ABOUT FACTS NET War

When World War II started the world was divided into two collations and a couple of neutrals. The Germans, Italians and Japanese had become very nationalistic and all wanted to expand. To this end, the Italians invaded Ethiopia, the Germans had rearmed in violation of the hated Treaty of Versailles so that they would be ready to fight the big war and avenge themselves on countries such as France. The Japanese wanted an Asian empire and also to control the Pacific water ways.

The great world wide depression had made many people desperate. Some of these people in foreign countries had put dictators in power and these dictators in turn had sought war. Even in Japan the Emperor's powers to wage war had been taken over by the military. The exact role that the emperor played in World War II is hard to know and will be debated for many years. One thing is certain, when the Japanese invaded China they thought it would be as easy as Manchuria. Japan had conquered Manchuria in 1931 which had been a part of China. In 1937 they invaded China proper. They thought this was going to be a quick victory but they were entirely wrong on this count. Because of this invasion and Chinese war, many of the Japanese troops were forced to fight in China. If these troops had been free, about a million* more troops would have been stationed through the islands making our landings even more difficult.

When Germany decided to bomb England in preparation for an invasion they took on a task that they couldn't win. The Blitz began in September 1940 and lasted until May 1941. Things might have been different if Germany had heavy bombers but they only had light and medium bombers and they didn't have the range to complete the job. The English moved their factories outside of the range of these planes and continued to produce such vital things as plane parts. Eventually the Germans realized that the bombing was becoming too expensive in terms of lost planes and crews and the results were not what they had hoped for. When Germany decided to bomb English cities, they were really given the British Air Force a chance to regroup, train more pilots and build more planes, so as sorrowful as this was, it did help the English by strengthening their forces. Diverting planes to attack cities was a big mistake for the Germans. As an aside I would like to mention that the first bombs dropped on London were an accident, according to Hitler a plane had gone off course. Churchill didn't buy this or care and he sent 40 British bombers to bomb Berlin.

The Italians invaded Ethiopia in 1935. Much of the oil they used as fuel was supplied by the U.S. since we had very good relations with the Italians at this time. The world was looking the other way as England and France stood by without taking any decisive action although they were members of the League of Nations and Ethiopia had made a plea to enforce the rules against Italy. Although it was against the Geneva Convention Protocols, the Italians used mustard gas against the Ethiopians. They also bombed them and attacked with flame throwers. Most countries viewed this invasion as a colonial affair and didn't see why they should get involved with it. It didn't help that the Ethiopians were looked upon as savages and not a civilized people like the Europeans. A little known fact is that Hitler gave some military support to Ethiopia which is not only a non arian country but a black country. The Italians were also revenging their defeat by an Ethiopian Army in 1896. With all their assembled might they were having a hard time. Money was flowing into Ethiopia from the U.S. where collections were being taken up but it was too late. By 1936 Italy had conquered the country.

The US was hardly ready to fight anyone. By the time we entered World War II, we were still issuing a lot of World War I equipment to our troops. We had fallen behind in tank design, our planes were no match for the new ones of the Germans and Japanese and most of our capitol ships had been sunk or badly damaged. Things were looking bleak for this country and we would suffer extensively in the next 4 years.

*This figure varies between 600,000 and 1,200,000