so what did the british do in ww2 ?

[bisserk]

as a proud alumni of the anti russian kazak school, i can tell you we kazaks are responsible for all the soviet union's military victory over germany.

[Greg_P]

Hi,

I am an American and I see a lot of threads that seem to start with, "I want to hear from someone other than an American ...". It seems that Americans are not too popular in Russia. Given the history of the last 50 years, I suppose that is not really surprising. Still, I feel this thread deserves a reply.

In the American view, WWII was the largest and most violent armed conflict in the history of mankind. However, the half century that now separates us from that conflict has exacted its toll on our collective knowledge. While World War II continues to absorb the interest of military scholars and historians, as well as its veterans, a generation of Americans and, indeed Russians as well as Germans, British, French, Japanese, etc. have grown to maturity largely unaware of the political, social, and military implications of a war that, more than any other, united a large portion of the world as a people with a common purpose.

I could expound on this for a LONG while. Suffice to say that Americans recognize that while WE suffered 135,000 casualties, the Soviet union suffered 20 million casulaties. Americans recognize that the Soviet Union could not contribute much in the way of manpower or material to fronts other than the German front because of the very fact that the Soviet Union had a geographic border that allowed the Germans to invade. Facing the German war machine head on was a fearsome task.

While we contributed 68 divisions, over 15,000 combat aircraft (many to the Soviet Union), and more than 1 million tanks and motor vehicles, the numbers pale in the face of 20 million casualties.

Personally, I salute the Soviet troops and people who, together with the brutal Russian winter, defeated the German invasion. It SHOULD NOT BE FORGOTTEN.

I offer the following timeline of WWII, without comment on the events:

July 29, 1921 Adolph Hitler becomes the leader of the National Socialist German Workers (Nazi) Party.
October 29, 1922 Fascist leader Benito Mussolini is appointed the Premier of Italy.
January 3, 1925 Mussolini ends democracy in Italy by dismissing the Italian Parliament.
January 30, 1933 Adolph Hitler is appointed the Chancellor of Germany.
June 14, 1933 The Nazis make all other political parties in Germany illegal.
October 25, 1936 Hitler and Mussolini announced a Rome-Berlin alliance -- the Axis.
March 12, 1938 Germany invades Austria and annexes it the next day.
September 29, 1938 Germany, Britain, France, and Italy sign the Munich Pact allowing Germany to invade the Sudeten territories of Czechoslovakia.
March 15, 1939 German troops enter Prague and complete the invasion of Czechoslovakia, ignoring the Munich Pact.
March 31, 1939 Britain declares that it will support Poland.
April 1939 Italy invades Albania.
August, 1939 Allies form non-aggression pacts with Turkey, Greece, Romania, and Poland.
August 23, 1939 Germany and the USSR sign a secret non-aggression pact dividing up Poland.
September 1, 1939 Germany invades Poland.
September 3, 1939 Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany after German forces penetrate deeper into Poland. This marks the beginning of World War II.
September 10, 1939 Canada declares war on Germany.
September 17, 1939 The USSR invades eastern Poland.
September 27, 1939 Poland surrenders to Germany.
November 30, 1939 The Russo-Finnish War begins when the USSR invades Finland.
December 18, 1939 The first Canadian troops arrive in Britain.
March 12, 1940 Finland surrenders to the USSR, ending the brief Russo-Finnish war that began when the Soviets invaded Finland on November 30, 1939.
April 9, 1940 Denmark surrenders to Germany. Germany invades Norway.
May 10, 1940 Winston Churchill becomes the new Prime Minister of Britain, replacing Chamberlain. Germany invades the Netherlands (Holland); it surrenders four days later. Germany invades Belgium.
May 26, 1940 Operation Dynamo begins, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk on the Belgian coast.
May 28, 1940 Belgium surrenders to Germany.
June 10, 1940 Norway surrenders to Germany. Italy declares war on Britain and France.
June 14, 1940 German troops enter Paris.
June 18, 1940 The USSR invades the Baltic states.
June 22, 1940 France surrenders to Germany.
June 30, 1940 Germany invades the Channel Islands. This will be the only part of Britain to be occupied by the Germans.
July 3, 1940 The British sink the French fleet at Oran.
July 10, 1940 The Battle of Britain begins. Germany bombs Britain, and the British defend themselves from the air in what Winston Churchill would call their "finest hour."
August 3, 1940 Italy invades British Somaliland, marking the beginning of World War II in Africa.
September 13, 1940 Italy invades Egypt.
September 27, 1940 Germany, Italy, and Japan sign the Tripartite Pact, making Japan part of the Axis.
October 7, 1940 Germany invades Romania.
October 28, 1940 Italy invades Greece, but fails to conquer it.
October 31, 1940 The Battle of Britain ends. The powerful German Luftwaffe fails to crush British morale.
November 14, 1940 Greece repels the Italian invasion.
November 20, 1940 Hungary and Romania sign the Tripartite Pact, becoming part of the Axis.
December 3, 1940 Greece invades Italian-held Albania.
December 11, 1940 British troops capture the Egyptian cities of Sidi Barrani (December 11) and Sollum (December 17) from the Italians.
January 5, 1941 Australian troops capture Bardia, Libya.
January 22, 1941 British and Australian troops capture Tobruk, Libya.
February 25, 1941 British troops capture Mogadishu, Italian Somaliland.
March 1, 1941 Bulgaria signs the Tripartite Pact, becoming part of the Axis.
March 11, 1941 The U.S. Congress passes the Lend-Lease Act giving Roosevelt the authority to sell, transfer, or lease war goods to the government of any Allied country, thereby effectively ending American neutrality.
March 25, 1941 Yugoslavia signs the Tripartite Pact, briefly becoming part of the Axis, but the pro-German government is toppled two days later.
March 30, 1941 The German Afrika Korps begins its offensive in North Africa.
April 10, 1941 The U.S. occupies Greenland.
April 6, 1941 Germany invades Yugoslavia and Greece.
April 13, 1941 The USSR and Japan sign a neutrality pact.
April 17, 1941 Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany.
April 27, 1941 Germany captures Athens, Greece.
May 29, 1941 Germany pushes Britain back to Egyptian border.
May 27, 1941 Bismarck, German battleship, sunk by British warships while she was on maiden voyage.
May 31, 1941 German airborne troops defeat the British in Crete.
June 4, 1941 Britain invades Iraq and overthrows its pro-German government.
June 8, 1941 Britain invades Syria and overthrows its Vichy French government.
June 22, 1941 Germany invades Russia, thereby beginning Operation Barbarossa. Italy and Romania declare war on the USSR.
June 23, 1941 Hungary and Slovakia declare war on the USSR.
June 26, 1941 Finland declares war on the USSR.
July 7, 1941 The U.S. occupies Iceland.
July 25, 1941 Britain and Russia occupy Iran.
August 14, 1941 The U.S. and Britain sign the Atlantic Charter declaring their joint opposition to fascism, despite the U.S. still being nominally neutral.
September 5, 1941 Germany occupies Estonia.
September 15, 1941 Germany begins the Siege of Leningrad. It would not end until January 1944.
October 1, 1941 The U.S. begins supplying the USSR under the Lend-Lease Act.
October 2, 1941 Germany begins the drive towards Moscow.
October 16, 1941 The USSR evacuates its seat of government to Kuibyshev.
November 22, 1941 Britain gives Finland an ultimatum: halt all offensive operations against the USSR or face a war with the Allies.
December 5, 1941 Germany abandons its attack on Moscow; the USSR counterattacks.
December 7, 1941
Japan attacks the American naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
December 7, 1941
Japan invades Siam and Malaya.
December 8, 1941
The Allies -- except the USSR -- declare war on Japan.
December 11, 1941
Germany and Italy declare war on the U.S.
December 22, 1941
The Arcadia Conference between the U.S. and Britain begins in Washington, DC.
December 25, 1941
Japan invades Hong Kong.
January 1, 1942
The Declaration of the United Nations is signed by the leaders of 26 nations.
January 2, 1942
Japan captures Manila in the Philippines.
January 12, 1942
Japan invades Burma.
January 14, 1942
The U.S. and Britain conclude the Arcadia Conference in Washington, DC. Roosevelt and Churchill agreed to establish a Combined Chiefs of Staff and to the make defeating Germany their first priority. Winning the war in Europe would come before winning the war in the Pacific.
January 20, 1942 Germany holds the Wannsee Conference in Berlin to find a "Final Solution" for the Jews.
January 25, 1942 Japan invades the Solomons.
January 26, 1942 The first U.S. troops arrive in Britain.
February 15, 1942 Japan invades Singapore.
March 8, 1942 Japan invades Rangoon in Burma.
April 9, 1942 U.S. troops on Bataan in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese , and the Bataan Death March begins.
April 18, 1942 Doolittle's raiders bomb Toyko.
May 4, 1942 The U.S. Navy repels the Japanese at the Battle of the Coral Sea. This helps save Australia and blocks the Japanese juggernaut in the Pacific.
May 6, 1942 The remaining U.S. troops on Corregidor in the Philippines surrender to the Japanese .
June 4, 1942 The U.S. defeat the Japanese at the Battle of Midway. Together with the Battle of the Coral Sea, this marks the turning point in the war in the Pacific.
June 10, 1942 Germany decimates the Czech village of Lidice after Czech resistance fighters kill SS official Reinhard Heydrich.
June 18, 1942 The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers initiates the Manhattan Project to develop an atomic bomb.
June 21, 1942 The German Afrika Korps recaptures Tobruk, Libya, from the British.
July 3, 1942 Japanese troops take Guadalcanal.
July 22, 1942 Germany begins deporting hundreds of thousands of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the Treblinka concentration camp.
August 7, 1942 U.S. troops land on Guadalcanal.
August 22, 1942 Brazil declares war on Germany and Italy.
October 23, 1942 The battle between German and British troops at El Alamein in North Africa begins.
November 8, 1942 The Allies invade North Africa, beginning Operation Torch. U.S. forces landed in Algeria, Oran, and Casablanca.
November 10, 1942 Vichy French forces stop fighting the Allies. Allied forces begin move into Tunisia.
November 13, 1942 British troops recapture Tobruk, Libya.
December 9, 1942 Australian and U.S. Army forces under MacArthur fight back the Japanese at Gona in New Guinea.
January 2, 1943 Australian and U.S. Army forces under MacArthur fight back the Japanese at Buna in New Guinea.
January 14, 1943 The Casablanca Conference between the U.S. and Britain begins. Roosevelt and Churchill agree that Germany must surrender unconditionally, and plan the Allied invasion of Sicily.
January 31, 1943 Over 90,000 German troops at Stalingrad surrender to the Soviets. It is a significant turning point in the war against Germany.
February 8, 1943 U.S. troops complete the capture of Guadalcanal from the Japanese .
April 19, 1943 The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins after German troops attempt to deport the ghetto's last surviving Jews. About 750 Jews fought back the Germans for almost a month.
May 11, 1943 The Trident Conference between the U.S. and Britain begins. Roosevelt and Churchill decide to delay the Allied invasion of France and in its place plan the Allied invasion of Italy. In Alaska, U.S. troops land on Attu in the Aleutian islands to retake it from the Japanese .
May 12, 1943 Axis forces in North Africa surrender.
May 16, 1943 German troops crush the last resistance of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and kill thousands of Jews. The rest are sent to the Treblinka concentration camp to die.
July 1, 1943 The U.S. government begins directly withholding income tax from wages.
July 10, 1943 Over 160,000 Allied troops land in Sicily, beginning Operation Husky.
July 24, 1943 The Allies begin bombing Hamburg.
July 25, 1943 Benito Mussolini's fascist government is overthrown in Italy. The new Italian government begins peace talks.
August 1, 1943 The Allies bomb the Ploesti oil fields in Romania.
August 11, 1943 The Quebec Conference between the U.S. and Britain begins.
August 15, 1943 U.S. troops retake Kiska island in the Aleutians.
August 17, 1943 Operation Husky, the Allied invasion of Sicily, is successfully concluded when American troops take Messina.
September 3, 1943 British troops land on mainland Italy, beginning the Allied campaign in Italy. American troops land six days later. The new Italian government formally surrenders.
September 10, 1943 German troops occupy Rome. Mussolini soon declares himself the head of a new fascist Italian government in German-occupied northern Italy.
October 13, 1943 Italy declares war on Germany.
November 1, 1943 U.S. Marines land on Bougainville island in the Solomons.
November 20, 1943 U.S. Army troops land on Makin island in the Gilberts. The next day, U.S. Marines land on Tarawa. Within four days, both islands were secured, but at the cost of thousands of casualties.
November 8, 1943 The Teheran Conference between the U.S., Britain, and the USSR begins. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin meet together for the first time.
December 1, 1943 The Teheran Conference between the U.S., Britain, and the USSR is successfully concluded. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin agree that the Western Allies would invade France in June 1944 and that when it began the USSR would launch a new offensive from the east.
December 24, 1943 Dwight Eisenhower is named supreme commander of Allied Expeditionary Forces.
January 22, 1944 The Allies land at Anzio, Italy.
January 27, 1944 The German siege of Leningrad that began in September 1941 finally ends.
February 20, 1944 The Allies begin massive bombing campaign of Germany.
February 22, 1944 The USSR bombs Stockholm, Sweden. Four days later the USSR bombs Helsinki, Finland.
March 19, 1944 German troops occupy Hungary.
April 10, 1944 The USSR retakes Odessa.
May 12, 1944 German troops surrender in the Crimea.
June 4, 1944 The Allies capture Rome.
June 6, 1944 D-Day. Operation Overlord -- the Allied invasion of German-occupied Western Europe -- begins on the beaches of Normandy, France.
June 13, 1944 Germany launches the first V-1 flying-bomb on Britain.
June 15, 1944 U.S. troops make an amphibious assault on the Japanese -held island of Saipan in the Marianas.
June 19, 1944 The U.S. defeat the Japanese in a massive air battle known as the Battle of the Philippine Sea. The Japanese lost more than 400 planes and three carriers. This victory paved the way for eventual success in the Marianas invasion.
June 27, 1944 The Allies liberate Cherbourg.
July 3, 1944 The USSR retakes Minsk.
July 7, 1944 Japanese troops on Saipan surrender.
July 9, 1944 The Allies liberate Caen.
July 20, 1944 German military leaders attempt but fail to kill Adolf Hitler in the Rastenburg Assassination Plot. Hitler then kills about 200 suspected plotters. U.S. troops make an amphibious assault on the Japanese -held island of Guam in the Marianas.
July 23, 1944 U.S. troops make an amphibious assault on the Japanese -held island of Tinian in the Marianas.
August 4, 1944 The Allies liberate Florence.
August 10, 1944 U.S. troops complete the recapture of Guam.
August 15, 1944 The Allies landing in the South of France, beginning Operation Anvil.
August 20, 1944 The USSR invades German-occupied Romania.
August 23, 1944 Romania surrenders.
August 25, 1944 The Allies liberate Paris.
September 2, 1944 The Allies liberate Pisa.
September 4, 1944 The Allies liberate Brussels and Antwerp.
September 8, 1944 The USSR invades Bulgaria. Germany launches the first V-2 flying-bomb on Britain.
September 9, 1944 Bulgaria makes peace with the USSR, then declares war on Germany.
September 11, 1944 The Allies enter Germany.
September 17, 1944 The ambitious Allied airborne assault in Arnhem, Holland -- Operation Market-Garden -- fails to shorten the war against Germany.
September 22, 1944 The Allies liberate Boulogne.
September 26, 1944 The USSR occupies Estonia. Over 6,000 Allied survivors of Operation Market-Garden in Arnhem, Holland are taken prisoner by the Germans.
September 28, 1944 The Allies liberate Calais.
October 1, 1944 Soviet troops enter Yugoslavia.
October 4, 1944 The Allies enter Greece, following the withdrawal of German troops.
October 14, 1944 The Allies liberate Athens.
October 20, 1944 The Allies capture Belgrade.
October 21, 1944 The Allies capture Aachen, the first city to be taken in Germany.
October 23, 1944 Soviets troops enter East Prussia.
October 26, 1944 The U.S. Navy defeats the Japanese in the Battle in Leyte Gulf. The Japanese Navy was now virtually powerless.
November 4, 1944 Axis forces in Greece surrender.
November 24, 1944 U.S. B-29 bombers begin the massive bombing campaign against mainland Japan. In Europe, the Allies capture Strasbourg.
November 29, 1944 The Allies capture Albania.
December 16, 1944 Germany begins its last-ditch offensive in the Ardennes, beginning the Battle of the Bulge.
December 26, 1944 U.S. troops hold Bastogne, stalling the German offensive in the Ardennes.
January 9, 1945 U.S. Army troops land on Luzon in the Philippines.
January 17, 1945 Advancing from the East, Soviet troops capture Warsaw.
January 26, 1945 Japanese troops retreat to the coast of China.
January 27, 1945 Soviet troops liberate the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps, discovering hundreds of corpses from people who were recently murdered, thousands of people barely alive, and the earthly remains of approximately 1,000,000 men and women.
January 28, 1945 In Western Europe, the Battle of the Bulge ends. Americans suffered some 75,000 casualties and the Germans lost 80,000 to l00,000. The Americans can recover from their military losses; the Germans cannot. Few people besides Hitler believe Germany can still win the war.
January 30, 1945 A Soviet submarine sinks the Wilhelm Gustloff. It is the single deadliest sinking in maritime history, killing between 6,000 and 10,000 people, most of whom were civilian refugees and wounded German soldiers.
February 4, 1945 The Yalta Conference between the U.S., Britain, and the USSR begins. Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin discuss their plans for Europe after the war, and Stalin agrees to declare war on Japan. In the Pacific, the Allies finally retake Manila in thePhilippines after three years of brutal Japanese occupation.
February 13, 1945 The Allies begin firebombing Dresden, Germany, killing at least 135,000.
February 19, 1945 In the Pacific, U.S. Marines land on Iwo Jima.
February 20, 1945 In Europe, the Allies capture Saarbrucken.
March 3, 1945 Finland declares war on Germany.
March 7, 1945 The Allies capture two significant targets in Germany -- the Remagen bridge over the Rhine, and the city of Cologne.
March 9, 1945 U.S. firebombing of Tokyo kills about 85,000 Japanese.
March 16, 1945 U.S. troops complete the capture of Iwo Jima from the Japanese, at the cost of 20,000 American casualties.
March 20, 1945 The Allies capture Mandalay, Burma.
March 30, 1945 Soviet troops capture Danzig.
April 1, 1945 U.S. troops invade Okinawa, the first Japanese home island to be reached. The fierce Japanese defenders would inflict about 35,000 American casualties. In Europe, the Allies surround over 300,000 German troops in the Ruhr, and the final Allied offensive in northern Italy begins.
April 10, 1945 The Allies capture Hanover, Germany.
April 11, 1945 U.S. troops reach the Buchenwald concentration camp and discover that the prisoners had liberated themselves from a forced evacuation. A few days later, British troops liberate the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp for women.
April 12, 1945 President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at age 63. Harry S. Truman becomes president of the United States.
April 13, 1945 Soviet troops capture Vienna, Austria.
April 15, 1945 The Allies capture Arnhem, in the Netherlands.
April 18, 1945 The last of the German troops trapped on the Ruhr River surrender.
April 23, 1945 Soviet troops reach Berlin.
April 25, 1945 U.S. and Soviet troops meet at the Elbe River in Germany.
April 28, 1945 Benito Mussolini is captured by Italian anti-fascists and executed.
April 29, 1945 U.S. troops liberate the Dachau concentration camp where they discover evidence of gruesome medical experiments.
April 30, 1945 Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun commit suicide in a Berlin bunker as Soviet troops advance through the city. Nazi Propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels is scheduled to become the new German Chancellor but he also kills himself -- after having his wife and six children killed. Karl Donitz is named as Hitler's successor.
May 2, 1945 Soviet troops complete the capture of Berlin. The remaining German troops in Italy surrender.
May 7, 1945 Germany surrenders unconditionally.
May 8, 1945 V-E Day is declared -- Victory in Europe.
May 9, 1945 Soviet troops occupy Prague and the Allies liberate the Channel Islands.
June 21, 1945 U.S. troops complete the capture of Okinawa, providing a secure base for the final assault on Japan.
July 16, 1945 The world's first atomic bomb is successfully tested in New Mexico -- The Trinity Test. The parts of the bombs to be dropped on Japan are already on their way. In Germany, the Potsdam Conference between the U.S., Britain, and the USSR begins. Disagreements over the future of Europe plant more seeds for the coming Cold War.
July 26, 1945 The U.S., Britain, and China issue the Potsdam Declaration which gives an ultimatum to Japan: unconditionally surrender immediately, or face "prompt and utter destruction." In Britain, Clement Atlee replaces Winston Churchill as Prime Minister.
August 6, 1945 A U.S. B-29 named Enola Gay drops the "Little Boy" atomic bomb over Hiroshima, Japan. Approximately 140,000 people in the area will die by the end of the year.
August 8, 1945 The USSR declares war on Japan. Soviet troops invade Japanese-held Manchuria.
August 9, 1945 A U.S. B-29 named Bock's Car drops the "Fat Man" atomic bomb on Nagasaki, Japan. Approximately 70,000 people in the area will die by the end of the year.
August 14, 1945 Japan agrees to unconditionally surrender.
August 15, 1945 V-J Day is declared -- Victory over Japan.
September 2, 1945 Japan signs the formal surrender agreement on board the U.S.S. Missouri in Tokyo Bay. World War II, the most devastating war in human history, is over.

[Zbyszek]

Originally posted by Greg_P
Hi,
April 19, 1943 The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising begins after German troops attempt to deport the ghetto's last surviving Jews. About 750 Jews fought back the Germans for almost a month.
...
August 4, 1944 The Allies liberate Florence.
...
August 25, 1944 The Allies liberate Paris.
...
January 17, 1945 Advancing from the East, Soviet troops capture Warsaw.

Hi Greg, thank you for you detailed account.
Exactly 59 years ago, on August 1, 1944 at 5 p.m., one of the most tragic events of WWWII took place which you definitely failed to mention.
The Warsaw Uprising... It lasted for two months and 200 000 Warsaw cilians died in its wake. More than 20 000 the Polish underground resistance fighters fought fiercely and in vain though.
Anyone watching the splendid film of Roman Polanski remembered this fact.
Such "forgetfullness" is typical to American society who still obtains a filtered knowledge about WWII.
As a result, everyone knows about the Warsaw Ghetto uprising 1943 and hardly anyone knows anything about incomaprably more extensive, no less tragic and so meanigful event in the European history which was a bizarre combination of pure heroism with the dirty political calculations. I say it with the ultimate respect for the heroic Jewish fighters which, like Mordachay Anielewicz, are names of Warsaw streets now.
Let me say a litlle more about it soon.

[Zbyszek]

[ excerpts from the fascinating book of Norman Davies „EUROPE. A history". ]

..... Germany’s immediate neighbours in Poland and France were both eagerly awaiting their
freedom. The Soviet army was approaching the eastern suburbs of Warsaw. The American army was working its way round the western suburbs of Paris. Both cities were filled with various groups of resistance fighters directed mainly from London; both were straining at the leash to rise against The Nazi oppressor. In Warsaw they were led by AK, in Paris by the Free French.
Paris rose on 19 August [1944]. Despite poor intelligence, the idea was to mount attacks inside the city and accelerate the Americans’ final push. Parts of the French Resistance worked with the American Command, which had recognized their value in the battles since Normandy landing. Assailed from all quarters, the German garrison pulled back- and the Americans struck. General Leclerc’s French armoured division, fighting under American command, was given the honour of spearheading the advance. The German garrison surrendered, having ignored the Fuhrer’s order to leave no stone standing. On 25 August, with snipers still active, General de Gaulle walked magnificently erect down the Champs-Elysees. The cathedral of Notre-Dame celebrated a great Te Deum. Despite the heavy loss of civilians, the population rejoiced. France’s pre-war Third Republic was restored; Paris was free.

Warsaw had risen on 1 August, three weeks before Paris. The plan was to co-ordinate attack inside the city with the Soviets’ final push. But the Varsovians were not to share the Parisians’ success. The intelligence of the Polish Resistance was poor; and they found too late that the Soviet Command was not going to help. The Soviet generals had used the Polish Underground in all the battles since crossing the Polish frontier. But Stalin did not recognize independent forces; and he had no intention of letting Poland regain its freedom. Assailed from all quarters, the German garrison had began to withdraw. But then the Soviets suddenly halted on the very edge of the city. Foul treachery was afoot. Moscow Radio, which had called on Warsaw to rise, now denounced the leaders of the rising as ‘a gang of criminals’. Two German panzer divisions moved forward; and the garrison was given time to receive massive reinforcements from the most vicious formations of the Nazi reserves. General Berling’s Polish army, which was fighting under Soviet command, was withdrawn from the Front for defying orders for defying orders and trying to assist the rising. Berling himself was cashiered. Western attempts to supply Warsaw by air from Italy were hamstrung by the Soviets’ reluctance to let their planes land and refuel. Street by street, house by house, sewer by sewer, the insurgents were shelled, gunned, and dynamited on one bank of the Vistula, whilst Soviet solders sunbathed on the opposite bank. In one of several orgies of killing, in the suburb of Mokotów*, Nazi troops massacred 40,000 helpless civilians in scenes reminiscent of the liquidation of the Warsaw Ghetto in the previous year. Weeks after the liberation of Paris, the Warsaw insurgents were still fighting on. They surrendered after sixty-three days, on 2 October, when their commander General Bór, walked into German captivity. Their only consolation was to be granted combatant status. Despite the sacrifice of 250,000 of its citizens, Warsaw remained unfree. Poland’s pre-war Republic was not restored. There was no Te Deum in the destroyed cathedral of St John. The remaining population was evacuated. In his fury, Hitler ordered that no stone of the rebel city was to be left standing. The demolition proceeded for three months, whilst the Soviet army, with its committee of Polish puppets in tow, watched passively from across the river. They did not enter Warsaw’s empty, silent, snowbound ruins until 17 January 1945.

Now, my comment..

Communists made us think that heroic Soviet troops liberated Warsaw on Jan. 17, 1945. Having the above in mind you can guess what sort of liberation it was. Warsaw had 1 250 000 inhabitants before the war (1939). When Soviets crossed the frozen Vistula river and reached its right bank, there was no one to greet them because the town was e m p t y. Can you imagine the empty Phoenix or Pittsburgh? This drama was increased by the fact that many good soldiers of the Polish Army which had been organized in Soviet Union and moving along with the Red Army were aware they were a few months late with this liberation.
The fate of my family, including my 14 years old mother (mother’s side) was no less dramatic than that of thousands innocent civilians, kicked out of their burning city.

* Mokotów is a lovely, green quarter of Warsaw where I have been living through all my childhood and youth. The name originates from Mon Coteau, a French term that means My Hill. I can add that Wladyslaw Szpilman, whose memoir was filmed by Roman Polanski temporarily worked in Mokotow after the Ghetto uprising with a group of his Jewish friends and then he has been hiding in the ruins of Mokotow for months before a day of January Seventeen 1945, which was so lucky to him. Anyone watching the film or reading the book remembered his grotesque liberation.

[Greg_P]

Zbyszek,

Thanks for the account. My WWII timeline above is somewhat abbreviated and was not meant to "leave out" anyone. It is simply an accounting of the Military facts that I have uncovered to date. I also did not elaborate on the French underground activities in Paris, or the slaughters that took place in China by the Japanese before WWII "officially" started.

Since Americans have access to all writings about WWII that have been published, I'm not sure your statement about our histories being "filterd" is correct. It is fair to say that most Americans do not speak or read Russian, so our understanding of Russian accounts is not "filtered," we just don't happen to read the language. Can you recommend some Russian accounts of WWII that have been translated into English?

Anyway, my "brief" timeline would grow considerably if I included civilian activities, too. However, the brave people of Warsaw sould not be slighted in any way. So, I have amended my timeline to include the Warsaw uprising.

As a general statement, the USA suffered about 135,000 casulaties in WWII. The Soviet Union suffered 20 million or more casulaties. I have seen figures ranging from 18 million to 24 million. In any case, the Societ Union suffered more than 100 times the number of casulaties that we did.

I find that to be almost unbelievable and certainly unforgiveable in light of that fact that many of your soldiers were no doubt killed through sheer negligence by Stalin's refusal to prepare for war in the face of overwhelming evidence that it was about to happen. Cavalry had not place on a battlefield populated with tanks!

We will NOT forget the sacrifice by the Soviet peoples and decry your suffering. I think the aftermath of WWII, popularly called the "cold war," was due mainly to the fact that no one in the West knew what the Sovirt intentions were after WWII. You had weathered the war and built up a very good military, and we were completely unsure of what Stalin would DO with thath military when the war ended.

The fact that politicans, be they communist or capatalist, cannot seem to speak the truth or even say what they mean only added to the paranoia at the time.

I sometimes wonder that we survived the folly of the last half of the 20th century without blowing each other up. If we HAD done so, it would have been the damned politicians that did it, not the average Russian or the average American.

[Kalinin]

Since Americans have access to all writings about WWII that have been published, I'm not sure your statement about our histories being "filterd" is correct. It is fair to say that most Americans do not speak or read Russian, so our understanding of Russian accounts is not "filtered," we just don't happen to read the language. Can you recommend some Russian accounts of WWII that have been translated into English?

Actually, there is some "filtering", at least in the education system. I am unaware as to your age, but in US highschools nowadays, history is taught sparingly, and through the "American perspective" (i.e. we are always best). For example, students are taught that D-Day was the turning point of WW2, however this cannot be, as the numbers don't justify the fact, we killed many more Germans (at least 3 times as many as the allies in D-Day) during Stalingrad, and other operations (in the Urals, I believe...), plus Germany's advance throughout Europe was curtailed after Stalingrad. The books may be there, but, honestly, do you think m/any teenager(s) will read them?

we were completely unsure of what Stalin would DO with thath military when the war ended.

I thought it was well known, both abroad, and at home (and among Stalin's comrades) that Stalin's intentions were to attack once again and start another war, if Hitler had not started WWII, Stalin probably would have.

[euges]

Originally posted by Traper
Russia started the war in 1939, but in fact, the German invasion on Russia was in 1941.
[/b]

It is weird. Do you mean that Russia invaded Germany in 1941 or how did it START the war and how did escape everybody's attention?