building stands series of piecemeal submissions. One by intact ; the Russian armies have swept one the commanders of the defeated Ger- like an avenging hurricane over the shat- man armies, each for the remnants of the tered avenues and palaces of Berlin. In fighting formations that his orders can still the factories where, through the length and reach, have yielded to their conquerors ; breadth of the Reich, all the resources of first fell the army of Italy, then the forces a rich andpopulous nation wereharnessed, opposing the British and Canadians in the even in time of peace, to the making of north-west and those fighting the Ameri- engines of destruction, the wheels of cans in Bavaria, and at last the garrison of industry have stopped. The fields are left Norway and the broken divisions still untilled by the liberation of the foreign desperately holding the field in the east. slaves upon whose labour German agri- With the signature of a Soviet delegate to culture had come to depend. Famine and the formal act of surrender made yesterday pestilence lower over Germany ; only by by GENERAL JGDL to GENERAL EISEN- the efforts of her conquerors can she hope HOWER, finality is reached. Except where to escape or moderate their ravages . German detachments are still offering More terrible in the perspective of the sporadic and unauthorized resistance, the human story even than the material ruin guns have ceased to fire anywhere in is the universal execration that the years Europe, and silence has fallen in the of the domination have earned for the stricken lands where the din of war German name. The Third Reich goes thundered so recently. Of the tremendous down to destruction unmourned, even by panoply with which HITLER and his those nations which in the time of its pros- followers set out to conquer the world perity were content to appear its friends. nothing is left. The ships, the aircraft, the It is with the slave empires of the tanks, the guns, and the untold multitudes ancient east, and not with any polity of of fighting men-all have been destroyed the European tradition, that the National- or have been placed at theabsolutedisposal Socialist despotism must be compared ; the conquerors. The very German State yet it was more barbarous than these itself, which commanded this vast array of because less primitive, because it was a material power, is dissolved in the moment deliberate attempt to destroy the work of of defeat ; and there is no authority left in centuries of advance, in which humanity the land save that which the allied com- had struggled towards finer forms of manders can supply. political and spiritual life. " The soul of So passes to its just doom of ignominy " savagery is slavery." The epigram is and ruin the most monstrous dominion true, though it is but a negative expression that pride, cruelty, and the lust of power of a truth that may be stated in positive have ever sought to impose upon the terms : the soul of civilization is liberty. suffering millions of the nations. The The civilization that has been reared in pledge is fulfilled which the PRIME Europe on the double foundation of MINISTER gave to the world in the day classical thought and Christian faith and when all seemed lost for liberty : the thence propagated rougd the world is curse of HITLER is lifted from the brows centred upon a belief in the inalienable of mankind. As was the enormity of the dignity and rights of every human 1 7 soul. It was these rights and this admiration and affection of civilized man- dignity that National Socialism set it- kind. Meanwhile the British Common- self to obliterate. It was a conscious wealth was left to hold the ramparts of and calculated conspiracy. The thou- freedom alone in the face of a continent sand years of supremacy, which HITLER enslaved and bestridden by the enemy. prophesied in all seriousness for the The British people rose to the full stature Third Reich, were to be secured by the of their ancient greatness only after the use of overwhelming mechanical force, tragic glory of Dunkirk. The great disaster first to destroy and then to deprive of any deprived them of all their meagre land possibility of revival, freedom of thought, armament and left them apparently help- freedom of expression, freedom of wor- less to meet the assault of the most terrible ship, and all the fundamental rights of engine of war ever constructed ; but the man, as the inheritors of European culture issues had become plain, and in the new have learned to treasure them. That was certainty was a new strength. A vaunting the dedication of German power to the enemy and a sceptical world were to be service of barbarism, and that was the shown that there resides a power of united evil against which Great Britain and action in a free nation far surpassing France, as principal heirs and champions anything thatdictatorship can impose upon of the tradition of liberty in Europe, took its subjects. The unchecked play of party up the challenge. controversy in a community mature in the The British people went to war for the practice of self-government is possible only second time in a generation with a stern because there is ultimate agreement on and sombre resolve. The exalted mood the supreme ends that all party pro- of 1914 was not recaptured. Exaltation grammes attempt, by their conflicting of a different order was to come after- means, to serve. It is the demonstration, wards, and in a darker hour. An instinctive not the contradiction, of the final harmony loathing there was of arrogance, brutality, on which the life itself of a nation reposes. and bad faith, but most of all perhaps in Under the guidance of the leader called to those first days there was the grim deter- authority in the hour of crisis the British mination, rooted in the traditions of this people became aware of the hidden sources great though tolerant people, to stand firm of their strength. It was MR. CHURCHILL at last against a menace which, though who told them that, because of the toler- its full definition was yet to come, ance and variety that they had fostered was plainly real and growing. And for centuries, they were " the most united in this act of simple faith and quiet " of all the nations " ; and they proceeded duty there was a complete answer to the by their actions to prove that his words claims and boastings of the enemy. The were true. The instant and unquestioning German rulers justified the servitude they self-dedicationwith which men and women had imposed upon their own people as the alike, at the summons of Parliament, means to securing a unified nation ; in con- placed their lives and their property at trast to the fanatical devotion they had the disposal of their leaders, who them- succeeded in evoking they mocked the selves represented all parties in the State anarchy of class and party faction, which working as one, vindicated a native self- they presented as the prevailing attributes discipline and gave substance to the proud of peoples bred to parliamentary self- hope that this was to be "their finest government and economic liberty. Later, " hour." It saved this island and; by so as their malign grip was extended over one doing, won the war. The conflict was after another of the lands surrounding joined between the unity of the spirit, them, they developed their doctrine into a which inspires free men to the defence of grandiose claim to restore the lost unity a universal cause, and the regimented of Europe, under German leadership, by uniformity that is enlisted to enforce the the power of the sword. The means will of despots ; and the outcome through remained the same ; for in the service of many perils and escapes was henceforth the German war machine the conquered never in doubt. populations were reduced to a slavery The clear vision of MR . CHURCHILL'S unexampled since the pre-Christian ages. leadership soon enabled men to perceive Some specious colour seemed to be given that this unity of free men was itself a to the German tales of the superiority of strategic force. The common impulse of the "new order" when France fell, as patriotism among all parties in the State, much riven by internal doubts and divi- sweeping the millions into the services and sions as broken by the overwhelming the Home Guard, the Merchant Navy, the numbers and armament of the Wehrmacht, factories and civil defence, was reflected until through years of suffering the French upon a wider scene. Already the great people were to atone for their moment of Dominions, by the spontaneous identifica- weakness with that shining resilience under tion of themselves with the cause of the misfortune which has done so much to mother country, now reaffirmed in the win for historic France her place in the moment of greatest danger, had shown the 1 9

capacity of five sovereign nations to think won to mobilize the reserves of the and act at a supreme crisis as a single imperial Commonwealth, and to range in people. The forces of resistance were not the line for the decisive stroke the forces so narrowly confined as the enemy sup- of all other nations that would rally to posed. Against HiTLER'S Europe could be the standard of liberty. set Canada, Africa, India, Australasia, and The old strategy proved its virtue in the all the oceans of the world. This island old way. Like a greater autocrat before might be submerged beneath the flood ; him, HITLER attempted to escape from the but the forces of freedom, linked by the constriction of sea-power by breaking out steel chain of sea-power, would surely live to the east, and so committed himself to a on. Moreover, while the forlorn hope of grapple with a people so numerous and so a few British airmen snatched victory from indomitable that even his vast armies the massed squadrons of the Luftwaf}e, would bleed to death. When his Japanese and later while the civil population in the ally, with ruthlessness and faithlessness to towns endured uncomplaining a nightly match his own, embarked four months rain of bombs, Britain was left in no doubt later upon an ambitious scheme of con- that the lonely struggle was being watched quest, which - seemed to look towards a with sympathy by powerful friends across junction of the triumphant despotisms of the Atlantic, already eager to render Europe and Asia on the frontiers of India material aid in the conflict, and becoming or the shores of the Persian Gulf, blows gradually conscious that the cause of re- fell that shook the foundations of the sistance to German tyranny was in the Commonwealth system in the Far East. fullest sense their own. The patient But the advent of the new ally was of far guidance of American opinion, until the greater significance than the entry of the people, convinced in their hearts that the new enemy. "The new world, with all United States belonged by vocation and " its power and might," to use MR. duty to the united brotherhood of nations CHURCHILL'S prophetic phrase of 1940, fighting for freedom, were stung to battle " stepped forth to the rescue and the by treacherous attack in the east and by " liberation of the old." the defiant provocation of the Nazi Thenceforth the story of the war is that boasters, was the supreme service rendered of the development of an ever closer unity to his age by the great President whose among the allied nations, while on the untimely loss casts a shadow over to-day's enemy's side the system of uniformity celebrations. We may rejoice that through repression was rendered hard and FRANKLIN RoosEvELT lived to see, shining brittle by constantly progressive degrees clear on the horizon, the lights of the of brutality and enslavement. Comrade- victory for which he laid down his life. ship in the field led on to unified command If MR. RoosEvELT was the inspired and common counsel among the heads of interpreter of the ideals of the United allied States. The defensive phase of the Nations, it fell to MR . CHURCHILL to play war was passed. The enemy plunged the principal part in determining the grand against the bands which contained him, strategy of the alliance. His was the high but they held. Then with the great vic- imaginative vision that insisted, even when tories of El Allamein and Stalingrad the England lay isolated before the imminent process of compression began. For 1,400 threat of invasion, upon preparing a miles the German hosts were borne back- design of war that should afford full scope wards across the plains of Russia and for the existing unity of the Empire, and Poland into the streets of theirown capital. for the larger unity of world Powers of Their comrades in the south were driven which he foresaw it must become the along the coast of Africa ; at its western nucleus before victory was achieved. A extremity the American armies entered strategy concentrated upon the safety of the field, and both together pressed on the British Isles would have lost the war. over the sea to Sicily, Calabria, Rome, But it needed courage of the rarest order striking down the Fascist despotism as to act upon that opinion when action they went, and finally in these latter days meant diverting to the Middle East the to the passes of the Alps. Most decisive only armoured formation available to of all came the great expedition, patiently meet the expected descent upon the prepared and consummately executed, to Channel coasts. With a mind steeped in storm the Channel coast, to liberate military history, the PRIME MINISTER COm- France, to force the passage of the Rhine, mitted his country to the pursuit of its overwhelming traditional strategy, to maintain the and to pour armed men in Empire's lines of communications round power into the heart of Germany, there the globe, to contain the enemy within to meet the Russian ally on the banks of the ring of sea-power, and to challenge the Elbe. him on land at the extreme limits of his The victory has been won by the joint dominion until his strength should begin action of many peoples, and only by con- to exhaust itself. Thus would time be tinued unity in war and peace can its fruits 19

be garnered and guarded. Unity in war is through six of the most terrible years of still the paramount obligation. The aggres- history can be built firm and true, power- sive and domineering brutality of self- ful and permanent, will, humanity, have centred militarism has still to be shattered some recompense for the millions of pre- in the Far East: From now on the western cious lives that have been spent in hunting Powers will be able to concentrate over- down the beast of prey. whelming force against an enemy begin- ning to reel under the blows already Finally, on a day that will stand as a delivered. The full work of peace cannot solemn date in history, it is not possible be taken up until the bloodthirsty preten- to-celebrate so great a deliverance without sions of Japan have been checked for ever. the sense that a larger design has been No doubt the nations that have submitted fulfilled than is comprehended in the calcu- themselves to a common discipline for the lations of strategy. Now that the danger purposes of war against a common enemy, is passed, it may be acknowledged that like the British parties that in their smaller there was a time when, had the enemy's sphere set the example of restraint five mastery of the art of war matched the years ago, will each turn again one day immense superiority of his material power, to the development of its distinctive life no human valour or effort could have and its distinctive political tradition. It is thwarted his deadly purpose. In the last natural and it is right that this should be resort that which has sustained resistance so. But these same nations have to keep when all seemed lost, not only in England the memory of the lesson they have but in all the enslaved lands, is the faith learned in the hard school of war, that the that in the order of the universe the just ideals that unite them are nearer to their cause, provided that the last measure of hearts and more vital to their safety than devotion and sacrifice be offered to it, the opinions or the habits or the interests will not be allowed to fail. It is right to that divide. For many months now the affirm to-day that thatfaith stands ju_-stified. efforts of statesmanship and diplomacy The noblest of English Kings, who had have been devoted to the means of per- come as near as our generation to final petuating the brotherhood of nations that submersion beneath the barbarian flood, has won the war, so that it may hence- wrote after his victory : " I say, as do all forth stand sentinel over the forces of " Christian men, that it is a divine purpose destruction' and death now overcome. It "that rules, and not fate." In the same is of good augury that the news of victory spirit KING ALFRED'S . remote descendant, in thewest comes while the delegates of the GEORGE the SIXTH, goes to St. Paul's nations are already assembled at San Cathedral on Sunday to render thanks on Francisco charged with the duty of behalf of all his peoples to the only giver founding a central institution of world of victory. Non nobis, Domine. " Not unity. Only if that supreme political ex- " unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto pression of the idea towards which the " thy name give the praise : for thyloving allied nations have been fighting their way " mercy, and for thy truth's sake."

Pruned by THE TIMES PUBLISHING COMPANY, Limited, Printing House Square, London, E.C .4, England .