Download Allies at War

Jakub Basista, PhD, DLitt
Institute of History
Jagiellonian University
COLD WAR 2015/2016
Meeting 2 Lecture Notes
Allies at War
Synopsis
The Second World War started with Nazi Germany attacking Poland on September 1st 1939.
Stalin and his USSR followed on September 17th. Great Britain and France declared war on
Germany on September 3rd, but failed to act and chance the course of events. One year later
Hitler’s attack annihilated France. Great Britain remained alone facing Nazis in Europe. Its
troops were backed and supplemented by the Polish army in exile – in 1940-41 the second
largest force fighting against Nazi Germany.
Great Britain was helped enormously by the USA, which supplied economic and military
assistance (also through the Land Lease Act).
In June 1942 Hitler enters a war against USSR, thus pushing Stalin into a strange and
unwelcome alliance with Great Britain and later USA. Thus strange “Allies at War” were
born – neither natural allies, nor ideological friends, nor partners trusting each other.
The time of alliance brings three important conferences – at Teheran, Yalta and Potsdam, as
well as several ideas for post war peace. These were – among others – formulated by the
American president – FDR in the “Four Freedoms Speech”, as well as the “Atlantic Charter”.
No one could know and expect, that Stalin’s agenda was somewhat different.
Pre-1939
• Appeasement policy by West European powers
• Anschluss of Austria by Hitler
• The Munich Agreement and fragmenting of Czechoslovakia
• Hitler’s demands towards Poland
• Stalin and USSR versus Europe and Fascism/Nazism
1939
14 March – announcing of the forming of Fascist Slovakia of rev. J.Tiso
16 March – proclamation of Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia
23 March – Hitler signs an alliance with Slovakia
31 March – Chamberlain’s speech on guarantees for Poland
7 April – Italy starts a war against Albania
16 April – Calling to life of Czechoslovak National Committee by Jan Masaryk
22 May – “Steel Pact” signed between Mussolini and Hitler
23 August – Ribbentrop-Molotov Treaty
25 August – Polish – British Treaty
1 September – Nazi attack on Poland
3 September – Great Britain and France declare war on Germany
17 September – Red Army enters Poland
28 September – Nazi Germany and USSR sign a Treaty on Friendship and Borders
17 November – Czechoslovak National Committee recognised by France as representative of
Czech interests in France (20 Dec. By GB)
1940
10 May – Germany begins war in Western Europe
– Polish government transferred to G. Britain
9 July – Temporary Czechoslovak Government established in London (recognised by British
on 21 July)
August – Baltic States become Soviet Republics
30 August – Second Vienna Award – Hungary receives Transylvania
7 September – Romania gives Dobrudja to Bulgaria under Hitler’s pressure
27 September – “Pact of Three” signed in Berlin (Germany, Italy and Japan)
11 November – Polish and Czechoslovak governments-in-exile sign a declaration about future
co-operation after the war
4 Freedoms Speech
In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon
four essential human freedoms.
The first is freedom of speech and expression -- everywhere in the world.
The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way -- everywhere in the
world.
The third is freedom from want, which, translated into world terms, means economic
understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants -everywhere in the world.
The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a world-wide
reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be
in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor -- anywhere in the
world.
That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in
our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called “new
order” of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.
Lend-Lease Act
A law passed by Congress on March 11, 1941, during World War II, allowing the president to
“sell, transfer title to, exchange, lease, lend, or otherwise dispose of” weapons and materials
to help defend nations vital to U.S. security. Suggested by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in
December 1940 to help countries fighting the Axis, it provided $31.6 billion to Britain and
$11 billion to the USSR.
1941
6 January – 4 Freedoms proclamation by FDR (speech, worship, from want, from fear)
11 March – Lend-Lease Act – empowers the President to supply war materials to any country
whose defence appears vital for USA
March – Head of Yugoslav government travels to Berlin to join Germany and Italy; coup
d’etat in Belgrade
6 April – new Yugoslav government; an attack on Yugoslavia begins (Germany, Italy,
Bulgaria, Hungary)
22 June – German attack on USSR; Churchill offers USSR help
12 July – GB and USSR sign a treaty concerning common action of both governments against
Germany during the war
18 July – Treaty of collaboration against Germany signed between Czechoslovak government
in London and USSR (28 September – agreement on Army forming)
30 July – Sikorski – Mayski treaty signed (15 August – army co-operation agreed on)
9-12 August – Atlantic Charter drafted by Roosevelt and Churchill on board of “Prince of
Wales”; signed on 14th
14 August – Polish-Soviet military agreement – Polish army to be formed in USSR
4 December – the so-called Stalin-Sikorski Declaration announced (organizational issues and
the future of international relations)
7 December – Pearl Harbour; 8 Dec USA declares war on Japan; 11 Dec Germany & Italy
declare war on USA
Atlantic Charter (summary)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
No territorial gains were to be sought by the United States or the United Kingdom.
Territorial adjustments must be in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned.
All peoples had a right to self-determination.
Trade barriers were to be lowered.
There was to be global economic cooperation and advancement of social welfare.
Freedom from want and fear.
Freedom of the seas.
Disarmament of aggressor nations, postwar common disarmament.
1942
1 January – Washington Pact – declaration by 26 nations at war with the Axis powers not to
conclude separate armistice (Declaration of United Nations)
23 January – Polish-Czechoslovak Treaty on federation after the war
26 May – USSR & GB alliance treaty concerning relations after the war
11 June – Treaty between USA and USSR on cooperation at war
18-26 June – 2nd Washington Conference – establishing of second front
August – talks in Moscow regarding measures against Germany (Harriman represents FDR)
30 August – final evacuation of the Polish army from USSR to Iran
1943
14-24 January - Casablanca Conference – Roosevelt and Churchill decide on landing in Sicily
and Germany’s “unconditional surrender”
25-26 April – USSR breaks contacts with Polish government in London (the question of
Katyń)
12-25 May – Washington Conference – Roosevelt and Churchill decide on operation
“Overlord”
10 July-17 August – landing in Sicily by Allies
3 June – French Liberation Front of De Gaulle formed in Algiers
19-30 October – talks in Moscow regarding co-operation until final victory
29 September – surrender of Italy
22-26 November – Cairo Conference – Roosevelt, Churchill, Chiang Kai-Shek - operations
against Japan
28 November-1 December – Teheran Conference – Roosevelt, Churchill, Stalin – decisions
on war strategy and Polish borders
10 December – French-USSR treaty signed
12 December – Russian – Czechoslovak alliance signed
1944
4 June - landing in Normandy (operation “Overlord”)
21 August –7 October – Dumbarton Oaks Conference (USSR, USA, G.Britain, China) – draft
of UN Charter
9-18 October – Moscow meeting; spheres of influence (Churchill, Eden, Stalin)
1945
4-11 February – Yalta Conference – future of liberated Europe
8 May – Germany surrenders
26 June – the United Nations charter signed in San Francisco
17 July – 2 August – Potsdam Conference (Truman, Churchill/Attlee, Stalin) – decisions
reached about the occupation of Germany, Poland’s western border, resettlement of
population of Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary, war with Japan