WORLD WAR TWO 70YEARS ON

“We no longer demand anything, we want war. - Joachim von Ribbentrop (German foreign minister in August 1939.)

These words were barely uttered when German Wehrmacht tanks rolled across the German-Polish frontier on the 1st of September 1939, signifying the commencement of the most catastrophic war in human history. Pitting Germany and then Japan and Italy (Axis Powers) against Great Britain, France and later the United States (Allied Powers); the Russians had to switch sides to guarantee their survival after coming under attack from a supposed allied Germany.

Regenerating from the ashes of the First World War ending twenty one years back, it took the dropping of the Atomic bomb on Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki to effectively bring  the war to an end on 14th August 1945, as Japanese Emperor Hirohito announced an unconditional surrender; though Germany had surrendered earlier in May 1945.

Atomic Bomb Smoke Capped by Mushroom Cloud Rises More Than 60,000 Feet Into Air over Nagasaki
Source:www.allposters.com/-sp/Atomic-Bomb-Smoke-Capped-by-Mushroom-Cloud-Rises-More-Than-60-000-Feet-Into-Air-over-Nagasaki-Posters_i3592149_.htm

"Japan has today surrendered. The last of our enemies is laid low.”.......Clement Attlee (British Prime Minister 1945)

Though Seventy Years back from the time, the World still has significant lessons to learn from the resultants, impact and outcome of the war, viz:

§  Belligerent Germany was demobilized of Military hardware and sanctioned on the size of its fighting machinery by the treaty of Versailles following the end of the First World War. Yet, its army took the world by a storm, capitulating the French army in days and it took a coalition of Allied Countries to subdue its might.

§  The German fighting machine was built up by rhetoric fascist leader—Adolf Hitler, despite existing sanctions against its military expansion.

§  World leaders frenzied from the First World War experience preferred to appease Hitler with territorial expansion rather than confront his ambitions with force.

§  The resultant ensuing conflagrating warfare resulted in the arms race for weapons of mass destruction, a product of which was the atomic bomb.

§  The end of the Second World War ushered an established bipolar World order between Western/Capitalism and Eastern/Communism.

Wary of Nuclear warfare, World powers rather than confront themselves, sponsor belligerent groups/ governments in attritional conflicts as seen especially in the Syria and Ukraine currently; thus, buoying several complicated pockets of conflicts around the globe.

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. -Albert Einstein

Seventy Years on from the end of the Second World War today, the international polity still simmers from the same effect that precipitated World War Two in these forms:

§  Ever since the end of the Cold war and Warming of tensions between the Eastern and Western Blocs, never has tension being heightened between these two passive belligerents as it currently plays out in the Ukrainian conflict.

§  Leaders of some countries still render unwholesome violence filled rhetoric not hiding their desire to destroy some other Country and perceived allies. Such examples abound in Iranian rhetoric against Israel and North Korea against USA

§  Despite the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and Nuclear Test Ban Treaty,, more countries outside the permanent five members of the United Nations have acquired Nuclear weapons whilst the permanent five are reluctant to disarm.

§  Owing to failed resultants of Western Military interventions in the Afghanistan and Iraq, Western powers are reluctant to execute full military force especially against belligerent groups in the Middle East (e.g the Islamic State) favouring instead limited intervention of airstrikes and dialogue with Iran with regards to its nuclear activity.

“Anyone who fights, even with the most modern weapons, against an enemy who dominates the air, is like a primitive warrior who stands against modern forces, with the same limitations and the same chance of success”. - Field Marshal Erwin Rommel

No doubt, Military Ordnance has become more sophisticated and deadly than what obtained during World War Two; one thing is assured in case of any belligerence betwixt world powers----‘Mutually assured destruction’.

Indeed, it will spell the end of humanity.

Seeing similarly intrigues brooding, such as those that ignited World War Two; seventy years on, it is imperative for global actors to learn from the past else the existence of humanity be plunged into an impending oblivion.

THE RESONANCE OF WORLD WAR 1: 1914 AND A CENTURY AFTER

Just over a hundred years ago, the armies of the World’s Great powers were arrayed against each other to do battle in what was latter called ‘the great war’ or The First World War--- The War to end all Wars!

Enticed by a rise in industrialization, the race for sophisticated armament of the day and the penchant for global influence in colonial empires amongst the great powers (Germany, Great Britain, France, Russia and Austria-Hungary);  the conflict was sparked by the assassination of Austrian Crown Prince Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on 28^th June 1914, thus igniting the gun powder in the Balkan Peninsula that ultimately conflagrated Europe and the wider World in a gruesome conflict otherwise called the first World War.

Arrival of Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo (28th June 1914)

"Our ghosts will wander through Vienna, stroll around the palaces and scare the masters."….. anonymous Serbian writ

It indeed happened that the World Powers lined themselves in series of infectious alliances that obliged them to go to war even when their respective countries were not directly under attack. And so after the June assassination, and a diplomatic moribund July, War was contiguously declared from the first day of August as Germany declared war On Russia, and on France by 3^rd August. Great Britain declared war against Germany on August 4 as Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia on August 5; Serbia against Germany on August 6; Montenegro against Austria-Hungary on August 7 and against Germany on August 12; France and Great Britain against Austria-Hungary on August 10 and on August 12, respectively; Japan against Germany on August 23; Austria-Hungary against Japan on August 25 and against Belgium on August 28.

A live relic of an helmet on a WW1 battle feild
Source:bbcnews.com

‘The lamps are going out over all Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.’…….

Edward Grey (1862 - 1933)

British statesman.

Although almost all the belligerent nations were European and the major battle fields were in Europe, the war transcended from being a European one to a global one as the colonial powers moved to seize colonial territory from their enemies. As such, Africans had the War experience as Great Britain fought and seized German colonial territory in West Africa (Togo and Cameroun), East Africa (Tanzania) and South Africa (Namibia); whilst a combined British, French and Japanese effort annexed all German interests in the Far East and South Pacific. With the United States entering the War on the side of the Allies on 6^th April 1917 after 3 years of conflict, the War truly assumed its status as a ‘World War’— as it had effectively engaged all the continents.

‘In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place.’….

John McCrae (1872 - 1918)

Canadian poet and physician.

A reenactment of the march of Gordon Highlanders on the puppy feilds of Belgium
Source:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2715756/Showered-million-poppies-Soldiers-stand-huge-red-cloud-symbolise-Great-War-dead-enact-scenes-conflict.html

From initial skirmishes at Liege to the serial battles at Mons, Marne, Ypres, Somme, Verdun, Gallipoli, Jutland, Basra, Asiago, Isonzo, Brusilov, Tannenberg and the Masurian lakes countless souls perished in astonishing industrial scale.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpCUFw-EnNw

‘They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.’…….

Laurence Binyon (1869 - 1943)

British poet and art historian.

In response to the slaughter of World War I.

Poems for the Fallen, "For the Fallen"

The War finally came to an end on the 11^th hour of 11^th November 1918 with the signing of the Armistice agreement and capitulation of the foremost Central Power belligerent in Germany not after some indelible marks have been imprinted in history by the effect of the War; Viz:

1.  Unlike other Wars before this, any conflict between global powers or their client states will automatically spiral effect in dragging nations across continents to a multi-faceting conflict whose resultant will surpass the initial conflicting terms.

2.  With the Use of Chlorine gas by the belligerents, ammunitions will now be classified as ‘conventional’ and ‘Un conventional’ (Weapons of Mass Destruction) weapons.

3.  Civilian centres such as Villages, Towns and Cities will now serve as battle grounds thus effectively negating the notion that wars are to be fought at some distant fields.

4.  The advent of the bombs, rapid firing machine guns and chemical weapons meant that thousands of Soldiers could be mowed down in minutes as seen in the battles of Marne and Ypres. Indeed a Millions of souls could perish in seconds after these weapons were improved on much later after that war.

5.   Regardless of the Military might of the belligerent, wars cannot be independently fought without considering attendant and after effects of conflicting interests and ideologies which will ultimately engage non-belligerent nations in subtle or active Warfare.

 It’s a hundred years spanning ten decades of historical epochs since the First World War was ignited; however, a century on, the world still stands a risk of being dragged to a war of contiguous effect as it was a hundred years ago viz;

1.  Like pre-1914, the World’s powers are now aligned in seeming loose alliance of East and Western bloc ideology as fronted by Russia and the United States.

2.  As seen in the Balkans in pre-1914 of a perfected disdain for occupying forces, the Nations of the Middle East have taken this stance in open disdain for Western Military presence in their lands. Like 1914, the Middle East is serving a simmering ‘Balkan effect’ in global politics.

3.  As it was in 1914 when the War was forcefully promulgated upon Africa due to colonial subjugation; though now independent, African Nations will once again be dragged into a conflict involving the Great Powers as their territories will serve as Military bases for these powers. The US already has an ‘African Command’ AFRICOM bases in Djibouti as the French Military has a ubiquitous presence in almost all its former African colonies. China has so far been only economically present in Africa but one cannot ignore the trade in Chinese and Russian arms by some African countries. They too might come calling for higher military commitment in the event of a conflict.

The resultant of the First World War did not entirely spell doom and gloom for the World as it ensured:

1.  Nationalistic consciousness in colonized territories. That in a sense brought about the emergence of all Nation States as seen on today’s maps.

2.  It brought about the awareness for international cooperation and collaboration amongst the Nations of the World. Though eventually moribund and toothless in effect, the ‘League of Nations’ formed after the First World War was a model precursor to the United Nations and its numerous under-agencies which has in  some ways helped mitigate dire consequences of pertinent global issues.

Like Pre-1914 as seen today, Nations of the World do not foresee a large scale global conflict due to:

1.  Economic and social ties and interdependence

2.  Mutually assured destruction  due to the sophistication of modern arms

Nevertheless, we might be fooled into a state of ‘false global security’ by not taking into account the simmering events of the Israeli-Arab conflict, the wider Middle East conflict from the Arab spring, the Ukrainian tensions and pockets of conflicts around Africa—all of which ironically were creations from the aftermath of the First World War as seen in:

1.  The Arab revolt against Ottoman rule in 1916

2.  The Balfour declaration of 1917 announcing Jewish rights to Palestine

3.  The emergence of a bipolar world with from the Bolshevik revolution in Russia in 1917

4.  The awakening of Nationalism, creation of borders by colonial powers with no respect for historical ties and cultures of peoples of the dominated lands as seen in Africa and the Middle East (The Sykes and Picot agreement). As such, agitations for a redrawing of National ‘colonial borders’ could simmer into some sort of global conflict.

‘Six million young men lie in premature graves, and four old men sit in Paris partitioning the earth.’…

Anonymous

 Referral to the Paris Peace Conference following World War I, attended by the leaders of France, Britain, Italy, and the United States.

The World's big four leaders (US, Great Britain, France and Italy) at the treaty of Versailles in 1919
Source: http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/May-June-08/On-this-Day--Treaty-of-Versailles-Ends-World-War-I.html

Yes peace was proclaimed in 1918 after the War that was said to end all Wars and a treaty was signed in Versailles in 1919. But several wars involving Great powers as a resultant of their actions and deeds from the aftermath of the First World War has been fought. There was even a Second World War! And today several global conflicts threatening to drag numerous Nations to battle looms. Is 2014 not just a Hundred years back?

‘This is not peace: it is an armistice for twenty years.’……..

Ferdinand Foch (1851 - 1929)

French soldier, 1919.

Remark at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.