World War II: Difference between revisions

Around this time, Russia is busy somehow losing (by most people's definition) a war to Finland... despite having done quite well in a border clash with Japan just a year previously at a place called Khalkhin Gol, which has lead to an informal non-aggression pact with Japan in the Far East (to be formalised next year, expiring in 1946). Despite greatly outnumbering the Finns in almost every conceivable way, the Soviets perform ''horribly''. After six months, the Russians have taken only a few miles of land beyond the border. Part of this is due to Stalin's purges of the 1930s, which left the Red Army in no position to challenge the state, but in an even worse position to wage war. The Finns had neither the population nor the economy to prosecute the war, so they eventually surrendered and gave up some territory that was mostly worthless, but only after they had inflicted incredibly disproportionate losses on their much larger opponent. On a brighter note, the campaign finally gives a name to one of the war's most eponymous improvised weapons. When the Russians started dropping cluster and incendiary bombs on Finnish towns, Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov [[Blatant Lies|claimed they were actually dropping food - 'Bread Baskets' - for the starving Finnish proletariat.]]. The Finns subsequently dub their improvised petrol bombs, of the type used by desperate infantrymen trying to take out tanks in China and Spain, "Molotov cocktails". [[Don't Explain the Joke|'Cocktails', because they're a drink to go down with the 'bread'.]]

 

 

On February 14, 1941, the newly promoted Major General [[Erwin Rommel]] (formerly commander of the 7th Panzer Division, notable for its stunning maneuvers in the Battle of France, which earned it the nickname "The Ghost Division".) arrives in Tripoli to begin supervising the offloading of his new command. Leading what is dubbed the "Deutsches Afrikakorps", Rommel finds himself both undermanned and under-equipped. But does that stop him? Nope. He orders his troops to begin moving as quickly as possible, plowing through British positions in Egypt. Only a desperate counterattack drives Rommel back, showcasing how the war in Africa will be fought for the next year. Nevertheless, the African Front will come to be known as the most humane and romanticized combat zone of the war, where Rommel becomes a well-respected commander ([[Worthy Opponent|earning praise from Winston Churchill himself]]). However, the war in Africa is only seen as a sideshow for the true campaign, where the bulk of German troops and equipment will be used (depriving Rommel of much-needed reinforcement for his offensives).

The horrors of the Holocaust lead to the creation of the State of [[Israel]] in 1948 as a homeland for the Jewish nation in what had been British Palestine (thereby leading to the [[Arab-Israeli Conflict]]). Despite talks of unifying Germany, Austria and Korea under neutral democratic governments, [[Cold War|both countries and Europe as a whole become increasingly divided between the Soviet-dominated, dictatorial Communist East and the American-backed, eventually fairly democratic West.]] It is only in 1989 that the Communist '2nd world' crumbles from within and the regimes of eastern Europe go down in a series of revolutions. Germany is officially reunited the next year, largely bringing a close one of the most visible legacies of World War II.

 

 

Anyone looking to relive the war in real-time can check the Twitter feed of [http://twitter.com/realtimewwii Alwyn Collinson] who has been tweeting the war from all angles since around [[wikipedia:Invasion of Poland|September 1st]](Where 2011=1939) and plans to continue for the duration of the war (an astounding [[Long Runners|six years of daily tweeting]]). He is taking volunteers for help translating to different languages and sharing the workload if you email him or contact him on Facebook.

* [[Cool Versus Awesome]]: Two [[Badass Army|Badass Navies]], the United States Navy versus the Imperial Japanese Navy in what seems to an [[Armchair Military|Armchair Admiral]] the most awesome technological [[Warrior Heaven|Valhalla]] the ocean has ever seen. The IJN was just as brave as the Japanese Army but far more sophisticated. It was a rigorous adherent to [[The Spartan Way]], and even though it was infected by extremist nationalism too, [[Not So Different|they seem to have had more in common with their enemies]] than the respective armies did. The USN had a tradition almost as strong as the Royal Navy and was [[Determinator|stubborn]] at the beginning when material was short and experience and training were lacking. At the end it was a vast armada with many a [[Cool Ship]] and [[Cool Plane]]. The USN even fielded its own [[Semper Fi|counterpart]] to the [[Badass Army|Imperial Special Naval Landing Forces.]]

** The US Navy actually had two traditions where they trumped all others, including the Royal Navy: Fire Control and Damage Control.

* [[Cycle of Revenge]]: Partisan warfare in Belarus, Ukraine and Poland, especially in what is now Western Ukraine, which was a part of Poland, annexed by the USSR and had [[We ARE Struggling Together!|the Polish Home Army, Ukrainian Nationalists and Soviet Partisans fighting each other AND the Wehrmacht]].

* [[Death From Above]]: The war saw the first widespread and effective use of [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Close-Air-Support]] in the German invasion of France, and the other powers were quick to catch on. Also quite important to the War in the Pacific, where the actions of ship-based aircraft decided the length of the war. Also the first war to see the widespread use of Strategic Bombing, or 'Terror Bombing' to the Germans. Given the inaccuracy of targeting systems, razing entire urban areas was really the only way to be sure of destroying small strategic targets. Often involved shaking things up a bit with regular bombing and then finishing often with incendiary bombs to create fire-storms, which is where this overlaps with [[Kill It with Fire]]. Also applied to the Netherlands (Rotterdam), the UK (London, Coventry, Liverpool &c), China (Chongqing, the world's most heavily bombed city) and Japan (Tokyo, Osaka & co.)

* [[Worthy Opponent]]: Many Allied generals and leaders considered German Field Marshal [[wikipedia:Erwin Rommel|Erwin Rommel]], leader of the ''Afrikakorps'' (and co-trope namer of [[Magnificent Bastard]]), this. He outright refused many of Hitler's more evil orders several times, kept conditions for POWs humane (in fact, under his command, the Afrikakorps never committed any war crimes), was a pretty damned good general and was actually [[What a Senseless Waste of Human Life|forced to commit suicide]] during what was alleged to be a [[Heel Face Turn]] (the attempt to kill Hitler in the 20 July 1944 plot). He's the only German officer to have a museum in his name and has a display at the National Holocaust Museum in his honor.

** For it to have been a [[Heel Face Turn]], Rommel would first have had to have been a Heel.

** What do [[J. D. Salinger]], [[The Muppet Movie|Charles Durning]], [[John Ford]], [[James Doohan]], and [[Star Wars|Sir Alec Guinness]] have in common? They were all storming the beaches or transporting troops there during the D-Day Invasion of Normandy.

*** It took Durning 50 years to open up about his experiences of that day to his family.

* ''[[Patton]]'' - follows [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|General Patton]]

* ''[[The Desert Fox]]''

* ''[[Ice Cold in Alex]]''

* ''The Desert Rats''

* [[Memoirs of a Geisha]] mainly took place during the Great Depression, though it was the start of the war that changed many things for the main character Sayuri.

* ''[[A Thread of Grace]]'' takes place in the year and a half between Italy's surrender and V-E day.

* ''[[Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall]]'' is [[Spike Milligan]]'s account of serving in the Royal Artillery in North Africa during the war.

* ''[[Shanghai Girls]]'' starts out in China in 1937, around the time Japanese soldiers invade.

=== Video Games ===

* ''[[Battlefield (series)|Battlefield 1942 and 1943]]''

* ''[[Wolfenstein 3D]]''

* ''[[Medal of Honor]]'' - except for the 2010 reboot.