Agony At Anzio Essay Research Paper Agony

Agony At Anzio Essay, Research Paper

Agony at Anzio

During World War II totalitarian, militaristic regimes in Italy, Germany, and Japan came to power. This caused a conflict with the other major countries of the world. The conflict drew the battle lines between the Axis and Allied powers, consisting of America, Britain, and Russia; the Axis consisted of Italy, Germany, and Japan. The Allied battles, which were fought on Italian soil, were the most difficult and bloody of the war. The Italian campaign was a military and political disaster, particularly because of the Battle of Anzio.

In 1921, Adolf Hitler became the new leader of Germany. The National Socialist German Workers Party elected him to be their chairman, or Fuhrer. Hitler was now in full command of the otherwise known Nazi Party (Reid 11). The Fuhrer hoped to bring Germany out of depression caused by the unforgiving Treaty of Versailles from World War I. Hitler explained the depression as a Jewish-Communist plot, a story that was accepted by the majority of Germans. Promising a strong Germany, jobs, and national glory, Hitler attracted millions of supporters (WWII).

Once Hitler had secured himself in Germany he hoped to extend his influence throughout the world, and gain back for Germany the super power status it once

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possessed. In 1936, Hitler had instructed the revamped German army into the Rhineland, occupying an area that France had controlled since World War I. In March 1938, the German army invaded Austria, and Hitler proclaimed a unity between Austria, his birth land, and Germany, his adopted one. At this time neither in America or most of Europe was there any form of opposition to Hitler’s aggressive acts (Brinkley 736).

The invasion of Austria soon led to another militaristic crisis for Hitler. German forces had now occupied territory surrounding three sides of western Czechoslovakia, an area Hitler hoped of annexing to provide Germany with the Lebensraum, or free space, he believed Germany needed. In response, in September 1938, Hitler demanded that Czechoslovakia cede to him the Sudentland, an area on the Austria-German border. Czechoslovakia which possessed a solid military power of its own, was prepared to fight rather the submit (Dear 18).

Czechoslovakia soon realized that it could not be successful against such a strong force in Germany if it did not receive any help from other European nations. It got none and most Western nations, including the United States, were aghast at the prospect of another war and were willing to pay a significant price to settle this conflict with Germany peacefully (Dear 20).

On September 29th 1938, leaders of France and Great Britain met with Adolf Hitler in Munich in hopes to resolve the appending crisis. The French and British both agreed to accept the German demands in Czechoslovakia in return for Hitler’s promise to expand no farther. “This is the last territorial claim I have to make in Europe,” Hitler said solemnly (Brinkley 737).

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The Prime Minister of Great Britain, Nelville Chamberlain, Premier Edouard Daladier of France, Adolf Hitler of Germany, and Benito Mussolini of Italy all signed the Munich Pact. Prime Minister Nelville Chamberlain returned to England to a hero’s welcome. Chamberlain guaranteed his people that the agreement ensured “peace in our time”. Among those that had supported him with such enthusiasm at Munich was the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt (Reid 145).

The Munich accords were the most prominent example of a policy that came to be known as “appeasement”. This political policy came to be identified almost exclusively with Nelville Chamberlain. Where ever the blame lie, the policy of appeasement was a failure.

In March of 1939 Hitler occupied the remaining areas of Czechoslovakia. This aggressive action by Hitler was in clear violation of the Munich agreement. One month later Hitler began issuing threats against Poland. At that point, both Britain and France gave assurances to the Polish government that they would come to their aid in response to a German invasion; they even thought about drawing a mutual defense plan with Stalinist Russia. Stalin, however, had already decided that he could except no protection from the Western powers; he had after all not even been invited to attend the conferences at Munich. Consequently, Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler in August 1939. The signing freed the Germans, for the moment, from the dangers of a two-front war in Europe (Reid 163)

For a few months, Hitler had attempted to frighten the Poles into submitting to Germany’s demands. When that proved unsuccessful, Hitler staged an incident on the

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border to allow him to claim that Polish forces had attacked Germany. On September 1, 1939, Hitler launched a full-scale invasion of Poland. Britain and France true to their word declared war on Germany two days later. World War II had begun on the European continent (Reid 165).

Germany had won a quick and easy victory in Poland. Then, in 1940, Germany went on to occupy Norway and Denmark. In May they conquered the Low Countries, of Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg. Now with a clear path into France they swept into the English Channel. On June 22, 1940 France surrendered to Germany (“World War II”).

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