THE REASON OF WAR

THE REASON OF WAR

The World War, terminated by the signing of the armistice November 11, 1918, was attended with more far-reaching changes than any war known to history, and is destined to so profoundly influence civilization that we see in it the beginning of a new age. Somewhat similar wars in the past were the campaigns of Alexander; the wars that overthrew the Roman Empire and the Napoleonic wars of a previous century; but this one war surpasses them all, measured by any scale that can be applied to military operations. It was truly a World War, thus in a class by itself. Beginning in Central Europe, twenty-eight nations—nearly all of the important nations of the world—with a total population of about 1,600,000,000—or eleven-twelfths of the human race—became involved. It cost 10,000,000 human lives, 17,000,000 more suffered bodily injury; the money cost was about $200,000,000,000, but who can measure the cost in untold suffering caused by ruined homes and wrecked lives that attended it? Or who can measure the property loss,
 
  early dawn of September 3, 1943,  Great Britain's declaration of war against Germany
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 war was the culmination of century-old causes; that two rival theories of government—impossible to longer co-exist—met in deadly conflict; and that civilization itself was the stake at issue. We shall see that beyond the wreck of empires and troubled days of reconstruction now upon us—through it all approaches a wonderful new age
 
 The forward 15" guns of H.M.S. Warspite hurl shells at the Italian mainland  under General Sir Bernard L. Montgomery opened its offensive on the morning of September 3. Prior to the actual invasion of the Italian mainland
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THE GERMAN STATES

 At its height the German Empire consisted of a union of twenty-five Germanic states of various grades and the Reichland of Alsace-Lorraine under the leadership of Prussia,

 

 

 "the Italian battle fleet is now anchored under the guns of Malta."The convoy was heavily bombed by German Stukas and torpedo-bombers in the straits between Corsica and Sardinia in an attempt to prevent the ships reaching Malta

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THE REAL CAUSES OF THE WAR

 

EVENTS OF 1914.

 The pistol shot at Serajevo was the occasion, not the cause of the war. The simple fact is that on one pretext or another war would have come anyway, simply because Germany was ready. In 1913 the speakers of the Pan-German League were going to and fro in Germany making public speeches on all possible occasions, warning the people to be ready, telling them

DECISION FOR WAR

 dynastic ambitions and national greed, millions of Armenian Christians were tortured, outraged and murdered; hapless Belgians were ravished and put to the sword, their cities made charnal heaps; millions of men—the fairest sons of many lands—gave up their lives
 The German plan of campaign may be crudely stated as follows: Regard that extended line as a flail ready to fall, hinged near Verdun, moved in a circle until the northern tip, under command of Von Kluck, should fall with all the energy Germany could put into the blow on Paris. In the meantime, the other armies would crush back
 The line of German armies along the eastern frontier of France were confronted by the forces of France, hastily mobilized during the delay occasioned by the heroic but pathetically futile resistance of Belgium.
 
   the Germans launching one counter-attack after the other in a frantic attempt to prevent the Fifth Army establishing a bridgehead and to drive them back into the sea
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BATTLE OF THE MARNE

 Marne is a small river in France, gently coursing from the water-shed south of Verdun to the Seine near Paris

 

BATTLE OF TANNENBERG

 success of the Allies in the west was in a measure offset by Teutonic victories in the east. When the invasion of Belgium began, Russia made immediate efforts to counteract by invasion of East Prussia.

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while in the pacific :

 

 VICTORY FOR MacARTHUR

 General MacArthur sprang an unpleasant surprise upon the Japanese in New Guinea by suddenly surrounding their main bases at Salamaua and Lae, with the aid of an amphibious expedition and of paratroopers.

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 DEVASTATION ON A PACIFIC ISLAND

 Allied bombardment preceding the landing of an amphibious expedition which was the preliminary action to routing the Japanese out of northeastern New Guinea

 The Americans return to Wake Island
October 5-6, 1943

 

 

 Wake Island, once a U.S. stronghold in the Pacific, is clearly revealed during the return appearance of U.S. forces on October 5 and 6, 1943. Silhouetted against the clouds, a Douglas Dauntless dive-bomber from a navy plane carrier task force is poised to begin its plunge on the smoking outpost

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 SOUTH OF EUROPE:

 

 

British tanks the Fifth Army entered this southern port on the morning of October 1

 There were clashes with Germans troops in the mountains near Sarterne and the enemy was forced to withdraw to Bastia

 

 Night after night the Nazi controlled territory was subjected to terrific bombings by planes of the American and Royal Air Forces in an effort to soften up the country and the enemy troops in preparation for the forthcoming invasion.

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 PACIFIC WAR THEATHER:

 Victory at Tarawa

 Marines, haggard, smoke-blackened and battle-worn, assemble on Tarawa for evacuation.

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 Despite enemy fire from the Japanese controlled island, these marines of the 2nd division waded through the surf off Tarawa

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 HEADS OF THREE POWERS MEET

 Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, President Roosevelt and Prime Minister Churchill met in Cairo during the last week of November to plan the ultimate offensives against the Axis and to decide what to do with Germany and Japan

 

 ALLIED STRATEGY

 After the Cairo Conference ended, the American and British delegates moved eastward to Teheran, capital of Iran.

 There, for the first time, President Roosevelt met Premier Stalin, and the meeting between these two, Winston Churchill and the diplomatic and military staffs proved to be one of the most important conferences

 

 The Pacific story

 

 Japanese were threatening Port Moresby and were barely stopped in the Owen Stanley mountains by American and Australian forces. At this date the danger to Port Moresby has been definitely removed and the Japanese have lost their two important bases of Lae and Salamaua. The Allies are moving northeast along the coast and are now within bombing range of Rabaul, the Japanese bastion on New Britain. In the Solomons the Americans have progressed from their hard won beachheads on Guadalcanal and Tulagi to Bougainville in the north. In the Gilbert Islands American fighting men have done something more than recapture enemy invaded territory

 

 Marine raiders and their jungle trained dogs on a Bougainville trail 
The dogs, beside running messages, are invaluable in seeking out Japanese too well hidden for the sharp eyes of the men to locate.

 

 On February 3, the process of annihilating the enemy was proceeding on Namur Island

 The remnants of the Japanese garrison had been trapped.

 

 cookies and candies and presents them to a native girl and her mother walking along the road between two villages on the eastern end of Makin Atoll in the Gilbert Islands

 

 battle of Berlin

 about 800 American heavy bombers fought their way through the massed strength of the German metropolitan air force to blast factories, airfield and other military installations. The air battles that raged around and within the tight, wedge-shaped formations of Flying Fortresses and Liberators were the greatest in history, with more than 2,000 tons of bombs dropped on Berlin

 

 CLOSER TO THE PHILIPPINES

 American flyers searched the skies of Europe for Nazi planes, so our Navy scoured the seas of the Orient for Japanese warships. On the 29th a strong task force, including battleships as well as aircraft carriers (first picture), descended upon the Palau Islands to make an attack similar to the fleet raid on Truk in the middle of February. This was the deepest penetration yet made in the Pacific offensive, for Palau is more than a thousand miles west of Truk and within 600 miles of the Philippines. Enemy planes spotted the oncoming task force, with the result that the Japanese ships were seen to flee from the area before our attack. The enemy had no desire to come to grips. In the second picture, silhouetted against the sun-set-inflamed sea, Yap City crackles and smokes under flames during the task force attack.

 

 men of an infantry regiment have just come ashore from invasion barges. Within a few days all enemy resistance in the area ended and the retreating Japanese troops were being cut down by heavy air attack

 

 

 civilian suspected of giving aid and information to the Japanese in the Salween River sector is questioned by a Chinese colonel at division headquarters

 in germany 
"Master Race" meets up with its master
June 15, 1944

LIBERATIONCAMPAIGN IN EUROPE

 

 

 

 

tremendous ovation given British and Belgian soldiers entering Brussels was unlike anything hitherto seen in the War.

 

 The wrath of the Italian people caught up with two Nazi collaborators during the first Fascist trials in Rome. Pietro Caruso, Fascist Police Chief of Rome, was tried and duly executed

 

WHILE IN PACIFIC...  WAR CONTINUED

 

 

The small island of Morotai fell quickly under the combined blows of the Army, Navy and Air Forces

EUROPE WAR STILL SOING ON...

 

 

 

 

 AS YOU SOW, YE ARE LIKE TO REAP

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Battle of the Bulge

 December 16 Field Marshal von Rundstedt launched his first counteroffensive since Normandy, striking a major blow at the United States First Army front in Belgium and Luxembourg

 

 

 

 

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