It's been 75 years since it all began. Every nation became involved and the memories remain. All centered around one person and his select group . Every year, they remember.
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| Corporal A. Hitler in WW1 uniform |
It was June 19, 1918 when the word came that the long and costly war was finally over.
A young German soldier,Corporal Adolph Hitler, had been partially blinded in a mustard gas attack and sent to a military hospital, where the news of the November 11, 1918, armistice reached him as he was convalescing. The end of the war was an emotional disaster for Hitler, adding more energy to his sense of antisemitism. Losing the war, Germany’s financial struggles and political upheavals to follow gave him the opportunity to convince the German public that he was the man who would lead them back to greatness.
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Twenty years later, secretly creating a new army while surrounding himself with men of the same ilk, they set out to recover lost territory. Many Germans in Austria supported Hitler’s nationalistic“back to The Motherland” movement and found little opposition from any other country and the annexation of Austria March, 1938 was a simple exercise as the Nazis tested their new power. Adolf Hitler’s popularity grew.
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| Glewitz Radio Station |
Now, fully confident that bigger countries would not interfere, The fanatical Nazi army under Hitler’s command decided to invade Poland. Needing some excuse, they attacked a border Polish radio station falsely accused of broadcasting an “anti-German” sabotage message. After staging the attack,” in self-defense”, the conquest of Poland began September 1, 1939. The lightning war began.
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| Finnish soldiers in the Winter War |
All this time, Finland had been involved in a dispute with Russian as Stalin demanded air bases and ore from Swedish mines. The Soviets invaded Finland on November 30, 1939. (Stalin claimed that Finnish troops opened fire on Soviet troops.)The Finns needed help in the military action and Germany offered assistance. Finland was not a full supporter of Germany, but needed help and Germany joined Finland to fight the Soviets. Finland remained unoccupied and maintained a democratic government throughout the conflict.
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On April 9th 1940, German warships entered major Norwegian
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| German warships being sunk in Norwegian Harbor |
ports, deploying thousands of German troops occupying Norway. At the same time, German forces occupied Copenhagen, among other Danish cities. In Denmark, King Christian X, convinced that his army could not fight off a German invasion, surrendered almost immediately, and Denmark, as well as Sweden, became a steppingstone to Norway.
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Continuing the Nazi Western Movement, Hitler’s war machine came to Sweden. Sweden had always enjoyed being a neutral state and wished to remain as such. For Germany,
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| German weapons being transported on Swedish railways |
Sweden had no strategic importance other than Swedish iron ore and rail lines for Nazi troop movements westward and all this was achieved with no waste of Nazi troops. During the war, Nazi pilots who were shot down were jailed, while allied pilots who were shot down were free to go. Germany ignored the situation and Sweden remained neutral.
During the warm months, there was little German concern regarding the transportation of the ore into Germany. However, when winter snows shut down the railroad, the route was forced to switched to a westward overland route into Norway, then transferred to
sea-going freighters which hugged the coast . This created a German problem. Germany had to control the Norway route of Swedish ore to Germany. This, plus Norway’s coast was important for German warships, submarine bases and proximity for luftwaffe attacks on Great Britian. Norway was an important target. The war that began in 1939 continues into the next year.
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| partisan saboteurs at work. |
Even before Denmark was fully occupied, German transports flew to Oslo from their new Danish airfields. The Norwegians fiercely resisted the Nazi invasion and underground partisans tied up a large portion of Nazi troops who hunted them throughout the “long five years” of occupation.Germany invaded Norway on April 9th 1940 and stayed there until Germany surrendered on May 8th, 1945. Adolf Hitler had hoped that France and Britain would no longer oppose his conquests and quickly make peace, but was angered when that didn’t happen. On 10 October 1939, the British refused Hitler’s offer of peace and on the 12th of October, the French did the same.After months of nervous speculation, Germany brought war to Western Europe May 10, 1940. German bombers hit air bases in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands. French leaders became resigned to an inevitable surrender and signed an armistice with Germany.
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Hitler’s Western Expansion movement was complete, but Britain remained unconquered , Russia was now German’s enemy in the east and the USA would soon be forced into the war due to the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Hitler’s blitzkrieg war machine was now fighting a “two front war” and was finally finding heavy opposition.
The German occupation troops in France knew the Allied Forces were coming, but did not know when nor where they would land. After extensive planning, Allied troops completed their landing operations on 6 June 1944,a day known as D-Day, the largest
seaborne invasion in history. This began the liberation of France , and all other countries from Nazi control as the Germany troops were forced into retreat finally ending with an Allied victory in the war.
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1939 marked the beginning of armed conflict in Europe that resulted in historic atrocities, destruction, and death of millions of people by sadistic Nazi leaders who strived to liquidate all “sub-humans” and create a master race. Adolf Hitler and his Nazi regime were finally pushed back to Germany, relinquishing everything that was gained after 6 years of overrunning Europe.
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Every country marks the day the Nazis entered their country, beginning in 1939. This year marks the 75th anniversary of these individual country’s horrific day when the Nazis marched into their history.
Commemoration ceremony are annually held in honor of all who served, suffered and died.This year marks the 75th anniversary of the beginning of World War Two.
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